Note: Post contains ALL THE SPOILERS for this film. The shift to gritty fantasy over the last couple decades has been a long time coming. I’d argue that those of us who grew up watching heroes like Snake Pliskin and Mad Max and Ellen Ripley but reading about smarmy do-good boys with birthmarks and …
No, that post title is not a directive, that’s the name of a movie I finally ponied up to watch my last night at Wellspring before I passed out. I’d been putting off this movie for a good long while, primarily because I heard about it not long after some nut job shot up a …
Note: this is a film that is about violence against women. Triggers ahoy. Long-time readers know that I get really pissed off with creative work that employs random violence against women as some kind of lazy shorthand. Creators do this for all types of reasons. You don’t have to work too hard at characterizing your …
“You’re No Different Than That Thing in the Cellar”: Thoughts on “The Woman” Read More »
NOTE: This post assumes you have already watched Prometheus, so is full of SPOILERS. In the world of Prometheus, we all came from white dudes, who went around seeding the universe with their magical, life-giving sperm. It was a fine feat those boys managed, creating whole worlds all on their own. I can’t help but …
Prometheus: White Dudes Seeding the Universe with their Magical Man-Sperm (Naturally) Read More »
When did journalism go from this: “This thing happened. Here are the factual details of what happened as verified by our in-house reporter. Here is a quote from someone supporting this fact. Here is a quote from someone who explains how this fact will affect your immediate situation. Here are the facts again. Here’s where …
Note: Spoilers ahoy When I walked in to watch The Cabin in the Woods, I expected a total subversion of the genre. I was giddy at the idea of taking all the old horror movie tropes and fucking with them. I looked forward to the blonde who wasn’t stupid, the virgin who totally had a …
Why your gun-toting chick isn’t feminist, redux: Thoughts on The Cabin in the Woods Read More »
I’ve been thinking a lot about women and power. J. and I went to see John Carter last week, but this isn’t really a rant about John Carter, which has its own issues. What particularly struck me was when J. pointed out that he was surprised to see so many women background characters in the …
It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a Conan fan, so though the trailer for the reboot looked awful, I went anyway – naturally. For better or worse, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Sadly, much of the badness seemed to come from the fact that the writers couldn’t really …
The Many, Many Faces of Conan, Or: Conan the Schizophrenic Read More »
Remember when you were 9 and or 10 or 12 and you stayed up until all hours reading your favorite fantasy novel? Remember that strangely comforting feeling of slipping neatly and completely into some other place and so totally embracing the story of another person that you were engrossed until the sun came up? You …
Remember When Fantasy Books Were AWESOME? Thoughts on The Cloud Roads Read More »
With a name like “Cowboys and Aliens” I should have expected that, yes, really, it would only feature cowboys and aliens, and the appearance of a female character with a gun did not make her a cowgirl, of course, but an alien (obviously. If you aren’t a cowboy you must be an alien). But, whatever. This movie was …
Cowboys and aliens… about what you would expect (with spoilers) Read More »