The Crazies

As the truism derived from F. Scott Fitzgerald goes, there are no second acts in American lives—but there’s still no accounting, then, for remakes: the counterinsurgency strategy currently pursued by the Obama administration in Afghanistan is a remake or redo of Vietnam, the so-called “War on Terror” reiterates the same blurring of war and peace that marked the Cold War, many of the so-called “architects” of the US’s current domestic and foreign policies entered politics in the era of Vietnam and Watergate and pursue, single-mindedly, aims established under Nixon and Reagan.

[en] Long National Nightmares by Michael du Plessis

Mr. Klein

What is "indifference"? Neither the separateness of difference, nor the synthesis of the same. Mr. Klein portrays this psychological and conceptual vertigo both as a critique of modern state capitalism, and, reflexively, as the negative dialectic possibility of historical portrayal itself.

[en] It's Only a Job by Michael Lang

Encounters at the End of the World

In the very opening minutes of Encounters at the End of the World, Herzog recounts having informed the National Science Foundation, which was in the process of deciding whether or not to fund his project, that he was not interested in making a typical nature documentary.

[en] Technology and Ecological Catastrophe by David Embree

The Incredibles

Animated films create ambiguous relationships between cinema and the social world. In one sense, animated films are clearly separate from our everyday lives, generating fantastic and sometimes surreal depictions of "other worlds" that frequently operate with their own internal logic or laws.

[en] Introduction by Steven Rybin

[en] “We Act Normal, Mom!  I Want to Be Normal!” by Lisa Cunningham

Shrek

In recent decades a good number of specialists have noted the relevance of fictional narrative artifacts in the construction of our individual and collective identities. These theories stand at a far remove from the traditional understanding of literary genres as a mere reflection of the societies which produce them. From Benedict Anderson to Geoffrey Bennington or Homi Bhabha, they all concur in signaling the decisive role played by fiction narrative in constructing (and not just “mirroring”) our communities.

[en] From Ogre to Beloved Husband by E. Guillermo Inglesias Díaz

Ponyo

Animated films create ambiguous relationships between cinema and the social world. In one sense, animated films are clearly separate from our everyday lives, generating fantastic and sometimes surreal depictions of "other worlds" that frequently operate with their own internal logic or laws.

[en] Introduction by Steven Rybin

[en] Celebrating Magic’s Primordial Ooze by Elizabeth Birmingham

Wall-E

Animated films create ambiguous relationships between cinema and the social world. In one sense, animated films are clearly separate from our everyday lives, generating fantastic and sometimes surreal depictions of "other worlds" that frequently operate with their own internal logic or laws.

[en] Introduction by Steven Rybin

[en] Wall-E and the Environmental Apocalypse by Amarjeet Nayak

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Animated films offer us the promise of strange new worlds, yet few works of animation follow through on this tantalizing potential. While experimental and surrealistic animated cinema might compel us to think differently by means of the outright avoidance of narrative, surely mainstream animated films merely engage us with routine and ritual.

[en] The Animated Auteur by Steven Rybin

Coraline

A Serious Man

The article addresses the Coen brothers' problematic vision of Judaism in their film A Serious Man. Set in the late 1960s, this tragi-comedy based on the Minnesota setting where the Coen brothers grew up, focuses on a Jewish professor whose life falls apart in Job-like fashion. In this review, I argue that the Coen brothers toggle between two very Jewish explanations for suffering in the world, one which sees it as random and another which regards it as God's punishment for sin. In the end, by choosing the latter message with which to end the film, the Coen brothers adopt a trope that is not only a less satisfying line in modern Jewish thought, but also one that could be viewed as hostile and possibly indicative of self-loathing.

[en] Theodicy, Uncertainty, and God’s Wrath in A Serious Man by Jonathan Friedman