Sudhir Muralidhar

It is easy to hate Lars von Trier. The Danish rabble-rouser of international cinema knows how to push the buttons of America’s educated liberal elite (the only ones in this country who see his films), and he does it in the most egregious manner possible: by dismissing any idea of a benevolent American social order. […]

In his Gulf War memoir, Jarhead, former Marine Anthony Swofford argues that most of the war movies that are ostensibly anti-war — Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon — serve as pro-war to the troops on the ground. The visceral scenes of carnage, fanatically reconstructed to drive home war’s cruelty, only rile up and energize […]

To the growing number of American corporate symbols that make the rest of the world recoil — McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Citigroup — add the lesser-known but no less aggressive Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa Valley. The Mondavis control a $500 million global wine empire, with vineyards from California to Chile to Australia. So it came as […]