More Virtue, Less Emotion, Please: An Appeal to Writers — and to Readers
Literature should show us how to live and to live well.
Books, Arts & Manners
Jacksonmania Goes Highbrow at the National Portrait Gallery
A show that’s both fun and substantive shows the pop star’s continuing influence.
American Exceptionalism — Not! First Man Falters
American ambition and achievement take a back seat to cynicism and wifely resentment.
What If the President Demanded a Loyalty Oath?
Ike Barinholtz’s new movie The Oath isn’t balanced. It’s a dog’s breakfast.
Falling Stars
Ross Douthat reviews A Star Is Born.
A School for Eternity
James Matthew Wilson reviews The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis, by Alan Jacobs.
The Mind of Wesley Yang
Theodore Kupfer reviews The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays, by Wesley Yang.
Poetry
"Past and future stored away, Under seat and overhead..."
Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma Is a Cinematic Love Letter to a Great Lady
Cuarón shows that what matters most is what happens in your family, not this week’s march in the streets.
The Movie of the Year
First Man takes a gloriously contrarian look at the moonshot.