COLUMN
Tarantino's Violence, Unchained

Is “fun” really all that Quentin Tarantino’s films are about? Some seem to think so: this summer, the New York Times described Tarantino as “the master of a new, more whimsical sort of violence.” But perhaps Tarantino is saying something more, even with this very whimsy. He leaves us clues, some subtle and some opaque, that his films are meant to provoke discourse concerning the effusion of violence in today’s media, a violence that leaves viewers callous and jaded.

April 19, 2013

Spring Broken

With March now solidly behind us, students everywhere grudgingly turn their attention back to work — while keeping one eye set on the summers before them

April 11, 2013

Why Two Men You’ve Never Heard Of Are More Important Than You’ll Ever Be

Have you ever wondered about the process by which scientists pressurize natural gas to turn hydrogen into liquid nitrogen, thereby helping manufacture artificial fertilizer?

April 11, 2013

AARON Z. LEWIS
Fashion Forward

Consider the zipper. British author Arthur C. Clarke is famous for noting, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and the zipper certainly qualifies.

April 11, 2013

What we talk about when we talk about loss

Last week, I lost my keys. I’d last had them in my suite, where I spent a day rummaging distractedly for them, half-expecting to see them at every turn.

April 5, 2013

A Recipe for Success

Anyone who ever gave money to Barack Obama paid a price far steeper than his or her donation.

April 5, 2013

Weariness Is Coming

We can’t help but feel that the season three premiere was “Game of Thrones” on training wheels.

April 5, 2013

Verse-Chorus-Bridge to Nowhere

I’m sure that at this very moment, someone somewhere is writing a song that would move me to tears with its verse-chorus-bridge simplicity. Not because of it, but despite it. A great song is a great song, formulaic or not.

March 29, 2013

Ask a Blogger Who Kissed a Boy For The First Time Yesterday

leave comments!!!!!!!

March 29, 2013

Cold War, Hot Cinema: The Popularity of Paranoia

Modern viewers may laugh at the dramatic nature of Cold War era films. Feeling that America has left the Cold War behind, we now tend to look back upon its cultural reflections with something verging on condescension.

March 29, 2013

Best Picture 2012: 'Argo'?

Ben Affleck has completed the career turnaround of which we all hoped he was capable—shrugging off his string of horrendous late-90s/early-00s films to reinvent himself as a potent filmmaker with wide ambitions. So maybe there’s more to “Argo” than meets the eye. (We are astoundingly quick to criticize blockbusters, to be fair.) At the very least, I’m willing to reexamine the film.

March 1, 2013