Reviews
Gangs of Lagos Delivers Compelling Action
Gangs of Lagos, Amazon Prime Video’s debut African original film, delivers compelling action, illustrating the present by reawakening the past and gazing into the future
When Moms Get political: Protest and Parenthood in Celeste Ng’s Our Missing Hearts
Acree Macam reflects on the murder of Tortuguita, activist parents and children, and Celeste Ng’s Our Missing Hearts
A Phrase That’s Been Stuck in My Head for Four Years, Recalled: On Ted Chiang’s Exhalation
In his column, Jonathan Russell Clark re-examines the work of Ted Chiang, using it as a lens through which to understand today’s AI discourse.
The Musical Prison: How Song Drives Night of The Kings
Michael Kolawole writes about the spectacular use of music in Philippe Lâcote’s prison drama Night of the Kings.
A Biography’s Tale: On Anthony Burgess by Roger Lewis
Columnist Jonathan Russell Clark proves that sometimes, the best biographers can’t stand their subjects.
Homes and Haunts: Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York
In Jonathan Russell Clark’s latest column, he writes about Colson Whitehead's The Colossus of New York and tries to summon some love for Colombus, Ohio.
Wonder Bread Visions and the Future of Western Civilization
Donald Earl Collins critiques Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, calling on producers and writers to deepen their apocalyptic imaginations by thinking racially.
Holding Life Lightly: Crybaby Will Dry Our Tears
Miah Jeffra reviews Cheryl Klein's fertility and cancer memoir "Crybaby", an exploration of cancer, fertility, eating disorder, queer desire, and the self.
Lady Mondegreen’s Jungle
In 1954 Sylvia Wright, an editor at Harper’s Magazine, wrote a piece for the magazine in which she recalls her childhood. Her mother would read the Scottish ballad “The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray” to her. Here is how young Wright heard the opening lyric: Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands, Oh, where hae ye been? They […]
Melodrama-Rama: Absorbing Delight
The Telugu film RRR is an incredible mixture of genres, influences, and ideas: a historical epic with obvious ahistorical qualities, a combat-heavy actioner with exuberant song-and-dance numbers, a homosocial friendship drama with recognizably romantic montages. Strong notes of melodrama accent its potent blend. These notes appear not just literally—in musical form—but also within the film’s […]
Jonathan Come Lately—An Introduction
Jonathan Russell Clark debuts a monthly column for Tasteful Rude detailing the choicest selections from his book-obsessed life. His current apartment resembles a used bookstore almost more than it does an ordinary living space, and he plans to write about whatever he finds on those shelves that tickles his fancy.
Melodrama-Rama: Local Feelings
A few weekends ago I drove to the teeny beach town of Oceano. I had received a tip that, somewhere on California’s Central Coast, someone was performing live melodramas.
Melodrama-Rama: Where Do I Begin?
Katharine Coldiron's new column Melodrama-Rama takes readers on a beguiling tour of the world of melodrama.
Extra-metatextuality: A Review of Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties: A Book
In his book "The Nineties", Chuck Klosterman is not interested in what’s conventionally understood or easily graspable but in the layers that either exist deep underneath or hover loftily. It’s what makes his essays and books so fun—it allows us to reconsider accepted wisdom.