Emma Seligman suddenly exploded into my awareness with SHIVA BABY, a movie I found so creatively executed that I figured I must have missed at least a few of her movies before it. As it turned out, I wasn’t sleeping on Seligman, because her breakout feature was also simply her…

DISTRICT 9 was one of those movies that, for quite a few years after its release, was in the rotation of my favorite films of all time. While it may have dropped in that estimation in more recent years, it still is a tremendous movie and the kickstarter of, well…

Note: This is the hundred-and-seventy-third in a series of historical/critical essays examining the best in film from each year. Essentially, I am watching films from the beginning of cinematic history that interest me and/or hold some critical or cultural impact. My personal, living list of favorites is being created at…

Note: This is the hundred-and-seventy-second in a series of historical/critical essays examining the best in film from each year. Essentially, I am watching films from the beginning of cinematic history that interest me and/or hold some critical or cultural impact. My personal, living list of favorites is being created at…

Note: This is the hundred-and-seventy-first in a series of historical/critical essays examining the best in film from each year. Essentially, I am watching films from the beginning of cinematic history that interest me and/or hold some critical or cultural impact. My personal, living list of favorites is being created at…

DEAR WHITE PEOPLE was kind of a moment. I worked at a movie theater when it came out in 2014, and although it had a limited run at my suburban location at least, I seem to recall a modicum of controversy from the Fox News and Co. contingent. Because of…

With a retroactive look at the great Britpop War of the ’90s between Oasis and Blur, I’m definitely Team Blur. The tremendously popular foursome of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, and Dave Rowntree had their share of tabloid hullabaloo not unlike the antics of the Gallagher brothers, fueled by…

The 6th Academy Awards represented the end of an era. Up to and including this ceremony, held on March 16, 1934 at the Ambassador Hotel, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considered films straddling August of one year to July of the next. To remedy this with a…

Even if you don’t know Willis H. O’Brien’s name, you probably know his work and the influence of it. O’Brien was a film special effects and stop motion animation pioneer, whose achievements are most famously enshrined in KING KONG (1933), THE LOST WORLD (1925), and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949). Additionally…