Screen Time
Watching The Green Knight and Nine Days on the big screen
Both movies made me grateful for directors with risky, new visions—and the space to enjoy them.
My pandemic obsession with workplace comedies
Mythic Quest and Call My Agent have me feeling nostalgic for annoying colleagues and pointless meetings.
I can’t take my eyes off Jean Smart
In Hacks and Mare of Easttown, it’s thrilling to watch an aging woman on screen.
Like Hamilton, In the Heights jolts the audience into new perspectives
Still, I wish Lin-Manuel Miranda had asked more of us.
What makes a movie a “family movie”?
It’s not just about entertaining the kids.
Lupin and The Bureau toy with the fantasy of the master-hero
What happens when a genre series is detached from its White colonialist context?
Three neo-Westerns that reimagine the genre
First Cow, Bacurau, and Nomadland reveal the stark racism of classic American Westerns.
The plot twist I wish Locked Down had
It’s a screwball comedy about pandemic life! Pandemic life without kids, that is.
The dilemma of Black art in a White-supremacist culture
Set 40 years apart, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and One Night in Miami ask similar questions.
Pixar's Soul explores big ideas about creativity, purpose, and the meaning of life
But the movie would be stronger if it skipped the metaphysical realm and just stayed put in Queens.
The Good Lord Bird portrays abolitionist John Brown as a wild prophet
The miniseries is full of big ideas about freedom and self-determination.
Ted Lasso is the soccer coach we all need
What if kindness, honesty, and compassion were valued more than winning?
Ramy Youssef is young, Muslim, and American
The comedian’s Hulu show has a rare trait: it takes religion seriously.
I May Destroy You takes us on a quest for wholeness
As Arabella struggles to remember the night she was assaulted, other memories emerge as well.
A Perry Mason that doesn’t trust institutions
In the HBO reboot, even the deacons and the police are corrupt.
The collective wisdom that emerges from The Baby-Sitters Club
In the Netflix reboot, 12-year-old girls model collaborative leadership.
The podcast How to Survive the End of the World offers a unique view of apocalypse
Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown explore the end of the world as we know it.
My pandemic comfort viewing
Three TV shows and movies that have combated loneliness and brought welcome distraction
The world High Maintenance shows us through the Guy’s eyes
The weed dealer character serves as the connective tissue between the lives of New Yorkers who might not meet.
Watching The Circle and Love Is Blind while practicing social distancing
Two reality TV shows remind us why physical connection matters.