Culture

Asghar Farhadi’s Early Masterpiece

Through a seaside mystery, About Elly explores the irrational rules placed on women in Iran.

Michael Atkinson

Culture

PHOTO-ESSAY: Caravan of the Mutilated

Having lost limbs on the dangerous trip across Mexico, 13 Hondurans sought an audience with President Obama—but are instead facing deportation.

Joseph Sorrentino

Culture

A Black Woman Traces Her Nazi Heritage

In My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me, adoptee Jennifer Teege recounts her journey of discovery after learning her biological grandfather was mass murderer Amon Goeth.

Erin Aubry Kaplan

Culture

The Appeal of the UK’s Radical Right

UKIP is reaching the 'left behind' white working class.

Jane Miller

Culture

Condors, Already F*cked, Get Fracked

Expanding fracking in a California condor sanctuary could kill an endangered species we've worked hard--and spent millions--to save.

Hannah Guzik

Culture

A Cover Artist, Discovered—40 Years Later

Mingering Mike had all the requisites for a legendary music career, except the music.

Chris Lehmann

Culture

Obamacare and Its Discontents

Steven Brill's new book outlines the shortcomings, as well as the accomplishments, of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Adam Gaffney

Culture

In Jauja, Cinema Takes on Colonialism, Slowly

Viggo Mortensen and Lisandro Alonso tour Argentina's dark, imperialist past in a new film.

Michael Atkinson

Culture

Big Data Is Watching You

The hidden price of Google, Twitter and Facebook.

Joanna Scutts

Culture

Labour Pains

There’s a U.K. General Election in May and I don’t know how to vote.

Jane Miller

Culture

I, Derivative Robot

In Chappie, Neill Blomkamp abandons his progressive instincts in favor of a trip through his DVD collection.

Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

Culture

The Dude Abides

Kent Russell seeks to lay claim to the raw, serious stuff of the American male past.

Chris Lehmann

Culture

Despite a Rosy Lens, Timbuktu Has Something to Teach Us About Resistance to Oppression

Abderrahmane Sissako’s Oscar-nominated film may be improbably beautiful and relatively apolitical, but it's worth seeing.

Michael Atkinson

Culture

Ai-jen Poo’s ‘The Age of Dignity’ Is a Wake-up Call for an Aging—and Unprepared—Nation

When it comes to providing care for an aging baby boomer population, Poo says, we need to think bigger.

Joanna Scutts

Culture

Fresh Off the Boat: At Last, a Show Where Asian-Americans Aren’t the Butt of the Joke

In a welcome departure from most depictions of Asian families, Fresh Off the Boat pokes fun at the ignorance and blandness of white American culture.

Julia Wong

Culture

Cuba’s Performance Problem

Havana closes down an open mic.

Coco Fusco

Culture

The War on Billie Holiday

The Bureau of Narcotics' strange obsession

Johann Hari

Culture

Portrait of the Artist as a Dying Class

Scott Timberg argues that we've lost the scaffolding of middle-class jobs—record-store clerk, critic, roadie—that made creative scenes thrive.

Joanna Scutts

Culture

American Sniper: Guns, God and Gallons of Testo’

Clint Eastwood treats Iraq like Iwo Jima. Will Americans really go for this horseshit?

Michael Atkinson

Culture

Drowning Cajun Country

Will the eaters of étouffée disappear along with the Louisiana bayou?

Kendra Pierre-Louis

Culture

Slacking Workers of the World Unite

We've made an art of wasting time at work. But to what end?

Lindsay Beyerstein

Culture

The 1950s: You Had To Be There

Post-WWII America was more complicated than we remember.

Jane Miller

Culture

Brother, Can You Spare a Euro?

By posing the choice between a coworker's job and 1,000 Euros, Two Days, One Night explores the state of worker solidarity.

Michael Atkinson

Culture

Land of the Free and Home of the Enhanced Interrogators

We need a truth and reconciliation commission to deal with our torture problem.

Chris Lehmann