The fourth edition of The Wes Dispatch takes a look at anti-heroes and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
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All articles filed in Columns
Top of the Docs #24 – She Puppet
Of all the video game characters produced throughout the past forty or so years, Lara Croft is undoubtedly the one that has made the biggest impact in terms of critical theory and cultural debate.
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How ‘It Follows’ (2014) Re-Imagines the Final Girl
In the nearly thirty years since the term was coined, Final Girls have appeared in many iterations, some pushing boundaries and some in line with the traditional trope. David Robert Mitchell’s film It Follows (2014) directly confronts the problems with the Final Girl while maintaining some elements of the trope, playing a role in crafting a new, modern version of the Final Girl.
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Top of the Docs #23 – Life 2.0
Life 2.0 takes a look at a game from this era of MMORPGs, one of the most infamously addictive games of all time, Second Life.
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Criminal Record #6 – Denzel Washington and the Value of Charisma
From police procedurals to heists, American film noir and French policiers via South Korean serial killers, Criminal Record is a column delving into the rich and heady cinematic history of crime films. This time, a look at Denzel Washington’s career as a crime film leading man.
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How the ‘Moonlight’ (2016) Screenplay Uses Silence to Speak the Loudest
Moonlight is an epic story of one man’s personal life that utilises a particular style and writing voice. Jenkins juxtaposes earth-shattering narrative moments with words of stillness and quiet to amplify the effect it has on Chiron.
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Top of the Docs #22 – Noise (2006)
In 2005, Olivier Assayas was given his opportunity, and what would follow would encapsulate the spirit behind a certain genre of music that had made waves throughout the last three decades.
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The Best Queer Women in Horror Films
LGBTQ+ characters don’t often fare well in horror films. Typically, they are horrific monsters or killers, such as in the films Psycho (1960), Dressed to Kill (1980), and Silence of the Lambs (1991). Sometimes, though, lesbian, bisexual and/or queer women get to take the lead in horror, subverting negative stereotypes. The films below are a great start in watching horror films with queer characters that differ from the norm, paving the way for continued representation of queer women in horror.
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Top of the Docs #21 – Citizenfour (2014)
Since the Cold War and maybe even before, we have all been jokingly aware of the fact that our respective governments are, to some extent, watching us.
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Ten Black and Totally Badass Villains and Heroines in Horror
Black women continue to play a wider (though not much wider) range of roles, from villains to heroines, in outstanding, unforgettable films. This list is just a small taste of the talent Black women have brought to the genre. It’s their headway that will hopefully bring in another new age where Hollywood can break the stereotypes of them in film completely, and this list can grow even larger as more Black women are offered the titular and main roles in the horror genre.
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