Arts Review
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk: Ang Lee on the Iraq war and American hoopla
By David Walsh, 15 November 2016
The drama takes place in 2004. A unit of American soldiers, who have survived a brief but fierce battle with Iraqi insurgents, are being celebrated as “heroes” on a nationwide tour.
Pittsburgh Symphony musician strike longest in history
By Evan Winters and Samuel Davidson, 15 November 2016
On November 15, the strike will surpass the 46-day strike of 1975, the only other in the orchestra's history.
Gimme Danger from Jim Jarmusch
By Kevin Martinez, 11 November 2016
American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has made a documentary on the not so well-known, but hugely influential rock group, The Stooges.
National Bird: “I don’t know how many people I’ve killed,” says US drone pilot
By Joanne Laurier, 9 November 2016
Sonia Kennebeck’s film, whose title suggests that drones should now be considered the US national emblem, is a documentary that brings to the screen the story of three whistleblowers.
USA Network’s Mr. Robot, Season 2: Pessimism overtakes anger, with unfortunate results
By Carlos Delgado, 7 November 2016
After an intriguing start, the second season of the television drama about anti-corporate hackers spirals largely into gloom and incoherence.
Woody Allen’s Crisis in Six Scenes and the current cultural vacuum
By Joanne Laurier, 3 November 2016
Woody Allen’s Crisis in Six Scenes, commissioned by Amazon Studios, is a television miniseries set in the period of the anti-Vietnam War protests.
American Pastoral: A film version of Philip Roth’s novel
By David Walsh, 29 October 2016
The film and novel follow the life and eventual terrible misfortune of Seymour “Swede” Levov, the son of a glove manufacturer in Newark, in the 1960s and 1970s.
Michael Moore in TrumpLand grovels in praise of Hillary Clinton
By Fred Mazelis, 27 October 2016
With his latest effort, Moore emerges as a chief promoter of the favored candidate of Wall Street and the Pentagon.
Nick Hedges’s photographs reveal what Britain’s slums were like in the 1960s and 1970s
By Margot Miller, 25 October 2016
In Hedges’s words: “Adequate housing is the basis of a civilised urban society. … The photographs should allow us to celebrate progress, yet all they can do is haunt us with a sense of failure.”
The Magnificent Seven: Hollywood remakes and the problem of diminishing returns
By Carlos Delgado, 24 October 2016
The film, a remake of the 1960 original, tells the story of a band of hired guns who defend a small town from marauders.
Does Bob Dylan deserve to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature?
By David Walsh, 21 October 2016
Comparisons of the singer with Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville are out of place and also beside the point. In the end, it will not do Bob Dylan any good to be placed in such company.
The false friends of Peter Weiss, German dramatist, filmmaker and novelist
By Stefan Steinberg, 20 October 2016
Central to Peter Weiss’s work were the seminal experiences of the twentieth century––the crimes of fascism, the October Revolution and its subsequent betrayal by the Stalinist bureaucracy.
The Dressmaker, The Girl on the Train: The “return of the native” and other issues
By Joanne Laurier, 15 October 2016
In The Dressmaker, the art of beautifying the human body is the weapon of choice to vanquish intolerance and ignorance. The Girl on the Train is a murder mystery centered around a New York City suburb.
Toronto International Film Festival 2016: Part 4
Sami Blood from Sweden, Werewolf from Canada, Park from Greece: Society’s cruelty to its youngest members
By David Walsh, 5 October 2016
Amanda Kernell’s Sami Blood, from Sweden, is not an easy film to watch. It was also one of the most moving and authentic films shown in Toronto this year.
Toronto International Film Festival 2016
Ma’ Rosa from the Philippines: Small-time drug dealers set upon by the police
By Dylan Lubao, 5 October 2016
The 14th film from Filipino director Brillante Mendoza was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and earlier premiered at Cannes.
Clint Eastwood’s Sully: The “Miracle on the Hudson” dramatized
By Joanne Laurier, 28 September 2016
Eastwood directs a fictional version of the January 2009 incident in which pilot Chesley Sullenberger landed a commuter jet in the Hudson River, saving the lives of 155 passengers and crew.
Toronto International Film Festival 2016: Part 1
How well does filmmaking reflect present-day life?
By David Walsh, 27 September 2016
This year’s Toronto International Film Festival screened some 400 feature and short films from 83 countries at 1,200 public screenings.
Leonardo da Vinci–The Genius in Milan: The marketing of genius
By Lee Parsons, 23 September 2016
The film is being distributed in over 50 countries this year and comes out of the largest exhibition ever mounted in Italy of the work of the great polymath, Leonardo da Vinci.
Young Euro Classic: International music festival in shadow of European Union crisis
By Verena Nees, 19 September 2016
The summer music festival was held in Berlin for the seventeenth time and attracted an audience of 26,000 to the Berlin concert hall at the Gendarmenmarkt.
Miss Sharon Jones! Barbara Kopple’s documentary
By Kevin Martinez, 12 September 2016
Veteran documentarian Barbara Kopple has returned with a lively and inspiring film about soul singer Sharon Jones and her battle with pancreatic cancer.
Jason Bourne again
By Hiram Lee, 6 September 2016
The latest entry in the Bourne series of spy films finds the former CIA assassin taking on the agency in a “post-Snowden world.”
War Dogs: Cry havoc? Or what exactly?
By Kevin Martinez, 5 September 2016
Based on a true story about two young arms dealers who defrauded the US government out of millions, the film is a coarse yet oddly sanitized version of a little-known episode of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Comic actor Gene Wilder: 1933–2016
By James Brewer, 1 September 2016
Although his work in film ended more than 25 years ago, Wilder will be long remembered for the humor and humanity he displayed in films like Young Frankenstein.
Southside With You: An insufferable account of the Obamas’ first date
By Matthew MacEgan, 31 August 2016
This fictionalized account of the first date between Barack and Michelle Obama in 1989 presents a racialized view of society served up with a large side of banality.
“Political art” in New York City this summer
By Clare Hurley, 29 August 2016
While much of the artwork is as yet unsatisfying, it is welcome that many of these visual artists are registering awareness of the social and political crisis.
Anthropoid: A film looks at 1942 assassination of Nazi chief Reinhard Heydrich
By Fred Mazelis, 26 August 2016
The new movie remains on the level of a violent action film, avoiding a more probing look at the Holocaust.
Toots Thielemans: 1922-2016
“That little space between a smile and a tear”
By James Brewer, 25 August 2016
The Belgian-born multi-instrumental jazz musician became widely known for his virtuosic harmonica playing.
A portrait of photographer Robert Frank
By C.W. Rogers, 20 August 2016
Don’t Blink––Robert Frank, is a very personal and generally engaging documentary of the life and career of the acclaimed photographer and filmmaker.
Season 3 of Netflix’s BoJack Horseman: Hollywoo(d) and mental illness
By Josh Varlin, 15 August 2016
Netflix’s original animated series BoJack Horseman manages to provide a comedic yet thoughtful look at the entertainment industry and the psychic damage it inflicts.
Café Society: Woody Allen’s love letter to the wealthy and famous
By Joanne Laurier, 12 August 2016
The film, set in the 1930s, takes its title from legendary clubs in Manhattan that welcomed black and white artists and performers. Unfortunately, the film is the opposite of everything those clubs stood for.
Sleeping Giant: Deception and lies about the “new” working class
By Nancy Hanover, 11 August 2016
A new book by Demos editor Tamara Draut seeks to refurbish the Democratic Party and the trade unions by promoting identity politics.
Turkish regime imprisons and harasses artists, journalists and academics after coup attempt
By Sandy English, 8 August 2016
In the aftermath of the July 15 attempted coup, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has imprisoned artists, banned books and frozen academic relations with other countries.
Lady Dynamite and other Netflix comedies
By Ed Hightower, 6 August 2016
A number of new comedies on Netflix offer mixed results.
All Quiet on the Western Front: A generation haunted by war
By Isaac Finn, 5 August 2016
Erich Maria Remarque’s seminal work, All Quiet on the Western Front, deals with a generation thrown into World War I and the confusion and depression of those who survived.
A comment on the recent San Diego Comic-Con International
By Kevin Martinez, 4 August 2016
The convention attracts over 150,000 people each year to attend panels, workshops and events celebrating comic books and science fiction. What does this say about the official culture?
HBO’s Veep: Lots of profanity, but not enough of what’s truly ugly
By Carlos Delgado, 2 August 2016
The popular HBO television comedy stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, a hopelessly inept and unprincipled US vice president who ascends to the presidency.
Captain Fantastic: An anti-establishment superhero?
By Joanne Laurier, 30 July 2016
Writer-director Matt Ross’s film is a semi-anarchistic tale about a family’s “off-the-grid” existence in the Pacific Northwest.
Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War
By Eric London, 26 July 2016
A 2008 book by Professor David Williams provides a mountain of evidence refuting the claim that the recent film Free State of Jones, directed by Gary Ross, presented “a quasi-historical” approach to the American Civil War and social conflict in the Confederacy.
Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, season 4: Does the positive outweigh the negative?
By Ed Hightower, 26 July 2016
The fourth season of the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, the comedy-drama set in a fictional women’s federal prison, is now available.
Our Kind of Traitor: Going with the current
By Joanne Laurier, 21 July 2016
Our Kind of Traitor, a British spy thriller directed by Susanna White, is based on the 2010 novel of the same name by John le Carré, the veteran novelist.
Wiener-Dog: Todd Solondz continues to look critically at American life
By David Walsh, 20 July 2016
The new film comprises four stories, loosely linked by the presence of a “wiener-dog” (dachshund). Each has at least one or more satirical, telling moments or elements.
Musician-singer M.I.A dropped from Afropunk festival for criticizing Black Lives Matter
By David Walsh and Zac Corrigan, 18 July 2016
M.I.A. has every right to criticize Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, who travel in privileged circles around the Obamas and other leading Democratic Party figures.
A tribute to German Sinto musician Häns’che Weiss
By Bernd Reinhardt, 16 July 2016
In addition to a remarkable command of his instrument, guitarist Häns’che Weiss was distinguished by his thrilling musicality.
The life and career of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami
By David Walsh, 14 July 2016
The Iranian director will be best remembered and long honored for the series of feature films, including documentaries, that he made between 1987 and 1997.
“Ordinary people truly imbibed the principles of the American Revolution”
An interview with Victoria Bynum, historian and author of The Free State of Jones—Part 2
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 13 July 2016
This is the second part of a conversation with Victoria Bynum, whose research helped inspire the film Free State of Jones, about an insurrection by Southern Unionists against the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Book Review
The Mare by Mary Gaitskill: Attention to social inequality—in her own way
By Sandy English, 12 July 2016
In her new novel, Gaitskill focuses on a poor Dominican teenager from New York City, the suburban family she lives with during the summer and her experiences relating to a particularly abused horse.
“Cinema has the potential to make us richer in spirit”—filmmaker Paul Cox (1940–2016)
By Richard Phillips, 11 July 2016
Cox directed over 40 dramatic features and documentaries—the overwhelming majority on paper-thin budgets—during his more than forty-year career.
Michael Cimino, director of The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate, dead at 77
By David Walsh, 7 July 2016
Cimino is best known as the director of The Deer Hunter (1978), which won numerous Academy Awards, and Heaven’s Gate (1980), which was denounced by leading critics, lost a great deal of money and severely damaged Cimino’s career.
Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley dead at 89
By Hiram Lee, 6 July 2016
Ralph Stanley led one of the most remarkable groups in Bluegrass music and was among the genre’s greatest banjo players and singers.
Free State of Jones: Three cheers!
By Joanne Laurier, 28 June 2016
Gary Ross’s film is a fictional account of an intriguing, but little known chapter in American history.
25 April: Animated documentary on New Zealand’s role in the Gallipoli invasion
By Sam Price and Tom Peters, 25 June 2016
The film shows the horrors of war but fails to challenge the nationalist mythology surrounding the Anzacs.
Alf Sjöberg’s Miss Julie (1951) and G. W. Pabst’s The Threepenny Opera (1931): Films worth noting … and seeing
By Joanne Laurier, 23 June 2016
Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg’s Miss Julie is based on the play by August Strindberg. Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst’s film The Threepenny Opera is an intricate movie version of the legendary Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill work.
“All the terrifying things all really happened”
Toyen: A film about the Czech surrealist painter and her times
By David Walsh, 18 June 2016
Czech director Jan Němec, who died in March 2016, made a film about the surrealist painter Toyen in 2005, which is now available. The film is intriguing and sometimes deeply moving.
The Nice Guys: Something, but not very much
(And, briefly, Terence Davies’ Sunset Song and Hany Abu-Assad’s The Idol.)
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 17 June 2016
The Nice Guys is set in 1977 and follows the investigation into a disappearance, which turns out to be part of a broader conspiracy. Sunset Song and The Idol have recently opened in movie theaters in the US.
Again on Don DeLillo’s Zero K: How does a novel turn toward social life?
By Eric London, 13 June 2016
Don DeLillo’s latest novel, about the determination of a small group of wealthy individuals to have their bodies cryogenically preserved, is worth our attention.
The Lobster: Relationships forced on—or forbidden—people
By David Walsh, 11 June 2016
In Yorgos Lanthimos’ film, individuals without a mate are sent to a “hotel” where they have 45 days to find a partner or be turned into an animal. Then, there are those who escape.
HBO’s All the Way: Lyndon B. Johnson and the civil rights movement
By Charles Bogle, 10 June 2016
HBO’s All the Way is a serious effort, devoid of contemporary identity politics, to portray a significant moment in American history.
Right-wing Polish government revives effort to extradite Roman Polanski
By Alan Gilman, 9 June 2016
The new attempt by the Polish government to extradite Polanski is the latest chapter in the US government’s vindictive pursuit of the filmmaker.
Love & Friendship: An early Jane Austen work adapted
By Joanne Laurier, 8 June 2016
In England in 1790, Lady Susan Vernon, widowed and penniless, schemes to reverse her fortunes.
Night without end: Don DeLillo’s Zero K
By James Brookfield, 7 June 2016
American author Don DeLillo’s 17th novel is a dark story about the determination of a small group of wealthy individuals to have their bodies cryogenically preserved.
Anohni speaks on war, inequality and Obama
By George Marlowe, 6 June 2016
The World Socialist Web Site spoke to Anohni about her new album.
Anohni’s Hopelessness: A protest against war, drone bombings and more
“If I killed your mother with a drone bomb, how would you feel?”—Crisis
By Zac Corrigan, 6 June 2016
Anohni is the British-born, American transgender singer formerly known as Antony Hegarty who released five albums under the name Antony and the Johnsons.
HBO’s “Girls”: What should the voice of this generation say?
By Carlos Delgado, 3 June 2016
Praise for Lena Dunham’s “Girls” generally lauds its “frankness” and “realism” about the unpleasant, even ugly, aspects of life for American youth.
A talk given in San Diego, Berkeley and Ann Arbor
Art, war and social revolution—Part 2
By David Walsh, 1 June 2016
This talk was given by WSWS arts editor David Walsh at San Diego State University, University of California Berkeley and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in April and May.
A talk given in San Diego, Berkeley, and Ann Arbor
Art, war and social revolution—Part 1
By David Walsh, 31 May 2016
This talk was given by WSWS arts editor David Walsh at San Diego State University, University of California Berkeley, and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in April and May.
Sing Street from Ireland, A Bigger Splash from Italy: Neglected realities
By Joanne Laurier, 28 May 2016
John Carney’s Sing Street is a musical comedy-drama set in Dublin in the mid-1980s. Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, based on a 1969 French thriller, takes its name from a painting by British artist David Hockney.
High-Rise: A film version of J.G. Ballard’s novel
By David Walsh, 27 May 2016
Like the novel, the film—set in the mid-1970s—begins with its central character calmly sitting on the balcony of his 25th floor apartment eating roast dog.
Cash Only: What interests contemporary filmmakers and what doesn’t
By David Walsh, 25 May 2016
Cash Only is an independent American film set in the Detroit area. The film takes place in the Albanian community.
Captain America: Civil War—A waste of resources, technology and human skill
By David Walsh, 23 May 2016
What are these performers doing in this film? Is there any major film actor at present who would say “No” to this sort of project?
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 4
Maggie’s Plan, Frank & Lola, along with Dreyer’s Vampyr (1932)
By Joanne Laurier, 20 May 2016
Some not very good new films—and better old ones.
Money Monster: Who are the criminals?
By Joanne Laurier, 18 May 2016
Money Monster is the latest film to depict the consequences of the 2008 financial crash and the criminal manipulations of the financial elite.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 3
Radio Dreams, about Iranian Americans—and the problem of images without insight
By David Walsh, 17 May 2016
Radio Dreams is a pleasurable experience. Other films at the San Francisco festival––The Event, No Home Movie, Counting, Five Nights in Maine––fared less well.
An interview with Babak Jalali, director of Radio Dreams
By David Walsh, 17 May 2016
The WSWS spoke to Babak Jalali during the recent San Francisco International Film Festival.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 2
The Return, about released prisoners, and other social dramas (or comedies)
By Joanne Laurier, 13 May 2016
In a number of the films screened at the festival, their creators were evidently overwhelmed by the disintegrating social structures in some of the most impoverished parts of the world.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 1
Look at today’s filmmaking … then look at the world
By David Walsh, 11 May 2016
The recent San Francisco International Film Festival, in its 59th edition, screened some 175 films, including approximately 100 feature-length films, from 46 countries.
Everybody Wants Some!!—Richard Linklater goes to college
By Hiram Lee, 10 May 2016
Everybody Wants Some!! is the latest coming-of-age tale from the American independent film director.
Looking for Grace—a strangely cold story about a teenager leaving home
By John Harris, 9 May 2016
The movie centres on the efforts of a lower middle-class couple to find their runaway teenage daughter and only child.
Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
Are the films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet a genuine alternative to contemporary filmmaking?
By David Walsh, 7 May 2016
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, beginning May 6, is presenting a retrospective of the films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, the Franco-German filmmakers.
Elvis & Nixon, A Hologram for the King: Trivializing culture, history
By Joanne Laurier, 6 May 2016
Two ostensible comedies, Elvis & Nixon and A Hologram for the King, drain their stories of their most important social and historical content.
Papa: Hemingway in Cuba—The banalization of the novelist and his art
By David Walsh, 4 May 2016
The film follows the relationship that develops after a young American journalist in Miami in the mid-1950s writes an admiring letter to novelist Ernest Hemingway, then living in Havana, Cuba.
David Walsh speaks on “Art, War and Social Revolution” at meetings in California
By Evan Blake and Jake Dean, 3 May 2016
Walsh presented the history of 20th century anti-war cinema and sought to uncover the roots behind the present cultural stagnation in the light of the eruption of American imperialism.
Songs My Brothers Taught Me: The plight of a Lakota youth
By Norisa Diaz and Kevin Martinez, 2 May 2016
The film is a lyrical and honest look at the poverty and social neglect that affects one of the most historically oppressed communities in the United States.
Class Divide: A close-up look at gentrification, inequality in New York City
By Fred Mazelis, 29 April 2016
Children of hedge fund managers attend private school on Manhattan’s Tenth Avenue, across the street from one of the city’s public housing projects.
Prince (1958-2016)
By Hiram Lee, 27 April 2016
While music icon Prince, who died April 21 at the age of 57, was among the more electrifying performers of his generation, his work could be terribly uneven.
The paintings of Eugène Delacroix at London’s National Gallery
By Ross Mitchell and Paul Mitchell, 26 April 2016
The stated intention of the organisers is to give visitors “the opportunity to (re)discover” the “revolutionary artist” Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863).
A concert of relative rarities by American composer Aaron Copland
By Fred Mazelis, 23 April 2016
Copland’s jazz-influenced Piano Concerto deserves a higher profile in the orchestral repertoire.
The Hope Six Demolition Project: PJ Harvey takes on war and global poverty
By Matthew MacEgan, 22 April 2016
Harvey’s new album is the product of the artist’s investigation into the poverty and devastation being inflicted on different parts of the globe.
Demolition: Take an investment banker apart, and what do you find?
By Carlos Delgado, 20 April 2016
The film tells the story of Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal), a New York investment banker who experiences an emotional unraveling after his wife dies in an automobile accident.
A conversation with Stephen Parker, author of Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life
By David Walsh, 19 April 2016
WSWS writers Sybille Fuchs, Stefan Steinberg and David Walsh recently spoke to the author of a valuable new biography of the famed German playwright and poet.
Stephen Parker’s Bertolt Brecht. A Literary Life—a welcome biography that raises big historical issues
By Sybille Fuchs, 18 April 2016
One of the most talented and influential playwrights of the 20th century, Brecht adapted to Stalinism, with pernicious consequences for his career and work.
Colonia: Under Pinochet, a disposal center for enemies of the state
By Joanne Laurier and David Walsh, 16 April 2016
German director Florian Gallenberger’s political thriller Colonia takes place during and after the US-backed Chilean military coup in September 1973.
SEP/IYSSE meetings in California: Art, War and Social Revolution
14 April 2016
WSWS Arts Editor David Walsh will speak at meetings in San Diego and Berkeley, California, addressing the political and cultural situation in relation to American imperialism’s relentless war drive.
Born to Be Blue and Miles Ahead: Why so much fiction when life is fascinating enough?
By John Andrews, 7 April 2016
Films based on the lives and personas of post-World War II jazz musicians Chet Baker and Miles Davis have been released recently.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice—Doom and gloom, with capes
By Carlos Delgado, 6 April 2016
The price tag of the film, including production and marketing costs, approaches half a billion dollars, and some analysts believe it would need an $800 million box office to recoup its investment.
UK documentary exposes Saudi role in global terror operations
By Jean Shaoul, 5 April 2016
The Saudi ruling family spent $70 billion exporting its particularly repressive form of Islamism through books, the media, Islamic welfare institutions and charities.
The New York Times on race and art
By Hiram Lee, 4 April 2016
A review published in this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review advances a racialist view of art and culture with thoroughly reactionary implications.
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