A Classic ‘Feel Bad’ Movie About Progress
The new documentary “Surviving Progress” takes a cautionary view of modern advancement and sees major problems at every juncture.
Lewis Beale is a former entertainment writer for the New York Daily News.
The new documentary “Surviving Progress” takes a cautionary view of modern advancement and sees major problems at every juncture.
A stirring compilation of instances where the pen, or brush, was equivalent to the sword raises the question of whether it can compete with the keyboard.
As the U.S. Supreme Court gets ready to examine life without parole for juvenile killers, a new study identifies the racial and sociological backstories of the existing prisoners.
“The Forgiveness of Blood” looks at a Balkan nation that has left behind feudalism and then communism but not the traditions of the blood feud.
South Africa’s painful journey from white minority domination to democracy, and the roles played by the rest of the world, is chronicled in a five-part documentary airing on PBS.
"Khodorkovsky" and "Hipsters," two wildly different films currently making rounds of U.S., suggest that each step forward in Russia is greeted with one step back.
As Brazil prepares to host two high-profile global events, filmmaker José Padilha suggests that while improving security is a worthy goal, its methods and rationale are deeply flawed.
A new documentary film, "Paul Goodman Changed My Life," tells the at-times risqué story of the seminal public intellectual of the American left whose impact evaporated after his death in 1972.
"American Teacher" argues the best prescription for the United States' ailing public schools is paying the educators a better salary.
The latest headlines from Afghanistan repeat the old stories Americans first heard from the Philippines, suggests the newest movie by independent filmmaker John Sayles.
"Project Nim," a documentary film examining the story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who learned to communicate with people using sign language, reveals more about people than other primates.
In his film review of "The Last Mountain," Lewis Beale describes a horror flick about environmental degradation and predatory capitalism.
Reviews of two serious feature films examining true occurrences: the uplifting "The First Grader" and the brutal "City of Life and Death."
The documentary 'The Desert of Forbidden Art' tells the story of the Igor Savitsky Museum, a remote refuge for Soviet-era art that ran afoul of Stalin's diktat.
Documentary film "Making the Boys" recounts the rise, fall and redemption of the groundbreaking and controversial play, "The Boys in the Band."
Efforts to ban books in schools have shifted subjects and tactics, with the efforts of single parents now being replaced by organizations.
A new film documenting Finland’s effort to seal away nuclear waste for the next 100 millennia asks how one predicts 100,000 years into the future.
A new documentary finds that Robert E. Lee, the beau ideal of the Confederate officer and gentleman, also represented some of the less savory aspects of the Lost Cause.
The murders, intrigues and expanses of Pakistan's first female prime minister seem made for the big screen, and a new documentary is a game first step in that direction.
Eliot Spitzer, the shooting star of New York state politics, takes part in the documentary "Client 9," which looks at the sex scandal that doused his light.
"Carlos," a monumental feature film about the 1970s terrorist Carlos the Jackal, covers the bases historically and still provides a crackling good experience cinematically.
Changes in attitudes, technology and finances have eroded the stance that a prison cell is the best home for every convicted criminal. Alternative sentencing is finding creative ways to deal with low-level, nonviolent offenders.
A new movie looks at the seminal 1955 obscenity trial centering on Allen Ginsberg’s epic Beat poem ‘Howl.’
"A Film Unfinished" shows the pains that Nazi documentarians took to ensure that their take on the "Jewish problem" came through.
‘Countdown to Zero,’ a documentary history of nuclear weapons and possibility of radioactive terrorism, offers a cautionary tale for atomic powers.
Author and now documentary filmmaker Sebastian Junger brings AfPak to the big screen with polish and pathos in "Restrepo."
American public education continues to give short shrift to serious teaching of foreign languages, especially those harder tongues that promise to be prominent in the future.
Three prominent environmental activists reflect on the state of the American green movement for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
A documentary examining the life of Veit Harlan, a film director responsible for films favored by Nazis, provides back story for a new and controversial feature film.
‘The Art of the Steal’ paints of picture of moneyed, but likely well-meaning, interests having their ways with a cloistered collection of art.
The recent ruling on corporate political rights left some observers to cry the sky is falling. Some past decisions really did merit Chicken Little's exclamation.
Legislation named for a missing 31-year-old man would tie together the various data threads on the nation's missing persons.
Hammered by budget shortfalls and seeing declines in crime rates, 20 states have reduced inmate counts.
The documentary "The End of Poverty?" takes an impassioned if clunky look at international capitalism over the last half millennium. Guess what it finds?
Stop worrying so much about that vaguely Eastern European computer hacker and start worrying about that clerk at the DMV.
Authors of two recent books, "Whitopia" and "The Big Sort," see Americans as disuniting based on politics, race and culture.
Most states have no limits on how long a witness or defendant can be held in civil contempt. Perhaps they should.
America's crowded prisons are seeing a larger number of lifers cluttering their halls and cafeterias, according to a new report from an organization opposed to life-without-parole sentences.
Four years ago the high court decided no minor should face the death penalty. Now it's poised to determine if youths should face life without a chance of parole.
Despite more than a decade's worth of attention on programs aimed at girls and crime, researchers know little about whether these programs work better than other efforts.
A new study by three FBI officials suggests that cooperation — whether by witnesses or even other departments — is the key to closing more murder cases.
Two noted futurists are less concerned about acute knockout blows from a pandemic and more fearful of diminishing water and increasing warmth.
Film takes a look at the unintended consequences of one weapon in the arsenal devoted to the war on drugs.
The United States has lagged behind other industrialized countries in providing high-speed rail, but the stimulus package includes a big boost advocates have been praying for.
Kids navigate a semantic minefield where products with healthy-sounding ingredients are perceived as good for you, even if they're not.