I ask writer and scholar Olivia Rutigliano, who often writes about fiction for CrimeReads, what current trends reveal. Well, she replies, “as with Knives Out, many new mystery works seem to be responding very directly to the oppressions fostered by the Trump administration, and themes of misogyny and sexism that we're observing in our current #MeToo era.”
Director Lynn Novick (far left), During PBS’ “College Behind Bars” session at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, July 2019. (Credit: Rahoul Ghose/PBS) After co-directing a succession of award-winning documentaries with Ken Burns, Lynn Novick stepped forward to direct one on her own, with Sarah…
I remember being young and alone in a dark room, with “The Exorcist” suddenly on TV after an innocent turn of a dial. In an instant the girl’s head spun around, her mad face and deep voice full of the devil, and I felt like I might pass out.
Doctor Who, “The Ghost Monument” Series 11, Episode 2 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Mark Tonderai Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Shaun Dooley, Susan Lynch, and Art Mali Original Broadcast 14 October 2018 (49 minutes) The Ghost Monument awaits…
Editor’s note: This post inaugurates the first in a series of 11 reviews of the recent reboot of Doctor Who, cast with a female doctor. Doctor Who, “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” Series 11, Episode 1 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Jamie Childs Starring Jodie…
This is not about how it feels to be homeless. It is merely about someone who, knowing little of such matters and without money in his pockets, went onto the streets of St. Louis and found shelter and food, and it is about what and whom he saw in the process.
Recently, I came across some essays I had written a few years back. These stories were mostly autobiographical, tales of personal observations and proclamations of personal beliefs. As I read over them, I remembered how quickly my hands had worked to tell these stories, eager to share them with an…
Most of what Didion says in these passages could have been written today, with the change of names of our President, our enemy (the Red Empire, or its leader, is a favorite of the American President, which must make the corpse of Ronald Reagan do the Twist in his box), and the State Department (replaced with Justice/FBI). Thirty years after “Miami” was published, the temporal problems it portrays are still standard strains of American society.
Ours was a table conveniently located in the cool shade of a tree near the principal’s office. Nobody dared to sit there, even if they were the first to be excused for lunch; it belonged to us, the same way the area around the oak tree in the center of…
The Newberry Library in Chicago hosted a 25-hour Moby-Dick Readathon recently. After opening remarks by National Book Award-winner Nathaniel Philbrick, the reading proper got underway, and I jumped ship for a time to have a look at another Chicago celebration of writers, the American…