Every now and then this gig, writing about movies, is an absolute godsend. It’s not that you get to travel the world from the safety of your couch, learning histories, seeing unimagined sights, but that there’s incredible opportunity to be… Read More ›
There are many ways to view identity. Some define themselves by their faith, by their location, by their profession, or by their hobbies, their fandoms. Some define themselves by their sex, their gender, or their sexual preference. One thing that… Read More ›
You don’t necessarily need complex characters or ingenious plot twists to write an engaging story. With strong imagery and a clear, palpable tone that physically affects your audience, you can transform the most overdone plot into a memorable tale. Writer/director… Read More ›
For most people, the teen years come with a myriad of confusing emotions, drastic life changes, and embarrassing incidents. For Akira and Maki, the young protagonists of Yoichi Narita’s Follow The Light, those formative years also bring a number of… Read More ›
The Night House, directed by David Bruckner, with a script from Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, originally had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020. Now we find ourselves in August 2021, after a wild 18 months… Read More ›
Which would you rather do: the hard right thing or the easy wrong thing? A decision like this is simple when the stakes are low, like what’s for dinner: cooking it yourself when you have all the ingredients but are… Read More ›
From a certain point of view, individualism is the same as conformity. They might clash in their mission, but are otherwise simply a uniform someone wears in order to identify themselves. Got green hair made into spikes? Listen to antiestablishment… Read More ›
After their first appearance in DC Comics’ “The Brave and the Bold” issue 25 in 1959, the subversive military group known as Task Force X has known many members over its lengthy run. It’s not just because the missions they… Read More ›
You don’t need a degree in film studies to make an educated guess about when a movie was made, or to at least place it within the right decade. It’s easy to recognize specific cinematic styles and themes from each… Read More ›
What defines “personhood”? This is a complex question that gets debated quite a bit, specifically in regard to pre-birth healthcare. Is it from the moment of cell division, the presence of a heartbeat, or the moment a life reaches prime… Read More ›
After being scheduled, pushed, rescheduled, pushed, and rescheduled *again* (this became a gag within the marketing), the Shawn Levy-directed (Stranger Things/This Is Where I Leave You) action comedy Free Guy is finally hitting theaters. (Or is it?) Frankly, and there’re… Read More ›
In this life there are few things worse than being misunderstood, to possess the feeling that those around you can’t see about you what you see in yourself. This schism between social reflection and personal identity has been the source… Read More ›
When it comes to selling movies, there’s nothing better than a well-known IP. Audiences already possess a connection with it and it makes selling it even easier for the filmmakers. There’s less risk here as most of the work is… Read More ›
According to the myth, before Oedipus could enter the city of Thebes, he had to answer a question from the mythical creature known as the Sphinx. Answer properly and he could continue on his journey. Answer wrong and he would… Read More ›
American jazz musician Billy Tipton started his career playing as part of a big band setup that played radio stations and in clubs. He worked his way up, touring the country, playing as part of an ensemble, as the bandleader,… Read More ›
The last year or so has seen sequels to long-ago films released — Bad Boys for Life (2020), Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) — and we’ve still got Top Gun: Maverick (2021) and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) still to… Read More ›
Immigrant stories are treated as all-to-common and extraordinary in the same breath, especially in the United States and Canada. The majority of people who live in both countries did not originate there and each possess a legacy of doing terrible… Read More ›
Introduced in Iron Man 2 (2010), Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, has been a key component in nearly every Avengers story since. If not for her, Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) and Rhodey (Don Cheadle) would’ve been toast well… Read More ›
When the Fast & Furious series began in 2001, the OG film was a crime drama about an undercover cop, Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), getting too close to his target, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). 20 years later the Fast films,… Read More ›
Quiet horror is not a particularly marketable asset to a major studio, and it’s because of that that we just don’t see much of it in the immediate landscape of the genre today. Audiences demand bigger thrills, louder jump-scares, and… Read More ›