We recommend these incisive essays on Abbott Elementary, The White Lotus, and The Dropout in Scalawag’s series on pop culture and justice.
entertainment
Posted inEditor's Pick
Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill,” and the End of Music Charts As We Knew Them
Thanks to season four of Stranger Things, Kate Bush’s song, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” has topped the charts, 37 years after its release. Nate Rogers takes a look at how this happened, and what it means for the music industry, and especially older, legacy acts. Drenched in gated reverb and woozy […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Every Language Everywhere All at Once
As our choices for films and television shows made around the world increase in the streaming era, so do the challenges of translation. Rafael Motamayor explores the art — and complicated process — of translating foreign content for international viewers. We are far removed from the days of flagrant cultural erasure through dubbing — Pokémon […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Ben Stiller Sees the World Differently Now
“It was a pretty amazing run. And there was a clarity to it all. He worked hard, pursued satisfying projects, and repeated the things that worked. He made Ben Stiller movies. He was always ascending. Then, starting with the cancer, he got the crap pounded out of him for a few years. His career, his […]
Posted inFeature
The Big, Bonkers, British, Christmas Pantomime
Oh, yes I did! An attempt to explain the bizarre tradition of the British Christmas pantomime.
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Mr. Miyagi Taught Me About Anti-Asian Racism in America
In The Karate Kid franchise, writes Beth Nguyen, “Mr. Miyagi is the perpetual foreigner who exists to serve the whiteness that surrounds him.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Il Maestro
Martin Scorsese on “content,” the films of Federico Fellini, and the art of cinema.
Posted inQuotes
The Streaming Service of the Moment
“So yes, I admit it. I subscribed to Disney+ on the pretext of occupying my kids, but of course – of course – I actually bought it for myself.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Story
The World’s Tallest Dwarf
Late capitalism gets an antihero show.
Posted inArts & Culture, Story
On Flooding: Drowning the Culture in Sameness
Flooding (v.): Unleashing a mass torrent of the same stories by the same storytellers at the same time, making it almost impossible for anyone but the same select few to rise to the surface.