Audiobook review: “Big Swiss” is an affair to remember
Jen Beagin’s new novel follows a self-loathing character into a dishonest affair, yet it’s surprisingly charming and empathetic.
Movie review: “Emily” plays favorites with the Brontë sisters
This is a movie about the creation of one of the most fundamentally inexplicable novels in all of English literature.
Audiobook review: Maya Phillips on her life as a proud “Nerd”
“Nerd” constitutes an argument for the power of imagined universes, and for the importance of remaining critically engaged.
Book review: Frances Kai-Hwa Wang’s “You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is In Braids”
This is a work of mature consideration, of hard-learned truths: a highly specific personal history, situated in a broader historical context.
Ten hot takes on “Falling In Love” (1984)
This is a romcom with the “com” surgically removed. It’s just a straight drama, and it totally works on that level.
Audiobook Review: Tara Isabella Burton’s “The World Cannot Give” Isn’t Extra Enough
There are two compelling books stuffed into “The World Cannot Give.” The author should have committed to one.
Audiobook Review: Jill Gutowitz’s “Girls Can Kiss Now” Is a Bingeworthy Essay Collection
Jill Gutowitz both celebrates the rapid rise in pop-culture queer representation and chronicles how very, very late that’s been in coming.
At 100, “Babbitt” Is Still Incisive
Sinclair Lewis’s novel remains essential as a razor-sharp — and highly entertaining — critique of a social system built to buttress Babbitts.
Movie Review: “Moonfall” is Majestically Dumb
Roland Emmerich’s “Moonfall” is just a big silly ball of cheese…kind of like the moon, right? Right? Bueller?
“Foundation” Season One Reveals Asimov’s Genius — By Omission
Asimov adaptations onscreen, it seems, will always be fundamentally different from the author’s published works.
Audiobook Review: Kevin Goetz Shares the Secrets of “Audience-ology”
In “Audience-ology,” Kevin Goetz shares insights from his extensive experience digging into audience opinions about movies.
Book Review: Ed Ruscha, Nels Cline, and David Breskin make a “Dirty Baby” together
“Dirty Baby” is “muttish and raunchy,” but its dirtiness feels constrained and bitter rather than liberating or glorious.