On Dec. 21, Hilary Clinton appeared on Anderson Cooper to fawn over Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to the U.S. and let a proverbial cat out of the bag. Just the night before, the Ukrainian President had given an impassioned plea to the U.S. Congress for humanitarian and military support in their fight against Russia. Beaming psychotically,…Read more “A Really Good Investment for the United States”: On Ukraine, War Profiteering and Historical Revisionism
Essays
Saturn Devouring His Son: On Francisco Goya and Today’s Generational Conflict
Few images evoke the acrimonious relationship between America's younger generations and the old fogies that govern us more than Francisco Goya's early-1800s painting: Saturn Devouring His Son. In this Romantic-era masterwork, the gigantic Titan feasts on one of his children with startling savagery. According to the myth, Saturn decided to chow down due to his…Read more Saturn Devouring His Son: On Francisco Goya and Today’s Generational Conflict
On Ben Rhodes and the Dangerous Fecklessness of Modern Democrats
"During my decade as a speechwriter for Barack Obama, he used to say that our entire job was to tell a really good story about America." - Ben Rhodes, Former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting for Barack Obama What is America and who gets to define it? Ben Rhodes' recent piece…Read more On Ben Rhodes and the Dangerous Fecklessness of Modern Democrats
Burnham’s Long Defeat: On “All Eyes on Me,” Tolkien and the Prospect of Eucastrophe
"Together through the ages of the world we have fought the long defeat.”- Lady Galadriel to Frodo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Late in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, Lady Galadriel speaks to the novel’s protagonist, Frodo Baggins, about how she has fought the “long defeat” for literal…Read more Burnham’s Long Defeat: On “All Eyes on Me,” Tolkien and the Prospect of Eucastrophe
On Freaky and the Horrifying Connection Between Meat and Mind
Freaky, the enormously entertaining 2020 body-switch horror-comedy, is a movie that straddles several different genres. Yet more than anything it’s a coming-of-age story. While hardly a novel subject, the film also stages a discourse on bodies, on human meat, which allows for a resonant and interesting take on its tried-and-true story. Freaky proposes that bodies are central…Read more On Freaky and the Horrifying Connection Between Meat and Mind
“Colossal We Come These Renegades in the Ring”: On the Triumph of Male Fragility in The Greatest Showman and Eurovision Song Contest
We can all agree that the last few years in Donald Trump's America have felt like an eternity - filled with a dizzying array of national outrages and humiliations. But if there has been one theme that has consistently defined this period it is raw male fragility, particularly white male fragility. Being a part of…Read more “Colossal We Come These Renegades in the Ring”: On the Triumph of Male Fragility in The Greatest Showman and Eurovision Song Contest
On Mudbound, Darkest Hour and the Problem with the “Great Man Theory”
I love reading popular history. What all this reading has done, aside from reminding me that my feeble mind and body would never have survived in any other era, is solidify that consuming history matters. And that’s not because I prescribe to the tired notion that if people simply remember history they will no longer…Read more On Mudbound, Darkest Hour and the Problem with the “Great Man Theory”
“You’re the Only Home I Ever Had” – On Munich and the Meaning of Home in an Unpredictable World
In 2005, Steven Spielberg released two films that were very different, at least on the surface. One was War of the Worlds. It starred Tom Cruise doing a lot, and I mean A LOT, of running. The other was Munich, which profiled Israel’s violent response to the massacre of Israeli athletes by the Palestine Liberation…Read more “You’re the Only Home I Ever Had” – On Munich and the Meaning of Home in an Unpredictable World
Mr. Holmes: On the Cathartic and Corrupting Nature of Storytelling
What do you think of when you hear the name Sherlock Holmes? Is it the deerstalker cap? The curved pipe? Or is it a shit-eating Robert Downey Jr., performing martial arts like some sort of superheroic jackass? An image that probably isn't evoked is the handsome albeit wizened mug of Sir Ian McKellen, who plays…Read more Mr. Holmes: On the Cathartic and Corrupting Nature of Storytelling
“That’s Not for You to Decide” – On Choice, Identity and Self-forgiveness in Marvel’s Jessica Jones
Marvel's Jessica Jones has been correctly if exhaustively interpreted as a critique of abusive relationships and rape culture. It also lends itself to more general readings. The clash between David Tennant's Kilgrave and Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones highlights the importance human beings attach to the idea of functional agency. Many of the show's characters seem…Read more “That’s Not for You to Decide” – On Choice, Identity and Self-forgiveness in Marvel’s Jessica Jones
Adam Mohrbacher 