The Sun Rises and Sets with Heat

|Natalie Marlin| Hamlet is no more a play about a prince seeking revenge than it is about any of its other threads—nationalistic aristocratic decay, melancholic humors, loss inciting psychiatric madness. Patsies cast off to certain death, mere pawns in power plays. Blood begetting more blood, until it is entirely… Continue reading

A Lengthy and Mundane Explanation of the Fashion Hierarchy of Men in Brazil’s Well-Oiled Government Machine and Absolutely, Positively, 100% Nothing Else

A group of six looming, smirking white men in light grey, pinstripe suits looking into camera. The central man is agape in frustrated anguish.

|Zach Staads| If you really want to make a statement, affect some real change and be an upstanding, ambitious member of the bureaucratic body that keeps the lights on*—you should know the importance of bureau fashion and the importance it plays in… Continue reading

NERVOUS IN THE DESERT: Elizabeth Street alienation in Martin Scorsese’s Casino 

|Ben Tuthill| Casino is the only entry in Martin Scorsese’s catalog you might confuse for self-parody. Three different voice-overs, a United Nations of ethnic slurs, so many Rolling Stones needle drops that at one point there’s a Rolling Stones song playing over another… Continue reading

Turn Your Gaze Upon This Wretched Thing: The Schismatic Spectacle of Brian DePalma’s Hi, Mom!

A white man waving at the camera, with the image cut off horizontally and mirrored at the middle

|Courtney Kowalke| I cannot escape the reach of Ancient Greek theater. The last piece I wrote for Perisphere was about Mai Zetterling’s The Girls and a fictional production of Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata. It turns out a large part of director Brian DePalma’s inspiration for… Continue reading