They Shoot Oscars, Don’t They?
The Oscar ceremony has finally acquired an ideal twenty-first century host in the smirking, tap-dancing, bland-faced Seth MacFarlane.
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Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations Retells the Obama Era
Vinson Cunningham’s debut novel, Great Expectations, follows a staffer working for a magnetic young black senator making a bid for the US presidency. It’s a book about the emptiness of political symbols and the comforts and dangers of blind faith.
Israel Is Discriminating Against Americans Attempting to Visit Palestine
The Israeli Ministry of Defense recently made its visa requirements for Americans seeking to visit Palestine even stricter. This will make it harder for Palestinians to visit their families and for US citizens to work in the country.
Prostitution Law and the Death of Whores
Why focus on laws and regulations aimed at controlling sex workers rather than recognizing their agency?
Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Light, Bright, and Kinda Boring
Will we ever get past the dominance of superhero movies in mainstream American cinema? Will they ever become any good?
Elaine May Is the Greatest Director You’ve Never Heard Of
A new biography of writer-director-performer Elaine May makes a strong case for her canonization as one of our greatest comic talents. Unfortunately, Hollywood never knew what to do with her.
The German Take on Gotham
Fritz Lang’s masterful visual depiction of class stratification in Metropolis remains unrivaled by its would-be inheritors.
Don’t Disrupt the Disruptors
Union workers – especially union workers on strike – really piss the Bay Area technorati off.
Everything Everywhere All at Once Is the Most Insane Movie of the Year
Hot dog fingers, a talking raccoon, butt plug karate, Michelle Yeoh in dominatrix gear: Everything Everywhere All at Once has something for everyone. Past the absurdity is a deeply (and sometimes overly) sentimental tale about a family struggling to make it.
Rose Pastor Stokes Was More Than a Celebrity — She Was a Working-Class Hero
Early-twentieth-century American socialist Rose Pastor Stokes became a media celebrity after she married a wealthy heir. But her political life was much more interesting: she was one of the Socialist Party’s most effective speakers, inspiring the era’s striking workers with rousing orations.
In This Is Not Miami, Fernanda Melchor Transforms Violence Into Folklore
The Mexican journalist turned novelist Fernanda Melchor’s This Is Not Miami looks unsentimentally at crime and violence. Unable to address its structural causes, Melchor’s characters create mythical explanations of human cruelty.
The Staircase Is the Natural Next Step in Our True-Crime Watching Spree
True crime has come a long way from the cheap, lurid days of America’s Most Wanted. The new HBO Max series The Staircase, starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, has the posh cast and opulent production values that showcase the genre's evolution.
The Right’s Challenge to Chavismo
The Venezuelan Right appears to be building the kind of mass movement that could reverse the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Squatters of the Lower East Side
As New York City was transformed by real estate and finance interests in the 1990s, a group of squatters on the Lower East Side waged battle for affordable housing.
The Trial of Cecily McMillan
An Occupy Wall Street activist was assaulted by a police officer. She faces seven years in prison for it.
The Workers’ Wimbledon
Tennis has often been considered an exclusive sport — but in the 1930s, trade unionists came together to challenge the private clubs with their own tournament: the “Workers’ Wimbledon.”
Class Brought to Life
Class, race, and gender intersect on multiple levels — we know that. The challenge is to translate this into an emancipatory project.
Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths Is Powerful and Tormenting
Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths is another triumph by that legendary dramatist of working-class British life. But films like Leigh’s are a rare breed these days.
Itemizing Atrocity
For blacks, the “war on terror” hasn’t come home. It’s always been here.
My Time in Mexico’s Largest Immigration Detention Center
Nabbed at the airport, I was thrown into Mexico’s largest immigration detention center. There I learned from my fellow detainees about the terrible secrets and horrible violence of the Darién Gap, the global epicenter of the migrant crisis.