Dare We Joke About the Woke?

The satirical Netflix series The Chair is not sharp enough to draw blood.

Souls on Wheels

The film Nomadland expands the scope and meaning of the book that inspired it.

They’re Not Lovin’ It

Are America’s cultural exports worse than junk food?

Heroic Witness

The great novel of the Eastern Front, adapted for television.

Tragedy with a Side of Redemption

Rewatching HBO's masterpiece, The Wire.

A Romance in Spite of Itself

Normal People puts a postmodern twist on a classic tale of passion.

A Mouthful of Bees

Correcting the record on Clarence Thomas—again.

Anger Management

Big problems with Greta Gerwig's Little Women.

A Tale of Two Markets

Hollywood is choosing Chinese profits over American liberties.

It Takes a Village

A binge-worthy series for grown-ups.

The Prism of Art

Hidden signs of faith and redemption in two notable films from Europe.

The Goddess in the Mist

Why the TV adaptation of My Brilliant Friend is better than the book.

Ancestry.Comics

The uninspiring side of Marvel Studio’s Afro-futurist utopia.

The Most Dangerous Enemy They Can Find

Netflix’s clever Black Mirror.

The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

Ken Burns’s The Vietnam War does not take sides.

Dream Factory, or Propaganda Machine?

Hollywood’s romance with China may be breaking up.

Angle of Descent

Detroit rips open old wounds.

Elizabethan Virtues

Dignity, not celebrity.

A Long-Form Miracle

The Young Pope is a dazzling work of art.

Le Carré’s People

The Cold War novelist on the big and small screen.

Horror Show

What does The Walking Dead say about American anxieties?

The Americans – A Fan’s Notes

Truth, lies, and TV spies.

Enemy of the People

Donald Trump's bad reality show.

Whistleblowers and Deaf Ears

Democracy and transparency need each other.

In Our Guts

Two television shows' very different outlooks on war and prisoners of war.

Personal Technology

“What does it mean to understand man well enough to create one?”

Good Cops, Bad Cops

This Article Has Been Self-Censored

This Article Has Been Self-Censored

Tolstoy in Texas

Underrating Democracy in China

House of Cards is a hit in China, too.

Oh Brother! Why Bother?

Oh Brother! Why Bother?

The Secret Life of Walter White

Why Breaking Bad is unexpectedly good.

What Makes Gatsby Great?

A test of this insight is The Great Gatsby, the latest screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan and co-written and directed by the Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann.

The Hollywood Dialectic

Lincoln and Django Unchained represent what passes for artistic sensibility in today’s Hollywood.

Let a Hundred Blockbusters Bloom

China plans to blow up Hollywood’s monopoly.

Oprah’s World Mission

The high priestess of Change Your Life TV.

The Guided and the Misguided

What soap operas at home and abroad teach us.

The Ultimate Social Network

Cambridge, MA, March 15, 2014—Noh Hao, at 25 the social media’s youngest—and first female—multibillionaire, explains her meteoric success in an exclusive interview with Martha Bayles.

American Sex-ceptionalism

Each episode in the TV series begins with a question, some more portentous than others.

Animation and Aspiration

Avatar is the latest example of where art, politics, and theology meet.

Unfinished Work

Can any film do justice to the political genius of Abraham Lincoln?

Whatever It Takes

War and torture get the Hollywood treatment.

Out of Focus

Martin Scorsese's The Departed is a blurry copy of the Hong Kong original.

Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen

The merciless comic keeps hitting below the Borscht Belt.

Birth of a Blockbuster

An inside look at Dan Brown’s new novel.

Uncaptive Mind

The films of Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Reel Queens

The Queen and Marie Antoinette ask whether the modern world can understand monarchy anymore.

Crossing the Rubicon

HBO gets "Rome" right.

Top of the World, Skipper!

Cantor attempts to link four TV programs to the themes of globalization and the end of the nation-state

Music, Philosophy, and Generation Y