History

‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ (2018) are had by all

Having proven himself in the Joss Whedon school (“Buffy,” “Angel”) and with crowd-pleasers (“The Martian”), writer-director Drew Goddard tries his hand at a Quentin Tarantino-style

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‘A League of Their Own’ (1992) a bittersweet slice of time

“A League of Their Own” (1992), based in spirit if not specifics on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s, is easy to

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‘Alienist’ makes welcome, if not happy, return with ‘Angel of Darkness’

With all the depressing news in the world lately, it’d be nice to get a happy new TV show to watch. So on Sunday, TNT

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PKD’s career starts (sort of) with ‘Gather Yourselves Together’ (1994)

“Gather Yourselves Together” (written about 1950, published in 1994) is a 373-page novel with no plot, and whether that’s a feature or a bug depends

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‘The Terror’ (2007) an illuminating mix of horror, history

Dan Simmons’ “The Terror” (2007) mixes horror and history, fiction and fear. If you’ve seen the 2018 TV miniseries, a lot of the book will

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‘The Lighthouse’ wallows in misery, madness

The job of lighthouse keeper, from the long-ago days when the lights needed to be manned, has a pure and simple grandeur. The keeper had

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‘Bronx is Burning’ (2007) chronicles 1977 Yankees’ personality clash

The first episode of the eight-part “The Bronx is Burning” (2007, ESPN) opens with a dugout clash between Yankees manager Billy Martin (John Turturro) and

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PKD wraps non-SF stretch with ‘Humpty Dumpty in Oakland’ (1986)

“Humpty Dumpty in Oakland” (written in 1960, published in 1986) – the last-written of Philip K. Dick’s nine non-science fiction novels – is perhaps his

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‘The Rocketeer’ (1991) has a blast with 1930s nostalgia

“The Rocketeer” (1991) launched the 1990s boom of nostalgic proto-superhero films set in the time before “Superman’s” 1938 invention, and it set the bar high

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‘Jojo Rabbit’ the cutest-ever film about a Hitler-loving kid

The two most remarkable things about “Jojo Rabbit” (2019) are 1, that it’s a mainstream comedy about a kid who loves Hitler, and 2, that

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