Tuesday, October 25 2011
Other Princesses, Other Castles: The Problem with Playing Romantically in Video Games
The insensibly repetitious nature of romance present in both video game plots and in their mechanics leads to all too familiar storytelling.
Friday, May 20 2011
Heavy (Emotional) Weather in ‘The Stormchasers’
The Stormchasers is a non-traditional entry into the Chick Lit canon as there’s a lot of scientific talk in the book and a lot of getting one’s hands dirty. Sophie Kinsella this ain’t.
Monday, November 22 2010
Breaking Up is Hard to Do…Online
Does changing your relationship status online have to mean digital drama?
Wednesday, October 20 2010
‘Super Sad True Love Story’, Or, The Unbearable Lightness of Being Lenny Abramov
This story depicts a world that is completely absurd and out of control, which brings a lot of dark humor into it. Yet its truly scary -- you have to wonder if this is the slippery slope the real world is headed down.
Wednesday, March 3 2010
Sorry, Dante, but your princess is in another castle
Is blonde and voluptuous a sufficient motive for harrowing hell?
Wednesday, February 3 2010
Love Is a Backwards Kick: The Romance of Karateka
How does effort fit into the romance equation?
Thursday, December 3 2009
Little Women: Brilliant Book, Flawed Film
A scene shows Ryder blissfully tying up the manuscript and putting a rose under the string. That's rather like what Armstrong and the screenwriters did to the film: tied it up neatly with a pretty flower.
Friday, September 26 2008
Pretty Vacant
The world of The Duchess should have been one of fiery tumult, but little of that foment makes it into this film’s garden party landscape.
Thursday, May 29 2008
HBO: The Movie
Michael Patrick King takes about two or three season finales' worth of tears and OMG jawdroppers and whacks them together into a big, sloppy, gooey sundae of a film that is, for better or for worse, just like the show … only longer.
Sunday, January 1 1995
Romance (1999)
It might be expected that the new film by French feminist director Catherine (36 Fillette) Breillat, Romance, is generating more discussion about its shots of pricks and nipples than its narrative or themes or performances. This is a little ironic, because the movie really isn't about erotic arousal or exploitation. In fact, it is, as its title suggests, about romance. Or more precisely, it's about the expectations, disappointments, and power dynamics that shape and destroy romance.
