American History X’s Eerily Prescient Take on Today’s Neo-Nazis
Tony Kaye’s 1998 crime film American History X connect today’s Neo-Nazi hatred back to poisons long carried by Americans, dating back to the country’s original sin of slavery.
All Things Reconsidered
The Stars in ‘And the Band Played On’ Almost Outshine Its Message
The starry cast in Aaron Spelling’s adaptation of Randy Shilts’ And the Band Played On makes this message film a Hollywood spectacle as much as a work of activist pop art.
Coheed and Cambria’s ‘In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3’ at 20
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 set the template for nerdy Coheed and Cambria’s future releases. It remains a fan favorite and one of their best.
If You’ve Got Soul: Christina Aguilera’s 2006 Masterwork ‘Back to Basics’
A tribute and aural love letter to her husband and her Black musical heroes and heroines, Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basics still attracts an equal amount of disciples and denigrators.
Masterpiece or Mess? Reevaluating DC Comic’s ‘Doomsday Clock’
Understanding the appeal of Doomsday Clock has nothing to do with it being a good or bad comics series. The real question is: does it matter?
Soundgarden’s ‘Ultramega OK’: Now With More Ultramega at 35
The fundamental building blocks of Soundgarden and Nirvana’s sounds could be found in their debut LPs, which foreshadowed alternative rock’s commercial breakthrough.
Fluid Dynamics: Sexual Displacement in Billy Wilder’s ‘The Apartment’
Billy Wilder’s most savage of American comedies, The Apartment, skewers corporate culture and patriarchal structures while challenging viewers to read its spills and overflows as more than just accidents.
‘Clics Modernos’ at 40: Charly García’s Problematic Post-Modern Masterpiece
With Clics Modernos, Charly García veered away from overt political commentary in favor of taking it to the dance floor. Puzzled fans – even the album cover screamed post-modernism – didn’t hold back their outrage.
What the Wonder Years’ ‘The Greatest Generation’ Means to the Rest of Us
The Wonder Years’ The Greatest Generation is a vulnerable document of the struggle of living with pain and suffering and the desire to overcome it through loving relationships and empathetic communities.
Camp and the Hyperreal Telenovela in Almodóvar’s ‘All About My Mother’
In All About My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar leverages hyperreality through a camp lens to narrate a story that is as rich in theatricality as it is in the nuanced emotionality of the dream.
The Menacing, Grimy Weirdness of Melvins’ ‘Houdini’ at 30
Once Houdini dropped, all the agonizing over whether Melvins would debase themselves and compromise their sound petered out before we were halfway into “Hooch”.
Girls Against Boys on Their Criticized ’90s Album, ‘Freak*on*Ica’
Girls Against Boys are the crucial and criminally under-appreciated link between ’90s alternative rock and the 2000s post-punk boom. Freak*on*Ica plays well in these times.