Style
Stars Collide in “Sunset Blvd.” and “Romeo + Juliet”
In Billy Wilder’s ur-camp masterpiece “Sunset Boulevard,” from 1950, Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, an aging grande dame of silent film, who slides from self-regarding eccentricity into homicidal delusion....
“Blitz” Uses Classical Storytelling to Advance a Radical Vision of War
Early on in “Blitz,” Rita Hanway (Saoirse Ronan), a London factory worker, puts her nine-year-old son, George (Elliott Heffernan), aboard a train. Rather, George puts himself aboard; he twists...
James Graham Thinks We’re in a Crisis of Storytelling
The brutalist Royal National Theatre building, which sits aggressively on the south side of the River Thames, in London, is a “love it or loudly despise it” kind of...
Telling the Story of Ethiopia’s Red Terror Through a Family Artifact
“I often find a lot of documentaries and films especially pertaining to war and/or Africa, to be shrouded with a bleakness and hopelessness,” the filmmaker Ruth Hunduma says. “That...
The Crypto Betting Platform Predicting a Trump Win
The Web site Polymarket is something like a stock exchange for current events. The platform allows users to place bets on future outcomes ranging from who will win the...
“Anora” Is More for Show Than for Substance
The art of directing is inextricable from the process of producing. Many of the most original filmmakers, especially those working outside the factorylike order of classic-era studios, have devised...