College Is All About Curiosity. And That Requires Free Speech. by Stephen L. Carter

I respect the thoughtfulness Stephen L. Carter brings to his advocacy for more or less unfettered free speech on college campuses, even as I adamantly disagree with some of his fundamental points. One of the chief shortcomings of Carter’s argument is that it relies on all parties operating in good faith in the grand intellectual conversation he envisions, and recent events have further demonstrated that is simply not the case. Moreover, his personal example of experiences as an undergraduate with William Shockley, a famed engineering professor who held and expressed extremely bigoted views. Carter distinguishes between Shockley voicing these ideas and acting on them by robbing students of opportunities, as if the latter isn’t the direct, inevitable result of the former. The students who protest their universities and college providing a platform to hatemongers have, I believe, a better understanding of the reality of how reductive, regressive ideas spread toxicity. There are more valuable things to be curious about than how to counter speech that has no merit. This piece is published by The New York Times.

Skirmishing Over Screenplays by Alissa Wilkinson

Springing from the Academy’s questionable decision to sort the Barbie screenplay, written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, into the Oscar category for adapted screenplays rather than original screenplays, Alissa Wilkinson goes deep and dense on the delineation. It’s a frothy, fascinating piece of film writing, engaging in the sort of back and forth that spirited cineastes might engage in over a couple post-screening cocktails. This article is published by The New York Times.

Sweet Freedom: Running Scared in a Winter Wonderland by Jeremy Herbert

This fond reminiscence about a largely forgotten 1986 buddy-cop comedy couldn’t have hit at a better time for me. For my own odd reasons, I was just thinking about this movie, and Jeremy Herbert’s appreciation was an added reminder of why this fine but flawed entertainment lingers in my memory. The article is published by Crooked Marquee.