How One of My Favorite Movies, Demolition Man, Explains Trump’s America

There is a tendency in much amateur criticism to find exactly the societal critique that one is looking for within a particular cultural artifact that the author already adores. It reveals less about the…

Writing Implements: Reviews for the Resistance

On Feeling Normal

I feel kind of normal right now. I’m sitting in my living room, drinking tea, a book of Alice Munro stories face down on the table. Traffic buzzes by. The dog is snoring.

This is an average day, and I expect most days to be something like it. There is a certain feeling…

#winning

All I do is win win win no matter what/
Got money on my mind I can never get enough

When was the last time you thought about Charlie Sheen? I mean, really thought about him - not the sixty second shrug you probably made when you heard the news last year that he had been living with HIV…

Firewatch With Me

“People take this job to get away from something. So what’s wrong?” asks Delilah, the player’s supervisor in the opening of Firewatch.

The player’s character, Henry, who loses his wife to early-onset Alzheimer’s in the prologue, is loathe to answer. But the question may…

As Long As I don’t Overthink it: On Three Full Months of Unnamed Group Blog

There was an empty slot on our editorial calendar, so I volunteered to write a post. “I should be able to write something quickly,” I wrote. “My challenge will be to not overthink it.”