Horror · Philosophy · SF & Fantasy
The Thing about The Thing and Some Other Things
It’s your thing, do what you wanna do, I can’t tell you who to sock it to. – Isley Brothers What in the thing is thingly? What is the thing[…]
Activist & Political · African American · Essays · Societal Trends
The Many Shades of Blackface
Anthony Hopkins’ rendition of Othello, recorded by the BBC in 1981, is exquisite, one of the finest examples of Shakespearean acting one can see on film. Today, it’s commonplace for[…]
Drama · Melodrama · Pre-Code · Romance · War
Love Stories in Harrowing Times: On Waterloo Bridge (1931) and Little Man, What Now? (1934)
James Whale’s Waterloo Bridge (1931) and Frank Borzage’s Little Man, What Now? (1934) depict human possibility in terms of what can transpire between two ordinary people, while holding out little[…]
Comedy · Film Technology & History · Franchises & Series · Theory
The Phenomenology of the Grotesque: Jackass 3D’s Cinema of Stereoscopic Attractions
Stereoscopic experience, therefore, drastically alters the positioning of the viewer in relation to diegetic content, creating the illusion that the body of the spectator is immersed within the screen planes[…]
Hollywood · Literature and Film · Production History · Writers & Critics
The Cinematic Faulkner: Framing Hollywood
“The Cinematic Faulkner” includes excerpts from The Life of William Faulkner, Volume 1: The Past Is Never Dead 1897-1934 (March 2020) and Volume 2: This Alarming Paradox 1935-1962 (September 2020), with the permission of the University[…]
Drama · Women in Film · Workplace
Silence and the Loss of Self: On Kitty Green’s The Assistant (2019)
The dull humdrum of the office takes on a kind of bizarre poetry: you find yourself humming along to the copier, placing kitchen objects in patterned formations, making slightly stranger,[…]
Drama · Literature and Film · Russia · SF & Fantasy
Intimately Alien: Conflicting Ideologies in Solyaris (1968) and Solaris (1972)
While there can be no doubt Solyaris is no artistic masterpiece, the idea that it isn’t a product of its time is more complicated. To the extent that the film[…]
Actors & Personalities · Books
Books: Best Actress: The History of Oscar-Winning Women by Stephen Tapert
Big picture book is a fun peruse for cineastes * * * Stephen Tapert’s Best Actress: The History of Oscar-Winning Women (2020, Rutgers University Press, 504 pages) is a coffee[…]
Activist & Political · Medical · Pandemic
Surviving: A Four-Film Guide to Outlasting Quarantine and Changing the Post-Corona World
Amid senators dumping stock while lying to the public about the true danger of the virus, rumors of Trump seeking to profit from a potential COVID-19 vaccine, the farce of[…]
Activist & Political · Disease and Epidemics
Contagion (2011) in a Time of Contagion
The virus, on screen and off, spreads at a rate that outpaces the economy. Marx would not be surprised that Trump is calling for a return to work since workers[…]
Not the Girl Next Door: Doris Day Reconsidered (Happy 98th Birthday)
We’ve reposted this piece before because, really, can there ever be enough Doris? Her talent, humor, and joie de vivre are a tonic in a world increasingly locked down and[…]
Commentary · Crime · Documentaries · New Media
The Audience of Antagonism: Mark Lewis’ Don’t F**k With Cats
“We are not so much a society where nobody knows anybody as we are a society where only media celebrities are considered to have actual existence.” –[…]
I Won’t Hurt You: Edward Scissorhands’ Lessons in Compassion
Edward is never really accepted for who he is by those around him, the persecution he is subjected to the result of a communal, warped worldview and individual biases, ranging[…]
Happy Happy Birthday Baby! Steve McQueen (b. 3/24/30): Fifty Years of the King of Cool
“Steve understood real people, particularly misfits, like nobody else.It was just the Hollywood brass he loathed.”
Portrait without a Face: Faces and Facelessness in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire
With Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma offers us an unexpectedly timely commentary on our present moment of social distancing, self-quarantines, and curfews. This film about cooped-up lovers,[…]
Celebrity Culture · Drama · Essays
Doubles, Anyone? Celebrity Stalking in Strangers on a Train and The King of Comedy
While Rupert isn’t interested in a crisscross murder, he certainly wants Jerry to spot him a segment on Jerry’s show. This is more than a favor..And he appears to go[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · Essays
Lost Dreams of Brazil: Petra Costa’s The Edge of Democracy (2019)
E em cada paso dessa linha / pode se machucar. Azar! / A esperança equilibrista / sabe que o show de todo artista tem que continuar. And on each step[…]
“You Have Only Half the Picture”: Syzygies in Æon Flux
“Revolutionaries need an oppressive establishment to thrive, just as governments need hidden enemies to justify stricture.” – Peter Chung, creator of Æon Flux * * * From 1991 to 1995,[…]
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Joker: Laughter Without an Echo Chamber
In Joker, we see a reversal of Tarantino’s aesthetic, where a patently comic character, a joker with a clown face, is, by degrees, rendered tragic, or as near tragic as[…]
Drama · Religion & Spirituality · War
A Canterbury Tale: A Very British Spirituality . . . and European Too
Overt spirituality is often undermined in this film by bizarrely comic episodes from everyday life. Certainly the most bizarre plot element concerns the Glue Man – someone who attacks young[…]
