Crime Reads » Jesse Pasternack

Looking Back on Jonathan Demme's Debut: <em>Caged Heat</em>

Looking Back on Jonathan Demme's Debut: Caged Heat

Jesse Pasternack makes the case that Demme's film about women in prison is the "perfect" debut.

By Jesse Pasternack | December 26, 2025

Catch Your Breath Again: 1983's <em>Breathless</em> Remake Deserves a Second Look

Catch Your Breath Again: 1983's Breathless Remake Deserves a Second Look

Jesse Pasternack on an oft-overlooked remake classic

By Jesse Pasternack | April 15, 2025

<em>Batman: Mask of the Phantasm</em> is the Best Batman Movie

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the Best Batman Movie

Jesse Pasternack on a beloved classic animated film.

By Jesse Pasternack | June 13, 2024

Ryan Gosling, Crime Cinema's Nice Guy

Ryan Gosling, Crime Cinema's Nice Guy

Jesse Pasternack explores Ryan Gosling's career milestones through the lens of Shane Black's underrated buddy-comedy classic

By Jesse Pasternack | January 18, 2024

The Kaleidoscopic Immortality<br> of Jimmy Hoffa

The Kaleidoscopic Immortality
of Jimmy Hoffa

From Danny DeVito's Hoffa to Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, to numerous books, the mystery of America's most famous labor leader continues to fascinate us.

By Jesse Pasternack | June 23, 2023

<em>The Story of a Cheat</em> Deserves to be Remembered

The Story of a Cheat Deserves to be Remembered

Looking back on Sacha Guitry's rollicking, wildly influential, and now criminally obscure 1936 crime film

By Jesse Pasternack | November 10, 2022

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

On the (Secret) Crime Novels of E.L. Doctorow

By Jesse Pasternack | April 22, 2022

On the Pretty, Pent-Up Crime Films of Wes Anderson

By Jesse Pasternack | August 25, 2021

Revisiting The Anderson Tapes, Sidney Lumet's Wisely Paranoid Heist Film, 50 Years Later

By Jesse Pasternack | March 26, 2021

<em>Psycho</em> Invented the Spoiler Alert as We Know It

Psycho Invented the Spoiler Alert as We Know It

A very personal history of trying to prevent spoiling cinema's first great shocking twist (and yes, there are spoilers ahead)

By Jesse Pasternack | November 19, 2019