How to talk about Garth Risk Hallberg’s $2 million book deal; the world’s greatest criminologist; Oscar and the Bechdel test; 20 normal things Simpsons fans can’t hear without laughing; “Star Wars” Kid speaks out, 10 years later.
Susan Sontag on high and low culture; PG-13 movies have more gun violence than R movies; New York City in the ’80s; how upfront should Christian artists be about missionary aspects in their art?
What “Berkeley” teaches us; the latest Cruise kerfuffle; how selling out saved indie rock; SpongeBob SquarePants goes both ways; we are all plagiarists.
The fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy brings out a lot of television, from sober docs to hammy reenactments, with conspiracy theories of all stripes.
Writer Peter Sobczynski responds to our Movie Love Questionnaire.
Writer Dan Callahan responds to our Movie Love Questionnaire.
What changes when “Star Wars” is dubbed in Navajo? More than you might think.
Critics took a drubbing from fans at a Comic Con New York panel. But critics seemed like straw men for the fans, even with a group of real live critics on the panel.
Food stamps cuts hit hard; “Gravity” as an experimental blockbuster; Netflix is wicked busy; a Maureen O’Hara biography; Lego’s female scientist figure.
Why we still need video stores; composer Hans Zimmer speaks; Sweden’s feminist movie ratings system; the gold standard for thank-you notes; free movie streaming through libraries.
Revisiting the Black Dahlia case, ‘Disneyfying’ famous women, a profile of TCM host Robert Osborne, Patti Smith on Lou Reed and the story behind a notorious SNL skit.
Memory lane with the Coen Brothers and John Goodman; the uncharacteristic reticence of Ronan Farrow; how our minds mislead us (let us count the ways); Ernst Lubitsch’s pre-code transgressions; Rebecca Miller on the importance of casting directors.
SNL’s diversity problem extends to its writers room; movies, marijuana, and Hoberman; John Waters’ one-man show; gender in the WNBA; life imitating Nazi-stolen art.
Writer Simon Abrams responds to our Movie Love Questionnaire.
An open letter from Woody Allen; an Edna Krabappel tribute; the possibility of a “Prometheus 2”; why film festivals reject good films; the return of “Black Angel” (the film meant to precede “Empire Strikes Back”).
The logic of “stupid poor people”; the retrogression of “Boondock Saints”; Zizek and Chomsky documentaries; David Simon on “12 Years a Slave”; a case for theological studies.
Ken Loach sends out editing distress signal, Pixar answers; Twitter changes the role of the literary critic for better and worse; Oliver Stone reminisces on his postwar experience as a New York film student studying under Martin Scorsese; marching band does incredible, incredible stuff.
On writing for free (don’t do it!); the aftermath of “12 Years a Slave”; erasing John Wayne; Halloween spell-ings; bad writer, bad person?
Lou Reed dead at 71; more “Blue Is the Warmest” controversies; a survey of Orson Welles biographies; is consensus ruining criticism?; the cultural crater of “12 Years a Slave.”
