Kit MacFarlane has a PhD in English Literature, Film and Popular Culture, and teaches English as a freelance academic. He writes cultural criticism, commentary and relentless tirades, and has published regular cultural and higher education commentary in Australian media. A list of his writing can be found on his very ugly webpage. Off-the-clock, he shouts at the TV incessantly.
Features
Friday, May 22 2009
Star Trek's Lost Legacy of Literary Pretension
What's a Kirk without Earth-poet Shakespeare? Has the awkward Star Trek quotation spat its last breath? Trek's lost legacy of literary pretension.
Wednesday, May 6 2009
Who Needs an Oscar Anyway?: Mickey Rourke's Homeboy
Dismissed as too depressing in 1988, Mickey Rourke's self-penned turn in Homeboy brings an aura of sorrow more nuanced and poetic than that of his celebrated performance in The Wrestler.
Columns
Thursday, March 29 2012
Go Play in Traffic: 5 Movies About Kids That Are Better Than 'Hugo' and 'True Grit'
Precocious cherubs and wise-beyond-their-years savants are a Hollywood staple, but they don't really reflect the state of actually being a kid. Here are a five good, great, or interesting films that are far more effective in portraying that being a kid is a really weird thing to be.
Friday, February 3 2012
Kafka Noir: 'The Sickroom' and 'A Country Doctor'
Serge Marcotte's The Sickroom compresses Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor into a nightmarish rush of hard-boiled film noir cynicism that, like all the best literary adaptations, is simultaneously faithful and unique.
Wednesday, October 26 2011
Tough Guys Recite: The 5 Best Poetry Spittin' TV Characters
Every generic hero on TV can finish a poetic quotation or identify a poignant quatrain (down to the line numbers). But few can spit Tennyson or Yeats with such venom as these guys.
Friday, October 7 2011
Jean-Teddy Filippe's 'Forbidden Files': Found Footage Lost (and Found Again)
Oddly missing in histories of the "found footage" genre, Jean-Teddy Filippe's "Forbidden Files" offers intriguing glimpses at horror and fantasy flickering into an uneasy camcorder reality, ten years before The Blair Witch Project made it fashionable (and lame).
Thursday, July 28 2011
Robot Dreams: 'Transformers' and 'Sex Kittens Go to College'
Retro Remote nominates Sex Kittens Go to College as Transformers' true precursor. The problem with Tranformers-type franchises is that the criticisms can only annoy people by reminding them of what they have chosen to ignore.
Blogs
Friday, April 27 2012
Joss Whedon's 'Avengers' Reaches Apex of Averageness, True Believers
The Avengers may be awesome, but that doesn't mean it's any good. The new standard for superhero films seems to be that they don't suck as opposed to actually containing any ideas of interest.
Friday, October 14 2011
The Thing (2011): Bringing Quiet Tones and Space Vaginas Back from the '80s
Matthijs van Heinjningen Jr.'s prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing summons the chilly vibe and the cinema-sexual psychoanalytic undertone of the best of '80s genre cinema. It's only the generic modern "female empowerment" story that seems dated.
Friday, September 30 2011
WWE's Heels -- the Jerks, Cowards and Miscreants -- vs. Corporate Hedonism
Mainstream culture's failure to examine professional wrestling seriously -- in this case, workplace safety issues -- lets the WWE get away with all kinds of ridiculous villainy that no other media organisation could. And pocket a tidy profit while doing it.
Wednesday, March 30 2011
Homophobia Is Alive and Well on TV at the WWE
With the WWE's biggest event of the year on the horizon, fans and sponsors might want to take a closer look at its blatant homophobia and reconsider the wisdom of handing over their money to a bigoted and retrograde institution.
Wednesday, October 6 2010
'Sesame Street' Has More to Be Worried About Than Katy Perry's Low-Cut Top
Unfortunately, all debates about breasts ever seem to do is draw attention away from the real points of concern.
