Criticism
The Beauty of Movies by Malik Wilson
December 2026
In a moment where "movies" - organized images and sounds and visual and oral stories - are everywhere, the story of the movies, its ontological poetics and consoling and inspiring properties need more attention than ever. What movies were and are - in theaters, on discus, and now on screens everywhere we go - needs definitions and discussion both loose and fulsome, rich and spindly. The most visually astute generation that has ever lived - or at least the generation who has seen more stories than any other - can benefit from a thoughtful retreat, and retelling of the first things. What should happen soon, if this and other efforts can successfully occur, can be the greatest revival in film history, and perhaps its last, as the cosmological scale of what we mean when we talk about movies grows by the day. Malik Wilson's stubborn + humane telling preaches to us that a resolution to reside, to stay centered, to continue to believe in movie's compelling power is now more important than ever.