Still Life: The Portrait of Time in ‘Boyhood’
Boyhood sets itself the daunting task of reflecting the breadth of a human adolescence, but it instead reveals that it is in life's minutia that we find the most meaning.
Themenastics
The Upside of No-See Me: Invisibility and ‘Buffy, the Vampire Slayer’
For Buffy, turning invisible allows her to indulge all her worst impulses; but in doing so, she realizes that she is not embracing life, but fleeing it.
It’s Not Easy Seeking Green: My Muppet Show
My Muppet Show is the Orpheus myth. You just have to swap out Orpheus for me; Eurydice for a frog; a lyre for a cartoon banjo; and Hades for the iTunes store.
The Persistence of Mockery: Garfield and Surrealism
Goofing around with Garfield on The Garfield Randomiser and Garfield Minus Garfield evokes the poetic Surrealism that arose from Dadism.
In the Shadow of the Shadow of the Bat
It's common knowledge that the 'best' superhero is the one in cape and cowl. And that's true. It's just not the one you think.
‘Anchorman’s’ Ron Burgundy: The Man, The Myth, the Media
Anchorman 2 is bigger, bolder, brasher and more bizarre than its antecedent, but it also gives a pertinent critique of the medium it has chosen to satirise.
‘Lost’ and Found: Mystery Boxes and Pleasure Domes
Lost arrived with the thunderous roar of exploding fuselage. It cut wildly through pop-culture stereotypes, and then left its fans lost and bewildered amidst the wreckage.
Blood, Bugs and Gore: ‘Gears of War 2’, Postpartum Edition
Gears of War is not about narrative. It's about gut instinct. Pure, primal, primitive emotion. It paints on a big canvas, and uses thick brushstrokes, but the result is an unfiltered, expressionistic roar. It's just like a newborn baby.
