Email Author Alan Scherstuhl
2013 Stories by Alan Scherstuhl
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The Great and Pained Life of a Polio-Striken R&B Hitmaker in A.K.A. Doc Pomus
published October 2, 2013
The thrilling story of Brooklyn's most beloved polio-stricken white boy r&b genius, Peter Miller and Will Hechter's A.K.A. Doc Pomus... More >>
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Losing Sight of Hope in an Impoverished Lavish Land in A River Changes Course
published October 2, 2013
The lushness of the jungles of northern Cambodia—and of the photography of the same, shot by director and director of photography... More >>
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Vikingdom Trembles With Great Dumb Joy
published October 2, 2013
Say it out loud, and the title Vikingdom, that slapdash portmanteau, reveals its hidden promise: Viking Dumb. That's a fair... More >>
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An Affecting Israeli-Palestinian Romance in Out in the Dark
published September 25, 2013
When it's concerned with the most trying of lives in the most troubled of regions, it can feel petty to complain that a tragic-minded romantic... More >>
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Muscle Shoals Gives all the Mud, Spirit and Glory a Fresh Breath
published September 25, 2013
We see Bono's face before we hear a soul singer sing, but other than that prizing of current fame over timeless r&b, Greg "Freddy" Camalier's... More >>
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Inside Llewyn Davis: The Coen Brothers' Most Moving Film Since A Serious Man
published September 25, 2013
You may wonder, as you relish their stridently un-nostalgic re-creation of the Greenwich Village folk scene, just when Joel and Ethan Coen... More >>
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After Tiller Visits the Three Clinics Left Performing Late-Term Abortions
published September 18, 2013
If Americans have grown more conservative on abortion, it's a good bet the trucks have something to do with it. If you've seen them you'll... More >>
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The Wizard of Oz Is Still Grand and Still Human, Even in 3D IMAX
published September 18, 2013
You have every reason to be skeptical. We've suffered years of 3D cash-grabs. This spring visited upon us a cheap-jack James Franco grimacing... More >>
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A Single Shot's Bloodsoaked Strength Comes From Its Simplicity
published September 18, 2013
If the movies have taught us anything, it's this: Don't expect an easy time of hanging on to satchels of cash you find in the woods. David M.... More >>
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The Simpsons Survive the Apocalypse in the Stellar Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play
published September 18, 2013
Is it tragic that tens of millions of people's entire conception of Gilbert & Sullivan comes from a minute or so of silliness on a... More >>
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Ethan Coen's Women or Nothing Is Imperfect Human Comedy
published September 18, 2013
An agreeably minor comedy in both scope and key, Ethan Coen's Women or Nothing opens with a surefire farcical premise and then, to its... More >>
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Blue Caprice Finds Fresh Terror in the D.C. Sniper Case
published September 11, 2013
With so many violent movies, and lurid movies, and straight-up bad movies, most just so much murderous product, it's rare anymore to be seized... More >>
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Wadjda Reveals the Lives of Saudi Girls
published September 11, 2013
Like all kid protagonists in movies, Wadjda's Wadjda wants one pure thing so much that the very concept of want shades into... More >>
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COVER STORY
W. Kamau Bell's Outrageously Funny Totally Biased Gets in Your Face About Race
published September 11, 2013
"I've had a strange career," W. Kamau Bell says a few moments after hauling himself onto the stage at Caroline's Comedy Club in late... More >>
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The Most Thrilling Novel Published This Summer Is 80 Years Old and Hungarian
published September 11, 2013
Although it's double-stuffed with counts and balls, with duels and scandal and exquisitely described hunting parties, with idealists debating... More >>
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Salinger Would Make Holden Caulfield Puke
published September 4, 2013
'If they made a movie, Holden wouldn't like it," Martin Sheen opines deep into the new documentary Salinger. He's speaking of the... More >>
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My Father and the Man in Black Is a Full and Vital Look at Johnny Cash's "Interesting Years"
published September 4, 2013
It's a weird miracle that Johnny Cash and his primitive twosome banged out music that still feels so full and vital today. And it's a weird... More >>
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I Declare War's Heroes and Villains Are Kids, but Its Truths Are Adult
published August 28, 2013
The most revealing film ever made about kids and the appeal of violent fantasy isn't Battle Royale or an adaptation of Lord of the... More >>
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De Palma's Passion Is All Tricks--and Undervalued
published August 28, 2013
Your life surges ahead as it is, pretty much, but maybe tinted blue. Maybe everything around you is tilted a bit, and strips of light glow on... More >>
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Following Crows, Tokyo Waka: A City Poem Is a Film of Beauty and Revelation
published August 28, 2013
Despite the poetry its subtitle promises, the fascinating crows-in-the-skyline doc Tokyo Waka is more informative than lyric, which is... More >>
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Awake & Sing!: Bittersweet American Dreams
published August 28, 2013
Some specifics, of course, have staled since 1935: the idea of Soviet Russia as a society ours should emulate, or that a premarital pregnancy... More >>
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A Frank Portrayal of Human Trafficking in Una Noche
published August 21, 2013
"The only things to do down here are sweat and fuck," we're told not too long into Una Noche, a lyric-then-raw drama about a teenage... More >>
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Can't Quite Forgive I Forgive You, Ronald Reagan
published August 21, 2013
First, for the record, Ronald Reagan lied. In late October 1980, candidate Reagan and his campaign sent a letter to Robert E. Poli,... More >>
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Austenland is a Rom-Com With Uncommon Spirit and Wit
published August 14, 2013
Since it's called Austenland, and since it's a romantic comedy, you probably expect it to open with "It's a truth universally... More >>
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Adapted to Film, The Patience Stone Loses Its Abstract Subtleties
published August 14, 2013
Atiq Rahimi's slender, wrenching novel The Patience Stone lays bare the heart of a devout Afghan woman, a Muslim who shields her face... More >>
