Climate Change and Apocalypse in Mokoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You
Mokoto Shinkai is not an anthropologist of human sacrifice. He is a storyteller and an artist. But storytellers and artists who are faithful to their mission of…
The German Lesson (the Movie): Scapegoating for Peace
Before getting to the The German Lesson, extensive prefatory remarks are needed. All mythology is sacrificial and originates with a real-life scapegoat; a claim René Girard knew…
28 Years Later: Death and Rage in the Satanic Wilderness
28 Years Later is a film of which the founding father of the zombie horror film, George Romero, would have been proud. Unlike most modern zombie films,…
Jurassic Park: Chaos, Control, and Childrearing
I do not know how many times I have seen Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park in my lifetime. If I had to guess, I would put…
Hate, Actually: A Review of Heretic
This review contains spoilers. The Authoritarian Personality (1950) is one of the most important and influential books of the twentieth century. Among conservatives it is notorious…
Kubrick in the Trenches
General Mireau: I can't understand these armchair officers, fellas trying to fight a war from behind a desk, waving papers at the enemy, worrying about whether a…
2001: A Space Odyssey: Contemplative Tone Poem
Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer, do! I’m half crazy, All for the love of you! It won’t be a stylish marriage, I can’t afford a carriage,…
Golden Age Movies: On the Two American Dreams
Images, and films in particular – being movies, or moving images – play a fundamental and often ignored role in understanding our reality. Our memory is stored…
Movies and the Soul
The Golden Age of American cinema, which is another way of saying the foundational cornerstone of cinematic techniques, lighting and sound, spirited motifs and joie de vivre,…
The Forgotten Film Criticism of Vernon Young
Many years ago, as an English undergraduate with interests in literature and film, I noticed that most critical writing in the humanities was a blend of jargonized…
Singing Christmas with Rankin/Bass
Growing up, the 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family was an essential part of the Christmas holiday. Among my favorite films that were often shown were…
Napoleon Undressed: Ridley Scott’s Imagination Rules the Screen
Napoleon Bonaparte is the one dictator that the world has a love-hate relationship. More than petty kings and emperors of the past, Napoleon forcibly seized political power…
The Power and Presence of Silence
I recently watched a wonderful South Korean film titled The Way Home, a 2002 movie with English subtitles. It tells the story of a spoiled boy from…
Barbie: A Confused Postmodern Masterpiece
It has been a curious and exciting thing to watch Greta Gerwig’s Barbie turn into one of the largest and most discussed films of the past decade…
Indiana Jones and the Danger of Knowledge Without Virtue
Within fifteen minutes of his first onscreen appearance in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has disarmed a would-be assassin, leapt over a bottomless pit, run…