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    • Black Lives Matter: Whitewashing the Amanda Knox Story in the Netflix Documentary

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    • Latest Stories

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    • In Full Bloom: Days of Daisy (2022)

      August 11, 2022

    • Two Perspectives on Sainthood in 1951: Roberto Rossellini’s Europe ’51 and Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair

      August 6, 2022

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      Books: Best Actress: The History of Oscar-Winning Women by Stephen Tapert

  • Indies · Romance

    0

    In Full Bloom: Days of Daisy (2022)

    • August 11, 2022

    Plot lines about women wanting babies are as old as time, and can easily degenerate into sexist tropes. Daisy’s desire to have a kid doesn’t define her. Instead, over the[…]

  • Europe 51

    Drama · Religion & Spirituality · Writers & Critics

    0

    Two Perspectives on Sainthood in 1951: Roberto Rossellini’s Europe ’51 and Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair

    • August 6, 2022

    Graham Greene could be a very political writer (nowhere more than in The Quiet American, which was his next major work after The End of the Affair), but Christianity has[…]

  • Celebrity Culture · Counterculture · Music & Musicals · Production History · Societal Trends · Youth

    0

    How the Monkees Birthed New Hollywood

    • August 1, 2022

    A rewatch benumbed to this flash and flare reveals the stark morbidity of Head. Throughout the movie the Monkees are assaulted, hunted, and caged. Words fail, fists fail. The film[…]

  • Michael Kahlert

    Animation · Experimental & Underground · Horror · Splatter & Gore

    0

    Splatter in (Stop) Motion: The Gory Animations of Michael Kahlert

    • July 27, 2022

    There is no question of suspending our disbelief watching Kahlert’s films, but there does emerge a bizarre unease in the inescapable doom of his scenarios. Unburdened by the need to[…]

Most Recent

Jaws

Directors · Gender · Hollywood · Horror · Men & Masculinity

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The Jaws of War: How Quint Decodes Masculinity in the Films of Spielberg

  • July 23, 2022

If the sum of Spielberg’s work is about how men live in the world, Jaws is his most particular point on the subject, a film centered with almost fantastical totality[…]

Citizen Spielberg

Books · Directors

0

Book Review: Lester D. Friedman, Citizen Spielberg, 2nd ed.

  • July 20, 2022

Lester D. Friedman. Citizen Spielberg. 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2022. $24.95. Calling him “our foremost practitioner of reel American history,” Friedman draws our attention to Spielberg’s determination[…]

More

Batman

Franchises & Series · Philosophy · SF & Fantasy · Societal Trends

0

The Batman, the Grand Appeaser: Repressive Desublimation, Foucault, and False Hope

  • July 16, 2022

The Batman (2022) fulfills complex, necessary roles in society. The intricate power relations of the film, as a part of mass media, are directly related to those in the spectacle[…]

Disney Pixar

#MeToo · Animation · Animators · News · Production History · Societal Trends

0

After Lasseter: How Pixar Was Transformed through Disney, Covid, and Management Shakeup

  • July 11, 2022

Docter and Lasseter were part of the Pixar Braintrust, a group of aging white men that held creative control of Pixar’s productions. The original members – Lasseter, Docter, Andrew Stanton[…]

Tony Stark

Franchises & Series · Gender · Men & Masculinity · SF & Fantasy

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Toxic Masculinity? There’s More to Tony Stark

  • July 6, 2022

Further analysis of Tony Stark indicates the character exemplifies more than toxic masculinity. Stark’s various actions and roles throughout his nine-film arc can be interpreted as exemplifying gender nonconformity too,[…]

Tribeca

Activist & Political · Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · Muslims

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Dispatch from Tribeca #2 (2022): Stranger at the Gate and An Act of Worship

  • July 1, 2022

Stranger at the Gate is sharp, and benefits from a tense and credible narrative. It’s constructed like a bomb – a heavy orb with a lit fuse, carefully and reassuringly[…]

eco-horror

Drama · Eco · Eco-horror · Horror

0

Don’t Go Near the Water: Revisiting Four ’70s Eco-Horror Films

  • June 26, 2022

I’ve detailed each film to convey the strange and strict extent to which they each cohere to one base fear: reproductive control. The only hope for human survival in Phase[…]

Brainstorm

Myth and Archetype · SF & Fantasy

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Touched by an Angel (of Death): Douglas Trumbull’s Brainstorm and the Visionary Ideal

  • June 21, 2022

“Look at the stars,” the genius of Trumbull’s movie finally seems to be saying, but also know the stars within. * * * Often, it’s the throwaway scenes that click.[…]

Mr. Freedom

Activist & Political · Comedy · Counterculture · Experimental & Underground

0

Laughing at Ourselves: On William Klein’s Mr. Freedom (1969)

  • June 16, 2022

This is an excerpt from the introduction to the author’s new book on Mr. Freedom (https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781800856943/). * * * The film calls into question both the American international and domestic[…]

Tribeca

Covid-19 · Digital · Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · Pandemic · Societal Trends · TV & Streaming · Videos

0

Dispatch from Tribeca #1 (2022): The YouTube Effect

  • June 11, 2022

YouTube is a global idea farm, not unlike Big Agriculture: welcome, user, to your pre-fab silo, built “just for you” by YouTube’s secret algorithm. That algorithm loads about 70% of[…]

blackface

Activist & Political · African American · Essays · Societal Trends

0

The Many Shades of Blackface

  • June 6, 2022

Editor’s Note: As  part of Bright Lights’ ongoing campaign to challenge dogmatic viewpoints and advocate for nuanced analysis of cultural controversies, we present Graham Daseler’s powerful analysis of one of[…]

Snow White

#MeToo · Activist & Political · Animation · Commentary · Essays · Women in Film

0

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and #MeToo: Reclaiming a Classic

  • June 1, 2022

Editor’s Note: In an era where dogma rules and nuanced approaches to cultural creations are considered problematic, we repost M. C. Myers’ brilliant and timely analysis of Disney’s Snow White[…]

Border South

Documentaries · Migration · Societal Trends

0

Raúl Paz Pastrana’s Documentary Border South (2019) as Process Genre

  • May 26, 2022

From the documentary’s beginning until its closing credits, the Central American migrants who journey across Mexico are filmed accomplishing everyday yet extraordinary tasks. Most specifically, they are filmed taking part[…]

Northman

Drama · Historical & Epic

0

“No Viking Atheists”: The Northman’s Journey into Old World Belief

  • May 21, 2022

Director Robert Eggers’s historical realities get a budget upgrade * * * With The Northman – already famous for its historical accuracy – writer-director Robert Eggers strives to give his[…]

Unfriended: Dark Web

Experimental & Underground · Horror · New Media · Societal Trends · Theory · Thrillers & Action · TV & Streaming

0

A Spectre in the Participatory Panopticon: The Database Horror of Unfriended: Dark Web

  • May 17, 2022

The encounter between the lead characters and The Circle evokes a wider sense of anxiety regarding the extent to which we upload information about every area of our lives into[…]

U2 Live at Red Rocks

Documentaries · Music & Musicals

0

Under Bloodless Skies: U2 Live at Red Rocks after 40

  • May 13, 2022

Their performance isn’t marked by precision or technical mastery. It’s an onrush of unbridled enthusiasm all the way through – a frenzied, joyous romp that treats the show as if[…]

Her Sister's Secret

Costume Drama · Designers · Drama · Fashion · Melodrama · Photo Essays · Romance

0

What Unwed Mothers Wore in 1946: Ulmer’s Her Sister’s Secret and Leisen’s To Each His Own

  • May 7, 2022

In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous. – Elsa Schiaparelli * * * Edgar G. Ulmer’s Her Sister’s Secret was released to theaters the same year as Mitchell Leisen’s To[…]

Phantom of Liberty

Absurdism · Comedy · Drama · French Cinema · Mystery · Psychology

0

Fathoming the Phantom: On Bunuel’s The Phantom of Liberty

  • April 30, 2022

The question becomes: is it worth trying to be free? Is the struggle fruitless? Why can’t we escape our servitude to the past, to society, to others? * * *[…]

Gaia

Eco · Horror · SF & Fantasy

0

My New Life as Human Fertilizer: Jaco Bouwer’s Gaia (2021)

  • April 26, 2022

In his creation of a nonhuman cinematic world that mines horror from its confrontation of human fear of irrelevance and inadaptability, Bouwer ultimately suggests that survival in the era following[…]

Zodiac

Books · Crime · Directors

0

Book Review: David Fincher’s Zodiac: Cinema of Investigation and (Mis)Interpretation

  • April 21, 2022

David Fincher’s Zodiac: Cinema of Investigation and (Mis)Interpretation, edited by Matthew Sorrento and David Ryan. 259 pp. Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2022. 2007 was a good year for American film, with[…]

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