How this year’s Oscar-winning best picture can teach us about our selfhood and search for meaning.

Each Friday we compile a list of interesting links and articles our editors find from across the web. Here’s what’s catching our eye this week. Robert Fischell, inventor extraordinaire, claims to have created a device capable of eliminating chronic pain: If the body is a house, the nervous system is its electrical wiring. The network, which has millions of entry […]

This is the second  in a (long-delayed, alas!) series of posts chronicling the fortunes of Agatha Christie on film from 1974-1988. Spoilers are not only expected, but required, and I offer them with no apology. With the success of Murder on the Orient Express, it was only a matter of time before the cinema tried […]

Much to consider this month. Fandor is yet again is stacked with treasured, timeless items. Mubi has Lav Diaz’s lengthy From What is Before. We live in exciting times. — Movies Blackhat (iTunes) Blaise Pascal (Fandor) Bluebird (Netflix) Blue Velvet (Netflix) Chappie (iTunes) From What Is Before (Mubi) Fruitvale Station (Netflix) Grizzly Man (Amazon Prime) […]

Before I begin, an obvious warning: I will discuss spoilers here. Another obvious warning: this is a long piece and it goes into the brush at various points. My hope is that, in the end, it comes together into something reasonably cohesive—but that is, of course, up to the reader to decide. A third warning: […]

Gett is the end of a series of films about the failed marriage of the Amsalems. In To Take A Wife (2004) and 7 Days (2008), Viviane is already desperate to leave their marriage, which has grown cold over differences in observance of Jewish law, tradition, and Elisha’s efforts to conserve his Moroccan heritage. These films are all dense […]

These last two episodes of Mad Men have felt either disproportionate or clumsy. This is, I think, because life is both disproportionate and clumsy. It is common for critics to excuse the shortcomings of TV shows with this same logic. A script takes a left turn into fan service, or really fumbles some aspect of a series […]

Playing off Mad Men as a series of object lessons in modernity is like shooting fish in a barrel. Time and time again, the show has justified the utility of its repetition of Don’s moods and fantasies as an evocation of this era. Around him play out the little dramas of an ad agency and its growing […]

This is a booming month for a few streaming services, as there are a lot of titles/series from 2014 finally making their way onto our devices. And Fandor has an incredible line-up in store. If you have ever wanted to join or start their trial, this is the month. Otherwise, here are a bunch of […]