The most well-known resurrection in recorded history has had arguably dubious consequences for humanity, so you’ll understand my initial hesitation about publicly unearthing anything, least of all George Lucas’s millennium-capping galactic boondoggle, The Phantom Menace. But this long-awaited Star Wars installment, panned by critics and audiences alike, isn’t without merit. In fact, in the quarter century since Phantom’s release, its ambitious story has only grown in my esteem.
You have reached your article limit
Sign up for a digital subscription and continue reading all new issues, plus our entire archives, for just $1.50/month.
Alejandro Varela is based in New York. His work has appeared in the Boston Review, The Yale Review, The Georgia Review, The Point, Harper’s Magazine, and The Offing, among other publications. His debut novel, The Town of Babylon, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. His short-story collection, The People Who Report More Stress, was one of Publishers Weekly’s best works of fiction in 2023, a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, and long-listed for the Story Prize and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Varela is an editor at large of Apogee journal, and he holds a master’s in public health from the University of Washington.
