In the Air Tonight
How Phil Collins created the pop sound that defined the 1980s.
Jacob Bielecki
· 12 min read
Pop Culture
A collection of 14 posts
Arrest and Moral Pageantry
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Mick Jagger, and the theatre of degradation.
Julia Friedman
· 8 min read
Seasons in the Sun
Sex, money, murder, and the decline of Mike White’s wildly popular HBO series ‘The White Lotus.’
Charlotte Allen
· 29 min read
Creative Writing in the Age of Trump
The assumption that once drove creative writing—that interior life deserves as much respect and interest as the latest bump in relations at the White House—no longer obtains.
Daphne Merkin
· 8 min read
Joys Known Only to the Insane
In Hereditary and Midsommar, Aster's characters search for their place in the world—and can only find it by embracing evil.
Samuel Kronen
· 11 min read
Fan Service vs Geek Service
From the Iliad to Mission: Impossible, creators have wrestled with the question of how much universe-building is too much.
Stewart Slater
· 9 min read
The Zero-Sum Squid Game
What the Korean hit gets wrong about capitalism and right about government.
Ilya Levine
· 10 min read
How The Blues Brothers Saved American Music
The Blues Brothers (1980) fostered a renewed appreciation of some of the best music America has ever produced.
Jacob Bielecki
· 12 min read
The Worst Racial Slur, In Context
Rare is the word that has antithetical meanings depending on the speaker and listener, the intent and reception. This is one such rarity.
Steve Salerno
· 16 min read
The Great Divergence
Many psychological and behavioural gaps between men and women have widened in more gender-equal countries, dealing a major blow to sociological theories of sex differences.
David C. Geary, Lewis G. Halsey
· 8 min read
Roger Corman: A Filmmaker’s Filmmaker
An account of all the lives Corman touched, the careers he helped to jump-start, and the genres he pioneered would fill several books.
Jacob Bielecki
· 12 min read
93 Years of Shatner
A tribute to an irrepressible TV star’s ability to live long and prosper.
Kevin Mims
· 21 min read
‘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
Yukio Mishima: Japan’s Cultural Martyr
Mishima’s reputation has grown in the new century and today there is more serious interest in his work than ever before.
Andrew Rankin
· 10 min read