Film
Browse our essays and reviews on film and TV.
The First Lady’s New World
Melania is less about one woman than the disposability of them all in Trump 2.0.
A Good Neighbor
The late Marcel Ophuls made films about the twentieth century’s great crimes—and the trail of guilt they left behind.
Naming the Unnamed War
Bertrand Tavernier’s daring documentary about the Algerian revolution sought to break the silence in France.
Beneath the Razor Wire
Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s new film exposes the violent contradictions at the heart of EU border policy.
The Abortion Plot
A long line of films tracks the solidarities that arise when prohibition makes friendship too perilous.
Wounded Knee’s Radical Legacy
Fifty years ago, the American Indian Movement occupied the site of a historic massacre. They won real gains in the face of brutal counterinsurgency tactics.
Octavia Butler’s Blasphemous Solidarities
The novel Kindred reminds us, emphatically, gruesomely, that white supremacy is us too.
West Side Story and the Tragedy of Progressive Hollywood
A “woke” remake that peddles in symbolic representation is not the film Puerto Ricans deserve.
Simon Stålenhag’s Alternate Histories
Amazon’s Tales from the Loop has introduced a new audience to the speculative worlds of the Swedish artist, whose books depict worlds in which humanity has, in one way or another, run afoul of technology.
How Domestic Labor Robs Women of Their Love
The glaring omission in recent works depicting the agonies of nannying and housekeeping.
Pornography’s Contradictions
Which forms of oversight enhance erotic flourishing, and which quash it?
Mike Nichols and the American Century
The director’s life reflected both the feats and the failures of the postwar U.S. experience.
Angels of History
In the 1974 cult-classic teleplay Penda’s Fen, the past holds the key to escaping the catastrophic present.
A Parable and Parody of Restorative Justice
The Netflix series Dead to Me suggests that we might get closer to justice by forgiving each other and ourselves for the sometimes literally fatal flaw of being human.
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