Martha Bayles is the film and TV critic for The Claremont Review of Books and the author of two books: Through a Screen Darkly: Popular Culture, Public Diplomacy, and America’s Image Abroad, and Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music; and a regular columnist for The American Interest. Since 2003 she has taught in the Arts & Sciences Honors Program at Boston College.
| It Takes a Village |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: August 15, 2019 |
| This article appeared in: Volume XIX, Number 3, Summer 2019 |
A binge-worthy series for grown-ups. ... |
| The Prism of Art |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: April 30, 2019 |
| This article appeared in: Volume XIX, Number 2, Spring 2019 |
Hidden signs of faith and redemption in two notable films from Europe. ... |
| The Goddess in the Mist |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: February 20, 2019 |
| This article appeared in: Volume XIX, Number 1, Winter 2019 |
Why the TV adaptation of My Brilliant Friend is better than the book.
... |
| Ancestry.Comics |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: November 6, 2018 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVIII, Number 4, Fall 2018 |
The uninspiring side of Marvel Studio’s Afro-futurist utopia. ... |
| The Most Dangerous Enemy They Can Find |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: July 31, 2018 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVIII, Number 3, Summer 2018 |
Netflix’s clever Black Mirror. ... |
| The Dark at the End of the Tunnel |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: May 7, 2018 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVIII, Number 2, Spring 2018 |
Ken Burns’s The Vietnam War does not take sides. ... |
| Dream Factory, or Propaganda Machine? |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: February 6, 2018 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVIII, Number 1, Winter 2018 |
Hollywood’s romance with China may be breaking up. ... |
| Angle of Descent |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: October 17, 2017 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVII, Number 4, Fall 2017 |
Detroit rips open old wounds. ... |
| Elizabethan Virtues |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: July 31, 2017 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVII, Number 3, Summer 2017 |
Dignity, not celebrity. ... |
| A Long-Form Miracle |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: April 25, 2017 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVII, Number 2, Spring 2017 |
The Young Pope is a dazzling work of art. ... |
| Le Carré’s People |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: February 1, 2017 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVII, Number 1, Winter 2016/17 |
The Cold War novelist on the big and small screen. ... |
| Horror Show |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: November 8, 2016 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVI, Number 4, Fall 2016 |
What does The Walking Dead say about American anxieties? ... |
| The Americans - A Fan's Notes |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: August 11, 2016 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVI, Number 3, Summer 2016 |
Truth, lies, and TV spies. ... |
| Enemy of the People |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: May 11, 2016 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XVI, Number 2, Spring 2016 |
Donald Trump's bad reality show. ... |
| Whistleblowers and Deaf Ears |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: February 23, 2016 |
| This article appeared in: Volume XVI, Number 1, Winter 2015/16 |
Democracy and transparency need each other. ... |
| In Our Guts |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: November 9, 2015 |
| This article appeared in: Volume XV, Number 4, Fall 2015 |
Two television shows' very different outlooks on war and prisoners of war. ... |
| Personal Technology |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: August 24, 2015 |
| This article appeared in: Volume XV, Number 3, Summer 2015 |
| “What does it mean to understand man well enough to create one?” The question is posed in Plug & Pray, a fascinating 2010 documentary about robotics and artificial intelligence (A.I.) by the German filmmaker Jens Schanze. The person asking the question is not one of the A.I. true bel... |
| Good Cops, Bad Cops |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: May 29, 2015 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XV, Number 2, Spring 2015 |
| If you’ve been watching any of the trendy new programs on cable television, your first response to Blue Bloods, the CBS crime drama which recently ended its fifth season, will likely be: this is some old-fashioned TV! There’s no profanity, nudity, explicit sex, or extreme violence, and a... |
| This Article Has Been Self-Censored |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: March 11, 2015 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XV, Number 1, Winter 2014/15 |
shadow paly-This Article Has Been Self-Censored ... |
| Tolstoy in Texas |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: October 31, 2014 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XIV, Number 4, Fall 2014 |
| Several years ago, I spent the better part of an evening arguing with a professor of literature about Tolstoy. My position was that Tolstoy is one of the greatest novelists who ever lived; the professor’s was that Tolstoy’s works are sexist, classist, and outdated. Later that night I had... |
| Underrating Democracy in China |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: May 5, 2014 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XIV, Number 2, Spring 2014 |
House of Cards is a hit in China, too. ... |
| Oh Brother! Why Bother? |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: February 11, 2014 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XIV, Number 1 - Winter 2013/14 |
Martha Bayles discusses the new Coen Brother's movie, Inside Llewyn Davis. ... |
| The Secret Life of Walter White |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: December 9, 2013 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XIII, Number 4 - Fall 2013 |
Why Breaking Bad is unexpectedly good. ... |
| What Makes Gatsby Great? |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: August 6, 2013 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XIII, Number 3 - Summer 2013 |
A test of this insight is The Great Gatsby, the latest screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan and co-written and directed by the Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann. ... |
| The Hollywood Dialectic |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: March 21, 2013 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XIII, Number 1 - Winter 2012/13 |
Lincoln and Django Unchained represent what passes for artistic sensibility in today’s Hollywood. ... |
| Let a Hundred Blockbusters Bloom |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: January 31, 2012 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XII, Number 1 - Winter 2011/12 |
China plans to blow up Hollywood’s monopoly. ... |
| Oprah's World Mission |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: November 21, 2011 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XI, Number 4 - Fall 2011 |
The high priestess of Change Your Life TV. ... |
| The Guided and the Misguided |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: August 29, 2011 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XI, Number 3 - Summer 2011 |
What soap operas at home and abroad teach us. ... |
| The Ultimate Social Network |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: April 7, 2011 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. XI, Numbers 1 & 2 - Winter/Spring 2010/11 |
Cambridge, MA, March 15, 2014—Noh Hao, at 25 the social media’s youngest—and first female—multibillionaire, explains her meteoric success in an exclusive interview with Martha Bayles. ... |
| American Sex-ceptionalism |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: September 2, 2010 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. X, Number 3 - Summer 2010 |
What does Sex and the City show the world about America? ... |
| Animation and Aspiration |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: March 3, 2010 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. X, Number 1, Winter - 2009/10 |
Avatar is the latest example of where art, politics, and theology meet. ... |
| Unfinished Work |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: February 3, 2009 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. IX, Number 1 - Winter 2008/09 |
Can any film do justice to the political genius of Abraham Lincoln? ... |
| Whatever It Takes |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: December 15, 2007 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. VIII , Number 1 - Winter 2007/08 |
War and torture get the Hollywood treatment. ... |
| Out of Focus |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: October 25, 2007 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. VII, Number 4 - Fall 2007 |
Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is a blurry copy of the Hong Kong original. ... |
| Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: March 26, 2007 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. VII, Number 2 - Spring 2007 |
The merciless comic keeps hitting below the Borscht Belt. ... |
| Birth of a Blockbuster |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: January 31, 2007 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. VI, Number 4 - Fall 2006 |
An inside look at Dan Brown’s new novel. ... |
| Uncaptive Mind |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: January 31, 2007 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. VI, Number 3 - Summer 2006 |
The films of Krzysztof Kieslowski. ... |
| Reel Queens |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: January 26, 2007 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. VII, Number 1 - Winter 2006/07 |
The Queen and Marie Antoinette ask whether the modern world can understand monarchy anymore. ... |
| Crossing the Rubicon |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: May 1, 2006 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. VI , Number 2 - Spring 2006 |
HBO gets "Rome" right. ... |
| Top of the World, Skipper! |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: February 6, 2002 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. II , Number 2 - Winter 2002 |
Cantor attempts to link four TV programs to the themes of globalization and the end of the nation-state ... |
| Music, Philosophy, and Generation Y |
| By: Martha Bayles |
| Posted: November 20, 2000 |
| This article appeared in: Vol. I, Number 1 - Fall 2000 |
| A few reasons to be hopeful amidst the flotsam and jetsam of popular culture.... |
