Wonder Woman: A Movie About Men
Some of my best friends are men, so no offense. But Wonder Woman has me asking, what’s the point? What good are they? In the blockbuster Wonder…
The Shape of Water: Non-Potable
We should be grateful that, through some combination of human nature, civilization, and choice, most people act decently most of the time. But the reports of sexual…
Netflix Defends the West(ern)
Godless is not great, but it’s good. Netflix’s new television series enjoys every cliché of the Western genre: a train robbery, mustachioed marshal, prostitute with a heart…
Don’t Be True to Yourself
Are you being true to yourself? Should you? Better question: What in the world is a true self, anyway? In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius counsels his son: This…
Disney’s Cheap Grace
When I was growing up, there were two films the pater of my familias forbade his brood from seeing until we reached the age of 35: A…
A Musth See
It’s probably a drag being a liberal, always boycotting things. A Progressive friend who was surprised by my politics once asked me how I could like Radiohead…
So-So City
Did you ever catch yourself dreaming, adrift in la-la land—only to wake up to your own, personal so-so city? A consoling (but sophistic) thought: The number of…
Love Story
In war, sitting out protects one’s bodily safety. Sitting out of the morally messy struggles typical of adult human life protects one’s sense of superiority and innocence.…
Manchester By the Sea: Dark, Beautiful, and Real
Every person undergoes traumatic experiences. Their quantity and quality vary, but once suffered, these experiences are incorporated into the person, usually invisibly to the rest of us.…
Our Big Picture Problem
Cultures show their substance by what they make easier and what they make more difficult. A true, illustrative story: Me: “Hey, Siri, find me a Catholic Mass…
Relativists Get Their Favorite Movie Wrong
Final grades were due a few days ago, and for those of us who teach, grading season has just come to a close. With visions of student…
The Decline of the Western
Tired of rants about how awful capitalism is? Here’s a fun trick: ask the people you’re discussing it with not to use the term “capitalism.” Politely suggest:…
Moderately Marginalized
Sure, as a teenager, I experimented a little—rock, but also blues, jazz, standards, alt country. Never pop—that cesspool of cheap, predictable noise shunned by all who take…
Chasing Monsters
The X-Files at its best celebrates that “the truth is out there”—objective, weird, and always slipping from our complete grasp. At its worst, the show makes heroes…
Grammar Bender
Grammar has consequences. My grade school still taught, in the 1980s, that words have gender; people have sex. For decades, grammar nerds have bristled at official forms…