Paul Thomas Anderson is special. He’s been stunning us with his intimate, yet brutal depictions of complicated, dense, and memorable characters for the last 30 years. He’s a unique voice and a standout compared even […]
Essay
Why Crawl (2019) Is the Gator-Filled Thrill Ride Elevated Horror Fans Need to Stop Dismissing
Since 2014’s The Babadook, I have noticed this growing idea of “Elevated Horror” among snobbish cinephiles. These “horror fans” will have you believe that the genre has undergone a renaissance for the past 7 years. […]
“Succession” and “Logan Roy”: A Study of Daddy Issues and Parent-Child Relationships
The HBO series Succession is, at its core, a gripping tale of corporate power struggles, but beneath the surface, it is an intricate examination of family dynamics, specifically the often toxic relationship between Logan Roy, […]
How Twin Peaks (1990) Changed and Led to Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
In 1990, Twin Peaks revolutionized television by introducing a surreal, cinematic style and long-form, character-driven storytelling. Over 25 years later, in 2017, Twin Peaks: The Return arrived, continuing and reimagining the world David Lynch and […]
How Twin Peaks (1990) Changed Modern Television
When Twin Peaks first premiered in 1990, it was a TV show unlike any other. Directed by David Lynch and co-created with Mark Frost, it followed the investigation of a small-town murder with a mix […]
Travis Bickle: The Anti-Hero We Fear Becoming
Taxi Driver is technically not a film it is a character study of a guy named Travis Bickle who would not take it anymore. Being a war veteran and away from society for a while […]
From Toy Story to Tepid: Dissecting Pixar’s Fall from Creative Greatness
Everyone has their own bracket for what they consider Pixar’s Golden Age. For me, Pixar’s run from 1995 to 2010, was the studio at its prime. I’m old enough to remember a 10 year stretch […]
Rediscovering Tamasha: A Journey from Frustration to Understanding
The first time Tamasha released in 2015, I went into the film with a relatively open mind and left it quizzing over the hype. More frustratingly, it was like an inert, creatively bankrupt narrative that […]
Why Do We Always Compare Every Fresh Superhero Movie To ‘The Dark Knight’?
There’s so much talk of how we are in a Golden Age of superhero movies, and yet it’s as if pop culture has not moved past 2008. For whatever reason, we appear to come back […]
Shadows of Shutu: A Tale of Loss and Longing
There was a melancholy soul named Shyamal—Shutu to his loved ones —living under the ephemeral canopy of McCluskieganj, where secrets reveled on whispers and memories clung onto mists. He was a soft waited brushstroke in […]