Weeping softly for Yury Luzhkov
It was only a matter of time before ousted Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov became re-cast as the victim of "the dark forces that govern Russia" (as one person put it to me in an e-mail, preferring not to...
“Certified Copy” at the 48th New York Film Festival
Every once in awhile a movie comes along that rekindles the passion we cine-maniacs had when we first fell in love with art films. This year, The 48th New York Film Festival (running from September...
The Town: Ben Affleck’s redemption
After losing the bad guys in a claustrophobic car chase Special Agent Frawley is pissed. “This is the not-f*cking-around crew,” he rants at his men, “So get me something that looks like a...
Editor’s Diary: Bunin’s legend of the fall
Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin once wrote a brilliant story that is the very definition of "shot." In it, a nobleman riding alone sometime in autumn is nearly run down by a drunk peasant on his horse. The...
Enter Janelle Monáe
In my last piece about music for Global Comment, I bemoaned the state of contemporary rnb and hiphop, which has few bright spots as far as I'm concerned—a malaise I should hasten to add it shares...
The Muslim Question: It’s not about “decency”
As a Pakistani-American who was raised Muslim, I've been abstaining from weighing in on the unrestrained anti-Muslim crusade that has recently metastasized to untenable proportions worldwide, partly...
The death of Liza Fomkina
Liza Fomkina and her aunt - a woman suffering from a disability - went missing on September 13 after taking two dogs on a walk in Orekhovo-Zuevo, a town in the Moscow region. The aunt's body was...
How “F” fails
“Education, education, education.” New Labour’s old mantra rings hollow to English teacher Robert Anderson. This venerable warhorse stalks his classroom with the kind of “Dark sarcasm”...
The Big C: So this is liberating?
The Big C is making quite a splash in cable programming. Laura Linney stars as Cathy Jamison, a high school history teacher diagnosed with Stage-IV melanoma. Cathy eschews chemotherapy and opts not...
Editor’s Diary: Hate is still hate
Politics in the U.S. has reached a level of toxicity that those of us who worked the campaign trail during the 2008 elections couldn't have imagined. Foolishly, perhaps, my friends and I on the Obama...