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Democracy dies in darkness, indeed
The Washington Post just effectively endorsed Donald Trump for president.
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Rudolf and Hedwig are the king and queen of Auschwitz, in The Zone of Interest
Sure, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a distressing movie, but have you read the Wikipedia page on the Höss family? Spoiler: they turned on each other, and at least some of the kids didn’t turn out so great. A half-formed thought I should probably keep to myself before wondering out loud: I had…
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Charlie is afraid, in Orion and the Dark
A better title might be “Orion is Afraid”, or maybe “Charlie is Afraid”. What odd timing, for Orion and the Dark to come out so close to the similarly-themed-if-pitched-at-a-very-different-audience Beau is Afraid. Were Charlie Kaufman and Ari Aster comparing notes, over a few cups of coffee? Other than its general theme of anxiety, the unusual structure is…
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Rewatching Them! through an eerie haze of nostalgia
Gordon Douglas’ Them! (1954) is far more polished, slick, and straight-faced than its b-movie premise (and exclamation point!) would suggest. The subplot involving a traumatized orphan is genuinely distressing to watch, James Whitmore gives a rather modern haunted performance, and some of the effects are surprisingly gruesome. From a giant monster crushing a human torso…
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Albert Brooks navigates a secular afterlife in Defending Your Life
I sometimes find it perversely pleasing to hate a much-liked movie — one enshrined in The Criterion Collection, no less. Nice to know I am not yet a total victim of the monoculture! I do respect one positive aspect of Albert Brooks’ Defending Your Life that many reviewers single out: it is indeed refreshing to…
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Peter Gabriel pioneers a new album release strategy, whether his fans like or not (I do)
Peter Gabriel has been releasing a bevy of new singles and rare archive material throughout 2023, so why are some of his fans complaining?
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The new Apple Music Classical app solves the wrong problem. Is Apple Music Disco next?
Apple Music has long frustrated classical music fans. In response, why did Apple opt to create an entirely separate app?
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Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is not very loving, as love letters go
Like most filmmakers and movie buffs, Babylon director Damien Chazelle would appear to have mixed feelings about Hollywood.
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All Quiet on the Western Front isn’t likely to change many minds about war
Edward Berger’s lavish, gruesome All Quiet on the Western Front is very clear that war is bad, but could do more to condemn today’s warmongers.
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Robin Williams is the mumbling sailor man in Robert Altman’s slacker Popeye
Robert Altman applies his trademark style to a kids’ comic strip movie, and the results are about as strange and incongruous as you might expect.
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The hot mess Don’t Worry Darling is too much and not enough
Olivia Wilde’s Twilight Zone-esque thriller Don’t Worry Darling briefly dominated the discourse, for all the wrong reasons.
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NYC’s indie bands survive Napster, 9/11, gentrification, and their own demons, in Meet Me in the Bathroom
Weathering turn of the century New York City with The Strokes, TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, and The Moldy Peaches.