In Full Bloom: Days of Daisy (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[…]
Drama · Religion & Spirituality · Writers & Critics
Two Perspectives on Sainthood in 1951: Roberto Rossellini’s Europe ’51 and Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair
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
How the Monkees Birthed New Hollywood
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[…]
Animation · Experimental & Underground · Horror · Splatter & Gore
Splatter in (Stop) Motion: The Gory Animations of Michael Kahlert
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[…]
Directors · Gender · Hollywood · Horror · Men & Masculinity
The Jaws of War: How Quint Decodes Masculinity in the Films of Spielberg
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[…]
Book Review: Lester D. Friedman, Citizen Spielberg, 2nd ed.
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[…]
Franchises & Series · Philosophy · SF & Fantasy · Societal Trends
The Batman, the Grand Appeaser: Repressive Desublimation, Foucault, and False Hope
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[…]
#MeToo · Animation · Animators · News · Production History · Societal Trends
After Lasseter: How Pixar Was Transformed through Disney, Covid, and Management Shakeup
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[…]
Franchises & Series · Gender · Men & Masculinity · SF & Fantasy
Toxic Masculinity? There’s More to Tony Stark
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,[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · Muslims
Dispatch from Tribeca #2 (2022): Stranger at the Gate and An Act of Worship
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[…]
Drama · Eco · Eco-horror · Horror
Don’t Go Near the Water: Revisiting Four ’70s Eco-Horror Films
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[…]
Myth and Archetype · SF & Fantasy
Touched by an Angel (of Death): Douglas Trumbull’s Brainstorm and the Visionary Ideal
“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.[…]
Activist & Political · Comedy · Counterculture · Experimental & Underground
Laughing at Ourselves: On William Klein’s Mr. Freedom (1969)
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[…]
Covid-19 · Digital · Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · Pandemic · Societal Trends · TV & Streaming · Videos
Dispatch from Tribeca #1 (2022): The YouTube Effect
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[…]
Activist & Political · African American · Essays · Societal Trends
The Many Shades of Blackface
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 discussion of one of[…]
#MeToo · Activist & Political · Animation · Commentary · Essays · Women in Film
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and #MeToo: Reclaiming a Classic
Editor’s Note: In an era where dogma rules and layered approaches to cultural creations are considered problematic, we repost M. C. Myers’ brilliant and timely analysis of Disney’s Snow White[…]
Documentaries · Migration · Societal Trends
Raúl Paz Pastrana’s Documentary Border South (2019) as Process Genre
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[…]
“No Viking Atheists”: The Northman’s Journey into Old World Belief
In my theater’s showing, the instant that Fjölnir lost his head in the climactic volcano battle, an elderly woman left her seat, lingering at the door a moment before exiting.[…]
Experimental & Underground · Horror · New Media · Societal Trends · Theory · Thrillers & Action · TV & Streaming
A Spectre in the Participatory Panopticon: The Database Horror of Unfriended: Dark Web
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[…]
Documentaries · Music & Musicals
Under Bloodless Skies: U2 Live at Red Rocks after 40
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[…]
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