The Mediocrity Feedback Loop
If leading media critics don’t expect much, filmmakers won’t deliver much.
A collection of 136 posts
If leading media critics don’t expect much, filmmakers won’t deliver much.
‘The Technological Republic’ is a searching indictment of a culture that has lost sight of its metaphysical horizons and now seeks an escape from history.
Ian Penman has published an eccentric new book about Erik Satie, a French surrealist composer and celebratory nuisance with a tiny oeuvre and massive influence.
A riveting new book by American historian Lynne Olson re-examines the story of Ravensbrück, the Nazis’ notorious concentration camp for women.
Matthew Gasda’s new novel unfolds in a haze of empty dialogue and overwrought introspection.
A new collection of Murray Kempton’s articles reveals a thoughtful journalist whose politics were difficult to categorise.
Biden’s re-election campaign was a grand exercise in hubris, which led to the very outcome it was intended to prevent.
A valuable new collection of wartime letters written by Leslie Fiedler shows how politically astute the budding literary critic was about communism.
The first and largest mistake Douthat makes in his new book is to argue that faith and rationality are mutually supportive.
An insider’s naive and myopic account of China’s system and intentions.
Those who ignore politically inconvenient information about affirmative action are more interested in defending a narrative than in actually solving a problem.
Many of the people involved in Uberto Pasolini’s new screen adaptation of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ are intimidatingly talented. It’s a pity, then, that the film is such a disaster.
Alexander Vindman’s bracing new book argues that Ukraine has been made to suffer the consequences of Western naivety and restraint.
Vincenzo Latronico’s prismatic novel ‘Perfection’ is a lament for the hopes and dreams of a generation reconfigured by the internet.
Clay Risen’s new book about the American “Red Scare” emphasises the injustices of anti-communism but minimises the true extent and danger of communist infiltration.