by Todd Alcott [We’re happy to have screenwriter Todd Alcott back as a columnist with a book length analysis of the Avengers screenplay. Warning: Spoilers! But those those of you who have seen the film, you might just never look at it the same way again.] The Oscar nominations were announced the…

“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” As a general rule, I finish what I start. However, when someone says they do something as a general rule as opposed to flat out saying here is a thing I always do, they are doing so because somewhere in…

Q uentin Tarantino long ago arrived at that point where the first question about his new movie will always be about how it relates to his old ones. He knows this better than anyone — it’s why he talks constantly about retiring, and about legacy, and about the proverbial kid who discovers one of his…

Books explaining why books no longer matter come in many flavors. Illustration by CHRISTOPH NIEMANN When the first Harry Potter book appeared, in 1997, it was just a year before the universal search engine Google was launched. And so Hermione Granger, that charming grind, still goes to the Hogwarts…

W e had orange carpet in our living room in Oklahoma where, on regular weeknights, I would stay up, semi-religiously, and watch Star Trek: The Next Generation , usually instead of doing my algebra homework. My seventh-grade algebra teacher was a smug, straw-haired, lip-smacking wearer of…

Studies have tied the misuse of antibiotics on factory farms to the rise of resistance, but the FDA keeps delaying action. Is it too late now? Natali Glado/ Shutterstock Last week, a U.S. district court judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to move forward on ending the use of several…

At its heart, HBO’s The Newsroom has been a sitcom. Sure, it might be an hour-long and take itself really, really seriously, but consider the following: most of The Newsroom takes place in a single location, and most episodes tends to focus more on witty banter and romantic entanglements instead of,…

Dunno how I missed this fantastic Krugman column: http://t.co/sFbxjng

This week marks more or less the halfway point not just of summer but of the entire year; to celebrate, and to avoid reviewing Ice Age: Continental Drift, your Summermetrician, Zach Baron , invited Mark Harris , in-house Grantland Oscar expert and author of the great Pictures at a Revolution: Five…

Sandwiched between the electrifying, envelope-pushing nihilism of Seven and Fight Club , The Game generally gets lumped alongside Panic Room as an example of what it looks like when David Fincher chooses to coast a little. Reviews at the time ranged from mildly respectful to kindly dismissive, with…

November 8, 2011 | by jessethorn | | Permalink Heterosexual male identity… I don’t want to get too pointy-headed about it, but it’s really this package of negatives. You know, to be a straight guy is not to be a woman and not to be a faggot and so it doesn’t really leave you much room to maneuver.…

"We were asked to hate everything Indian," said 26-year-old Arnab (shown in his Delhi flat). Photographs: Sanjit Das/Panos Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. I stand flush against the window of a Toyota showroom, trying to stay in a shrinking sliver of shade. We’re on…

Nearly half the 1.2 million jobs the Texas governor is promising won't be online before 2016, and then only if the president steamrolls the states Republican U.S. presidential candidate Governor Rick Perry / Reuters The centerpiece of Rick Perry's economic plan, released this morning, is a pledge to…

For years, Louis C.K. enjoyed a decidedly mixed reputation as a brilliant stand-up comic and idiosyncratic comedy writer whose best-known work— The Dana Carvey Show, the tumultuous first years of Late Night With Conan O’Brien, the surreal blaxploitation homage Pootie Tang , and the ambitious Norman…

Read the unfiltered transcript of George Lazenby's special Q&A after a screening of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in Hollywood... 22nd June 2011 On Friday, June 17th the American Cinematheque featured a double feature screening of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "Diamonds Are Forever" at…

doing it all Brian Tyree Henry Knows He’s Having a Moment The Atlanta breakout is in high demand—and enjoying it. by Yohana Desta doing it all Brian Tyree Henry Knows He’s Having a Moment The Atlanta breakout is in high demand—and enjoying it. by Yohana Desta Trumponomics The Trump White House Is…

B righton, England, September 2009. I wake up in a hotel room 5,000 miles from my home in Seattle. After breakfast, I step out into the salty air and walk the coastline of the country that invented my language, though I find I can’t understand a good portion of the signs I pass on my way— LET AGREED…

If you have bought a television recently, or are considering buying one, take heed: your beautiful new flat-panel TV will try very, very hard to make whatever movies you watch on it look not just bad, but aggressively, satanically, puppy-drowningly bad. It Starts With the Color TVs are designed to…

In my regular perch at Maclean’s magazine , I’m known as “that guy who loves multi-camera sitcoms.” Or would be, if I were known. But this certainly is not a great time to be a supporter of the sitcom shot with four cameras in front of an audience. All the Emmy nominees for best comedy are…

On the day NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller lost her job, I was reporting from Egypt. That evening, I had dinner with employees from NPR's Cairo bureau. I wasn't eager to talk shop, but I didn't have to. The conversation barely touched on news from home. Instead we spoke of Egypt's revolution.…

If you only knew the power of the dark side Lest you think seeing the world through these eyes is some kind of curse , let me move a bit closer to the point of this heartwarming bout of navel-gazing. Yes, it's true that a critic's eye is useless without an artist's hand. But an artist without a…