Whether in the form of a drama or a parody, the best movies and TV shows about dictators demonstrate the extent to which people who cling to power the most desperately are often those who are the first to lose it.
These beings — the men and the robots, the women and the cyborgs and the aliens — seem to leap out of the screen, reminding the viewer of the frail precarity of human life, whether in the present or the distant future.
There’s a unique pleasure in the political satire. Whether in film or on television, well-wrought satires ask the viewer to think critically about the nature of politics, how power works, and how mendacity can overwhelm even the most upright political figures.
Few institutions are associated with the arts–particularly music, drama, and dance as much as Juilliard, which has proved to be a remarkably fertile and successful training ground for major talents. Many of the school's graduates have achieved remarkable success in theater and on-screen.
Though much attention has been paid to male antiheroes like Walter White of Breaking Bad and Tony Soprano of The Sopranos, it’s also necessary to draw attention to many formidable antiheroines. These formidable women reveal the extent to which there can be a lot of pleasure in thinking and acting outside the box of patriarchy.
Celebrity feuds have long been a part of Hollywood, and many big-name stars have engaged in well-publicized and documented spats. The birth and growth of social media have rendered these types of falling out ever more visible and worthy of comment.
Adapting a novel to film or television is a notoriously tricky business. Sometimes, adapters decide to make substantial changes to even those characters that make the final cut for inclusion, and there are a surprising number of films and TV series in which a character suffers a great deal more than their novel counterpart.
Horror is best known for its ability to tap into deep human fears, producing scenes that sear themselves into viewers' memories. However, a number of non-horror films have also leaned into the frightening and, in their own strange way, often land with even more impact.
The courtroom drama has been a staple in Hollywood. This makes sense because the genre has the power to tap into the drama innate to trials. The very best of the genre uses the courtroom setting and its environs to ask deeper questions about the human condition and justice. These films ask the audience to consider and reconsider basic assumptions about how the law works and for whom, even as they also demonstrate the human drama that is always at the heart of the most complicated cases.
As the old adage goes, all publicity is good publicity, at least until it starts to threaten the bottom line. Over the decades, quite a few stars have found out, often to their chagrin, that there is a limit to the sorts of bad behaviors that studios and directors will tolerate in their talent.
Given their ambiguous nature, it’s unsurprising that hotels have been the settings for everything from sitcoms to dramas, absurdist comedies to gripping horror. The best hotels on-screen make the viewer feel as if they, too, are in this peculiar locale, with all the pleasures and perils that entails.
Divorce is one of the most difficult things many people will ever go through. Though divorce stories weren’t unheard of in Hollywood, they became an increasing subject of interest as the practice became more common and accepted in American society. It's a stacked genre, but these are the 20 best movies about divorce.
Hollywood history is filled with actors slotted into the category of the “character actor.” These men and women have faces and voices that people may recognize but whose names may not be as widely known.
Many actors sometimes find themselves typecast and pigeonholed into certain kinds of roles, stifling their creativity and creating a restrictive set of expectations among audiences. The very best actors know how to use their star power to their advantage — no matter the role.
The Academy Awards are some of the most important accolades in the film industry. However, they can also be notoriously exclusionary, particularly regarding the types of genres that usually accrue awards. Whether awarded for acting, directing, or technical achievements, some of the most beloved comedies in Hollywood history have also managed to become Academy Award winners.
The Academy Award is the holy grail of acting, an aspiration for many who offer themselves up on the big screen. Unfortunately, the Academy is often very fickle, and it’s sometimes difficult to tell what logic (or lack thereof) determines nominations.
People often go to sci-fi films to see the world brought to life in ways new, strange, and sometimes terrifying, precisely because the genre is so adept at taking things in the present and exploring what they might look like in the future.
Whether it’s the charge of the forces of good against those of evil, the revelation of a group of witches, or a battle of wizards, the most epic scenes in fantasy movies reveal just why the genre is so enduringly popular.
Whether it’s a heroine going to live in a crumbling gothic mansion inhabited by ghosts and a tormented but handsome man, a janitor who falls in love with an amphibian-like creature, or a peculiar blend of Shakespeare and zombies, Hollywood has long had an affection for paranormal romances.
Though paranormal romance TV series have long been a part of popular culture, they experienced a moment of cultural dominance in the late 20th century into the 21st century, thanks to the explosion of such series in the world of book publishing. Take a look at some of the most extraordinary examples of the genre, both past and present.
Few series have enjoyed quite the level of longevity and enduring cultural relevance as Saturday Night Live. Though hundreds and hundreds of skits have emerged over the years, only a few have managed to truly earn a place in the SNL canon.
There’s something uniquely joy-inducing about situation comedies, particularly those that seem to love their characters and invite the audience to do the same. Such feel-good shows are timely reminders that not every show has to be hard-hitting, dark, or cynical to provide pleasure and emotional satisfaction.
For a long time, the holiday rom-com seemed allergic to showcasing LGBTQ+ voices and stories, but fortunately, in recent years, that has begun to change. More and more networks and streamers, including Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix, have begun to include diverse points of view and stories in their programming.
Christmas ranks up there with Valentine’s Day in terms of romantic potential. While it might sometimes seem as if Christmas movies are a dime a dozen, some truly romantic gems hiding out there have more than managed to stand the test of time.
There is a brutal beauty to many of the best assassin films, and these roles often demand a great deal from those chosen to perform in them. At their best, assassin films either obliterate morality entirely or force the viewer to contend with the ugly ethics of murder-for-hire.