All Stories
The shrunken ambition of Ryan Murphy’s “Love Story”
For a time, John F. Kennedy Jr. was one of the most famous boys in America. He was three years old when a photographer captured him saluting his father’s casket, and for many years, that was how most of America…
This Miyazaki film sees who we really are at heart
Throughout July, The Swell celebrated the lasting cultural inspiration of animator Hayao Miyazaki and the legendary films he created with Studio Ghibli. As part of GKIDS’ annual Studio Ghibli Fest, which kicked off in June, you can enjoy theatrical re-releases…
Spokane wildfires are a warning to the rest of the world
If you need any proof that climate change is not some far off problem for future generations — it’s our disastrous present — look no further than the unfolding wildfire crisis gripping the globe. In Spokane County, Washington alone, three…
I was a farmers market failure
When I moved to Chicago, I assumed I would become a slightly different person. Not in the wholehearted country-song sense, where crossing the county line might allow me to outrun myself. The reinvention I had in mind was more municipal…
Spider-Man should give up romance and focus on his job
For a good portion of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” we watch all versions of the film’s namesake arachnid-juiced hero (Tom Holland) — full leotard, half leotard, sans leotard —cyberstalking Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ (Zendaya), his best friend and love…
Library book found in fireplace returns 150 years late
An Australian library has welcomed home a book roughly 150 years overdue after it was discovered inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace. Ross Simmons found the water-damaged copy of “The Antiquities of Athens” while renovating a house…
“My job is to find out the truth”: Dana Bash grills RFK Jr. over vaccines
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly clashed with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday’s “State of the Union” over vaccines, COVID-19, autism research and the nation’s growing measles outbreak, with the veteran anchor challenging the health secretary’s…
The casting of “The Odyssey” proves Nolan’s muse was star power
Allow me to sing, o Muse, of a recent dinner conversation about “The Odyssey.” The setting was not a Greek restaurant but a Vietnamese joint. My friend Sharon and I had just settled at our table and ordered our dinner…
The better way to make tomato toast
The mind keeps a strange little pantry of its own. It shelves a photograph you paused over, a dish you ate three summers ago, a flavor combination you praised enthusiastically in public and then apparently continued discussing with yourself in…
“Diarra From Detroit” shows what a media merger could cost TV
The trouble with Diarra Brickland is she can’t let things go. “Diarra From Detroit” presents this as the schoolteacher-turned-detective’s greatest asset and her biggest flaw. If it weren’t for her stubborn insistence on finding out why a great guy, Chris…