Category: REVIEW

Evil and Idiocy in Johnson’s Glass Onion

Daniel Craig’s southern detective dressed like Cary Grant invokes the gravitas of tradition against postmodernity’s myth of the tech-disruptor, together with a heroine armed with a perfect disinterest in wealth.

The 9th Art: Are Marvel Comics ‘Classics’?

Penguin’s choice to publish Marvel comics under their “Classics” label is provocative, but is it justified? This month’s comics column considers this question while reviewing the new Penguin volumes.

Athena: Cinematic Apocalyptica and Visions of Civil War

Apocalyptic fiction will tend to promote either conformity or radicality, depending on whether the source of impending destruction is identified with the powers-that-be or some rebel force.

Traditionalism with a Capital ‘T’

Bannon is attracted to a mystical form of Traditionalism, although his version of it is very unconventional. He is an American traditionalist who views the working class as the salt of the earth uncorrupted by liberal modernity.

In Praise of COVID Restrictions

If one picked up this book expecting a genuine defence of COVID restrictions, one would soon be disabused of that notion. It is both hilarious and deadly serious, obliging the reader to remember all the traumas that befell us.

A Man Worth Knowing

In this biography, Christopher J. Farrell describes an extinct species—a muscular liberal and hardcore anti-Communist. It is interesting to read about a man like Earle in an era where, according to progressives, there are mere inches between calling for tax cuts and becoming Hitler.

Cuban Dissident

A Pulitzer-prize winner chronicles Oswaldo Payá’s lifelong struggle to bring democracy to Cuba.

Whetting the Appetite for Battle

Fighting Back does more than simply hope that the dire state of our culture can be reversed. It offers practical strategies, across every aspect of life, for turning things around and emerging victorious.

The Great Awakening vs the Great Reset

The Great Awakening vs the Great Reset

A great deal has been said recently about Alexander Dugin’s thought. Michael Millerman, the foremost English language interpreter of the “most dangerous philosopher in the world,” reviews his 2021 book.

August 25, 2022
New Life from Old Books

New Life from Old Books

One of Hazony’s aims is to remind us that liberals and conservatives, while they teamed up against Communism to win the Cold War, do not share a political project. “Enlightenment liberalism,” Hazony argues, “is bereft of any interest in conserving anything. It is devoted entirely to freedom, and in particular to freedom from the past.”

August 24, 2022
Richard Strauss in His Hometown:<br><em>Die Schweigsame Frau</em> and<br><em>Der Rosenkavalier</em> in Munich

Richard Strauss in His Hometown:<br><em>Die Schweigsame Frau</em> and<br><em>Der Rosenkavalier</em> in Munich

If the visuals left us baffled and disappointed, the musical performance reached toward the stars. The superb soprano Marlis Petersen delivered a sensitive, nuanced Marschallin that captured the character’s emotional dilemmas with a pathos unseen since Renée Fleming gave up the role five years ago.

August 23, 2022
A Heroic Song of Heroic Songs of Heroes

A Heroic Song of Heroic Songs of Heroes

Rarely, if ever, does Christopher Ricks raise a point without matching it with some apt snippet of verse. Or, rather, rarely does Ricks raise a point at all; instead he discovers, within the verses of poets, the point he himself would like to raise and consider, so that reading a Ricks essay can become a game of hide-and-seek as the critic dodges and peeks from between the curtains of carefully selected verse.

August 18, 2022
Confessions of an Epidemiologist

Confessions of an Epidemiologist

We witnessed a prolonged curtailment of freedom of movement, freedom of association, and freedom of speech. But Mark Woolhouse does not address this. In fact, while he clearly comes out as lockdown sceptical, it is not entirely clear why.

August 9, 2022
How (and Why) One Woman is Taking on the Sexual Revolution

How (and Why) One Woman is Taking on the Sexual Revolution

Louise Perry is both predicting and calling for a counter-revolution, likely led by the “Gen Z women who have experienced the worst of it.”

August 5, 2022
The Magic of Old

The Magic of Old

The novel treats Britain’s past with the utmost respect it deserves; the regency world is presented to the reader in all its glory. Susanna Clarke does not betray its spirit by infusing it with modern culture, unlike so many other representations of the period.

August 4, 2022
A Thorough Modern Devil Tempts Paris:<br>A Review of Gounod’s <em>Faust</em> at the Paris Opera

A Thorough Modern Devil Tempts Paris:<br>A Review of Gounod’s <em>Faust</em> at the Paris Opera

Tobias Kratzer successfully framed the tale’s tension between the temptation of lustful vice and the promise of salvation as a modern ‘crise de conscience.’

August 3, 2022
FORGOTTEN CLASSICS: <br>Trauma, Sin, and Providence in <em>Kristin Lavransdatter</em>

FORGOTTEN CLASSICS: <br>Trauma, Sin, and Providence in <em>Kristin Lavransdatter</em>

Reading Sigrid Undset’s trilogy challenges readers to confront their own moral vacillations and need for constancy.

July 30, 2022
Between Sensitivity and Beauty: Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo

Between Sensitivity and Beauty: Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo

Hypersensitivity forces beauty into a politically-correct straitjacket. It is hardly surprising that such straitjackets kill beauty, for what cannot breathe, cannot live.

Forgotten in the Promised Land

Forgotten in the Promised Land

Oriental Jews may well have been discriminated against throughout Israel’s early decades, but Michale Boganim’s latest documentary vastly exaggerates their current plight.

Beyond Papolatry

Beyond Papolatry

If the Church as we know it is to survive, it must change course immediately. I have no doubt that in any future attempt to salvage what is left of it, Kwasniewski’s analyses will be invaluable.

July 19, 2022