Stealing the Limelight

The clearest creative vision can be thwarted if a writer's own characters get other ideas. Sometimes a secondary character can emerge from the background and steal the limelight from the rest of the cast. These breakout characters often start out benign, but studio and network interference are notorious creative carcinogens. Here…
May 20, 2021

OG #StarWarsNotStarWars

Now that #StarWarsNotStarWars has secured its place at the apex of newpub, it's worth looking back at what made the original Star Wars successful. I've long maintained that George Lucas achieved his genre-redefining opus by solving old storytelling problems in fresh and exciting ways. Specifically, he presented refined expressions of…
May 20, 2021
RoosterTeeth

Rare as Rooster Teeth

The internet may finally have found that much sought-after rarity: a company that has gone broke from getting woke. Except this legendary beast isn't a unicorn. It's a rooster. It is of no surprise to anyone that Rooster Teeth has had a very rough couple of months and that is…
May 20, 2021
prestige

Illusionist v Wizard, Part 2

"It is more than entertainment," the stage magician Vinovich declares in Lord of Illusions. "We are bringing miracles back into their miserable little lives." Fellow illusionist Robert Angier, villain-protagonist of the aforementioned film's spiritual successor, echoes that declaration in his parting words to archrival Albert Borden. "You never understood why…
May 20, 2021
Illusionist v Wizard, Part 1

Illusionist v Wizard, Part 1

The illusionist who simulates preternatural feats through sleight of hand and the wizard who actually wields powers not intended for man - both loom large in the human imagination. Since one is a deliberate counterfeit of the other, those occasions when illusionists and wizards share the spotlight in one story…
April 19, 20214 Comments
The Disney Hole

The Disney Hole

Spend any amount of time studying history, and you'll soon find it rarely follows a straight path. The past takes all kinds of twists, turns, and switchbacks from one event to the next. This phenomenon makes no exception for movie history. It's unimaginable now that Disney has become the world's dominant…
April 14, 202113 Comments
Abusive Parasocial Relationship

Abusive Parasocial Relationship

Before he was driven into soft exile from every major streaming platform, the internet's court jester Mister Metokur declared that the typical YouTuber's career lasts roughly five years. Happily, that window is closing on one of the more odious byproducts of Hollywood's fealty to the Death Cult--nerd culture outrage channels.For…
March 19, 202134 Comments
Dissident Cinema

Dissident Cinema

One windfall of the Star Wars sequel trilogy fiasco is that it clued millions of ordinary people in to what folks in the counterculture have known for years: Hollywood isn't in the business of producing entertainment for a profit. Instead, the movie industry has become a propaganda factory for the…
February 5, 202114 Comments
Signs

Signs

By popular demand, we delve once more into the back catalog of wunderkind-turned-byword-turned-mercenary director M. Night Shyamalan. This blog's reviews of Sham's Eastrail 177 Trilogy chronicled the rise of an earnest auteur, his fall to hubris, his delayed redemption, and his subsequent relapse. But twenty years ago, Shyamalan was riding high on…
January 11, 202114 Comments
Hollywood Shanghaied

Hollywood Shanghaied

Lest anyone cling to the delusion that our lawless ruling class operates on a profit motive, one of their most loyal servants has willingly walked the plank.   It's official: North American box office revenue plummeted 80 percent in 2020 amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and unprecedented theater closures, while…
January 4, 202113 Comments