Cryptomnesia: The unconscious plagiarism affecting the music industry
The documentary ‘Taking on Taylor Swift’ delves into the plagiarism allegations regarding her hit ‘Shake It Off’ and reflects on the issue of cultural appropriation
Your migrant ate my dog, says America’s gory far right
As in ‘Braindead’, the grotesque zombie film directed by a young Peter Jackson, Donald Trump imagines foreigners are devouring residents’ pets. But he is the one who admires Hannibal Lecter
The third woman in John Lennon’s life has a different story regarding their ‘lost weekend’
May Pang was the Beatle’s partner for 18 months while he was estranged from Yoko Ono (who nonetheless oversaw many aspects of their relationship.) Now, she’s sticking up for their personally and artistically fertile time together, and refuting unsavory rumors
Anita Pallenberg lived through the wildest years of the Rolling Stones, went to hell and made it back
Documentary ‘Catching Fire’ tells the never-before-heard memories of the model and actress, who had relationships with both Brian Jones and Keith Richards
It’s not just you who’s seeing too many Elon Musk tweets
The owner of X is the biggest troll on the network formerly known as Twitter, which has become a haven for extremists and fake news. A new documentary explains how the platform has fallen in parallel with the ideological drift of the billionaire
J. D. Vance’s biopic is boring and it doesn’t explain much
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ goes over the childhood and teen traumas of Trump’s vice-presidential candidate, which he presents as a story of overcoming adversity
John Mayall, the blues genius who let others shine
The English musician, who died at 90, had an enormous influence on the music scene of the sixties as well as being a unique talent scout, launching the careers of Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor from his band, the Bluesbreakers
Steve Van Zandt, the nice guy who stood up to apartheid
The HBO documentary ‘Disciple’ profiles an artist who is much more than Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist and the actor immortalized in ‘The Sopranos.’ In the 1980s, he mobilized the music industry to cut ties with South Africa’s racist regime
Beyoncé is not the first Black country artist, and she knows it
The CNN documentary ‘Call Me Country’ does not focus on the singer, but rather vindicates the other African-American stars of the genre. Some, however, continue to believe that there are different styles for different races
‘The Sympathizer’ is designed to leave you believing nothing
The HBO series is a fiction within a fiction, the forced account of a double agent and professional liar. It is a satire of the Vietnam War and post-war fallout, exile, prejudice and the so-called melting pot
The Beach Boys were two bands and they were unique
A Disney documentary revisits the Californian group with more focus on their talent than their misfortunes. For much of their careers, Brian Wilson worked in the studio while the others went on tour
When ABBA was declared ‘the enemy’ in Sweden
The documentary ‘Against the Odds’ sketches the ups and downs that accompanied the band’s success. Though considered uncool in the 1970s, the most unlikely rock and punk rock stars were listening to them on the sly
‘Brutal and genocidal’: Dissecting Julius Caesar to warn us about Trump and other strongmen
A BBC documentary about the Roman dictator shows how his excessive ambition for power ultimately overthrew a republican system. The film also draws parallels between him and current forms of populism
‘Let It Be’: The cursed Beatles film makes a luminous comeback
In the context of 1970, Lindsay-Hogg’s film was the chronicle of a band in disarray. Disney has released a version restored by Peter Jackson’s team, which today is seen as a display of talent
Did God create Aretha Franklin?
The artist used her incredible voice to sing gospel in 1972. The sessions recorded in a local church led to the release her best-selling album ‘Amazing Grace’ and a movie that did not see the light until 2018
The melancholy of Route 66′s last witnesses: ‘There aren’t many of us left’
The documentary ‘Almost Ghosts’ gathers the memories of three elderly people who fondly remember the glory days of the mythical highway that led to California. Everything ended along with the highway, but some refused to accept it
‘All the Light We Cannot See’: Tenderness, evil Nazis and the magic of the radio
The miniseries set in occupied France is paradigmatic of what abounds on Netflix: good workmanship and shallow characters. But it does a good job at capturing how the World War II generation found company and consolation on the airwaves
Memphis Mafia confirms: Priscilla was victim of Elvis’s worst side
The documentary ‘Elvis & Priscilla: Conditional Love’ turns to the King of Rock’s entourage to tell the story of the toxic relationship between the singer and the woman he kept in a golden cage
Tina Turner’s many resurrections
The documentary ‘Remembering Tina Turner’ barely scratches the surface of the queen of rock. A previous film, ‘Tina,’ is much more ambitious, as befits a star who overcame enormous obstacles
Watching ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ hurts. And it has to hurt
Reporter Mstyslav Chernov bravely traverses the devastation of the Ukrainian city under Russian siege, documenting atrocities and whispering his thoughts. His goal is to shake us out of indifference
The rise and fall of disco: From the dance floor to freedom
During the rough 1970s, people wanted to dance. The documentary ‘Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution’ tells of how the genre grew on the margins, with Black women and gays at its helm, and how it wound up being eaten by its own success
The Beatles’ imagined India was a stronger muse than the real one
‘The Beatles and India’ documentary reveals a bitter experience with a guru that changed them in unexpected ways
‘For All Mankind’: Things could be different. We could have been on Mars decades ago
The alternate past of the Apple TV+ series covers several decades in which everything we thought that shouldn’t have happened, did
Gemma Galdón, algorithm auditor: ‘Artificial intelligence is of very poor quality’
The founder of Eticas Consulting advises international organizations to help them identify and avoid bias. She distrusts the expectations of the sector: ‘To propose that a data system is going to make a leap into consciousness is a hallucination’
Nancy Pelosi’s daughter visited the Trump supporters who wanted to hang her mother. It went well
Alexandra Pelosi directs the documentary ‘The Insurgents Next Door,’ in which she interviews those prosecuted and convicted for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021. She tries to understand their motivations, but also argues with them
Sobering Israeli documentary voices opposition to the occupation of Palestine
Former soldiers describe long-running abuses of Palestinians since their nation’s victory in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War
Would Lennon approve of ‘The Last Beatles Song’?
The ‘Now and Then’ mini-documentary focuses on demos John left unfinished, expecting that McCartney would complete them