“Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practice it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for...
TV and film
For fans of The Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman’s narration of 5 Flights Up is disconcerting. In both films, Freeman reflects on the past 40 years while...
In his 1988 Harper’s magazine essay, “The Reason for Stories,” novelist Robert Stone argued that fiction does for the collective unconscious of a culture what...
Note: All 13 episodes of Daredevil were released for instant streaming on Netflix on April 10. This post discusses the entirety of the series without major...
When it first became available in early 2013, the Netflix original series House of Cards lost me at the prologue. The show, with its ultra-cynical take on...
Directed by Yann Demange (Roadside Attractions, 2015) The political thriller ’71 opens with soldiers training in the English countryside to be deployed...
"The Truth Behind" National Geographic (Story House Productions, 2013— ) If asked to guess what one of the most popular shows on Netflix is...
Even if you empathize with the film’s main character, American Sniper is still a one-sided tale of what some call America’s greatest foreign policy disaster. A...
When scandal looms, who are you going to call—Olivia Pope or Pope Francis? “Thank God it’s Thursday!” my television announces, and I find myself entranced by...
Directed by Stephanie Soechtig (Atlas Films, 2014) Here are two telling facts from Fed Up, a documentary on American childhood obesity now on DVD: 1. Eighty...
