An American tourist in Russia
I meant to finish this post a few days ago but was depressed so I didn’t. Anyway, American conservatives are brimming over with confidence and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. Yes, the betting odds are currently in Trump’s favor but since when were markets a good predictor of politics? If … Read more
Today the New York Times published a grim description of Ukraine’s prospects on the Donbass front. It is worth reading in full. My biggest takeaway from this is how bluntly the NYT says things that just two years ago were loudly and universally dismissed as “Russian disinformation.” The opening paragraph sums things up pretty well: … Read more
I finally got around to watching the 2022 Russian war film The Best In Hell, and was underwhelmed. Not unexpected, but disappointing nonetheless. A thoughtful and poignant Ukraine war film would actually be valuable now. The Best In Hell parades itself as such a film, but underdelivers and focuses on all the wrong things. The … Read more
Seldom is a sequel widely recognized as superior to its predecessor, with most follow-ups struggling to recapture the relevance or dynamism of the original. There are exceptions—Aliens comes to mind. But they are few and far between. As often as not, a sequel is a shameless and hamfisted cash grab, with remakes typically no better. Yet … Read more
Thanks to a recommendation from one of my readers on Quora, I became aware of this 1996 Serbian movie about the Bosnian War a few days ago. It might not be the best movie about civil war, but it’s probably the best I’ve seen. Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, directed by Srđan Dragojević, is about childhood … Read more