Pressure
Hollywood values intelligence and emotional authenticity more than goodness or courage in those it asks us to admire
James Bowman
Latest posts
Never mind
Why do you suppose so many people nowadays seem to have lost the art of changing their minds — about anything? I think I know. From The New Criterion of June, 2026
Disclosure Day
What a coincidence! The good people in Steven Spielberg’s latest rhapsody on a UFO theme are the same as the news media’s good people (or aliens) and the bad people ditto.
Obsession
The movies are now where we go to be told what to be afraid of — namely, reality. From American Greatness
The Devil Wears Prada 2
“Beauty, artistry, and the very best in human innovation” — where are they to be found if not in a fashion magazine? — From American Greatness
Ideological follies
The habit of ideological thinking is now so engrained in the media and the political culture it has formed that every opinion can now be treated as an ideology and so be held with ideological certainty — From The New Criterion of May, 2026
Project Hail-Mary
As usual, I’m afraid, science-fiction struggles vainly to escape from from its comic-book origins. Of course, most people won’t care about that. — From American Greatness of May 14, 2026
Very fine people
Scandal is only tangentially related to wrong-doing, if any. It is, rather, the media’s license to hate, along with their instruction as to whom you must hate if you don’t want to be hated yourself — from The New Criterion of April, 2026
A recently discovered e-mail in the Donald J. Trump presidential archives
From: H.M. Henry VTo: President TrumpSubject: Advice on war rhetoric. In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility (nothing personal, you understand), but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger. Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood, disguise fair nature with...
Tough Talk
The left in America has staked its little all on the politics of feeling. Right now their only feeling is anger. — From The New Criterion of March, 2026