Film Archives - Page 2 of 5

Film & Performing Arts

Dark Matter: Oppenheimer’s American Sublime

Christopher Nolan limns the limits of what cinema can reveal

September 19, 2023 • by Jacob Walters

Nolan’s version of Oppenheimer fits right in: an aloof scientist tormented by the majesty of the unseen. ...

Dark Matter: <em>Oppenheimer</em>’s American Sublime

Film & Performing Arts

An Overlooked Film Gem from Malta

Why Luzzu represents more than simply one man’s struggle to fish

September 7, 2023 • by Stella Crouch

Luzzu gives viewers a chance to learn about Maltese culture and language through a compelling story. When Luzzu was released in Malta, audiences felt joy at watching a film in their language, starring actual Maltese people. ...

Feminism

The Barbie Curse

Can a girl’s first icon of can-do power ever be good enough?

August 30, 2023 • by Honor McConnell

Barbie is the most popular doll in the world, and the most hated....

Interviews

Excavating Diverse Masculinities with Manuel Betancourt

The film critic reflects on his childhood obsessions with animated heartthrobs, queer-coded villains, and Pedro Almodóvar’s violent men in his first essay collection, The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men

June 5, 2023 • by Manuel Betancourt and Madeleine Janz

When journalist Manuel Betancourt started writing his new essay collection it was simply about the writer’s early fixations, from Disney’s 1997 depiction of Hercules to Mario Lopez’s performance of A. C. Slater in Saved by the Bell. As he continued writing, it became obvious to Betancourt that he was hyper-focused ...

Excavating Diverse Masculinities with Manuel Betancourt

Film & Performing Arts

Entertaining Propaganda: Hate-watching Fauda

The elision of the difference between Jews and Israel is one of the tragedies of the Middle East conflict

March 20, 2023 • by Mitchell Abidor

In Fauda, the Palestinians are often driven more by personal pathology than an outrage at historic injustice....

Entertaining Propaganda: Hate-watching <em>Fauda</em>

The Arts

Docking the Long Tail of Culture

How mass culture has scored a decisive victory in the age of the Internet

November 9, 2022 • by W. David Marx

In the past, the difficulty of acquiring long-tail content suggested that a person had many underlying status assets, such as intelligence, curiosity, and deep knowledge. When anyone can find anything obscure on the Internet within minutes, acquisition alone reveals no virtues or skills....

Film

Who Should Tell Pauli Murray’s Story?

Why a white documentarian should have stepped aside and created space for a Black filmmaker

December 1, 2021 • by Benje Williams

My hand is trembling as I stick it into the dark air. I wasn’t planning on asking a question. Definitely not this question. But it needs to be asked, and I don’t see any other Black people in this theater in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. “I’m so glad My ...

Reviews

Titane: Transformative Gender and Intimacy

The winner of the 2021 Palme d’Or takes us through hell and out the other side

November 3, 2021 • by Melinda Freudenberger

The following review contains spoilers. My friend has a phrase she likes to use about her new dog. “I look at him from across the room,” she says, after talking to me about all the piss pads littering her apartment floor, “and I can tell he’s having bad dog thoughts.” Something ...

<em>Titane</em>: Transformative Gender and Intimacy

Politics

Why Hollywood Still Can’t Change a Diaper

Passing the American Families Plan may bring us better films about dads and babies

October 6, 2021 • by Janet Golden

During a year spent at home, one new father reported that he had finally learned “how to properly wash my hands—and a baby’s hands.” A parenting resource, meanwhile, let dad know he could get down on the floor and engage his baby in age-appropriate play. In the midst of the ...

Why Hollywood Still Can’t Change a Diaper

Media

Hallmark Christmas Movies

Past Present Podcast, Episode 260

December 22, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The Hallmark Christmas movie is a bona fide super-genre. Niki referred to this New Yorker article about how the form took over cable television, and Natalia drew on this piece at The Lily about the tradition of hate-watching the films. In ...

Past Present

Sacha Baron Cohen and Satire in the Trump Era

Past Present Podcast, Episode 253

November 4, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest sendup of American political culture. Niki and Neil commented on Sam Thielman’s NBC Think review, and Natalia cited this BBC piece from a Kazakh perspective. Niki also drew on Maureen ...

Reviews

The Tangled Web of Familial Homophobia

A Secret Love (Directed by Chris Bolan, Netflix, 2020)

June 25, 2020 • by Jen Manion

But I was not prepared for the central role in the documentary film played by Terry’s nieces, Diana Bolan and Tammy Donahue; nor was I prepared for their jarring, casual homophobia. A Secret Love begins with Terry and Pat coming out to their families after having been a couple (they told ...