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The Intersections of Thought.

The Essays section is a repository for long-form cultural criticism and philosophical inquiry. Here, we step back from individual reviews to explore the overarching concepts that bind art and the human condition together. From the alienation of existentialism to the defiance of absurdism, we trace the ideas that haunt both cinema and literature.

THE ABSTRACT

The Weight of a Free Man

The philosophy beneath these books, and why a universe with no script turned out to be the heaviest thing we ever had to carry.


The Face That Comes Apart

Bergman’s coldest, strangest film is the closest thing cinema has to Plath’s bell jar: a study of a person coming apart, filmed from the inside.

The Film That Runs Both Ways

Five years on, Nolan’s most misread film still asks more of its audience than a blockbuster has any right to. That difficulty is not a fault to be forgiven. It is the reason the film exists.