• Following Us

  • Categories

  • Check out the Archives









  • Awards & Nominations

New Escapist Column! On the “John Wick” Movies as a Love Letter to Stuntwork…

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the upcoming release of John Wick: Chapter 4, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the action franchise.

In modern Hollywood, the John Wick movies stand out from a lot of their competitors by embracing a very practical and material philosophy, leaning heavily on in-camera effects for maximum impact. However, the films are more than just a showcase for stuntwork as one of the industry’s most undervalued artforms. They are also an argument for stunt work as an artform unto itself, particularly in the way that they emphasis the importance of action as a means of storytelling and the way in which they frequently place their stunts in the context of more broadly-accepted forms of artistic expression.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Shazam! Fury of the Gods Proves that Lightning Doesn’t Always Strike Twice”

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a five-minute film review of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Colonial Fears of “Shazam!”

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods this weekend, it seemed as good a time as any to take a look at the superhero sequel.

One of the interesting things about Fury of the Gods is the way in which it seems like it is in conversation with the earlier films in the DCEU, lifting several cues directly from films like Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, Batman v. Superman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. In particular, it’s a film in which the existential threat is inherently nostalgic, the fear of an imagined past intruding into the modern world and overwriting it.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On Phase 4 as Marvel’s Midlife Crisis…

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will typically be separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, with the recent launch of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we took a look back at Marvel’s Phase 4, trying to make sense of one of the shared universe’s most disjointed and uneven phases.

Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Scream VI is a Safe but Sturdy Slasher”

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a five-minute film review of Scream VI, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Scream 4” Took the Franchise’s Self-Awareness to Its Logical Endpoint…

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Darren

We’re launching a new column at The Escapist, called Out of Focus. It will publish every Wednesday, and the plan is to use it to look at some film and television that would maybe fall outside the remit of In the Frame, more marginal titles or objects of cult interest. With the upcoming release of Scream VI, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the criminally underrated Scream 4.

The last film in the franchise to be written by Kevin Williamson or directed by Wes Craven, Scream 4 exists in a weird space. It is separated from the two film either side of it by more than a decade, the only point in time where the franchise wasn’t coming out on a regular basis. However, it’s a movie that feels very firmly ahead of its time. It was released years before Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and David Gordon Green’s Halloween, but it feels in conversation with a wider culture caught in a feedback loop of Gen X nostalgia.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Creed III” Brings Anime to Hollywood…

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release and success of Creed III, it seemed like a good opportunity to look at what makes the film stand apart from what came before.

Actor and director Michael B. Jordan has been quite frank about the influence of anime on his approach to Creed III, and that influence shines through. However, it’s also part of a larger trend in modern Hollywood. The industry spent decades trying to directly adapt anime properties for American audiences, with minimal success. However, recent years have seen the emergence of a generation of artists who grew up with the form as a standard part of their media diet, and it’s bleeding through into works like NOPE, The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. It’s a fascinating trend.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On The Sincere Nerdery of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Slate…

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist last month. With new creative heads James Gunn and Peter Safran announcing their slate of upcoming DC films, it seemed worth taking account of a production schedule that includes oddities like The Creature Commandos, The Authority and Swamp Thing.

In modern pop culture, “fannishness” is worn as a badge of honour. Producers and writers will often give interviews stressing their sincere affection for the source material with which they are working. However, these adaptations are often superficial or shallow, drawing on surface level details from the rich tapestry of these very old properties. What makes Gunn and Safran’s slate so appealing, even if it may never actually materialise, is that it genuinely feels like the work of enthusiastic and hardcore fans with a deepset and long-standing appreciation for the source material, complete with deep cuts.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Comics, Movies, Television | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Pre-Packaged Cult Appeal of “Cocaine Bear”…

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Darren

We’re launching a new column at The Escapist, called Out of Focus. It will publish every Wednesday, and the plan is to use it to look at some film and television that would maybe fall outside the remit of In the Frame, more marginal titles or objects of cult interest. This week, we took a look at the release of Cocaine Bear, which is an obvious attempt to manufacture a cult hit.

On one level, it seems like a fool’s errand to try to build a movie with the express purpose of making a cult hit. After all, cult hits only grow organically, often over years and through home media or television. However, changes to the industry – including the collapse of home media and the decline of linear television – make it very difficult for movies to find that sort of niche. Cocaine Bear feels like a movie designed with that understanding in mind, a film very consciously pitched towards streaming virality as much as theatrical box office.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “The Fallen Sun” Puts “Luther” in “Skyfall”…

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Luther: The Fallen Sun in theatres this weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity to discuss the feature film adaptation of Britain’s favourite trenchcoated detective.

For over a decade, there have been rumours that Idris Elba was a prime candidate to take over the role of James Bond from Daniel Craig, to the point that the actor has spent years talking about his shifting attitude towards the possibility in the press. Part of what’s so interesting about The Fallen Sun is that the movie feels like Neil Cross’ attempt to construct a James Bond movie around his leading man. More than that, to build a very specific James Bond movie: Skyfall, starring John Luther.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Next Page »