Cormac McCarthy

Latest Articles

Donald Ray Pollock's over-the-top gothic

Biblical fury
Donald Ray Pollock's first novel is called The Devil All the Time , and that's exactly what's wrong with it.
By CHARLES TAYLOR | July 06, 2011

Days of future past

'SF-1970' at the Harvard Film Archive
Science-fiction films have been with us since Edison’s 1910 version of Frankenstein , but they bloomed in the ’Nam era, nourished by a volatile cocktail of cultural ingredients.
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | June 26, 2010

Voodoo economics

What vampire and zombie movies can tell us about the future of capitalism
To paraphrase The Communist Manifesto , a specter is haunting Hollywood. Actually, two of them: zombies and vampires. The undead.
By PETER KEOUGH | May 21, 2010

Walk hard

Joshua Ferris abandons the office and hits The Road
In Joshua Ferris's unsparing second novel, Tim Farnsworth doesn't know why he walks, but nothing but exhaustion can stop him.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | January 13, 2010

Dropping the ball

This past decade? Not so great. But the next, according to social critic James Howard Kunstler, will be much worse.
At last, the golden moment has arrived.
By MIKE MILIARD | January 06, 2010

2009: The year in movies

Men behaving badly
As I looked over my list of the best movies of 2009, it suddenly struck me: where are all the women on screen?
By PETER KEOUGH | December 28, 2009

Review: The Road

No country for all men: John Hillcoat doesn't stray from Cormac McCarthy's Road
John Hillcoat doesn't stray from Cormac McCarthy's Road For those who found the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men too lighthearted, John Hillcoat's relentlessly faithful version of the author's post-apocalyptic Pulitzer-winning novel might hit the spot.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 24, 2009

October lite

The outlook is still gloomy, but film finds time for childish things
We expected the vampires, the werewolves, the zombies, and the homicidal maniacs. Same thing with the android doubles, the alien abductors, the sexually abused pregnant teenager, the Apocalypse, and the post-Apocalypse. But kids' movies?
By PETER KEOUGH | September 17, 2009

Almost Famous: Joe Bernstein

Retired former senior special agent for the US Immigration and Naturalization Service
I’ve been all over the country, and I have to say, the quality of the State Police department here — they’re the best.
By FRANK MULLIN | September 10, 2008

Autumn peeves

Films with a full agenda
With pundits already reading political significance into summer blockbusters like The Dark Knight (“Is Batman a stand-in for George Bush? Discuss.”), the meatier movies of fall arrive not a moment too soon.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 11, 2008

The Oscars go to Hell

The Devil knows what the nominations will be for this year’s Oscars
Maybe it’s just as well if the writers’ strike forces a cancellation of the Oscars show.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 18, 2008

Wrestle in peace

Remembering Mailer, the blustery king of American letters
In a life of many garlands and much renown, it was Mailer’s strange engagement with literary destiny always to be trapped on the wrong side of his art.
By JAMES PARKER | November 14, 2007

Interview: Josh Brolin

On the brink of fame in No Country for Old Men
Josh Brolin has distinguished himself mostly by appearing in the worst movies of great directors.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 06, 2007

Quiet men

The Coens step back in No Country for Old Men
At heart, the Coen Brothers’ movies are about death — arbitrary, relentless, insidiously clever, with a gallows sense of humor.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 06, 2007

Open city

The 2007 Toronto Film Festival
In the pioneering early-’80s days of the Toronto Film Festival, the audience actually rose before movie showings for a canned recording of “God Save the Queen.”
By GERALD PEARY | September 18, 2007

War zones

Fall films face terror at home and abroad
The party’s over. Time for the lessons to begin.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 12, 2007

Viva Las Vegas!

Sin, sun, and survival, plus lesbian surfers
Last week in reality world, it was Vegas, Vegas, Vegas.
By JAMES PARKER | June 12, 2007

War and peace

Cowboy Junkies expand their reach
More often than not, when an artist gets airplay covering a decades-old song, it’s out of desperation — the sign of a career on its way down.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | May 08, 2007

Poetic justice

Joanna Newsom rises to the occasion on Ys
Hang your heads, folk pretenders, because this it what it means to write lyrics.
By JAMES PARKER | November 09, 2006

Lions and lambs

Pynchon isn’t all you’ll be reading this fall
The season is notable for the return to bookstores of canonical names like Atwood, Ginsberg, Kinnell, le Carré, Munro, Pynchon, and Vidal plus a fair share of younger lions like Eggers, Julavits, and Muldoon.
By JOHN FREEMAN | September 13, 2006