‘He Who Gets Slapped’ Gets Its Slap-Happy Revenge
Lou Chaney-starring He Who Gets Slapped gives viewers a macabre melodrama with a taste of serious literature – until it ends in bloody revenge.
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‘Friday the 13th: Part III’ and the Third Dimension of the Incel
In Friday the 13th: Part III, Jason Voorhees’ evolving behavior hints at disturbing autonomy and sexual aggression that, in today’s parlance, we deem “incel”.
‘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.
‘Streets of Fire’ as Global MythÂ
Streets of Fire boldly rejects conventional genre boundaries, merging action, rock opera, MTV video, and neo-noir into an audacious and stylized urban myth that resonates globally.
‘The Glass Web’ Succumbs to the Seduction of the TV Control Room
In film noir The Glass Web, the powers wielded in a television control room reveal 1950s attitudes in the entertainment industry.
Today’s AI Sublime Was Forged in Cold War Cinema’s Atomic Monsters
Horror and sci-fi nuclear cinema of the Cold War era is our finest rehearsal for the AI future, and that’s why pop culture still reaches for monstrous metaphors when technology leaps beyond comprehension.
‘Julie Chan Is Dead’ Lampoons the Influencer Industry
Liann Zhang’s debut satirical thriller Julie Chan Is Dead examines death, digital debauchery, and the cult of clout.
Naughty Naughty Joe Orton
Screenwriter Joe Orton’s specialty was throwing in queer and polymorphous sexuality during a period when English laws were loosening but homosexuals were still being arrested.
‘The Shrouds’ and David Cronenberg’s Cinema of Bodily Grief
David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds harkens back to his early body horror obsessions with a poet’s tone, retaining the connective tissue that embodies him.
‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ Is So Very Much Too Much
There is too much passion and too little cynicism in Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning to dismiss it entirely.
The Long Dark Reach of Cornell Woolrich’s Noir Thrillers
Cornell Woolrich’s premise that happiness is always just beyond reach grabs hold of noir thrillers Dark City, Beware, My Lovely, and No Man of Her Own.
Historical Fiction’s Shipwrecks, Magical Objects, and the Marginalized
Historical fiction as diverse as Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account and teen TV show Outer Banks bring real stories of shipwrecks, magical objects, and the marginalized to life.