Impressions flood in on me: grayness; verticality; burning; ice, splitting; verdancy. The distant; the present. Wild swathes of light, of intense growth—is that a tree? a body of water? fire? Cold, crisp, thin air? I am standing in a small, warmly lit gallery. Paintings on the third and fourth days of creation surround me. Substances…

Note: This post contains spoilers for the first season of Downton Abbey. Last month, Masterpiece Theater’s newest period drama garnered thousands of besotted fans. Downton Abbey opens with news of Titanic’s tragedy and closes with news that Britain has entered the war in 1914—in between, the show provides an entry into Edwardian upstairs-downstairs intricacies within…

After reading reviews for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, I became frustrated. The consensus about its central character, Daniel Plainview, was that he was “a great oversize monster who hates all men including therefore himself” (Roger Ebert). My problem? Watching the film, I had related to Daniel. Anderson, who compares Daniel to Dracula,…