Film & TV
The Aesthetics of Wealth Inequality
Sometimes richness looks like an opulent mansion, sometimes it looks like a sleek modern home. In these different aesthetic visions of wealth, we get different accounts of its injustices.
Oliver Stevens
Oliver Stevens is a graduate of Hamilton College with honors in Cinema and Media Studies, a connoisseur of minor league baseball, and a recently converted devotee of döner kebabs.
Film & TV
The Creative Inconveniences of IMAX
While its popularity is exploding, IMAX is still a cumbersome, disorganized format. Its lack of convenience, though, has become a channel for creativity.
Film & TV
Imperfect Days
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life. And in Perfect Days, feeling good requires risk and active engagement, not just a peaceful routine.
Film & TV
The Revolution WILL Be Televised
In lieu of mythologizing, One Battle After Another and Andor focus on organizational commitment and personal sacrifice needed to fuel a revolution.
Film & TV
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Stories of revolution have long faced the struggle of delivering a message meant to agitate through a medium designed to satisfy and entertain.
Film & TV
Anxiety is the Cinematic Spirit of the 2020s
Artists like Nathan Fielder and Tim Robinson are playing out our social fears on the screen, and the results are equal parts hilarious and disturbing.
Film & TV
Movies Are Better When They Know How to Shut Up
Dialogue is great. We all love dialogue. But when movies let it go, they can ascend to even greater, more distinctly cinematic heights.
Weekly Newsletter
The Cartoon That Predicted 2025
Nearly 100 years later, she remains louder, bolder, and stranger than ever. Plus: Grizzly Man, Art Basel, UT Austin Research, and more.
Film & TV
What Grizzly Man Tells Us About Creating Our Own Meaning
Is Timothy Treadwell, as presented in Werner Herzog's documentary, a role model or a cautionary tale? In fact, he's both at the same time.
Movies used to be sexy without trying, now they aren’t. What changed?
Casual eroticism that took sex as intrinsically valuable has disappeared from the movies. What made it vanish and how might it come back?
Film & TV
The Doctrines and Debauchery of Baseball and Pool
In Bull Durham and The Color of Money, sports are sex, success is self-discipline, and serenity is surrender.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Anatomy of a Perfect Fight Scene
There are flashy fights and there are story-driven fights. In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, we get a fight that does both.