History’s Lessons for the Second Committee for the First Amendment History’s Lessons for the Second Committee for the First Amendment
Jane Fonda is reviving the Hollywood advocacy group to meet the high-stakes challenges to free expression in the Trump era.
Oct 20, 2025 / Ben Schwartz
Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs
Himes helped reinvent the idea of the detective novel. He also transformed it into a powerful vehicle for social criticism.
Oct 20, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gene Seymour
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic Paul Thomas Anderson’s Wild American Epic
One Battle After Another, a sensational adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, captures the manic energies of a country on the brink.
Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / John Semley
How the Kimmel Controversy Echoes Disney’s Dirty China Deal How the Kimmel Controversy Echoes Disney’s Dirty China Deal
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner berated the company’s capitulation before authoritarian MAGA threats, but in many ways, he set the example.
Sep 24, 2025 / Ben Schwartz
The Enigma of Clint Eastwood The Enigma of Clint Eastwood
Is he merely a reactionary, or do his films paint a more complicated picture?
Sep 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Adam Nayman
Is Tom Cruise the Last Action Hero? Is Tom Cruise the Last Action Hero?
After a strange, controversial career, he has become one of the few figures who upholds the old rules of Hollywood—where the human body is the greatest special effect.
Sep 3, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi
The Empty Provocations of “Eddington” The Empty Provocations of “Eddington”
Ari Aster’s farcical western is billed as a send-up of the puerile politics of the Covid years. In reality, it’s a film that seems to have no politics at all.
Aug 21, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Kelli Weston
Billy Wilder’s Battle With the Past Billy Wilder’s Battle With the Past
How the fabled Hollywood director confronted survivor’s guilt, the legacies of the Holocaust, and the paradoxes of Zionism.
Aug 18, 2025 / Ben Schwartz
The New Deal and the Popular Front Gave Us Superman The New Deal and the Popular Front Gave Us Superman
The real Man of Steel wasn’t woke, but he was radical.
Jul 25, 2025 / Jeet Heer
Seth Rogen’s Toothless Hollywood Satire Seth Rogen’s Toothless Hollywood Satire
The Studio is pitched as a send-up of the idiocy of the entertainment industry, but its potshots are harmless, even friendly.
Jun 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi