Bright Wall/Dark Room

Lily Collins in Emily in Paris (2020) | Netflix

Given the show’s explicit judgment of judgment, it’s perplexing that many critiques, warranted as they are, overwhelmingly rely on and perpetuate a neurotic suspicion of pleasure. Read More

Robin Williams and Edward Norton in Death to Smoochy

Queer Nihilist Opera for The Last Days of Capitalism

Tori Hawks-Ladds·

Issue 89: Farce

Death to Smoochy failed spectacularly when it was released, finding no purchase with viewers looking for an easy escape from the antebellum early aughts. But a film whose excesses lacked an audience in 2002 might just have found its spiritual home 18 years later. Read More

Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein (1974) | art by Tony Stella

Peak Male Performance

Aegor Ray·

Issue 89: Farce

As each male performer in Young Frankenstein revels in his own strangeness, I find new ways to tap dance in my own haunted house. Read More

Whatever It Is You’re Looking For

Rosie Long Decter·

Issue 89: Farce

Like all good farces, Smiley Face feels heightened to the point that causality becomes nonsensical. This, too, is stoner logic: enjoy the journey, forget the destination. Read More

Gary Oldman as Dracula | art by Tony Stella

Party On, Vlad: The Immortal Transience of Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Candace Jane Opper·

Extras

It’s easy to write off a movie like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, so married as it is to the neon tackiness of the early 1990s; it’s much harder to recognize that placing itself squarely into that context is an extraordinary device. Read More

Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys (2000) | Paramount

Even This Late It Happens: 20 Years of Wonder Boys

Anya Jaremko-Greenwold·

Extras

After flopping at the box office in February 2000, the dramedy was re-released in November of the same year—and flopped again. But it grossed my heart. Read More

Important Stuff: On The Bush-Era Satire of Sacha Baron Cohen

Harris Mayersohn·

Issue 89: Farce

Sacha Baron Cohen has always had a complicated, meta-textual relationship with irony; his trailblazing satirical work observes the ugliness of the United States while refusing to offer any solutions. Read More

Alien: Resurrection (1997) | 20th Century Fox

I Thought You Were Dead: Resurrecting the Alien Franchise as a Farce

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 89: Farce

Alien: Resurrection swings the pendulum away from the dour grimness of its predecessor towards a sense of humor and ironic self-awareness; the result is an Alien eager to thumb its nose at its precursors. It doesn’t care if anyone who loves those earlier films gets caught in the crossfire, either. Read More

A Night at the Opera (1935) | art by Tony Stella

Crying at the Opera

Zoe Kurland·

Issue 89: Farce

The Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera is first and foremost about feeling over understanding, about distorting language, teasing it apart to get to the meat of it all. Read More

The Muppets: Sex and Violence

Merritt Mecham·

Issue 89: Farce

The Muppets are an invitation to look at our weird, messed up world, and laugh instead of cry. Their acceptance of chaos means an acceptance of everyone, from seven-foot-tall carrots to psychopathic coffee spokesman to neurotic frogs. Read More

Stuffed: Dining with Daisies

Julia Selinger·

Issue 89: Farce

If the world is going to rot, Daisies suggests, all that’s left to do is dig in. Read More

John Malkovich as Osborne Cov in Burn After Reading (2008)

I Know Who You Are, Fucker: Burn After Reading’s Absurd Mirror

Elizabeth Cantwell·

Issue 89: Farce

In 2020, Burn After Reading feels both more ridiculous and more painful than when it was first released—more capable of breaking down your defenses against laughter, and more likely to keep you up at night. Read More

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