Column
Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who Looks Modern, but Its Storytelling Harks Back to 1963
The most striking thing about Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who is how old-fashioned it feels, as if trying to recreate the show’s earliest seasons ...
Column
The Star Wars Saga Needs to ‘Grow Beyond’ the Skywalkers
It appears that The Rise of Skywalker will not be the end of the “Skywalker Saga” for Star Wars. Despite the heavy emphasis ...
Column
The Witcher Exists in the Uncanny Valley Between Prestige & Episodic Television
The Witcher resides in the uncanny valley, although not the one that audiences might expect. The Witcher is an impressive accomplishment in purely ...
Column
The Witcher Asks: What Is the Measure of a Monster?
This article contains spoilers for The Witcher season 1 on Netflix — and its monsters. What is the measure of a monster? Monster ...
Column
1917 Uses Long Takes to Capture the Nightmare and Unreality of War
This article contains spoilers for 1917 (the movie, not the year). In narrative terms, 1917 is a very conventional war story. It is ...
Column
The Rise of Skywalker Wants to ‘Fix’ The Last Jedi: The Results Are a Nightmare
This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker feels like a monkey’s paw situation. ...
Column
Rogue One Recontextualizes the Star Wars Formula for the 21st Century
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was the perfect film to launch the “Star Wars Story” branding, the first feature-length live-action theatrical Star ...
Column
Solo Is More a Generic Blockbuster Than ‘A Star Wars Story’
Right up unto the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the Star Wars movies felt like events. That is a large part ...
Column
Darth Vader in Rogue One Undermines Both the Movie and Himself
The closing sequence of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is thrilling. It offers a visceral glimpse of Darth Vader cutting loose as ...
Column
The Star Wars Canon Is as Flexible or Rigid as You Want It to Be
One of the great things about Star Wars is the way in which the franchise is as immersive as the audience wants it ...
Column
Knives Out Joins a Trend of Portraying the Rich as Selfish and Incompetent
Note: This article contains spoilers for Knives Out. Knives Out belongs to a rich tradition of murder mysteries fascinated with class dynamics. It ...
Column
Charlie’s Angels Is Too Beholden to Franchise History to Be Independent
This article contains spoilers for Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels. Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels is a dysfunctional mess of a blockbuster — one that ...
