Kazuo Ishiguro's Suffering Servants (Books)
— Modern Age —
From the British class system to cloning and artificial intelligence, the relief of man’s estate comes at the cost of his soul in the works of this master. (August 2, 2021) Read more >
The Wrath of Corleone (Film)
— Modern Age —
What does a rewatching of the three Godfather films reveal? That it was always Michael’s story to tell. (April 26, 2021) Read more >
Theater in the Time of Covid (Theater)
— Modern Age —
Playhouses are closed but the show must go on—and some Zoom performances are powerfully affecting experiences. (November 3, 2020) Read more >
It's The End of the World, But Not As We Knew It (Film)
— Modern Age —
Revisiting films about life in hiding from catastrophe while sheltering-in-place. (July 20, 2020) Read more>
Possessed By the Past (Theater and Film)
— Modern Age —
An essay-review on Jeremy O. Harris’s play, Slave Play, Will Arbery’s play, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, and Robert Eggers’s film, “The Lighthouse.” (February 10, 2020) Read more>
Louis and Woody (Film)
— The Weekly Standard —
What’s the way forward for an exposed creep? (February 4, 2018) Read more >
Mid-Century Modern (Theater)
— The New Republic —
Have recent productions clouded our sense of history? (July 27, 2016) Read more >
Our Shakespeare (Books)
— The New York Times Book Review —
A review of Shakespeare in America, by James Shapiro. (May 29, 2014) Read more >
Social Change Didn't Kill the Romantic Comedy (Film)
— The American Conservative —
An essay on the endurance of an ancient artistic form. (March 6, 2013) Read more >
Weekly Double Feature: Tree Of Life and A Serious Man (Film)
— The American Conservative —
Two filmic meditations on the Book of Job. (April 3, 2012) Read more >
Michel Houellebecq’s Affair with Islam (Book Review)
— The American Conservative —
A review of Submission: A Novel, by Michel Houellebecq. (October 28, 2015) Read more >
The Cinema of Self (Film)
— Modern Age —
A review of “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” directed by Joe Talbot, and “The Souvenir,” written and directed by Joanna Hogg. (November 6, 2019) Read more>
All That May Become a Man (Theater)
— The Weekly Standard —
The promise and pitfalls of cross-gender casting in Shakespeare. (October 7, 2018) Read more >
Shakespeare the Original (Theater)
— The American Conservative —
An essay on the “original practices” movement in Shakespeare performance. (January 23, 2014) Read more >
What the People Want
— The American Conservative
Somewhere in Hollywood, there ought to be a statue to Henrik Ibsen. The great 19th-century Norwegian dramatist is often credited with the invention of theatrical realism…
In Defense of Hamilton's 'Great Man' Theory of History
— The Week
If you haven't been living under a rock, you've probably heard that there's a show on Broadway right now that's kind of a big deal. Hamilton…
Dunkirk is a Film About Survival
— The American Conservative
“Dunkirk” is an interesting film for our cultural moment. The evacuation of the bulk of the British Expeditionary Force, along with French troops, was a modern brand pulled from the fire...
Shakespeare's Action Hero
— The American Conversative
Why make a film of a play by William Shakespeare? If it’s one of the warhorse tragedies, reason enough might be to put one’s stamp upon the public consciousness...
Us on the Barents Sea
— The American Conservative
Readers of this space are familiar with my attachment to The Book of Job. My personal favorite “double feature feature” film pairing was anchored by…
Double Feature Feature: “Blazing Saddles” and “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle”
— The American Conservative
“Blazing Saddles” is one of the funniest movies ever made. It’s also a tricky one to watch these days…
On the Right
— The New York Times Book Review
It is traditional to date the political terms “left” and “right” to the French Revolution, from the seating arrangements of the National Assembly…
All Terrors Great and Small (Film)
— Modern Age —
A review of the film, “The Death of Stalin.” (Summer, 2018) Read more>
What Does Human Evolution Explain?
— The American Conservative
Nicholas Wade’s book may be the most unassuming brick I’ve ever seen thrown through an intellectual window…
Brief Bios
— The New York Times Book Review
When Jack Warner heard of Reagan’s presidential ambitions, he is said to have replied: “No. Jimmy Stewart for president, Ronald Reagan for best friend!”…
Girls On Top
— The American Conservative
For me, the rise of women began in my sophomore year of high school. From just a few weeks in, my high-school life was dominated by a single activity…
Sitting With Shylock on Yom Kippur
— The Jewish Review of Books —
The character of Shylock is inescapable in any attempt to read Shakespeare in dialogue with the Hebrew Scriptures in a midrashic manner. To make the play intelligible in that context, it must be circumcised at its heart, by investigating why a Jew might choose to play the villain in a contest devised for Christian polemic purposes. Does the key to answering that lie in the Book of Jonah, another Jew “strained” to display the quality of mercy towards his non-Jewish enemies? (Fall, 2019) Read more>
Hidden Faces and Dark Corners
— The Jewish Review of Books —
The biblical Book of Esther, famously the only book of the Bible without the name of God, has long been interpreted as being about God’s hidden hand in history. Is Shakespeare’s play, Measure for Measure, expose the absurdities of this idea by making the hidden hand all too visible? (March 18, 2019) Read more>
Upon Such Sacrifices: King Lear and the Binding of Isaac
— The Jewish Review of Books —
The binding of Isaac is one of the most harrowing stories in the Hebrew bible, a moment when God commands his servant to kill his beloved son. The story is so unassimilable that it has been repeatedly revised interpretively to escape its terrifying implications. Is Shakespeare’s King Lear another of these revisions, the love test sprung on Cordelia at the start a version of God’s test of Abraham’s love and fealty? And if so, what does it mean that Shakespeare’s story has itself been repeatedly revised? (Fall, 2017) Read More >
Whence Comes Legitimacy?
— The American Conservative —
The bible tells a story about a change in God’s relationship to the people of Israel brought about by the founding of the Israelite monarchy. Is Shakespeare’s Henriad (the series of plays from Richard II through Henry V) an ironic retelling of that same story that ultimately exposes the lack of foundation to the political system of his day — and of ours? (March 6, 2017) Read More >
