On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
An epistolary novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019) by Vietnamese-American author and poet Ocean Vuong is one of those rare and...
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- 2 min
Bad Elements
Bad Elements by Ian Buruma was published in 2001 so, considering how dramatically China has grown over the past couple decades, I almost...
- 1 min
The Terror: Infamy
I have to be in a certain mood to watch and enjoy horror—a mood that seems to lift after the period between summer and Halloween. And so...
- 2 min
When We Were Orphans
When We Were Orphans (2000), Kazuo Ishiguro's fifth novel, has been called the author's weakest work, and I heard that he's admitted this...
- 3 min
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (残菊物語, or Zangiku Monogatari) is a 1939 film by director Kenji Mizoguchi. Running about 140 minutes,...
- 1 min
Sanjuro
Sanjuro (椿三十郎, or Tsubaki Sanjūrō) is a black-and-white film directed by Akira Kurosawa, released in 1962, and starring the charismatic...
- 2 min
Bed and Board
Bed and Board (French: Domicile Conjugal) is a 1970 comedy-drama directed by François Truffaut. It stars Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude...
- 1 min
Marriage Story
I didn't think I'd like Marriage Story (2019), a family comedy-drama written and directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale...
- 2 min
The Prince
The Prince is a treatise written by Niccolò Machiavelli and published in 1532. Initially intended for Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, who...
- 1 min
Parasite
Parasite (2019) (Korean: 기생충, or Gisaengchung) is a black comedy thriller directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Song Kang-ho, Lee...
- 1 min
The Road
Here's a post-apocalyptic near-moribund world of grey and cold and hunger and ash and drizzle through which we're led, down the road....
- 2 min
Once Upon a Time In Hollywood
Wendy Ide in her mostly scathing review of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019) entirely missed the point. Calling...
- 2 min
Quicksand
Quicksand by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki is a novel about deceit, jealousy, and betrayal. Written between 1928 and 1930 as a serial for a...
- 1 min
Joker
Joker is Joaquin Phoenix. Another outstanding performance of this villain vying for pop culture's top baddie spot alongside such...
- 1 min
The Irishman
Michael Mann's Heat came out in 1995 and cinephiles everywhere were fired up to see Robert De Niro and Al Pacino face to face in the same...
- 2 min
The Downfall of Osen
The Downfall of Osen (折鶴お千, or Orizuru Osen) is a 1935 silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and with benshi accompaniment. It stars...
- 2 min
Our Man In Havana
Of the dozen or so Graham Greene books I've read, Our Man In Havana (1958) is the most humorous and sardonic. Wormold, a vacuum cleaner...
- 1 min
In a Lonely Place
In a Lonely Place (1950), directed by Nicholas Ray (They Live by Night, Rebel Without a Cause) and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria...
- 1 min
Tanuja Ramachandran: Hunter-Seeker
This has to be the first novel about a narcoleptic Indo-Canadian mercenary with a sari and sexy midriff who wreaks vengeance upon a...
- 2 min
Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories
Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories (2009) is a collection of works by Ryünosuke Akutagawa (1892–1927). I'd seen Akira Kurosawa's 1950...
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