Disability representation in science fiction typically signifies both the limits of human boundaries as well as the innovations beyond those boundaries. However, when the majority of such representation is established through the use of harmful and often outdated stereotypes, a re-evaluation of those tropes is needed.
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The last nineteen years have been amazing for television. With us now living in the “Platinum Age of Television”, we saw groundbreaking shows from The Sopranos, The Shield, and The Wire in the early 2000s to Mad Men and Breaking Bad in the mid-2000s and beyond. These shows experimented with the visual language and narrative…
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Watching Alton Meyers (Jaeden Lieberher) be introduced in Midnight Special was like being thrown back in time. We first see him cocooned in an old motel sheet; his hunched frame silhouetted by the flashlight he’s using to read the comic book balanced on his knee. At that exact moment, Alton exists, figuratively, on his own…
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Gentleman Jack is one of the most important shows on television right now. Sally Wainwright helms the new addition to BBC and HBO, which follows the historical figure Anne Lister (played by Suranne Jones) of 1830s Halifax as she manages her late uncle’s Shibden Hall estate and courts her future wife Ann Walker (played by…
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I’m powerless over a lot of things. Things like my love for women, the way I am represented, and the fact it doesn’t rain as often as I’d like. I’m powerless over the fact that I am an addict. And I’m powerless over the effect Gia just had on me. Powerlessness is the fundamental undercurrent…
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Short films are sort of a dying art, aren’t they? That’s not to say that they’re artistically bankrupt, or that they aren’t good. But where can you even watch short films? Where are they shown? Artistic merit and quality is irrelevant if they’re simply tossed into the void, no eyes to watch. With the exception…
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When people ask who my favorite fictional characters are, I often receive blank stares when I reply without hesitation: C. C. Baxter. The Apartment (1960) has become a classic in the Billy Wilder canon, but even if those in the conversation know who Jack Lemmon’s C. C. Baxter is offhand, they also know he isn’t…
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2010 was a complex year for film. It was a year where mental health started to slowly creep into the eyes of the media and film, in a way that focused upon adults and the pressures that started to face them a decade into the new century. From looking at body imagery in Black Swan,…
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After three Oscar nominations and over 30 prominent film roles, the quote most often attributed to actress Greta Garbo is her iconic Grand Hotel retort: “I want to be alone.” The star later clarified in an interview, “I only said I want to be left alone. There’s a difference.” In the northeastern Brazilian town of…
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Dressed in a flowing, powder blue dress and with a crown of pink and white flowers intertwined atop her dark hair, a young girl tries to remember the one line that she has forgotten from her rehearsal of a fairy-tale. This is the opening scene of the 1986 film Labyrinth, starring Jennifer Connelly as Sarah…
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