True crime
Very few things titillate us like a good serial killer story. Those who kill irrationally have become our new movie monster, as the horror of a Frankenstein’s Monster or Dracula has waned in our imagination over the decades. We see vampires and werewolves as teenage celebrities more often than not in today’s media, but serial … Continue reading
(Half) Marathon woman
I’ve never been an athlete. The only marathons I’ve ever been interested in are the kinds about special victim units, crime scene investigations, or drag queen reality shows. In elementary school, I hid behind the giant shady tree to avoid my turn at bat on the baseball diamond. In soccer, I’d run around and try … Continue reading
Parallel lives
As I pulled into my office parking lot this morning and turned off the car I noticed that the digital dashboard clock showed “6:16.” In my early morning pre-coffee daze my mind registered that 616 is the main Marvel universe’s designation as provided by Alan Moore. I always respected Moore for giving the universe a … Continue reading
Shouting at the screen (and the page)
*Spoiler alert: The following review of The Sixes by Kate White doesn’t tell you who did it, but it tells you who didn’t* Jurassic Park hit theaters for the first time when I was nine years old. My mother had thought about asking our live-in nanny, Lori, to come with us but in the end … Continue reading
My favorite mamas
We all know Claire Huxtable and Roseanne Conner are pretty fantastic big mamas of the small screen, but who will make my list of dream moms? Linda Belcher of Bob’s Burgers If I could only pick one TV mama to be my very own, it would have to be Linda Belcher. With big flippy hair, … Continue reading
Work amidst the biomass
Leviathan (2012) straddles the line between documentary and avant-garde; composed entirely from footage shot on a large fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean, it hints at how life is lived on the boat, but exists primarily as a visual and auditory experience. Things happen, but there is no plot; our understanding is entirely derived from … Continue reading
A Shepard prepares
I have always been a great player of pretend. I love telling stories. As I child, I was often accused of having an overactive imagination. When I’d play outside with the neighborhood kids, I’d go beyond the typical “cops and robbers” and do “mob boss versus grizzled detective who’s getting too old for this stuff,” … Continue reading
Reading aloud
This week my husband and I drove down to Ohio so I could hang out with my parents while he attends a nerd conference in Boston. I decided that a good way to pass the time would be to read aloud to Dan while he drove. I had wanted to re-read Philip Pullman’s The Golden … Continue reading
Earth’s mightiest heroes — sort of
A mythical warrior wielding armaments of legend. A hero encased in metal who becomes a living weapon. A normal man thrown into extraordinary circumstances armed simply with a shield. A big green monster caught in the crosshairs of a secret government agency. All told, seven soldiers out to save the world from an incursion too … Continue reading
Artifice, emotion, and truth
Strangely enough, the genre description “deliberately artificial romantic melodrama slash Thai western” don’t do justice to Wisit Sasanatieng’s 2000 film Tears of the Black Tiger. The film is a postmodern pastiche of the most shallow and wonderful kind: ambitious, energetic, and entertaining, combining disparate clichés, both narrative and visual, to form something new and unique. … Continue reading
