Even the most ardent flag-waver is forced to concede that – sometimes – the most insightful examinations of a particular culture or society are produced by outsiders, people who peer at us from a perspective we can never share. (more…)

Ah, David Lynch, that inscrutable master of macabre doings on Main Street, U.S.A. The deranged impresario behind cult classics (more…)

It’s evening in Miami. A haunting, diffuse glow lingers over the treetops, contouring an old bus parked on a residential street. The door of the bus stands open and Mary Trody can be seen sitting inside, her own profile glowing from the light of her television screen. From a distance, Trody looks like a strangely proportioned, soft-sculpted doll. She’s wrapped in a white blanket, (more…)