Articles by Ciara Moloney

The Labor Politics of “Air”
Revisiting a seemingly pro-corporate “brandopic.”

‘The Miracle Worker’ Tells a Surprisingly Bold and Liberatory Story about Helen Keller
How the 1962 film about Helen Keller is not the sanitized, ableist depiction we might assume.

In Defense of South Park
Reflecting on a hilarious, problematic, iconic show.

Elvis Like You’ve Never Seen Him Before
How Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” took one of the most familiar stories in music history and somehow made it fresh again.

Entering the Twilight Zone
Even though television is a highly commercialized art form, The Twilight Zone still managed to offer innovation and politically incisive commentary.

The People’s Tramp
Charlie Chaplin’s films are insightful explorations of poverty, homelessness, and the callous moneyed classes. They also show cinema’s capacity to act as a small empathy-generating machine.

The Noirs of Melville
The films of Jean-Pierre Melville are stylish and seductive. Their meaning isn’t obvious—nor should it be. A look at some of the most original and satisfying films of the last century.

Hollywood, the Bush Years, and America’s Memory Hole
Our memories of history are shaped, in large part, by popular movies. What can we learn from the (few) films made about the Bush administration?

“Mythic Quest” and the Pursuit of Anti-Capitalist Media
In mass media’s clutter of incoherent ideology, Mythic Quest aims an anti-capitalist lens inward.

What Gets Lost
Ciara Moloney revisits soaps and sitcoms lost to time, and the hyper-possessive rituals of copyright.
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