Published: The Daily Dot (August 25, 2016) Is it OK to separate the moral flaws of an artist from the quality of their art? The answer is yes—so long as you understand the consequences. It’s become an American trending topic that we can’t ignore across our Facebook...
Review for “Hell or High Water”
Aug 24, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Liskula Cohen
Published: The Good Men Project (August 23, 2016) co-author Liskula Cohen 2016 has been an especially political year when it comes to the movies. It seems like each of the major presidential candidates has had a major cinematic release to accompany the themes of their...
About my positive review for “Suicide Squad”
Aug 16, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Internet Culture
Published: The Daily Dot (August 16, 2016) It’s a strange feeling, having written one of the few positive articles about Suicide Squad. If the Internet community can learn anything from “Suicide Squad,” it is that online culture breeds a specific kind of...
Kevin Smith is right about online bullies
Aug 16, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Bullying, Internet Culture
Published: The Good Men Project (August 16, 2016) Simply put, cyber bullies deserve to be ridiculed because they are cowards. I suppose I can exclude the rare troll or hater who actually attaches his or her real name to their verbal bile. There are even a handful of...
Will Smith is right (I think)
Aug 9, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Race and Racism
Published: The Good Men Project (August 9, 2016) Before I get to why Will Smith is probably right, let’s dispense with why his hysterical right-wing critics are definitely wrong. At a press event in Dubai, Smith tried to find a silver lining to the dark cloud that is...
The sneaky politics of “Suicide Squad”
Aug 5, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Criminal Justice/Prison-Industrial Complex
Published: Salon (August 5, 2016) [Note: The end of this essay contains spoilers for the ending of “Suicide Squad.”] If the critics at RottenTomatoes are to be believed, Suicide Squad is a terrible movie with “a muddled plot, thinly written characters, and choppy...
Wise Words from the “South Park” Boys
Jul 28, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016)
Published: The Good Men Project (July 28, 2016) I may as well be upfront about this... I am a HUGE fan of "South Park." Although their political sensibilities don't always align with my own (see: their global warming denialism), the nineteen existing seasons of "South...
Buying “Ghostbusters” — or not: How buying in or boycotting a summer family movie became a political act
Jul 15, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Gender and Sexism
Published: Salon (July 15, 2016) It’s just a movie, people. Watching the “Ghostbusters” reboot was like going to McDonald’s. It is disposable, thoroughly enjoyable and distinctly American mass-produced entertainment. I savor the flavor of a Big Mac with the same...
Why “Finding Dory” speaks to me as an autistic man
Jun 17, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Asperger's Syndrome
Published: Salon (June 17, 2016) There is a Yiddish word, verklempt, that roughly translates as being choked up to the point of near-tears without actually crying. If you grew up with a learning disability or raised a child with one, there are plenty of scenes in...
My Ghostbusters Quandary
May 29, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Gender and Sexism
Published: The Good Men Project (May 28, 2016) When I first saw that the Ghostbusters reboot had acquired more downvotes than any other movie trailer in YouTube history, my heart sank. Sure, I’d written an article deconstructing the trailer and denouncing its flaws;...