The new documentary about the ACLU centers on four high-profile legal battles fought by the tenacious nonprofit.
Glenn McDonald
Posted inFilm & Television
From Civil Rights to Gun Control, John Lewis Is the Conscience of Congress
Dawn Porter’s excellent documentary about the tireless legislator and civil-rights hero is opening online, but you can support your local theater by watching it.
Posted inBooks
How to See a UFO with David J. Halperin
In “Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO,” the Chapel Hill religious studies scholar and ufologist draws out the mythical and psychological threads of sightings.
Posted inFilm & Television
No Campy Universal Creature Feature, “The Invisible Man” Takes Modern Terrors Seriously
The Elisabeth Moss vehicle redirects thriller tropes toward anxieties about amoral technology companies, anonymous online predators, gaslighting narcissist men in power, and sudden gun violence.
Posted inFilm & Television
Ruin Valentine’s Day with Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
A bleak comedy from a talented team, “Downhill” is a real conundrum, with some things done very well and others completely botched.
Posted inFilm & Television
“The Gentlemen” Is the Guy Ritchiest Guy Ritchie Movie in Years
Action comedy “The Gentleman”turns on an ace Matthew McConaughey performance as a good-guy weed baron, a twisty script, inventive action, and baroque bad-guy dialogue.
Posted inFilm & Television
How to Resist the Dark Lure of Fascism in Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”
Based on the true story of a conscientious objector in WWII Austria, Malick’s latest grand cosmic vision also has contemporary resonance.
Posted inFilm & Television
‘Marriage Story’ Is One of the Year’s Best Films. But Maybe Don’t Watch It with Your Spouse.
A relatively amicable split goes supernova when lawyers get involved in Noah Baumbach’s indictment of the divorce-law machine.
Posted inFilm & Television
The Unsinkable Journalist, Crusader, and Freethinker Molly Ivins Gets Her Due in “Raise Hell”
Ivins bucked both geography and genealogy to become a leading voice of the liberal left for more than fifty years.
Posted inFilm & Television
Performers Like Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams Outshine Their Script in “After the Wedding”
There’s a moment in this gender-flipped remake of a 2006 Danish drama when Julianne Moore unleashes all of her firepower, and I swear my heart actually stopped for a beat.
