Let me start by saying that I am not opposed to films that intend to shock or create a visceral response from its audience. Body horror in general has always pushed the boundaries of the grotesque, and to be fair, very few have taken as many bold swings as The Substance does. The genre has also provided the opportunity to explore identity and what it means to be human in a very unique way. A recent film that comes to…

Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow is at its best when it works as an allegorical lament of the trans experience in 90s suburbia, illustrating the ache experienced by those who felt pressured to conform to certain gender norms. If read as a present-day parable, however, it seems more disingenuous and troubling, as there is much more representation of the trans experience in media in recent years, as well as a significant shift in gender norms since. Mesmerizing, haunting,…

As I saw Hiccup beating swords into tools to make a prosthetic wing for Toothless, I was reminded of the powerful idiom used in Isaiah 2:4:

“He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

The biblical prophet Isaiah looks to a future time of peace when weapons…

I’ve always been intrigued by Cronenberg’s exploration of themes of technology and its relationship to the body - the ways that it can augment, enhance, distort, or in A History of Violence, mutilate it. While often referred to as the most conventional of Cronenberg’s films, A History of Violence still fits within the broader themes of his filmography, as we see the devastating generations-spanning consequences of gun violence. There is an arresting image of the circular and retributive nature of violence,…

History is written by the victors.

After watching Dunkirk this summer, I sat down with my Opa to ask him about what he ed about the evacuation at Dunkirk. He acknowledged that the evacuation at Dunkirk was one of the worst military defeats the British suffered, but he looked at me and said with a concerned look on his face: I bet the film doesn't acknowledge the failures of the Nazi regime to defeat the allied forces after they had…