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Left: Place de la Concorde. Number 6 in the series Curiosités Parisiennes, early 20th century. Postcard; offset lithography. Courtesy Leonard A. Lauder. Right: Monolite Mussolini Dux, via Wikimedia Commons

The 20th-Century Obelisk, From Imperialist Icon to Phallic Symbol

Amid all the imperial aspiration, wooly-minded New Age mythologizing, and pure unadulterated commerce, the obelisk stands tall.

The Decade Comic Book Nerds Became Our Cultural Overlords

Why do they have to be such sore winners?

My Friend Mister Rogers

I first met him 21 years ago, and now our relationship is the subject of a new movie. He’s never been more revered—or more misunderstood.

The Women Who Helped Build Hollywood

They played essential behind-the-scenes roles as the American movie industry was taking off. What happened?
Exhibit

Moving Pictures

Tracing the history of Americans' relationships with the silver screen, from film's earliest days to the cinematic creations of our own times.

Why It’s Time To Retire The Whitewashed Western

The original cowboys were actually Indigenous, Black and Latinx, but that's not what Hollywood has generally led us to believe.
African-American cowboys in Bonham, Texas, circa 1913

The Real Texas

What is Texas? Should we even think about so large and diverse a place as having an essence that can be distilled?

How Oscar Micheaux Challenged the Racism of Early Hollywood

The black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux was one of the first to make films for a black audience, a rebuke to racist movies like "The Birth of a Nation."

Selling Slashers to Teen Girls

The heroines of 1970s and 80s teen horror movies were traditionally feminine, tough, and sexually confident.

‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is a Science Fiction Film

Far from wallowing in nostalgia, Tarantino is using alternative history to critique conventional Hollywood endings.
Cathy Gillies, Kitty Lutesinger, Sandy Good, and Brenda McCann, of the Manson Family, kneel on the sidewalk outside the Los Angeles Hall of Justice on March 29, 1971.

The Manson Family Murders, and Their Complicated Legacy, Explained

The Manson Family murders weren’t a countercultural revolt. They were about power, entitlement, and Hollywood.

Death Proof

With ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,’ Tarantino slakes his thirst for nostalgia while playing with another piece of history.

How Spaghetti Westerns Shaped Modern Cinema

In the realism, the set pieces, the operatic music, Sergio Leone was pointing the way towards modern filmmaking.
Film poster for "Native Son."

"Native Son" and the Cinematic Aspirations of Richard Wright

Novelist Richard Wright yearned to break into film, but Hollywood's censorship of black stories left his aspirations unfulfilled.

'Reality Bites' Captured Gen X With Perfect Irony

The 1994 studio film was written by a 20-something who mined her own life to tell the story of a generation that disdained 'selling out.'
Anthony Scaramucci
partner

The Revolving Door Between Reality TV and the Trump Administration

Why Anthony Scaramucci’s turn on “Celebrity Big Brother” shouldn’t come as a surprise.

How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success

With “The Apprentice,” the TV producer mythologized Trump as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency.

How 'Green Book' And The Hollywood Machine Swallowed Donald Shirley Whole

Why relatives of the musician depicted in "Green Book" called the film “a symphony of lies.”

Mayberry Machiavelli

The self-congratulatory legacies of ‘A Face in the Crowd.’

How Does a Film Become Lost?

What happens when “lost” films and television shows become found once again—and what that does to the work’s cultural legacy.

What Makes ‘The Living Dead’ My Film of 1968

In so many ways, George Romero's lo-budget horror film defined the year 1968.
Photograph of murder victim by Weegee.

The Lost World of Weegee

Depression-era Americans viewed urban life in America through the lens of Weegee’s camera.
Roseanne Barr
partner

Why Roseanne Barr Paid a Bigger Price For Tweeting Than Donald Trump Has

These days, Hollywood is more democratic than Washington.

American Women's Obsession With Being Thin Began With This 'Scientist'

Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were hooked on his diet.
FBI piracy warning

How 1960s Film Pirates Sold Movies Before the FBI Came Knocking

The FBI storms a suspect's property, guns drawn. The crime? Film piracy.

We’re the Good Guys, Right?

Marvel's heroes are back again, but with little of the subversive aura that once surrounded them.

The Surprising History of the Wolf-Whistle

Wolf-whistling has been at the heart of some of history’s most iconic films and cartoons. But is it time to write its obituary?

In Winston Churchill, Hollywood Rewards a Mass Murderer

Are a few bombastic speeches really enough to wash the bloodstains off Churchill’s racist hands?

Kneeling for Hollywood

How Hollywood portrays religious prayer.

Hollywood Has Always Been Political. And it Hasn’t Always Been Liberal.

Conservatives have used celebrity glitz effectively, too.

All 89 Best Picture Oscar Winners Ranked

From the meh (A Beautiful Mind) to the stunningly beautiful (Moonlight), and the classic (All About Eve) to the god-awful (Birdman).

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