Culture
Star Wars The Product
What Star Wars owes to its fans and commercial interests.
The Foresyte Saga
My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation of The Forsyte Saga that aired early in the aughts and starred Damien Lewis, among others. The generation spanning historical drama scratched my itch for vast and ambitious period pieces. Last night, we watched the first episode of Masterpiece’s The Count
The Novel Cure
Every time I finish a novel in which I have invested a lot of time and emotion, I feel a bit unmoored. What other worlds are out there now that this one is gone? It’s like the characters in that world died and will be grieved. Some even after
Of Human Bondage
Breaking bread with the dead in film and books.
Perfect Days
I finally got around to watching Wim Wenders Perfect Days, in which it must be said that the city of Tokyo is as much a character as any of the actors. The beautiful, future-forward and unusual toilets which protagonist Hirayama has to clean for his meager living make many
No Respect
A slice of comedy in the eighties.
Cultural Stasis
Perhaps the perfect film to exemplify a certain mid 80s aesthetic, Rocky IV contrasts with the flatness of contemporary culture.
The Perfect Villain
Ben Mendelsohn's portrayal of Orson Krennic gives Star Wars its most realistic bad guy.
Flow
On animals and companionship.
A CGI Ape Takes To The Screen
David Sims writes for The Atlantic about Better Man, the new Robbie Williams music biopic where the singer is depicted by a CGI ape. Why is he a primate? Better Man doesn’t ever explain—though in its trailer, Williams mentions feeling “less evolved” than everyone else—and none of