What makes a disturbing movie so effective? Hannah Granberry breaks down some of the tropes and tricks of feel-bad films.
Read More
All articles filed in Essay
Danny Glover Turns 75: A Quiet, Fiery Legacy
“Among Black actors, Danny Glover’s screen legacy is still unsung.” A retrospective look at Glover’s impressive career as he turns 75.
Read More
The Nightmarish and Sublime Beauty of the Undiscovered in ‘Annihilation’ (2018) and ‘Interstellar’ (2014)
These two films elegantly unravel what it means to experience things as inconceivable as they are alluring, which continually pull at and dismantle human instinct.
Read More
Disrupting American Mythologies: ‘Nomadland’ (2020) and Tales of Manifest Destiny
The experience Zhao aims for is one that engages thoroughly with the modern-day repercussions of Manifest Destiny. She excites us about a romantic lifestyle with boundless opportunities, but uses this lifestyle to question the mythology of the West.
Read More
Revisiting Wes Craven’s ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984) and Horror’s Obsession with the Female Mind
“What remains brutally unwavering is the violence inflicted on female characters and its link to male fantasy and desire.”
Read More
How Representation Helped Rescue My Mental Health
A personal look at how on screen representation can be life-changing.
Read More
Black Boyhood Under Threat in ‘Attack the Block’ (2011)
Ten years on, John Boyega’s portrayal of young black masculinity in Attack the Block still rings true.
Read More
20 Years On, ‘Moulin Rouge!’ (2001) Remains a Metatheatrical, Maximalist Masterpiece
Moulin Rouge is unmistakably its own creation, unified in its vision, unfailingly precise in its execution, and achingly sincere in its portrait of a first, lost love.
Read More
The Faux Feminism of ‘Stranger Things’
As the show is centred on a young girl’s journey of self-discovery and overcoming her traumatic childhood, it is assumed that it would get the feminist stamp of approval.
Read More
‘Melancholia’ (2011) and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Planet
How Lars Von Trier portrays mental illness as a superpower in Melancholia.
Read More