INTERVIEW: “Racial representation in visual horror fictions have also become a trope in the way that audiences do not expect to see minorities—or at least not very often and not alive for very long. Due to long-standing tropes, minorities in visual horror fictions have become, in a sense, invisible.”
Long Live the Pope‘s Secrets!: Edward Berger’s Conclave
By Elias Savada. Berger’s take on the Catholic Church makes Conclave a thoroughly enjoyable thrill ride.” The Pope is dead; long live the Pope‘s secrets. Papal riddles abound in this most peculiar political page-turner set in the Vatican, and the hunt for answers through every nook and cranny also finds […]
Hollywood’s Star of Stars – Ferocious Ambition: Joan Crawford’s March to Stardom
A Book Review Essay by Jeremy Carr. More than a mere biography with chronological touchstones and historical anecdotes (though there are plenty of those, and they’re fascinating), it is also a psychological profile delving into the inner motivations of its subject, and a lavishly illustrated assessment of how a Golden […]
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion: M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap
By James Slaymaker. Shyamalan’s careful misdirection reveals much about his protagonist, the society he lives in, and the capacity of cinematic form to perpetuate dominant cultural values.” Spoilier Alert In the final sequence of M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap (2024), there’s a moment when Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett), a serial murderer […]
Cinema without Reason: Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaalí!
By Jonathan Monovich. Dupieux’s Daaaaaalí! understands that to make a faithful film about Dalí it should lack convention.” Though Salvador Dalí’s paintings are far more famous than his contributions to cinema, Dalí’s peculiar signature left an indelible mark on film history as well. Dalí and Luis Buñuel’s collaboration, Un chien […]
Shedding Old Skin: Ramon and Silvan Zürcher on The Sparrow in the Chimney
By Yun-hua Chen. For me, the third installment of the trilogy is about liberation and breaking out of certain emotional or psychological prisons, shedding old skin so that new skin can grow. The sparrow is important because of this potential for freedom and flight.” —Ramon Zürcher From cat to spider, […]
“Old as Dirt”: Common Ground
By Jonathan Monovich. The kind of film that leaves you invigorated, full of energy, and wanting to fight the good fight.” In Joshua and Rebecca Tickell’s well-informed documentary, Kiss the Ground (2020), Woody Harrelson spoke of a solution “as old as dirt” that may help prevent humanity’s demise. The solution […]
The Grand and the Personal – King Vidor in Focus: On the Filmmaker’s Artistry and Vision
A Book Review by William Blick. Informative, erudite, and comprehensive in several ways, with exhaustively precise details of Vidor’s career.” When I opened the pages of Kevin Stoehr and Cullen Gallagher’s new book, King Vidor in Focus (McFarland, 2024), I was immediately drawn to Vidor’s “Creed and Pledge” in the […]
Steven Zaillian’s Ripley: Neo-Noir or Revisionary Noir?
By M. Keith Booker. Many aspects of Zaillian’s series, both thematic and visual, make it an almost perfect example of neo-noir. Yet, in other ways, Ripley goes beyond the original noir cycle in ways that are reminiscent of the best revisionary noir films.” In my new book American Noir Film: […]
Three Sides of the Same Coin: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Criterion Collection)
By Theresa Rodewald. An unflinching depiction of the dying West and the violence inherent to the frontier….” Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) is a film shaped and defined by its past. Shot more than 50 years ago, its production was infamously fraught. Director Sam Peckinpah and […]