Author: Alex Sheremet

Alex Sheremet is a writer and filmmaker from Belarus. He is the author of A Few Streets More To Kensington, Woody Allen: Reel to Real, and founder of the AUTOMACHINATION literary magazine. His debut film, From There to There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet, was shot with poet/photographer Joel Parrish. His collected essays can be found at IDEAS ON IDEAS.
Film by Alex Sheremet
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A still from Woody Allen's classic romantic comedy, "Annie Hall," depicting Woody Allen and Diane Keaton flirting in bed, as analyzed and reviewed by the world's leading Woody Allen critic, Alex Sheremet, for the automachination literary magazine.

Why Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” (1977) Is Still A Classic

I’ve praised both “Play It Again, Sam” (1972) and “The Front” (1976) as examples of good early Woody drama, but it’s really “Annie Hall” that kicks off Allen’s Golden Age, for it’s the beginning of his best characterizations, best visuals, deepest narratives, and the overall sense that he had ‘made it’ as a filmmaker of ability and substance. This is because “Annie Hall” takes many of his now-classic preoccupations with sex, death, relationships, inevitability, and intellectual posturing (including his own!), and creates a genuine narrative out of it, not by force or gags, but simply by dropping some great characters into a landscape, and seeing how a narrative unfolds out of them. There is also a seeming simplicity, here, in Allen’s ‘Alvy’ persona, that absolutely misleads viewers into sympathizing with Alvy, rather than Annie. In short, it is Alvy that constantly spouts self-deprecating gems and rich but down-to-earth posits that aggrandize him as both an Everyman, and as a kind of ‘hero,’ who’s gone through it, and gotten over it, too — “it” being ‘confusing’ relationships, a lack of self-assurance, or whatever else that might be imbued into the film, yet isn’t really there. The film starts with direct exposition, as Alvy Singer tells the audience of his two key metaphors for life: […]

Politics by Alex Sheremet
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Stylized photos of "race scientist" Nathan Cofnas, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the late Cambridge professor Jason Arday, with the text "Anatomy of a Murder," as part of the first published study of Cofnas's racial theories in relation to the suicide of Jason Arday. It was written by the artist, critic, and filmmaker Alex Sheremet for the automachination literary magazine.

Why Did Nathan Cofnas Kill Jason Arday?

I, like everyone reading this report, had never heard of late Cambridge professor Jason Arday until the British press had turned him into a story. On some level, it is a strange story because it is so generic. The wife of billionaire Bill Ackman, Neri Oxman, is said to have plagiarized her dissertation, yet remains a sought-after designer and consultant. The VroniPlag Wiki documents hundreds of cases of plagiarism in Germany, most of them unknown, save for a politician who lost his doctorate then went into business. Joan Peters, a widely-debunked hoaxer, saw multiple reprints of her forgery, “From Time Immemorial,” long after she’d been exposed. Similarly, Jason Arday was hired under unusual circumstances then accused of plagiarism and fabulism. Nathan Cofnas, the racial hygienist who first reported on Arday (and who is himself the subject of an academic fraud investigation) thought Arday’s personal story—‘the autistic, high-achieving son of African migrants’—would bring Cofnas media attention. At present, Cofnas has no academic position. He lost a wrongful termination suit against Cambridge, and, most recently, some temp work at Ghent. By contrast, Jason Arday enjoyed substantially more academic citations while teaching full-time. However, once Cofnas’s story had spread, British media hounded Jason Arday until he resigned. A few weeks before Arday’s suicide, Cofnas threatened on TV: “The lesson is this what’s [sic] happened [sic] if you don’t give Cofnas a job!” […]

Film by Alex Sheremet
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Stills of Woody Allen and Juliette Lewis (Rain) flirting in his 1992 film "Husbands and Wives", with Woody appearing much older and more haggard, as analyzed and reviewed by the world's top Woody Allen expert, Alex Sheremet, for the automachination literary magazine.

In The Dark: Analyzing Woody Allen’s “Husbands And Wives” (1992)

Although Woody’s last couple of films were underrated, they were not great works, by any means. It would take two years for Woody to return with another true drama, and thus triumphantly close his decade-and-a-half Golden Age. In some ways, Husbands and Wives is the most pure look at ‘Woody’ relationships, and one of the more intimate and best films of his career. In short, if ANNIE HALL was a kind of grown-up ‘first’ for Woody as well as Alvy Singer, and MANHATTAN too odd — it dealt with a grown man and a seventeen year-old girl, after all — or HANNAH AND HER SISTERS too marred by the ‘big problems’ of infidelity, familial conflict, and the like, to really get at the core of romance itself, this film merely examines the inner workings of two marriages, and what the interactions in one say of the events in the other, and vice-versa. It is, then, the most vanilla of the aforementioned films, but while there are no truly arresting visuals, no haunting metaphors, nor moments of ‘perfect poetry’ or scoring, this in no way detracts from what the film actually does. It is hyper-realistic, down to the documentary style, complete with questions and answers that shed light (and not) on those involved, and the quick edits and ‘jagged’ handheld camera that gets into the actors’ faces, showing not only why their marriages disintegrate, but also how the characters themselves are part of a self-imposed pattern they do not understand. […]

Music by Alex Sheremet
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A statue of Mao Zedong in a Chinese city, with the text "Mao vs. Russia," part of Alex Sheremet's translation of Vladimir Vysotsky's take on the Sino-Soviet Split, "The Earth has so many races..." (Владимир Высоцкий - Есть на земле предостаточно рас), for the automachination literary magazine.

TRANSLATION: Vladimir Vysotsky’s “The Earth Has So Many Races” (1965)

Vladimir Vysotsky (Владимир Высоцкий) wrote political songs, but they were not all rebellious. He was playful with the status quo, encouraging aspects of Soviet identity without relying on specific figures or ideologies. Commenting on the Sino-Soviet Split was among his more direct allusions, which reflected public opinion at the time.

By the 1960s, the Sino-Soviet Split played a major role in Russia’s imagination. Although ‘officially’ dressed in Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy, its true reasons were practical. Soviets criticized Mao Zedong’s cult of personality, reneged on nuclear weapons, and feared that much of their own Far East territory was ill-gotten. China was encircled by Western powers whereas the USSR was not, thus encouraging the USSR to avoid “Chinese wars”. Demographic concerns were particularly common, as were concerns about the world’s resources—and spoils…

Vladimir Vysotsky’s reference to Syngman Rhee is particularly telling, as Mao Zedong is being portrayed as a revisionist-imperialist conspiring with an anti-Communist: […]

Poetry by Alex Sheremet
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An ice-cream man holding a cone with a crown on his head, as part of Alex Sheremet's critical analysis of Wallace Stevens's misunderstood poem, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream", as appears in the automachination literary magazine.

ANALYSIS: Misreading Wallace Stevens’ “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”

It is all in the voice—or maybe in its emphasis. Every great poem has its own POV, though the wrong voice will diminish it. After all, good sound is measured by its meaning, and sometimes, a woman’s voice feels best for reciting “masculine” poetry. In Dana Gioia’s grim reading of Wallace Stevens’s “The Emperor of Ice-Cream,” there is nothing left to probe. He is severe where the language is playful, entombing his analysis with guesswork every time he misses a tone. Another reading, from the archconservative Hillsdale College, is uncomfortable to watch, with a trite, melancholy piano that further damages interpretation. By contrast, the poem’s best recital is from a high school student almost twenty years ago. She is energetic, picks up on double (and overt!) meanings, and communicates this knowledge on stage. Her performance works because it does not engage the academic debate—it only speaks the words as written, which appear bigger, broader, and more festive than in the mouths of academics: […]

Art by Alex Sheremet
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Alex Sheremet's 35mm analog photography of the 2026 New York City winter, with a man trying to walk across a muddy, snowy, flooded street in Jamaica Queens, NYC, as seen on the automachination literary magazine. The photo was taken on the Pentax MX camera with Kodak UltraMax 400 ISO film.

SEASONAL GRUNGE: Spring & Winter in NYC on 35mm Film

New York City’s coldest winter in decades thawed into mud, froze again, then gave way to the hottest spring of my lifetime. Given the irreality of both seasons, you will find a mix of urban grunge and analog dreamscapes, mostly in color with a few black-and-white shots.

All photos were taken on the Pentax MX 35mm camera loaded with Kodak UltraMax 400 film.

You may contact me for high-resolution versions of each image. You can also view 100s of more shots from around the world here. […]

Art by Alex Sheremet
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A 35mm photo by author and filmmaker Alex Sheremet, taken on the Pentax MX with Kodak Ektacolor Pro 400 film, depicting the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC against a deep blue cloudy sky with an airplane flying away from the scene, as featured on the automachination literary magazine.

ANALOG GRUNGE: Washington DC on 35mm Film

Walking around Washington DC for the first time ever, I was simultaneously impressed that this was the purported center of the world, and disappointed that it was the purported center of the world. All museums are free, the city is walkable, there is urban grunge worth exploring and photographing, yet many sites were closed (reflecting pool, much of the White House lawn, etc.) and there was little sense of that imperial permanence America wishes so badly to project.

But perhaps that is the point. I expected more military presence (especially under the Trump administration, which values this aesthetic even as it systematically loses every war), and its lack was almost gaudy. Monuments, crowds imperturbed, and liberal amenities are preferred over open militarism – which becomes stronger by implication. The lesser-known corners (or even just angles) of Washington, DC are endless, which was obvious even though I only spent a short time there.

All photos were taken on a Pentax MX loaded with Kodak Ektacolor Pro 400. In my quest for a better hit rate, I’ve settled on more expensive film to calm my trigger finger. Total cost was $98 to buy film and develop these photos – or, a bit over $3 per shot, after averaging in discarded shots. That is a trade I will take. […]

Film by Alex Sheremet
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A still from Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," showing a black-and-white Woody Allen appearing nervous, set against Anjelica Huston's lifeless eyes and colorful body, as reviewed and analyzed by the world's leading Woody Allen critic, Alex Sheremet, for automachination literary magazine.

Art of Crime: Analyzing Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989)

If “Another Woman” is a great film that hasn’t yet received its due, then “Crimes and Misdemeanors” is a widely-praised film whose greatness, while generally acknowledged, is often misunderstood. At its core, the film is not only about a hyper-realistic killer (as opposed to merely a ‘torn,’ freakish, or symbolic one), but also about the winners and losers that surround him, who not only shed light on his import, but on the lives and personalities of millions just like him. In fact, it is one of the film’s seemingly most throwaway lines — “might makes right” — that brings this idea to the fore, even as it obscures some more nuanced moments. To see it in action, one simply needs to look at how the film’s relationships bud and die. Halley rejects Cliff because he’s a loser, and falls for the vapid and loathsome Lester because he’s a success. A stranger humiliates Cliff’s naive, lonely sister merely because he can, and she’s only too willing. Dolores is not only killed, but her utter shallowness is remembered by Judah, even after her death, wherein she confuses musical composers, or waxes poetic on the eyes being “windows to the soul,” despite us knowing that her own eyes were empty, with neither definition nor identity when she was killed. Yet, for all this, it is Judah at the center of it all, and it’s Judah who, far more than being a mere symbol or plaything, is something far more real. He is ‘just another guy’ living at home, raising his kids, going to work, and giving to charity, separated only by the style and the frequency of his rationalizations, while the fact that he is ultimately a “winner,” to use Dan Schneider’s word,[1] affirms the Bible’s oft-ignored dictum: for whoever has, more shall be given, but whoever does not have, even that shall be taken away. This is ‘might’ as it begets might, and riches for the Judah Rosenthals, but even as Judah argues at film’s end, no fairy tales, nor happy endings.

The film begins with a celebration of Judah Rosenthal’s (Martin Landau) philanthropy at an event, whose praise is interspersed with other scenes, such as Judah receiving a letter from his mistress, Dolores, earlier that day, who threatens to reveal all to his family if he doesn’t break off his marriage. Thus, against genre tropes, some of his flaws are already laid out, even as Judah gives his speech, spliced with poetic images of the boy at prayer, quoting his father’s comment, “the eyes of God are on us always.” Judah, now a religious ophthalmologist, wonders if such words could have influenced his choice of profession, a ‘noble’ question which is immediately paired with another scene of Judah confronting Dolores (Anjelica Huston) at her apartment, as he promises to “work something out.” It’s an interesting choice, for even now one gets a realistic look at how most people deal with or otherwise treat religion, as things for comment or even genuine personal growth, only to renege in 99%+ of moments where it ceases to apply. This is a clue to Judah’s later behavior, given the clear “flexibility” (to borrow Schneider’s word again) of his morals now.