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May 10, 2022
China’s Battle for Cultural Power Begins at the Box Office
A conversation with Erich Schwartzel about the vexed relationship between Hollywood and Beijing, how movies became a vehicle for Chinese ideology, and his new book Red Carpet.
Han Zhang
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April 19, 2022
The Many Lives of Billy Wilder
From Galicia to Berlin to Paris and eventually to Hollywood, the prolific director and screenwriter never let go of what proved to be his most formative experience: being in a state of exile.
Noah Isenberg
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April 4, 2022
Black Like Me? “Bridgerton” and the Fantasy of a Non-Racist Past
We can imagine a world where the only thing wrong with racial inequality is that non-white people are not allowed to share in the spoils of empire—but would we really want to live in it?
Gary Younge
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March 31, 2022
Nadav Lapid’s Cinema of Shame
His new film Ahed’s Knee is a shallow cri de coeur against the Israeli state.
Kaleem Hawa
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March 28, 2022
Kanye the Careerist
A three-part Netflix documentary on the rapper’s rise unintentionally shows the depths of West’s cynicism.
Jordan Coley
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March 25, 2022
A Last Gift of Love: One Way to Switzerland, Business Class
In America, we allow our pets more dignity in death than we allow people.
Jack Willis and Mary Pleshette Willis
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March 24, 2022
Meet the Countess With a Hole in Her Head
Amanda Feilding may be an eccentric British aristocrat. But she deserves full credit for funding significant research into psychedelics long before it was either cool or respectable.
Zoe Cormier
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March 24, 2022
The Dark History of Colonia Dignidad
The Netflix series A Sinister Sect examines not only the history of a German community led by a Nazi in Chile but also the relationship between Latin American governments and the far right.
Ilan Stavans
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March 15, 2022
What We’re Still Getting Wrong About the Unabomber
Ted Kaczynski’s violence—reexamined in a new biopic—fascinates US audiences, but not for the reasons we think.
R.H. Lossin
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February 22, 2022
The Infinite Possibilities of “Macbeth”
Sparse and beautiful, Joel Coen’s Shakespeare adaptation focuses on why we continue to return to this story of power and downfall.
Erin Schwartz