Columbia University Press

Book Review: “My Affair with Art House Cinema” — Still Hot and Heavy

December 2, 2024
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It’s hard to imagine anyone connected with the movie world who is not appreciative of  Phillip Lopate for the grace and intelligence and knowledge he has brought to film criticism.

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October Short Fuses — Materia Critica

October 3, 2024
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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July Short Fuses — Materia Critica

July 1, 2024
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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Book Review: “What’s Prison For?” — A Case for Building Trust and Mutual Respect

February 25, 2023
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In this valuable and necessary book Bill Keller argues that American prisons need to accept that men and women don’t stop being human beings because they’re in the custody of the state.

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September Short Fuses – Materia Critica

September 4, 2022
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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Book Review: “Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik” — The Evolution of a Radical Thinker

July 6, 2022
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A powerfully relevant study about an iconoclastic Black thinker and poet who was dedicated to economic reform as well as the eradication of racism.

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Book Review: “Second Time Around: From Art House to DVD”

February 23, 2021
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The book’s conceit is that D.A. Miller watches films he’s seen earlier in life with enhanced perception because of the possibilities offered him through the DVD lens.

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Book Review: “Woe from Wit” — A Great Russian Drama, Newly Translated

April 17, 2020
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One of the masterpieces of Russian drama is done justice in a English version that successfully captures much of the wit and fluency of the original.

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Book Review: “Klotsvog” — Confusion Reigns Supreme

December 18, 2019
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Klotsvog ends up being a fascinating literary failure. Good for academics, but bad for readers.

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Book Review: “Necropolis” — A Book of the Russian Literary Dead

April 28, 2019
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This memoir offers an invaluable, broad look at intellectual Russia before and after the revolutions of 1917.

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