Rape, Revenge, and Gender Inequality

Last night, Cap made me aware of some trivia from the recent horror film Midsommar that I did not care for. Here’s the same fact, from IMDb: “After the coerced coitus scene, Christian was supposed to run away in the robe that he had entered in. Jack Reynor [the actor] himself suggested that Christian run out […]

Ralph Breaks the Internet: A Ham-Fisted Moral

Cap and I really liked Wreck-It Ralph. I like video games anyway, I found it satisfyingly twisty, I LOVED Sergeant Calhoun and her crazy figures of speech, and I thought the ending was quite touching. So we were excited to check out the sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet. We watched it one night–and it has […]

Making Good Look Good: Top 5 Non-Boring Good Guys

Last week, I introduced the idea that often, “good guys” can come across as boring. I’m not sure if this tendency is a deficiency in the way they are written (i.e., the author’s understanding of what constitutes “goodness” is shallow) or a deficiency in the way we perceive them (as in: being in mental turmoil/moral […]

Moral Engines, or, Shannon Won’t Shut Up About Mortal Engines

Last week, I posted an analysis of Hester Shaw’s character arc in the tragically underrated film, Mortal Engines. I conceived this post on an analytical high and wrote it in a fervor. And, perhaps due in part to our country’s tragic lack of interest in the film,… got very few hits on it. At the […]

I Loved Mortal Engines and I Don’t Care Who Knows It

When Mortal Engines came out last year, I viewed several trailers and shrugged. Last week rolled around, and I was in the mood for some mindless movie-watching while folding our backed-up laundry piles. So we Redboxed it. I loved it from the first. I could tell Cap loved it, too, by the way he knelt, ready […]

Belated Thoughts: Infinity War (On Thanos)

Ahead there be spoilers… The previous Marvel ensemble movies (The Avengers, Age of Ultron) were actually my least favorites of the franchise (excluding Thor 2, which, upon friends’ warnings, we didn’t bother seeing). With so many characters in play, each needing their allotment of screen time, the plots were thin out of necessity. I couldn’t […]

3 Life-Changing Greatest Showman Tidbits

You already know I love this movie. I’ve written two blog posts about it (here and here). Here’s another, which is about three practical, noticeable ways this film has benefited my life. If my repeated analysis of this film bores you, skip to number 3. It’s the grand finale. 1. ZENDAYA I don’t have much […]

Moana’s Message: More than Just “Follow Your Heart”

Hopefully, last week’s post showed that Moana has some deeper and more complex concerns than a typical Junior Knows Best, Follow Your Heart kids’ film. By looking at the foils, Maui and Tala, we distilled the theme of approval. Through a close reading of the evil crab’s song, we saw that the film also plays […]

Very Belated Thoughts: Moana

When I first saw Moana, I ranked it as typical Disney. It was better in some ways; Moana’s primary relationship is with family, not a boyfriend, which is a refreshing change, and she is athletic and does stuff. But once I saw the same old “Junior knows best” and “Follow your heart” tropes at play, […]

Naked: Essential or Detrimental to Visual Stories?

Last week, I shared about the time I was seriously disturbed watching a scene from FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. In short, the scene took what should have been a private, safe moment for a minor and “pulled back the curtain” to the audience, turning her physical and emotional vulnerability–her right to take an innocent bath in […]