Nowadays we call them noir, but back in the 1940s and ’50s they didn’t have a name. Born out of 1930s hard-boiled novels and an influx of European filmmakers fleeing fascism, films noir (as French film critics later coined them) were … Continue reading THE FURIES
When Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club hit shelves in 1989, more than one reviewer interpreted the narrative’s central tension between mothers and daughters as autobiography. And when the movie adaptation came out in 1993—cowritten by Tan—those assumptions multiplied. That happens with … Continue reading AMY TAN: UNINTENDED MEMOIR
Located next to the butcher’s shop, down the row from the local pub, Deadly Cuts is the hair salon where the women of Piglinstown, Dublin, congregate. It’s a safe space in a rundown town that never feels safe. The gangs, … Continue reading DEADLY CUTS
Lyz Lopez started skiing when she was 4. Who knows what first drew her to the sport, but 11 years on the slopes have shaped Lyz the prodigy into Lyz the competitor. She’s 15 now, and with proper instruction, she … Continue reading SLALOM
Ernest Hemingway: Few writers have had a greater impact on American letters. Trained as a journalist, Hemingway developed and popularized terse prose, the theory of omission, and an obsession with capturing that which is true. And it didn’t matter the … Continue reading HEMINGWAY
The less you know about Dear Mr. Brody, the better, but here are the basics: In October 1969, Michael James Brody Jr. turned 21 and inherited his fortune as the oleomargarine heir—an unlimited sum, Brody told reporters. Three months later, … Continue reading DEAR MR. BRODY
What is it about messianic men and the chaos they cause? They are almost always false prophets, yet time and time again, we fall for their charm, for their snake oil. You probably don’t have to think long to conjure … Continue reading WEWORK: OR THE MAKING AND BREAKING OF A $47 BILLION UNICORN and DEAR MR. BRODY
Born March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia, Mary Flannery O’Connor made her public debut at the age of 5, when a Pathé cameraman from New York came to photograph her chicken. The chicken walked backward. If it didn’t, you could … Continue reading FLANNERY
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That’s the idea behind Lois Weber’s 1915 film, Hypocrites, a morality play that finds parallels between the medieval period and 1910s America. It’s also the thought that races through your brain … Continue reading HYPOCRITES
Michael J. Cinema 
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