J. Taylor Bell

If the title of this review is confusing, it’s by design. Oh, Canada is the latest film by perennially cantankerous and existentially tortured cult icon Paul Schrader. It’s a demanding film – what Schrader calls a ‘mosaic’ – shot in four distinct styles. These are variations; flourishes, which underscore the film’s interest in the unreliability of memory and, more broadly, the spirit ... (read more)

‘Whatever the bird does is right for the bird to do –’ Judith Wright Australian poetry has always had a particular affinity for birds. This can be either infuriating or indispensable, depending on whom you consult. We might blame Judith Wright for this affinity – or the British pastoral tradition. We might blame the big prizes associated with ecopoems. Or we could just admit that bir ... (read more)

'Anything and everything, all of the time.’ This is the refrain to comedian Bo Burnham’s hilarious and subtly disturbing song ‘Welcome to the Internet’, which both precedes and succeeds endless lists of absurd metadata. The idea is that, naturally enough, we have entered an age that simply has no way to escape the internet. Everything is available to us instantly. And with that, since we n ... (read more)