Marcell Jankovics’ Animated ‘Son of the White Mare’ Goes Behind the Beyond
Beautifully restored Hungarian animation film, Son of the White Mare, is enchanting.
fantasy
Chabrol Dives into Time-Warping Fantasy with ‘Alice ou la dernière fugue’
Using Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as the basis for his film, Claude Chabrol essays a woman's metaphysical journey into fear in his fantasy-themed Alice ou la dernière fugue.
Eraserhead’s Stylistic Tics Leave Traces of Infection
David Lynch's impossibly mundane and unspeakably grotesque Eraserhead turns a looking glass upon an entire constellation of avant-garde signifiers.
Sci-fi/Fantasy Writer Elizabeth Bear on Diversity, Mental Health, and Queers in Space
Elizabeth Bear's idealistic, positive future would be a Tea Party Republican's worst nightmare. Her latest book, Machine, explores the possibility fearlessly.
Teaching Miyazaki’s Films in the Time of Pandemic
Miyazaki's powerful worldview speaks to our times in striking ways: the hidden terror of the natural world; the need for truth and compassion; the humanism in the face of adversity.
‘Lovecraft Country’ Is Heady, Poetic, and Mangled
Laying the everyday experience of Black life in 1950s America against Cthulhuian nightmares, Misha Green and Jordan Peele’s Lovecraft Country suggests intriguing parallels that are often lost in its narrative dead-ends.
The Superficial Approach to Chicano and Pachuco Culture in ‘Penny Dreadful: City of Angels’
The story of how structural inequalities have shaped Los Angeles can be found in Penny Dreadful: City of Angels but it needs to be in the forefront of season two.
Stepping into the Phantasmagoric Otherwise with Karel Zeman
While all films project a world that might be, certain films and certain filmmakers, like Karel Zeman, come closer than others in bringing to the surface the underlying phantasmagoric essence of cinema.
Pandemics and Trumpian Echoes in Miller’s ‘Blackfish City’
When we can't turn to the federal government for the truth, sometimes we need to turn to fiction. Sam J. Miller's Blackfish City maps a pandemic in a post-United States future.
A Fix of Fantasy: Reviving the Wondrous Films of Karel Zeman
The imaginative filmmaker Karel Zeman influenced many artists including Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, fellow Czech Jan Švankmajer, the Brothers Quay, and animator Lawrence Jordan's recycling of classic 19th Century imagery.
You’ll Never Make It Alone: On Groups in ‘The Good Place’
What happens when you put an Arizona dirtbag, a human turtleneck, a narcissistic monster, and the dumbest person you've ever met in the same room? They become good people, sure, but more importantly, they become a group.
