The Disturbingly Prophetic Message of ‘The Stepford Wives’
Fifty years ago, the dystopic film that imagined suburban white men swapping their spouses for robot trad wives terrified viewers. Now, it watches like a GOP playbook.
Film
Will the Real Priscilla Presley Please Stand Up?
Sofia Coppola is the filmmaker laureate of adolescent female loneliness. But “Priscilla” offers only a glimpse of the woman who ultimately emerged from the constraints of a hauntingly abusive marriage to a bedazzled monster.
‘Blonde’ Is Little More Than Torture Porn
Author Joyce Carol Oates and film director Andrew Dominik have a sadistic way of portraying iconic actress Marilyn Monroe, reducing her rich life to a one-dimensional role: victim.
What Aretha Franklin Taught Me About White Flight
A white Jewish writer reflects on his family's role in segregation politics, and how the Queen of Soul and other Black artists connect him to this history.
Yes, Diversity In Film Criticism Matters
More than three-quarters of film critics are white men, which not only impacts how films by women and people of color are received and portrayed to audiences, but whether they’re even reviewed at all.
In Defense of Tonya Harding
Ice-skating looks beautiful on the rink. But the brutal world we saw depicted in “I, Tonya” is one this writer knows is real—she lived through it, too.
‘Whose Streets?’ Reveals the Way Black Love Mattered in the Ferguson Protests
On the third anniversary of Mike Brown’s murder, one of the two directors of this stellar doc talks about the uprising and the duty to love and support one another in the ongoing fight for freedom.
What Does ‘The Beguiled’s’ Matriarch Reveal About Female Relationships?
Nicole Kidman’s stunning performance of a Civil War-era headmistress subverts the tired trope of a shrill schoolmarm. If only director Sofia Coppola's erasure of slaves didn’t ruin it.
I Just Can’t Quit You, ‘Desert Hearts’
The writer’s life was transformed 30 years ago when she first watched this lesbian love story, and rereleased this month. Does this tale of our queer past give us a glimpse of our queer future?
Why Are We So Critical of Female Superheroes?
We've been loving 'Wonder Woman.' And then we started picking the movie apart—at a time when we most need to immerse ourselves in a story about fierce women saving the day.