Essays and cultural criticism shaped by the writers, artists, places, and ideas that have influenced my thinking. These pieces combine personal encounter with close reading to examine how taste and judgment develop over time.
Some people have closed the book on Woody Allen. I understand that impulse. But his movies shaped who I am—and rewatching Another Woman reminded me how much.
Mouchette, a French peasant girl whose name means “little fly,” is a pest to the people around her. Scrunched up and defensive, she clomps through a rough world where words have little value—even the ones that might save her life.