The Movie Deal That Made Hollywood Lose Its Mind by Tiana Clark

Sinners is one of the best movies of the year. It also represents a triumph for filmmaker Ryan Coogler over showbiz systems designed to keep him in check, beholden to money movers who don’t really care a lick about hard but are happy to exploit artists. He brokered a deal, hardly unprecedented, to have greater ownership of the work and an immediate claim to more of the money it earns. This turnabout in traditional Hollywood hierarchies has led talentless, overcompensated executives to feed pliant entertainment journalisms all sort of little stories meant to undercut the correct perception that Sinners is a resounding success in every way. Writing for The New York Times, Tiana Clark considers Coogler’s savvy and how it is expressed in the narrative of the very movie at the center of the discourse hubbub.

Trump’s Order to Sanitize Black History Meets Institutional Resistance by Clyde McGrady

The flagrant bigotry of the current occupants of the White House to eliminate stories of Black struggle and triumph from U.S. history is infuriating. More than that, it’s pathetic, an obviously doomed attempt to reshape reality to preferences of woefully fragile, painfully inferior white people who are so upset that they can’t cruelly boss around those who have darker skin than them like in the good old days. Clyde McGrady reports on the ways that proper recounting and celebration of Black history is staying firmly in place, no matter how aggressively the racist stamp their feet in rage. This article is published by The New York Times.

How Republicans in Congress Enable Trump’s Tyranny by Matt Ford

Writing for The New Republic, Matt Ford offers an important widening of the spotlight as the basic tenets of the United States are thrown away as casually as candy wrappers. This destruction is not solely the responsibility of the wildly corrupt individuals in the executive branch of the federal government. Every bit of unnecessary agony happening in this country because of the lawlessness of the president and his direct reports is owned by the entire Republican party, and it’s long past time for the media and the Democrats to relentlessly press that argument.

They Elected A White Sox Fan Pope by Molly Knight

Writing for her own Substack, Molly Knight delivers a delightful essay about the particular baseball fandom of the new pope. If we are finally to have a head of the Catholic Church who has roots in the United States, I am deeply grateful that the person in question has called Chicago home. There’s no other American city I’d rather see represented in the Vatican.

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My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth’ by Molly Young

For The New York Times Magazine, Molly Young reports from Finland as only she can. As usual, her writing is wise, insightful, precise, and terrifically funny. “I stopped at a bar for a drink and felt worse after finishing it, as I knew I would, given alcohol’s peerless capacity to italicize whatever mood the drinker is already in.” Amen, Molly.