Jacob

By Jacob Mertens. All writers, at one point or another, have felt the inspired moment when a story moves through them as if they were a conduit. The ability to manifest a living, breathing creature on a piece of paper can feel like an act of magic, and it is […]

By Jacob Mertens. Sown from the fabric of tragedy, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild ravages through the primeval swamp of the Louisianan bayou with a camera that shakes and slips out of focus. The characters construct shanties from scraps of metal and forgotten rubbish, while their old homes […]

By Jacob Mertens. “If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely… A legend, Mr. Wayne.” (Henri Ducard, Batman Begins [2005]) If there is one thing Christopher Nolan understands better than […]

By Jacob Mertens. Several years ago now, I watched the trailer for Satoshi Kon’s brilliant Paprika (2006) with rabid anticipation. I still remember the featured quote that set me over the edge, written by Manohla Dargis at The New York Times, stating that the film was “evidence that Japanese animators […]

By Jacob Mertens. Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) sparked a series of inferior sequels, in no small part because the films failed to grasp what made Alien great: elegant simplicity. Alien crafted a lean build up of tension and fear, and while the narrative allowed a few twists and turns the […]

By Jacob Mertens. For those of us passionately invested in the burgeoning art form of video games, the parallels between both game and film industries remain undeniable. Games and film have a similar visual/auditory construction, they both rely on intense collaboration, and they exhibit near identical patterns in marketing and […]

By Jacob Mertens. The muted wail of sirens fills the air and a languid spotlight scrolls over the wall, penetrating the tattered guts of a rundown Victorian house. Men lie on the floor dead or dying, blood pooling over the floor boards as other men pace over their prostrated bodies. […]

By Jacob Mertens. A SWAT team skulks up a staircase in a rundown tenement, shrouded in the unnatural glow of dim fluorescents. Their movements are precise and silent, and they strain their ears for the faintest sound. Loud speakers are attached to the stairwell and the hallways, begging for a […]

By Jacob Mertens. The concept of celebrity and fame has existed for ages. As a society, we seek to hold individuals up as an ideal, something tangible and attainable. We try to live vicariously through another’s natural talent and beauty, we construct an image of grace and vulnerability, and we […]