Michael Mann’s Need for Speed Michael Mann’s Need for Speed
The director’s biopic of Enzo Ferrari is a perfect encapsulation of his primary aesthetic interest: the death drive and male melancholy.
Jan 3, 2024 / Books & the Arts / James Duesterberg
“All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt”: A Masterpiece of American Southern Filmmaking “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt”: A Masterpiece of American Southern Filmmaking
Raven Jackson’s remarkable debut is a poetic look into Black family life in the South.
Jan 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kelli Weston
Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Portrait of Gay Indonesia Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Portrait of Gay Indonesia
In, Happy Stories, Mostly, a collection of short stories, the complexities of queer life in the Southeast Asian country come into focus.
Dec 28, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Bryony Lau
The Uncanny Façades of “May December” The Uncanny Façades of “May December”
Todd Haynes’s discomfiting and hypnotic suburban melodrama examines topics the director knows well: sex, taboo, and control.
Dec 27, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Beatrice Loayza
The Indefensible Job of Policing the Border The Indefensible Job of Policing the Border
Against the Wall, a former border officer’s memoir, argues that when it comes to protecting the border, cruelty is the point.
Dec 26, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Caroline Tracey
An Introduction to Marxism Unlike Any Other An Introduction to Marxism Unlike Any Other
Søren Mau’s Mute Compulsion offers a unique and relatable entry into the social and economic dimensions of modern Marxist thought.
Dec 25, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Matt McManus
The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction” The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction”
A buzzy film adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure, a novel about publishing’s racial politics, misreads what is truly ailing the book industry.
Dec 22, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse
A Memoir for the Post-Truth Era A Memoir for the Post-Truth Era
In Sarah Viren’s To Name a Bigger Lie, she investigates how conspiracy theories have changed her relationship to the world.
Dec 21, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Julia Case-Levine
Reading “Mumbo Jumbo” in the Post-Covid Age Reading “Mumbo Jumbo”" "in the Post-Covid Age
Ishmael Reed's novel depicts an American government dedicated to public health as long as its efforts keep hierarchy and the status quo in place.
Dec 20, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Melvin Backman
Sasha Frere-Jones, a Life Remixed Sasha Frere-Jones, a Life Remixed
Books & the Arts / December 19, 2023 Sasha Frere-Jones, a Life Remixed His beguiling memoir Earlier moves through the struggles and the sounds that changed his relationship…
Dec 19, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Piccarella