Culture

Austerity Is Stranger Than Fiction

Filmed in Portugal in 2013 and 2014, Miguel Gomes' new documentary Arabian Nights tries to make sense of life under IMF rules.

Michael Atkinson

Europe, A Love Story: Michael Moore’s Latest Film Tries To Sell Social Democracy to America

In 'Where To Invade Next,' Moore marches around Europe with a flag on his shoulder, to dubious effect.

Jeremy Gantz

The Blacklist in ‘Trumbo’ Didn’t Just Restrict Free Speech. It Changed How We Talk About Freedom.

Trumbo misses the opportunity to tell a more faithful, radical narrative of cinema's Red Scare and its resistors.

Andrew Paul

The Limits of Liberal Niceness in Aziz Ansari’s Master of None

Ansari and his character, Dev, genuinely want to do good. But they're missing the political framework.

Bhaskar Sunkara

The Wrong Kind of Solidarity: The UK’s Decision to Join the Air Strikes on Syria

Why bombing Syria in an attempt to weaken ISIS is not the answer to the Paris attacks.

Jane Miller

The Great Academic Novel

At the ripe age of 50, John Williams' "Stoner" is getting the attention it deserves

Joanna Scutts

The Barriers to Understanding the Refugee Crisis in Europe

The contrasts between the lives of Europeans and the lives of refugees

Jane Miller

Trapped in the Prison of Right-Wing Pundit Dinesh D’Souza’s Paranoid Mind

A stint in the slammer convinced the conservative author that liberals are crooks, as he lays out in his new book Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me About Obama, Hillary and the Democratic Party.

Chris Lehmann

Love in the Time of 3D Boners

Do the genitalia in Gaspar Noé’s Love herald the rise or the fall of 3D cinema?

Michael Atkinson

How Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Became the Supreme Meme Queen

The psychology behind the 'Notorious RBG' phenomenon.

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

The Most Disappointing Thing About Submission Isn’t Islamophobia, But Its Tedious Sexism

Any nuanced discussion about the intersection of cultures in Michel Houellebecq's new book is buried under its tiresome narration

Chris Lehmann

The Neverending Presidency: An Unfettered Look at How Democracy Lost to Mugabe

Camilla Nielsson’s new documentary, Democrats, is a study in how a dictatorship can weather a 'democratic transition'

Michael Atkinson

When the Bank Robs You

Mehrsa Baradaran's How the Other Half Banks tells the history of banks robbing from the poor and giving to the rich--and explains how we can stop it.

David Dayen

How California Birthed the Modern Right Wing

Many of 20th-century conservatism's tricks were honed in 1930s agribusiness's fight against farmworkers

Chris Lehmann

Jeremy Corbyn Is Already Pushing the Labour Party to Fight Inequality and Injustice

Despite a seemingly endless torrent of attacks and gossip, Corbyn is building a real alternative to politics as usual in the UK.

Jane Miller

Why Walking Down a Dark Alley at 2 A.M. Is Not ‘Asking For It’

In a new book, Kate Harding explains why dictums to avoid rape are part of rape culture--and do more to shame us than protect us

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

The Surefire Formula for Doing Good?

The altruists profiled in Strangers Drowning have made huge personal sacrifices for others. But what should we make of their extremely individualistic approach?

Joanna Scutts

Clint Eastwood: The Good, the Bad and the Reactionary

Patrick McGilligan's unauthorized biography of the film legend, updated through 2015, suffers from bastard fatigue: There are just too many examples of Eastwood's perfidy.

Eileen Jones