Meaninglessness and Horror: A Review of Weapons
The way the bewitched children – and Marcus – run, with their arms outstretched like birds toward an unknown point, creates a recurring pattern. We are conditioned by mysticism to[…]
Category: Politics
Activist & Political · African American · Documentaries · Historical & Epic · Military and Paramilitary · Politics · Producers & Studios · Race · UFOs
Films of Conscience: Raindog and Colin Firth’s Quiet Ambition
Firth’s self-effacement is generally described as a character trait. It is at least as plausible that it is a market condition, however. The films are fundable perhaps because their patron[…]
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Drama · Politics · Thrillers & Action · War
Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite (2025): The System Works. Where Is the Human?
The war didn’t end. It was put on hold. The system never slept – men like Gonzalez kept watch, women like Walker stared at screens, bureaucrats like that man filled[…]
Activist & Political · Essays · Franchises & Series · Politics · Superheroes
Predicting the Rise of Trump: Captain America: Civil War (2016)
I only dimly perceived that one day Trump would threaten without provocation war against Denmark, so we could conquer Greenland, and who would willingly abet genocide in Gaza. I could[…]
Central and South America · Colonialism · Imperialism · Marxism · Politics · Satire
On Political Filmmaking and Alex Cox’s Walker (1987)
Alex Cox’s Walker (1987) is an instructive example of how to make a film about modern political issues without becoming overly burdened by the present moment. In telling the story[…]
Marxism · Philosophy · Politics · Sports · Theory
Mao and Moneyball: A Case Study in Cinematic Contradiction
Bennett Miller’s 2008 film Moneyball depicts the unfolding on-screen of a contradiction. Moneyball as an idea is a theoretical understanding of how the game of baseball works (based on a[…]
Activist & Political · Brazilian Cinema · Communism and Socialism · Drama · Politics
The Comfort of Righteousness: Argentina, 1985 and Ainda Estou Aqui
Retornarán los libros, las canciones que quemaron las manos asesinas. Renacerá mi pueblo de su ruina y pagarán su culpa los traidores. The books will return, the songs burned by[…]
Absurdism · Body Horror · Disease and Epidemics · Family · Horror · Politics
“The Saw Is Family”: The Haunted America of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
When taken as a whole, it’s apparent that Hooper was just as politically minded in the creation of this film as he was with the first, his sights set firmly[…]
Censorship · Feminism · Gender · Iranian Cinema · Middle East · Muslims · Politics · Revolution · Women in Film
A History and a Film: On My Favorite Cake (Iran, 2024)
The woman without a hijab in her private space, something consistently denied visual existence, is no longer hidden or censored. Instead, her presence is centered and made ordinary. In this[…]
Essays · LGBT & Queer · Politics · Romance · Russia
Collective Subjects and Soviet Subjectivities: The Counterplan, A Severe Young Man, and the Paradoxes of Socialist Realism
“The history of ideas is the history of the spite of certain solitaries.” – E. M. Cioran, All Gall Is Divided * * * It was at the 1934 First[…]
Historical & Epic · Politics · Religion & Spirituality · Satire · Sex & Relationships
Horny Abbess, Empty Relic, Open Fortress, Public Toilet: Reconnecting with Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971)
Russell’s principal avatar in this film is Louis XIII, the Carnival King and Lord of Misrule. Devoted to ersatz relics and to his “tacky stage farce,” he quietly uncovers not[…]
To Live and Die in LA (1985) and the Thrill-Seeking Wasteland of Reagan’s America
However, while other filmmakers got caught up in the heady, cocaine rush of the 1980s, Friedkin was harder to convince. When we dig a little deeper into his Los Angeles,[…]
Drama · Politics · Thrillers & Action
The Imperial Presidency after Trump v. United States: On the 30th Anniversary of Clear and Present Danger
On its 30th anniversary, it also feels remarkably relevant in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for exercising “core” executive[…]
Activist & Political · Class System · Crime · Essays · Franchises & Series · Myth and Archetype · Outsiders · Politics · SF & Fantasy · Societal Trends · Superheroes
Don’t Be Weird: Heroes, Villains, and the Reinforcement of Class Distinctions in Modern Blockbusters
If you want to make a popular blockbuster, it better be about the right kind of person – and the right kind of person isn’t a loser. A decade ago,[…]
Absurdism · Activist & Political · Counterculture · Crime · Experimental & Underground · Fairy Tale · Politics · Writers & Critics
Alice’s Evolution: Chicago 70 and the Revolutionary Awakening of Lewis Carroll’s Victorian Heroine
Abstract Interposing characters, dialogue, and symbols from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland into a contemporary political scenario – the Chicago 7 trial – Kerry Feltham’s experimental film Chicago 70 provides[…]
Chasing The Front Runner
Future events in political campaigns came to be much worse than the events of late 1987 proved to be. One might be inclined to scoff at Gary Hart’s response given[…]
Actors & Personalities · Hollywood · Politics
Desperate Journey: How a B-Movie Bonzo Climbed into Politics
If only Ronald Reagan had been a better actor, our world might be a brighter place today. * * * Although it’s been thirty-three years and six presidents since Ronald[…]
Directors · Historical & Epic · Horror · Politics
Five Screenplays by Larry Cohen: Bone, J. Edgar Hoover x2, It’s Alive III, Return to Salem’s Lot
I have been a fan of writer/director Larry Cohen ever since viewing his 1970s classics The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977) and It Lives Again (1978). Cohen was[…]
Actors & Personalities · Comedy · Directors · Historical & Epic · Politics
Looking at Charlie — Modern Times (An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin)
Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889. To honor the old boy, we herewith present Alan Vanneman’s witty discussion of one of Charlie’s masterpieces, originally published in Bright Lights[…]
Doing Favors: The Insular Moral and Political World of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman
The restrained tone, middle American location, and half-century historical sweep of The Irishman depart from Scorsese’s gangland epics Goodfellas and Casino. It isn’t a political treatise, but it does tie[…]
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