By Alex Ramon. Although I enjoyed the research and writing aspects, I didn’t feel comfortable in the academic environment…Writing independently has not made me wealthy but at least I have maintained a long and productive career, against the odds.” –Stephen Bourne It will be 30 years next year since the […]
Replicating Neoliberal Reform: Failed Mothers in John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood (1991) and Baby Boy (2001)
By Indya J. Jackson. Ultimately [through the depiction of failed mothers] Singleton replicates the anti-Black, anti-poor, and misogynistic rhetoric of neoliberal reformists by embedding a definite preference for fathers and the heteropatriarchal family structure within his films.” After Boyz N the Hood (1991) launched John Singleton into rarefied air, he […]
A Self-Defeating Genre Mashup: On Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025)
By Thomas M. Puhr. Coogler’s strong character work in the film’s first half undercuts his efforts to embrace pure horror in its second.” Spoiler Alert Ryan Coogler’s knack for bringing a humanist touch to a variety of genres—starting with social realism (Fruitvale Station), transitioning to crowd-pleasing sports sagas (Creed), and […]
“The Invisible Man”: Race in Horror Films
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.”
Recognizing Belafonte
By Robert K. Lightning. If Poitier’s films frequently situate him as an integrationist hero, successfully negotiating the rocky path to white acceptance, Belafonte’s films typically chart a very different path where acceptance is not always the goal, making him often Poitier’s cinematic antithesis.” With the announcement of Harry Belafonte’s death […]
Honor Long Overdue: Da Five Bloods
By Johnnie Hobbs III. While Miracle at St. Anna, Spike Lee’s first war drama, suffers from its myriad of storylines, it seems that Da 5 Bloods is the beneficiary of a lesson learned.” Recently, I asked my father about his time in the army and how it’s affected his life. […]