Staff Reviews
San Francisco's Darkest Hours
The founder of Salon takes a fascinating tour of the Golden Gate City, 1967-82.
Won't Back Down
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis team up in Hollywood's latest implausible school reform flick
Last Resort: Sailing into America's Post-Post-9/11 World
New series explores our current cultural dichotomy of defiance and authoritarianism.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
A movie that makes teenage isolation and high-school torment seem like fresh subjects again
The Master
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix are great in a movie that's not about Scientology.
The New Normal: It's Okay to Be Cliché
Why does a TV show about gay parenting feel so dated?
Bachelorette and The Words
Kirsten Dunst out of her element, Bradley Cooper lost in a bad book.
Americans Too Dumb to Vote, Says Time National Correspondent
A 500 page defense of the stimulus fails to make the case that Obama is just misunderstood.
Debt and Loving It
David Wessel's Red Ink is a handy but revealing guide to the federal budget.
Side by Side
Does the rise of digital movies mean the death of film? Keanu Reeves investigates.
Slowly Rebuilding New Orleans
Seven years after Hurricane Katrina, the reconstruction effort doesn't fit a simple liberal or conservative narrative.
D'Souza "Fact Check" Light on Facts
AP treats opinions as facts, then says the opinions are wrong.
Someone's Watching
If consumers are annoyed with a merchant's monitoring, they can buy elsewhere. With the intrusive state, there is nowhere to go.
Intelligence at Work
Neal Stephenson's new book explores science fiction, underseas cables, Hong Kong, and the art of storytelling.
Cosmopolis
David Cronenberg's delightfully strange riff on sex, technology, capitalism, and the quest for a good haircut.
Land Grabs in the Developing World
How powerful interests seize land from peasants, pastoralists, and others around the globe
Rachel Maddow Abbreviates History
An MSNBC host's book on foreign policy leaves out too much of the story of how this mess began.
Misreading the Tea Party
A new book misunderstands the libertarian-leaning portion of the Tea Party movement and exaggerates the importance of the movement's social conservatives.
The Demise of Social Science
Is rampant addiction to porn and video games really ruining a generation of men?
Who Made Them Boss?
MSNBC host Christopher Hayes examines America's elites but misses important parts of the picture.
Ruby Sparks and The Watch
An indie gem with Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan, and Hollywood yocks with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn.
War Is Still a Racket
They say war is a fight between forces seeking victory. But sometimes the conflict is more complicated than that.
The Dark Knight Rises
A surprisingly limp conclusion to Christopher Nolan's celebrated Batman trilogy.
Turning Comic Books Into Art
The world of high art celebrates pioneering comics creator Daniel Clowes.
The Truth About "Deep Throat"
A new book sheds light on the Watergate whistleblower's real motives.
