Within the Context of No Context Within the Context of No Context
Reviews of Blood Diamond, Inland Empire, The Good German and The History Boys.
Dec 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
A Painter of Our Time A Painter of Our Time
Diego Velázquez was a restless innovator, a painter who slyly revealed the ordinariness of his exalted subjects--one is almost tempted to call him modern.
Dec 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Battleground Cinema Battleground Cinema
Video activists and independent filmmakers are on the ground in war zones from Iraq to Lebanon and Gaza, using documentaries as instruments of peacemaking.
Dec 8, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Joseph Huff-Hannon
Suga Mama, Politicized Suga Mama, Politicized
Beyoncé Knowles's sexed-up club jam B'Day is also an odd, urgent, dissonant and disruptive personal and political statement.
Nov 30, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Daphne A. Brooks
Unhappy Meal Unhappy Meal
Stuart Klawans reviews Fast Food Nation, a film that aspires to activism as it undermines its own anticorporate message.
Nov 30, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Mad Mel and the Maya Mad Mel and the Maya
Mel Gibson's violent new film Apocalypto exploits Maya culture and perpetuates racist stereotypes.
Nov 30, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Earl Shorris
The Day the Music Died The Day the Music Died
It's the end of the world as we know it: Tower Records, the last great CD emporium, is closing, victim of the iPod and MP3 revolution. As Wal-Mart and other big-box stores pick up ...
Nov 27, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Max Fraser
The Lessons of History The Lessons of History
While there may be something great about winning a war, the United States must learn there is something much greater about using the tools of peacemaking to build a better world.
Nov 17, 2006 / Books & the Arts / John Hope Franklin
Hooray for Right-Wing Hollywood Hooray for Right-Wing Hollywood
Right-wing culture warriors gathered in LA to praise ABC for its flawed 9/11 docudrama, talk up a conservative version of The Daily Show and release a thriller fueled by a nativist...
Nov 16, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Max Blumenthal
Coming to America! Coming to America!
Reviews of films from the vulgar to the magisterial: Borat, Flags of Our Fathers, For Your Consideration, Our Daily Bread and Fur.
Nov 16, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans