Column Mad Max: Fury Road Shows the Arbitrary Distinction Between ‘High’ and ‘Low’ Culture Mad Max: Fury Road is pure cinema. It’s also a prime example of how much is obscured in the artificial delineation between low ... By Darren Mooney2 days ago
Column Superman & Lois Tasks Superman with Saving Smallville Superman & Lois offers an interesting — and timely — reversal of the classic Superman setup. The Superman origin story is so well ... By Darren Mooney5 days ago
Column Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Rejected Franchise Nostalgia in a Way Impossible Today Early in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner) meditates on a profound question. “How on Earth can history ... By Darren MooneyFebruary 22, 2021
Column In the Era of Peak Content, Critics Are as Important as Ever It’s a familiar joke. “57 channels and nothing on.” Of course, these days it’s 1,761 channels, over 50 streaming services, 493 scripted television ... By Darren MooneyFebruary 19, 2021
Column Why the Multiverse Is the Future of Shared Universe Storytelling The multiverse is coming. The past couple of decades have largely been defined by the idea of the shared universe, as exemplified by ... By Darren MooneyFebruary 15, 2021
Column Wicked Already Changed Disney’s Fairy Tale Princesses, so Do We Need a Film? Jon M. Chu will direct a screen adaptation of Wicked, with the release date yet to be set. Hollywood has certainly taken its ... By Darren MooneyFebruary 12, 2021
Column Promising Young Woman Weaponizes the Audience’s Expectations This article contains spoilers for Promising Young Woman. There is a startling moment early in Promising Young Woman. An executive named Jerry (Adam ... By Darren MooneyFebruary 8, 2021
Column Deadpool Used Irony to Mask an Action Throwback The original Deadpool opened just about five years ago, so it seems like a good time to look back at the two movies. ... By Darren MooneyFebruary 5, 2021
Column What The Expanse Learned from Game of Thrones When The Expanse launched in 2015, it was heavily sold as “Game of Thrones in space,” with the comparison attributed to “industry insiders” ... By Darren MooneyFebruary 1, 2021
Column Jurassic Park Imagined a Theme Park Run Amok: Now We’re Living in One In hindsight, Jurassic Park looks like a warning. Much of Jurassic Park is given over to ethical debates about the morality of cloning ... By Darren MooneyJanuary 29, 2021
Column Chris Evans Returning to Captain America Would Be a Bad Idea Rumor has it that Chris Evans may return to the role of Captain America. It may or may not be accurate. Regardless, the ... By Darren MooneyJanuary 25, 2021
Column WandaVision Plays Sitcom as Horror and Nostalgia as Nightmare WandaVision adopts the language of a domestic sitcom but plays it as a horror. The first two episodes of WandaVision are a loving ... By Darren MooneyJanuary 22, 2021