Watch It Again! Joe (John G. Avildsen, 1970)
Now on Bright Lights!
Superman v Objectivism: Forget Lex Luthor and Brainiac; Could Ayn Rand Be Superman’s Biggest Enemy?
Fascist-Super Cops? The Legacy of the The French Connection & Dirty Harry
One of them is a loner who gets thrown every dirty job in town. His solution: shoot his .44 Magnum and damn the consequences. The other is a blue-collar roughneck, a porkpie-hat wearing boot fetishist[…]
Experiencing Film Violence
From its early days cinema has showcased violence. Whether it was boxing matches or recreations of historical events violence has been infused into the very nature of the medium. If we believe the old story[…]
“The father becomes the son, and the son becomes the father”: Superheroes and their Fathers
It has occurred to me that within the confines of the Superhero sub-genre that so dominates modern Hollywood output that there is a single relationship that underpins the Superheroes’ actions and their relationships to order[…]
Columbo: A Marxist Fable
I know I’m bending the rules by putting a TV show on the blog, but Columbo is really a series of Movies, just TV Movies. Besides Spielberg directed a couple. Anyway, I’m a Columbo fan.[…]
The November Man, Motivation and Women In Refridgerators
The November Man is overall a silly film, a later entry into the Liam Neeson/Taken inspired Geri-Action series. This time Pierce Brosnan dusts off his suits and gets to play a retired spy dragged out[…]
Male Anxiety and The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995)
Warning: Spoilers! The Usual Suspects is an excellent film, correctly celebrated for its non-linear structure and unreliable narrator. But it’s also a fascinating look at male anxiety in the way the characters are consistently calling[…]
On Pixels, Race and Gender in Hollywood
It has been with a depressing familiarity that Hollywood has got itself in a mess this Oscar season about the lack of racial diversity in its nominees. Not only is this the second year without[…]
Body Double (Brian De Palma, 1984)
Warning: Spoilers! Having scandalized a nation with the excellent Dressed to Kill (1980) De Palma planned to go one better with his next Body Double, this time re-mixing Vertigo and Rear Window and then adding some madness that’s[…]