Michael Berkowitz
LATEST ARTICLES BY Michael Berkowitz
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Culture
Frederick Wiseman’s ‘City Hall’: Let us now praise democracy
December 15, 2020Director Frederick Wiseman has gifted us with a movie for our times. City Hall is all about democracy—how it works, who does it, and why it is so vital.
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Culture
How capitalism underdeveloped Appalachia: The economic truth ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ ignores
December 1, 2020It’s a tough trip for J.D. Vance and the viewer, but as the ride bumps along, it stays safely above the larger issues that actually shape the afflictions of Appalachia.
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Culture
PBS ‘Latinos Are Essential’: Who does the work and who pays
November 24, 2020The mainly young filmmakers and their mainly young subjects have gone beyond the confusion and drama of crisis. They do what so few films do: They capture portraits of working-class people at their jobs and illuminate...
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Culture
‘The Queen’s Gambit’: A different kind of superhero
November 18, 2020Tired of the formulaic diet of high-density superhero fat clogging our entertainment arteries?
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Culture
‘Trump: An American Dream’ TV series is a wakeup call
October 8, 2020Trump: An American Dream is a wakeup call, a warning against his kind of predatory capitalism and the political system that foisted this nightmare on our country.
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Culture
‘Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground’ on PBS on October 6
September 24, 2020Two-time Emmy nominee writer-director Bernardo Ruiz has cobbled together an impressive, entertaining hour-long montage of the current state of the Latino electorate.
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Culture
‘Five Days, Five Nights’: Flight to freedom from fascist Portugal
September 16, 2020Álvaro Cunhal had a little secret. It was a good thing that he did.
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Culture
‘Crash Landing on You’: An axis of evolution
September 8, 2020A romantic comedy about North Korea? The country that wants to bomb us back to the stone age?
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