The Joker Melodrama
Melodrama was an ultra-popular entertainment form of the Gilded Age. It seems fitting, then, that in 2019, we have returned to the genre in Joker.
Articles by: Eileen Jones
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Eileen Jones is a film critic at Jacobin and author of Filmsuck, USA. She also hosts a podcast called Filmsuck.
Joker and the Long History of Movie Moral Panics
Moral panics about provocative films like 'Joker' are as old as cinema itself. But more often than not, they're just proof of a film's merit — and of a deeply anxious middle class.
Broken Barry
On HBO’s new tragicomedy, a veteran plumbs the depths of his combat record for the stage — but ends up painting a portrait of middle-American desolation.
Go Ahead, Take the Adventure of Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood
In Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino is continuing his creative endeavor of engaging popular film forms and alternate-history structures to reimagine points of terrible disturbance in our collective past.
The Joys of Home Buying
In case you’ve never tried to buy a home, I should warn you: if you’re not affluent, you’re heading into a world of pain.
John Wick 3 Delivers the Justice We All Crave
Life in America sucks. Average people are constantly wronged and have little recourse to justice. That's why it's so satisfying to watch Keanu Reeves kick everyone's ass over and over in the John Wick movies.
Peterloo Is a Hard Movie to Like
Mike Leigh had plenty of material to make an exciting and historically accurate film about the Peterloo massacre. He made a boring one instead.
The Critics Ruined “Us”
Jordan Peele's "Get Out" was a masterpiece. "Us" is a tedious drag tailored to the sensibilities of critics.
Remind Me Never to Watch the Oscars Again
The Academy Awards were even more of a shitshow than usual this year. This is Jacobin’s last Oscars article, because we will find better things to do with our lives than watch that garbage.
The Man Who Shot America in the Face
Vice reminds us of the hell Dick Cheney wrought, with help from a rogue’s gallery of perps, hacks, creeps, and fall guys.
Beale Street’s Tragedy Made Gorgeous
In If Beale Street Could Talk, the ugliness of oppression and persecution stand in tense contrast with Barry Jenkins' lush, color-drenched cinematography.
The British Royals Have Always Been Scum
Despite generations of imperial murder, torture, rape, and plunder, the British ruling class still gets the brown-nose treatment in historical depictions. Not so in The Favourite, where the royals are shown as the disgusting creatures they were and still are.
The Specter of Capital
How the housing crash got us believing in ghosts again.
The Monster and the Final Girl
The new Halloween is a serviceable remake of a truly great horror film.
Klass and Kids’ Films
Disney-Pixar vs. Laika
BlacKKKlansman Is Both Awkward and Enthralling
BlacKKKlansman is a messy, unfocused film. But it's also one of Spike Lee's best.
“Crazy” Anticapitalism
Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You captures the crude madness that we live in every day under capitalism.
The Man in the Neighborhood
Fred Rogers was a wonderful human being who tried to use his influence for good. I just couldn't stand his show.
Year of the Zombie
George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead showed a new society devouring the old.
George Bailey’s Shrinkage
It’s a Wonderful Life of lowered expectations.