Billy Wilder’s frantic Cold War comedy deserves another look
Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week:…
A theater ensemble turns mutually assured destruction into a live-action game
In Expert Witness, The A.V. Club talks to industry insiders about the actual business of entertainment in hopes of…
The Cold War is over, but the terror WarGames tapped into remains
One of the abiding characteristics of the Cold War era was a general fear that it would eventually trigger World War…
Puppet state: The growing Cold War anxiety of Gerry Anderson’s supermarionation shows
Even if they hadn’t been the most prominent—and only action-oriented—puppet shows of their time, Gerry Anderson’s…
Who’s your favorite fictional communist?
Welcome back to AVQ&A, where we throw out a question for discussion among the staff and readers. Consider this a prompt…
George Clooney takes an unusual look at the Cold War
Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week:…
Cold War board games explore the conflict’s history, spycraft, and humor
In Gameological Unplugged, Samantha Nelson looks at trends and new developments in the vast world of tabletop games.
In Soviet Russia, Yakov Smirnoff’s TV commercials watch you
In the mid-to-late ’80s, Yakov Smirnoff was a popular comedian. Born in the Ukraine under Soviet rule, Smirnoff…
The villain gap: Why Soviet movies rarely had American bad guys
March 23, 1987: Hollywood in the twilight of the Cold War. Three weeks earlier, Ronald Reagan—who had headed the Screen…
How the Cold War saved Marvel and birthed a generation of superheroes
Comic book superheroes are inherently political creatures. The genre is devoted to the adventures of powerful…
Against all odds, the 2001: A Space Odyssey sequel is actually good
Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week:…
Red Nightmare awkwardly exposes the perils of communist living
At the height of the Red Scare, it was important for the U.S. government to indoctrinate children against the evils of…
Reds is the political epic America still needs
“My idea of an American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: We win and…
“Sunshine on the waste land”: 20 songs about nuclear annihilation
The disturbing use of atomic power to end World War II had folks in the following decades pretty shaken up, leading to…
Can the love of an enemy agent ever be trusted?
Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week:…
Relax with hours and hours of Soviet military parades
Watching old Soviet military parades may not seem like the best use of your time, and to be honest, it probably isn’t.…
In the 1980s, G.I. Joe fought “Cobra” instead of communism (but also communism)
“If we’re going to have toys to teach our children about war, why not have them really true to life? Why not have a…
Soviet sci-fi: The future that never came
In a house that eerily recalls the aesthetic of Her—modernist on the outside, studiedly rustic and artisanal on the…
Clint triumphs by thinking like a Russian in this Cold War adventure
Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week:…