Natalia Antonova

2 weeks ago | globalcomment.com | Natalia Antonova

What if the most horrifying day of your life turns out to also be the best day of your life? Of all of the ideas that Ryan Coogler’s brilliant Sinners touches on – and trust me, there are a lot of them, and you’ll have to keep up – this one will linger with me in particular. As will the notion that music draws us into a place outside time, a place of immortality, in fact.

1 month ago | globalcomment.com | Natalia Antonova

“But this is for the Emperor. It must be done.”As far as WWII horrors go, we don’t hear often enough about what Imperial Japan inflicted on Australian POWs.Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, brought this tragedy to life for a new generation a little over a decade ago – and subsequently won the 2014 Booker Prize. This year, we finally got an eponymous miniseries, currently available on Prime.

1 month ago | globalcomment.com | Natalia Antonova

One of the reasons why Charlie Brooker’s dystopian Black Mirror series has been a hit for years, in spite of the fickle nature of what’s considered cool and what gets to go viral, is that it plays on our very justified fears about the evolution of technology. Human beings are addicted to tech, but also tend to have an abusive relationship with it. In the year 2025, we’re used to our data being sold, our privacy being breached, and our sense of reality being compromised.

1 month ago | globalcomment.com | Natalia Antonova

The third season of Mike White’s White Lotus is concluded, and both the nuanced think pieces and complaints have rolled in. White has felt compelled to defend the show in its third season – and rightly so. Yes, it WAS slow. Yes, it felt a bit pointless at times, like a long, drawn out exhale that dissipates in the air. That was the point, however. A season inspired by the Buddhist contemplation of the futility of our earthly dramas was always going to be strangely unsatisfying.

2 months ago | globalcomment.com | Natalia Antonova

This week I am in Moab, Utah, which is so painfully beautiful that it is hard to handle. Moab sits in a valley surrounded by dreamlike sandstone foundations, with the La Sal mountains towering to the southeast of the city. Arches and Canyonlands National Parks are nearby, as well as petroglyphs and Bureau of Land Management land. The soil under your feet feels ancient and new at once. The stars look so bright and heavy at night that you have to wonder how the sky doesn’t come crashing down.