History on Horseback: Napoleon Bonaparte
The French emperor and military commander played a pivotal role in an epochal transformation.
Ralph Leonard
· 16 min read
film
A collection of 34 posts
‘The Princess Bride’ at 50
A look back at William Goldman’s bonkers metafictional novel ‘The Princess Bride,’ which later became a much-loved family film.
Kevin Mims
· 18 min read
Belafonte Reappraised
Neither hagiographers nor haters of the late musician, actor, and activist have managed to get him right.
Ronald Radosh
· 18 min read
Social Panic at Sundance
Meg Smaker’s film about the rehabilitation of former Guantanamo terror suspects was nuanced and sympathetic. But the mob didn’t care.
M. Pollino
· 8 min read
Guilty and Insane
Dissociative Identity Disorder and the riddle of human responsibility.
Daniel Kriegman
· 20 min read
The Delia Demolition
Why is the Atlantic slinging mud at the 72-year-old author of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ on the eve of the film’s release?
Kevin Mims
· 19 min read
The Subversive Conservatism of Rocky Balboa
Rocky's vision of a good life was humble, traditional, and local.
Stewart Slater
· 8 min read
B.S. Moss and the Dawn of the Movie-Palace Era
Although the vaudeville circuits would last through the 1920s, the way was now paved for impressive purpose-built movie houses with proper lighting and sound that would exhibit first-rate popular entertainment to general audiences.
Charles B. Moss Jr. and Jonathan Kay
· 16 min read
Does Christine Brown Deserve to Burn in Hell?
In the pitiless moral universe of writer-director Sam Raimi’s 2009 horror film ‘Drag Me to Hell,’ guilt isn’t easily absolved and debts must always be paid in the end.
Jamie Palmer
· 12 min read
Revisiting ‘Wake in Fright,’ A Peculiarly Australian Kind of Hell
Five decades after its release, Wake in Fright remains a brutally captivating reminder that modernity is just a thin veneer over the darker recesses of the human heart.
Ryan Anderson
· 16 min read
Nineteen of the Loneliest Films Ever Made
Some of them are stylish pop art or lowbrow trash—depending on how initiated you are with their appeal. But they will also make you cry or simply stare at the screen with a detached jaw as you begin to rethink their implications behind your sterilized walls.
Art Tavana
· 12 min read
Farewell, My Lovely
Chinatown is a remarkable blend of screenwriter Robert Towne and director Roman Polanski’s antipodal sensibilities.
Graham Daseler
· 14 min read
Once Upon a Time...Film Critics Became Joyless—A Review
Tarantino is quintessentially American. He lets us linger and watch Tate in all her Technicolor radiance. He lets us love her. What’s more, he lets her watch and love herself.
Steven Volynets
· 9 min read
The Conservative Manifesto Buried in 'Avengers: Endgame'
If you haven’t seen Endgame yet—or if you take comfort in the delusion that Marvel is “woke”—stop reading now.
Aaron Sibarium
· 10 min read
Tolkien—A Review
The real-life Tolkien, who loathed trite allegory, would have cringed.
Charlotte Allen
· 7 min read