Film/TV
671 results
Page 30
John Ridley's 'American Crime,' season two
Too many shades of gray
The second season of American Crime raises intelligent questions: Can a teenager struggling with his sexual orientation and rough sex fantasies actually be raped, and is there any hope of establishing that legally? Or is Taylor an odd variation of the Victorian heroine who dreams of being ravished, but then decides that wasn’t such a good idea after the fact?
Articles
3 minute read
'Making a Murderer' on Netflix
When innocence isn't presumed
Making a Murderer is the compelling story of how our criminal justice system is broken; it describes a societal murder in which police, prosecutors, the media, and the public conspire to find “undesirables” guilty.
Articles
4 minute read
'The Man in the High Castle' on Amazon
Baseball, apple pie, and swastikas
The Man in the High Castle is a revered masterpiece of the alternative history genre. Philip K. Dick’s original novel is mindbending; the Amazon series is considerably more grounded and dynamic than the novel, but no less compelling.
Articles
6 minute read
'Flesh and Bone' on Starz
‘Black Swan’ Redux
Set in the cloistered world of professional ballet, Starz’s Flesh and Bone follows the journey of emotionally damaged dancer Claire Robbins. The series attempts to push the envelope with tabloid-worthy plot points but can’t transcend its balletic clichés and stale choreography to forge something original.
Articles
5 minute read
Charlie Kaufman's 'Anomalisa'
Missed connections
Though weighted with its fair share of flaws and failures, Anomalisa is a formally audacious and emotionally affecting film, and a worthy counterpart to Kaufman’s other cinematic work.
Articles
4 minute read
Gender presentation in 'The Danish Girl'
A different way of looking at gender
By rearranging The Danish Girl's narrative into conventional “woman stands by her man [sic]” tropes, the filmmakers can do something far more radical: proclaim the power of the female gaze.
Articles
5 minute read
Todd Haynes's 'Carol'
Loved Carol, not Carol
Cate Blanchett fans will enjoy this vehicle, but Carol's engine misfires too often. Cate’s glowing character may be a lonely store clerk’s fantasy, but how might she have been treated in real life?
Articles
4 minute read
Tom McCarthy’s ‘Spotlight’ (second review)
Journalism’s rise and fall
Journalism was once a refuge for adventurers and drunks. Today, at its best, it’s become a moral role model even for the Vatican, as Spotlight compellingly demonstrates. But this is no time for self-congratulation.
Articles
8 minute read
'Bridge of Spies' and 'Trumbo'
Revisiting the Red Scare
Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies and Jay Roach’s Trumbo are reminders, instructive and nostalgic, that what scares us now happened before, and we survived.
Articles
5 minute read
A look back at 2015's best television
Looking at my list of my 2015 favorites, I still see shows featuring tortured men on the moral razor’s edge, torn between the two sides of their nature — but the cracks are beginning to show.
Articles
6 minute read