Netflix

May 03, 2024

3 Body Problem Has Always Been Our Problem

My bad. When I was asked to write a review of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, I assumed we had entered a new stage in the gender wars. Having successfully worked around my undergraduate physical science requirement by taking a January-term class on Einstein and writing a paper on his philosophical ideas, I trust I’m forgiven for not knowing that the “three-body problem” refers to an unsolvable problem in physics. Continue Reading...

April 25, 2024

Ripley and the Art of the Cruel

Patricia Highsmith’s novels have a long history in Hollywood. Her debut, Strangers on a Train, was adapted in 1951 by Hitchcock into a remarkable thriller about corruption among the wealthy and the weaknesses of aspiring to success, with D.C. Continue Reading...

March 30, 2023

Pinocchio as Anti-Fascist Superhero

Guillermo del Toro’s career is evidence that the Oscars still favor the romance of the left. He has just won the Best Animated Feature award for his Pinocchio, which he set in Fascist Italy. Continue Reading...

February 16, 2023

Derry Girls and the Need to Get Past

At the beginning of the final episode of Derry Girls, the British Channel 4 TV series that ran for three seasons and that was also carried by Netflix in the U.S., Continue Reading...

October 13, 2022

Blonde at Its Best Highlights What’s Worst

Director Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, now available on Netflix and starring Ana de Armas as “blonde bombshell” Marilyn Monroe, is a long film. Not merely because of its almost three-hour run time but also because it feels long when you’re watching it. Continue Reading...

August 31, 2022

Despite the critical backlash, Persuasion largely persuades

Can an unmarried woman become a guide to romance? It certainly appears so with Jane Austen (1775–1817), spinster author of sharp, witty novels of manners set in early 19th-century England, who has become something of a belated authority on navigating the rocky shores of modern romance. Continue Reading...

August 12, 2022

The Sandman is a lesson in natural law

On August 5, The Sandman dropped on Netflix. For Neil Gaiman’s existing fanbase, this show was the fulfillment of decades of longing to see a beloved story brought to life. Rumors have circulated over the years that Gaiman’s 75-issue comic series (variously collected in 10 graphic novels and the three-volume Absolute Sandman) would come to the screen, but such projects never materialized. Continue Reading...

July 26, 2022

Dave Chappelle is the greatest comedian in America. Just ask him.

The best comedian America has produced in the post–Cold War era is Dave Chappelle, and if you listen to his new Netflix show, What’s in a Name: Speech at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, he’ll tell you that himself. Continue Reading...

June 15, 2022

Norm Macdonald is gone and there’s nothing funny about that

Norm Macdonald was the funniest comedian in his time among those who stayed out of political controversies. His specialty was pointing out how uncomfortable we are facing the reality of our human limits, moral and intellectual, as opposed to the fantasies we embrace eagerly in our flight from mortality. Continue Reading...

March 24, 2022

Volodymyr Zelensky is the Servant of the People

Three Ukrainian oligarchs, a shadow Triumvirate as it were, stand on a balcony overlooking a gorgeous town square. An election for president is imminent and they’re tired of wasting millions on backing their own candidates and then millions more on ruining those candidates’ rivals. Continue Reading...

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