The great thing about genre is that it offers fans straightforward and familiar material, but it also allows filmmakers the space to come up with new interpretations within established formulae. This is especially true of horror, and the challenge for the filmmaker is to offer scares within the blend of familiarity and innovation. Bishal Dutta’s…
Fans of Jordan Peele’s incomparable societal critique “Get Out” can rejoice as the horror-auteur swings for the fences in his newest horror-thriller Us, and for the most part, hits it straight out of the park. Piggybacking off of the inquisitive, yet cynical, tone of his directorial debut, Us follows the Wilson family as they attempt…
In 1915, D. W. Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation” was released, en route to becoming one of the most influential and controversial films in cinema history. Griffith’s historical epic created indelible imprints on film content and style, particularly in the areas of racial representation and editing. A century later, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman attempts…
One night, on a quiet neighborhood street, a black man walks along, minding his business, trying to remember directions he was given. He mumbles to himself about street names and how “confusing and scary-ass” the suburbs are (true story). A white Porsche creeps up behind him, eventually pulling ahead of him to idle near the…
I teach high school English and have a master’s degree in my content, so I’ve read quite a bit and I’ve studied many authors. I took a seminar in Jane Austen, but, to my disappointment, the only book I enjoyed was one NOT written by Austen (Evelina by Frances Burney, in case you’re curious). I’ve…
Unable to sit idly by as the country degenerates into worthless, crass, reality show shit, one man decides to take a stand. Actually that’s one man and one teenage girl. Together in the dark comedy God Bless America, they zag and zig across this great land of ours killing off the selfish, self righteous and…
