Every great murder mystery seeks two answers. The first answer is to the basic question of who committed the murder (after all, that’s why we call these stories “whodunits”). But the better entries in the genre probe deeper, seeking an understanding of the institutions that led to the murder in the first place. These films…
In September, I wrote about Joan Rivers, the Batmobile, Kristen Wiig, Vanilla Sky, and the Oscars, among other topics. Check out the links below. I hope to make this a monthly tradition, so please check back on the first of the month to see what I’ve been up to! Essays Who are This Year’s Early…
Author’s Note: This post has been modified. The original version incorrectly identified the planet Darth Vader blew up as Tatooine, not Alderaan. This mistake was made because the author is not a nerd. Guardians of the Galaxy may have saved Hollywood from a truly awful summer at the box office, but what of its politics?…
In their reviews for Edge of Tomorrow, most critics took the low-hanging fruit and compared it to the classic Ramis-Murray comedy Groundhog Day. It’s easy to see why. Each film features a protagonist who is forced to relive the same (bad) day over and over again until he figures out how to become a better…
The obituary for the traditional romantic comedy has already been written hundreds of times, but those who are just reading the headlines are missing the point. It’s not that the rom-com is dead; rather, the traditional form of the genre – with its outdated notions of love and regressive gender roles – has little use…
Judging by the enormous opening weekend gross of The Fault in Our Stars, there are not a lot of cynics out there among the American teenaged population (or at least, the women). The cancer romance is an unabashed tear-jerker, with nary a drop of irony or detachment to be found among the earnest declarations of…
For most of its history, Disney fairy tales knew only two types of women: evil hags and innocent princesses, and for almost as long, feminists have taken issue with these depictions. These stories have indoctrinated entire generations of young women into thinking their sole purpose in life was to be saved from spinsterhood by a…
You cannot serve two masters. That’s what the old adage says, but comic book movies have mostly been able to prove it wrong over the last decade. Consider the complexity of their challenge: Each movie must do service to the legions of dedicated fan boys who comprise the genre’s base and are all too willing…
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