Black and Nerdy? Shattering the Monolith With ‘Atlanta’
Atlanta goes a long way toward shattering the myth that there's a single black experience.
In The Details
“What’s Wrong With You?” Girlhood, Genre, and ‘Stranger Things’
Stranger Things is part of a long cinematic tradition of boyhood, including steamrolling more nuanced portrayals of girlhood.
The Myth of Elvis Presley
Rock critic Greil Marcus holds that Elvis' songs are simply a facade. But is there not a creative person behind the facade?
What Neutral Milk Hotel’s ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ Is Really About
At the core of Neutral Milk Hotel’s highly acclaimed 1998 album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, is an exploration of love and the process of unity and separation.
Poverty Prepares You to Survive the Worst – Even the Zombies of ‘The Walking Dead’
The ways in which poverty shapes the psyche of The Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon are very rarely seen in the current television landscape.
Splitting Hairs (of Identity) in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’
James Gunn's epic borrows from the mythologies of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but its characters are on a much more contemporary quest for identity.
May the Force (of Narrativity) Be With You
The Star Wars universe is a microcosmical example of the long-standing battle over the necessity of narrativity in shaping our lives.
Lucifer Is Free to Roam: (In)Justice and Retribution in ‘Hannibal’
Hannibal, unlike much-hyped pulp revival shows like True Detective and Fargo, refuses to give its audience neat answers on matters of right and wrong.
‘True Detective’ and the Conventions of Morality
In the realm of moral ambiguity they occupy, Rust Cohle and Marty Hart become a microcosm of Lawrence Kohlberg's three stages of moral development.
‘I’m Not the Fox I Used to Be’: Wes Anderson’s Changing Seasons
Far from style over substance, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox fixates over objects to show its protagonist's inability to handle the oncoming winter.