2019

Contemporary critics had a hard time describing the appeal of the on-surface simple, yet daringly radical domestic drama, The Home Maker. “A simple little tale” (Evening Journal); “Just a human story … but it’s one of the most gripping things seen on Broadway” (Evening World); “It hasn’t a villain … [Read more...] about The Home Maker

When Hell Bent, starring Harry Carey as Cheyenne Harry, was released in 1918 it was among eighty-seven western features made that year, a high point in the first decade of feature-length films. In that crowded field were William S. Hart, who made nine westerns for his own production company, and Tom … [Read more...] about Hell Bent

However neglected, perhaps correctly, the history of independent exploitation films is as long as any other varietal of film—the nudie, the sensational barnstormer, the adults-only “if you dare” faux-exposé have always been with us. How we might approach this kind of film, beyond any sort of … [Read more...] about Goona Goona: An Authentic Melodrama of the Isle of Bali

Oxford scholar Yuval Noah Harari popularized the idea that humans did not domesticate wheat, but rather, the grain tamed us. In his 2015 book Sapiens, he notes that wheat required backbreaking labor to plant and collect. Yet because it allowed for accumulation, evolutionary forces persuaded its … [Read more...] about Earth