Let me begin this review by stating that I kind of hate my friends sometimes. I’ll explain. Our fearless editor Scott Armstrong gives me enormous latitude to review anything I want. If I decided that I’d review Icelandic lesbian cinema exclusively, I suspect he’d be a-okay with it.* Some weeks the film to review is […]

There are many reasons why I want a time machine. I’d like to see a live t-rex – from a safe distance, of course. I’d like to see The Beatles live, or stroll through the streets of Renaissance-era Venice. You do it like that, you don’t have to worry about screwing up the space-time continuum. […]

It’s entirely unsurprising that the first casualty of the Revolutionary War was a black man. That would be Crispus Attucks. There is considerable disagreement by historians about his early life, but there’s one thing everybody agrees with. During the evening of March 5, 1770, a disagreement broke out in Boston, regarding the failure of a British […]

Not long ago, I read the incredible book “Strangers in their Own Land,” by the sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. She visited Louisiana and interviewed scads of people to ask them about their voting habits. Specifically, she wanted to find out why these decent and smart people continually voted against their own interests. If you lived […]

When I was in high school and college, I fancied myself a bit of an actor. During that time, I learned two things. The truly great actors have impeccable timing, a precise understanding of their character and how it fits into the larger piece, and are compelling to watch. I was blessed with none of that. […]

Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Elie Wiesel wrote that, in his astonishing memoir Night. He survived the Holocaust, and he later wrote about how his faith was consumed by flames. Who can blame him? He, and millions like him, cried out […]

In today’s America, the easiest thing in the world is to be a straight, white male. I don’t mean that us white guys get our pick of great jobs and get handed sacks of money. Instead, we have a base level of presumed competency. If we say to society that we want to become an […]

Dear reader, I have to be honest with you. I have a problem. As much as I want you to read this review of the new film Passengers, you really don’t need to read it. All you need to do is direct your eyeballs up a few inches to the picture of the pretty people, and […]

I’ve always held musicals at arm’s length. I’m weak that way. Everybody has a blind spot when it comes to movies, a certain genre or actor that they just can’t stand. My wife’s aunt has an irrational hatred of Tom Hanks. Every time she sees him in a movie, she shakes her head and says […]

The Star Wars movies are the crown jewel of franchise filmmaking, and sometimes it’s a little hard to see why. Look at it like this: Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back are classics for a reason. That’s a no-brainer since they are fun, fast-paced, and chock-full of memorable characters. So far, so good. Then Return of the Jedi hits us, and it’s really […]