‘The Midnight: Shadows’ Renders Nostalgia’s Dangers in Neon
In their music and now their graphic novel, The Midnight: Shadows, this synthwave duo weaves a distinct emotional identity around the narcotic effects of nostalgia.
adventure
Star Trek’s Ultimate, Absolute, Inarguably Final Frontier
In the minds of Star Trek‘s many creators, the “sky” is the limit(less), but been there, done that. So what’s left for our adventurous mythmakers to explore?
‘Tron’ Is ‘Hellraiser’ for the Whole Family
The Tron film series is more than a sci-fi adventure: it is a modern, neon-drenched reinterpretation of Hellraiser‘s horror mythos but with a more family-friendly vibe.
Translating Mothra Is Trickier Than Capturing Godzilla
Jeffrey Angles discusses the perils and pleasures of translating Mothra’s tri-authored origin tale, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra, into English.
‘The Incredible Snow Woman’ Warmly Embraces Its Cold Outsider
The Incredible Snow Woman takes in its difficult, dysfunctional, and quirky protagonist and warmly embraces her.
‘It Was Just an Accident’ Hides Life’s Extremes in Plain Sight
Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or-winning revenge thriller, It Was Just an Accident, slices into memory and the desire for revenge with a double-edged knife.
Star Wars: Rebels’ Strategist in the Shadows
Star Wars: Rebels‘ blue-skinned Thrawn is a fictional echo of what America needs in these times: cultural intelligence, emotional control, and long-term thinking.
‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ Boldly Explores the Concept of Mentoring
Star Trek: Enterprise offers a rare dramatization of a process that is often condensed in fictional universes: the messy, contested, exhilarating journey from tutelage to independence.
Red Westerns of the Socialist East
The Red Westerns made in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe appropriated the tropes of the Western to critique America’s mythologies while advancing their own.
Superman’s Message of Moral Reciprocity
The resonance of the Golden Rule across time and societies is one way that the reciprocity norm, and its signifier, Superman, combine the secular with the sacred.
The Thunderbolts Put Up a Fight for Teamwork
What Thunderbolts communicates about teamwork taps into one of the greatest social science mysteries of contemporary history: the nature of individual-group relation.
Warrior’s Bloody Aftermath
The violent martial arts series Warrior is supposedly a remake of Kung Fu, which conveys a strong and peaceful masculinity we sorely need in these times.