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Articles by Eileen Jones
Swimming the coast of Cumbria for charity
Charity fundraisers are in search of increasingly challenging ways to raise money. But when Wayne Singleton decided on a long-distance swim along the entire coast of Cumbria, his initial planning failed to take jellyfish into account. Wayne will be heading into the Irish Sea at the Solway estuary and aiming to swim more than 80 nautical miles to Silverdale on the Lancashire coast for Brathay Trust, a multi-faceted social enterprise that aims to improve young people’s lives.
Steven Spielberg’s 'The Fabelmans' Is a Self-Indulgent Victory Lap - an Incredibly Dull
Steven Spielberg has always had mad filmmaking skills. Nobody doubts that, I should hope. Jaws? The D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan? Big chunks of Lincoln? Probably many other sequences that I can’t think of now because I tend to hate Spielberg movies so much? All fantastically effective. But Spielberg’s overall sensibility is so frustratingly dull and solemn and sentimental and corny, dragging down the possibilities of his talent, he’s always been the bane of my film-loving existence.
Review: 'My Policeman' Turns a Gripping Real-Life Gay Love Story Into a Dreary Film
There’s a kind of mopey cinema, plodding and lugubrious, that’s often mistaken for artistic sensitivity in creating in-depth character studies and exploring important issues. My Policeman, currently streaming on Amazon, is a good example of this enervating sort of film. It’s a love story set in 1950s Brighton, England, about two people contending for the love of the handsome title character, Tom Burgess (Harry Styles).
Now Do the Much Better, Real-Life Version of My Policeman
There’s a kind of mopey cinema, plodding and lugubrious, that’s often mistaken for artistic sensitivity in creating in-depth character studies and exploring important issues. My Policeman, currently streaming on Amazon, is a good example of this enervating sort of film. It’s a love story set in 1950s Brighton, England, about the two people contending for the love of the handsome title character, Tom Burgess (Harry Styles).
'Triangle of Sadness' Is as Absurd as 21st-Century Capitalism Is
Triangle of Sadness seems designed to be a gift for the suffering left. A kind of anti-Idiocracy dark comedy targeting the rich offers many delights, watching the clueless and obnoxious and insane behaviors of tech billionaires, Russian oligarchs, fashion models and “influencers,” and old-money senior citizens who tootle on brightly about how their weapons manufacturing corporation has been protecting American freedoms for decades, and so on.
Triangle of Sadness Is as Absurd as 21st-Century Capitalism Is
Triangle of Sadness seems designed to be a gift for the suffering left. A kind of anti-Idiocracy dark comedy targeting the rich offers many delights, watching the clueless and obnoxious and insane behaviors of tech billionaires, Russian oligarchs, fashion models and “influencers,” and old-money senior citizens who tootle on brightly about how their weapons manufacturing corporation has been protecting American freedoms for decades, and so on.
Go See The Banshees of Inisherin Right Now
Well, it’s just so damn good. If you’ve been suffering for a long while, as I have, with the incredibly drab and derivative movies on offer, The Banshees of Inisherin is the one for you. This new film written and directed by Martin McDonagh reunites the lead actors Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell from McDonagh’s beloved 2008 film, In Bruges, and the results are darkly hilarious and tragic and shocking and engrossing and poignant and all the good things you keep hoping for.
Why Would Netflix Bury a Film as Wonderfully Imaginative as Wendell & Wild?
If you were waiting for Netflix to call your attention to the premiere of Wendell & Wild, you’d be waiting a long time. There’s been an astonishing lack of ballyhoo celebrating the return of Henry Selick, stop-motion animation genius of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) fame, and whose last film was the masterpiece Coraline in 2009. And returning in such a spectacular fashion, in a daring creative collaboration, cowriting and coproducing with Jordan Peele, which is surely newsworthy.
The Killer Isn’t the Only Murderer in The Good Nurse
If you’re already afraid of hospital stays — and really, who isn’t? — watching The Good Nurse is going to be an especially scary experience.
Lula’s Victory Over Bolsonaro Has Restored Hope for Brazilian Democracy
After Bolsonaro’s surprisingly strong performance in the first round and the landslide victories for Bolsonarist candidates in congressional, senatorial, and gubernatorial elections, the president’s campaign went on the offensive, hoping they could achieve an upset. During the first half of October, Bolsonaro’s polling numbers continued to rise.
Tár Is Stuck in the Muck of Its Own Highbrow Artiness
The highly praised new drama Tár is written, directed, and produced by Todd Field. With a long career as an actor and producer, he’s directed only three films so far, over many years: two previous prestigious dramas, In the Bedroom in 2001 and Little Children in 2006, and now sixteen years later, there’s Tár, which looks likely to be the most rapturously received one yet.
Amsterdam Is a Mess and a Bomb and Also Sort of Interesting
David O. Russell (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting With Disaster, Three Kings, The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) has a new film out, Amsterdam. It’s such a huge flop, such a massive hundred-million-dollar bomb, I couldn’t resist seeing it, just to find out what everyone hated so much. It’s certainly an odd film, dealing with subject matter that’s very hard to summarize.
The Batgirl Saga Turns Hollywood’s Capitalist Logic on Its Head
While the cancelation of Batgirl generated the most headlines and coverage, there have since been other decisions made by Warner Bros. Discovery that are equally unprecedented and potentially destabilizing for the movie and television industry. Recently, HBO Max began quietly removing content from its platform — mostly original movies exclusively released on the streaming platform like Batgirl was meant to be. The children’s programming and animation side has been hit particularly hard.
Angela Lansbury Was a Brilliant Actor and a Comrade
It’s good to discover, in reading the tributes to Angela Lansbury — who died on Tuesday at age ninety-six — that the beloved actor reportedly considered herself “a proud socialist.” She was a comrade via her illustrious lineage: her father was Edgar Lansbury, the British socialist politician, and her grandfather was George Lansbury, the pacifist, socialist, and leader of the British Labour Party from 1932 to 1935.
Angela Lansbury Was a Brilliant Actor and a Comrade
It’s good to discover, in reading the tributes to Angela Lansbury — who died on Tuesday at age ninety-six — that the beloved actor reportedly considered herself “a proud socialist.” She was a comrade via her illustrious lineage: her father was Edgar Lansbury, the British socialist politician, and her grandfather was George Lansbury, the pacifist, socialist, and leader of the British Labour Party from 1932 to 1935.
Blonde Is Marilyn Monroe Abased All Over Again
By now the Netflix film Blonde is notorious for its length, it’s NC-17 rating, and its cruelly narrow view of film star Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas) as a relentlessly abused and exploited waif from early childhood through her death of a drug overdose at age thirty-six.
Sidney Poitier Was an Icon. But Oprah Winfrey’s Documentary Sidney Is Too Worshipful a Tribute.
Sidney is an entirely conventional but handsome Apple TV+ documentary about actor-director Sidney Poitier, directed by Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang, Marshall) and produced by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.
'Blonde' Is Marilyn Monroe Abased All Over Again
By now the Netflix film Blonde is notorious for its length, it’s NC-17 rating, and its cruelly narrow view of film star Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas) as a relentlessly abused and exploited waif from early childhood through her death of a drug overdose at age 36.
Blonde Is Marilyn Monroe Abased All Over Again
By now the Netflix film Blonde is notorious for its length, it’s NC-17 rating, and its cruelly narrow view of film star Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas) as a relentlessly abused and exploited waif from early childhood through her death of a drug overdose at age thirty-six.
Sidney Poitier Was an Icon. But Oprah Winfrey’s Documentary Sidney Is Too Worshipful a Tribute.
Sidney is an entirely conventional but handsome Apple TV+ documentary about actor-director Sidney Poitier, directed by Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang, Marshall) and produced by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.
Don’t Worry Darling Is Dull Female Gothic Aided by Scandal
Don’t Worry Darling is the only movie I’ve ever watched that I literally forgot I’d seen by the next morning. The entire memory of the film had evaporated like breath on a mirror. When it came back to me, at first all I could recall was an image of the film’s director, Olivia Wilde, playing the small part of a seemingly happy housewife named Bunny, done up in a faux-1950s cocktail dress, arching her eyebrows and smiling with lipsticky malice. It’s a look that really suits her.
The British Left Could Benefit From a Few Lessons From the French Left
Five years ago, in elections held barely a month apart, the Left took a big step forward on both sides of the English Channel. First Jean-Luc Mélenchon won nearly one-fifth of the vote in the first round of the French presidential election — the best performance by a radical-left candidate since 1969. Then Jeremy Corbyn led the British Labour Party to its highest vote share in almost two decades, with the biggest increase in support for either of Britain’s major parties since 1945.
Pearl Is a Heartland Horror Fit for Our Times
You might’ve heard about Pearl, a startling fever dream of a horror film that’s currently playing in theaters and getting a lot of well-deserved attention. It’s the second film in director Ti West’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre–inspired trilogy, which started with X (2022) and will be followed by the upcoming MaXXXine, featuring murder and mayhem in the rural American heartland.
Philippa Snow Offers a Fresh Take on Violence in Art and Culture
The second chapter of As You Know contains a long discussion of Marina Abramović and gender. “Is it possible to earn one’s own seat at the big boy’s table, as a woman, not by laughing at your degradation, but adopting all that gung-ho, big-boy violence for oneself?” Snow asks. The question here is whether there is something distinct about being a woman artist interested in violence which Abramović’s work gives us an insight into.
Meghan Markle Is Not the People’s Princess
As eulogies of the recently departed Elizabeth II have made clear, conservatives and many moderates are suddenly and inexplicably massive Queen junkies. They’ve praised her for exuding elegance, modesty, and stateliness — “a symbol of rectitude,” as one MSNBC analyst put it. Elizabeth II never had much power. She reigned as a silent mascot for a once-powerful nation and the post–World War II generations that are fading into irrelevance or death. This Queen was always more influencer than emperor.
Socialists Should Watch the Films of Jean-Luc Godard
The May ’68 uprising famously caught the country’s political establishment by surprise: its newspaper of record, Le Monde, had proclaimed only a few weeks earlier that “France is bored.” But anybody watching Godard’s films would have been primed for the revolt.
The New Tom Hanks Pinocchio Is a Clumsy, Awkward, CGIed Mess
The new Disney live-action remake of Walt Disney’s 1940 animated masterpiece Pinocchio is just as bad as you may have heard. An ugly hybrid of a few live-action elements floating in a sea of mediocre CGI, it features Tom Hanks in a grotesque performance as Geppetto, the old Italian woodcarver who makes a wooden puppet and is so pleased with the lifelike toy, he wishes it could be a real boy.
Songs About Getting By in America
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Invest in Jacobin, Secure Your Financial Future
Act now for a limited time. Let’s face it — war in Europe, runaway inflation, and a global energy shortage? Capitalism’s on its last legs. But are you still shoring up your investments for that knowledge economy Thomas Friedman told you so much about? Watching your 401(k) rise and fall by the day? Still reading the Financial Times and nodding along like […] Remove Icon ESC Small Let’s face it — war in Europe, runaway inflation, and a global energy shortage? Capitalism’s on its last legs.
Making Ends Meet in the Cinematic Apocalypse
The radioactive mutants have taken the highways, and the microchips have been implanted in us, but there are still bills to pay. Remove Icon ESC
The End of History Was a Hell of a Drug
The End of History Was a Hell of a Drug The collapse of the Soviet bloc led to a flowering of utopian thinking among our best and brightest.
Germany’s Funny Money
After World War I began and the imperial German government withdrew coins from circulation, local municipalities and businesses printed their own “emergency money” featuring striking imagery from German history, culture, and politics. We usually remember the interwar German inflation in its critical phase — the hyperinflation that lasted from 1922 to 1923. In fact, the mark had started its decline in 1914, when the imperial government began printing money to pay for World War I.
The Wizard of Oz’s Greenback Conspiracy
Many of the fantastical elements of The Wizard of Oz were drawn directly from the monetary debates of the 1890s. Beginning in the late 1860s, the United States experienced one of the longest periods of deflation in its history, a trend that reached its nadir with the Panic of 1893, which triggered a four-year depression. Unemployment peaked at 20 percent, with industrial areas particularly hard-hit, while in rural regions, farmers suffered from price declines.
Three Thousand Years of Longing Is the Genie-Professor Love Story You Never Asked For
It seems that every once in a while, George Miller makes something other than the enormously successful and celebrated Mad Max action films. That’s when he turns to another kind of filmmaking he likes — gentle, humorous, dark-edged fables. When that goes well, you get Babe or its sequel Babe: Pig in the City. When it doesn’t go well, you get Three Thousand Years of Longing. Not that the film isn’t well-crafted.
In Emily the Criminal, Crime Pays When Nothing Else Will
If you get the chance, go see Emily the Criminal. It’s a surprisingly great, gritty little indie film by a first-time director named John Patton Ford. His low-budget debut was shot in twenty days and really demonstrates, among other things, that Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, Safety Not Guaranteed) can do a lot more than her usual dark comedy stylings.
Jamie Foxx’s Day Shift Is Another Big-Budget Netflix Mediocrity
Too bad about Day Shift. It’s got a good premise. But after a few promising early scenes, it turns rote, macho, and tiresome. And for a Netflix movie that cost $100 million, it sure looks bad in certain sequences. The underground cave section toward the end is pitiful. Maybe throw the production design team a few bucks, would ya?
Thirteen Lives Leaves the Viewer Stuck Between Rocks and Ron Howard
I finally got around to watching Thirteen Lives, the drama on Amazon about the Thai cave rescue of 2018. If it seems like a familiar narrative, that’s because the rescue was not only a breathlessly covered international media event, it’s also the subject of a 2021 documentary called The Rescue. I was reluctant to watch Thirteen Lives because it’s directed by Ron Howard, a “meh” conventional talent at best.
Bodies Bodies Bodies Is a Bad Class Satire and a Boring Film
If you’ve seen the preview for Bodies Bodies Bodies, you pretty much know the drill.
Historian Paul Garon Documented the Beauty and Radicalism of the Blues
Paul Garon might have known more about books than anyone else in Chicago. A founding partner of the Chicago Rare Books Center and owner of Beasley Books, Garon, who died on July 26, collected and sold first-edition copies on labor history, surrealism, leftist politics, psychoanalysis, musicology, beat literature, and African American studies for decades. He was an important figure in socialist publishing and the city’s counterculture scene, a longtime board member of Charles H.
The Bear’s Kitchen Nightmares Make for Great TV
The much-praised Hulu series The Bear is about a young chef named Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White of Shameless) who tries to bring his fancy restaurant experience home in order to save his family’s failing Italian sandwich shop.
Prey Brilliantly Revives the Predator Franchise
There’s a climactic action sequence near the end of Prey that is set in the deep forest at night during a gentle snowfall. It represents the final face-off between the towering alien of the Predator franchise and a slender adolescent Comanche girl who’s trained herself to be a great hunter. The scene is lit by the alien’s iridescent green blood dripping off leaves and trailing across rocks and smearing the combatants as they fight.
Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train Is a Train Wreck
If you know you want to see Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train, for whatever reason, I wouldn’t recommend paying full price. It’s a matinee type of movie at best. In fact, it’s probably more a movie you wait to see on television. That’s because it isn’t very good, of course, though an action comedy that’s shiny and leaves no mark on the memory has its uses in these hard times.
B. J. Novak’s Vengeance Is a Dark Satire of America’s Cultural Divide
B. J. Novak, most famous for cowriting and acting in the long-running comedy series The Office, is making his screenwriter-director-leading man debut with the Blumhouse-produced film Vengeance. I enjoyed it, mostly. But I should note that I was tired, and seeking mild amusement, and still preoccupied with the extraordinary impact of Jordan Peele’s new film, Nope, which was playing at the same theater. Everyone in line was going to see Nope, so I had what amounted to a private screening.
Jordan Peele’s 'Nope' Is a Triumph
I loved Nope. I found the first half of the film to be so eerie and beautiful and brilliant and shot through with such disarming humour, I really thought Jordan Peele was on his way to achieving a genre-film masterpiece. Then at the time, it seemed to me the film began to unravel a bit.
Jordan Peele’s Nope Is a Triumph
I loved Nope. I found the first half of the film to be so eerie and beautiful and brilliant and shot through with such disarming humor, I really thought Jordan Peele was on his way to achieving a genre-film masterpiece. Then at the time, it seemed to me the film began to unravel a bit.
Netflix Bets Big on The Gray Man and Loses
What can be said for a movie as rote as The Gray Man other than it sucks and is a very odd choice for Netflix to pin a new business model on? It’s been widely reported that the lavish promotional campaign for the Netflix premiere of the company’s most expensive original film ($200 million) — after its nominal, barely there theatrical release — represents a test case for the company’s desperate new gambit.
Historian Paul Garon Documented the Beauty and Radicalism of the Blues
Paul Garon might have known more about books than anyone else in Chicago. A founding partner of the Chicago Rare Books Center and owner of Beasley Books, Garon, who died on July 25, 2022, collected and sold first-edition copies on labor history, surrealism, leftist politics, psychoanalysis, musicology, beat literature, and African American studies for decades. He was an important figure in socialist publishing and the city’s counterculture scene, a longtime board member of Charles H.
Where the Crawdads Sing Is Pure Book Club Sentimentalism
I was at a screening of Where the Crawdads Sing, where I saw eight middle-aged women file in together buzzing with anticipation. The person I was with, who knows about such things, said automatically, “book club.” And it seems that’s the intended audience for this film, with the rarely appealed to “older woman” audience — which makes up the majority of the book club population — boosting the box office stats to healthier numbers than anyone would figure who’s read the annihilating reviews.
Persuasion Is the Goofy Jane Austen No One Asked For
The new Netflix movie version of Persuasion, Jane Austen’s finest novel — the last one completed before her death at age forty-one — is so stupid it’s become the occasion for many scalding reviews. One of the most-quoted is entitled “Everyone involved should be in prison: Netflix’s Persuasion reviewed.” This version of Persuasion is the sadly inevitable end point of many years of Andrew Davies–ing Jane Austen adaptions.
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