Culture

Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry and Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo in “May December.”

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

Cease Fire!

Cease Fire! Cease Fire!

Mounting civilian death toll to what end?

Dec 26, 2023 / OppArt / Sue Coe

Peace, Now!

Peace, Now! Peace, Now!

Focus on love, compassion, humanity.

Dec 25, 2023 / OppArt / Andrea Arroyo

James Stewart, as George Bailey, points at Lionel Barrymore in a scene from “It's a Wonderful Life.”

Whose “It’s a Wonderful Life” Is It Anyway? Whose “It’s a Wonderful Life” Is It Anyway?

How everybody’s favorite Christmas movie about the perils of monopoly capitalism became a victim of monopoly capitalism.

Dec 25, 2023 / Ray Nowosielski and David Cassidy

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

There’s something very feudal about his massive doomsday bunker.

Dec 22, 2023 / Kate Wagner

The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction”

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 Measure of Justice at Last for Victor Jara

A Measure of Justice at Last for Victor Jara A Measure of Justice at Last for Victor Jara

World / December 21, 2023 A Measure of Justice at Last for Victor Jara Fifty years after the famed Chilean folksinger was murdered by Pinochet’s military, his alleged execution…

Dec 21, 2023 / Peter Kornbluh

A Memoir for the Post-Truth Era

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

The Revolution Will Be Posted

The Revolution Will Be Posted The Revolution Will Be Posted

Oaxaca, Mexico. street art.

Dec 20, 2023 / OppArt / URTARTE

“Harlem WPA Street Dance,” by Elizabeth Olds, ca.1935–43.

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

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