the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On What Makes “Yellowjackets” the Buzziest Show of the Moment…

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. The first season of Yellowjackets wrapped up this week, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a look at what has become the buzziest show on television.

Yellowjackets has a premise very similar to Lost, featuring a time-shifted narrative following a bunch of plane-crash survivors trapped in the wilderness as potentially supernatural events unfold around them. However, Yellowjackets follows the survivors after their return to civilisation rather than before the crash. Yellowjackets is essentially a paranoid survival horror, and one that resonates with these divided and chaotic times. It’s a show about the horrors of what happens when civilisation collapses and when people turn to monstrous belief in sheer desperation, but also about what it’s like to live with that.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: belief, conspiracy theories, escapist, fear, horror, in the frame, paranoia, qanon, survival horror, yellowjackest | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Peacemaker” Explores Children Trying to Escape the Shadows of Their Parents…

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. We’re hopefully doing a series of recaps and reviews of James Gunn’s Peacemaker, which is streaming weekly on HBO Max. The fourth episode of the show released today, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the series.

Gunn’s projects return time and again to the relationship between parents and children. In particular, Gunn’s films and television shows are often about childrens trying to escape from the shadow of their abusive parents. This was true of Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 and The Suicide Squad. It is also true of Peacemaker, with the show placing a lot of emphasis on the relationship between its central character and his racist father, Auggie.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: abuse, children, fathers, James Gunn, parents, Peacemaker, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Review! “The Book of Boba Fett – The Gathering Storm”…

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Darren

I published a new review at The Escapist today. I’m reviewing new episodes of The Book of Boba Fett weekly, so this week I’m covering The Gathering Storm.

The Gathering Storm marks the midpoint of this season of The Book of Boba Fett. It also seems to mark the end of the extended flashbacks that have taken up so much of this first season. However, it does this with perhaps the most unnecessary flashback to date, one that eesentially fills in details that absolutely did not need to be filled in about what exactly Boba Fett got up to between Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi and his reappearance in The Mandalorian, including – strangely enough – searching for armour that the audience has already seen him recover.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: star wars, the book of boba fett, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Your Feature Presentation – “Does Resurrections Bring the Matrix Back to Life?”

Posted on January 18, 2022 by Darren

The Escapist have launched a new pop culture podcast, and I was thrilled to join Jack Packard and Marty Silva for the third episode. With the recent release of The Matrix Resurrections and The Book of Boba Fett, it seemed like a good opportunity to talk about both.

Filed under: Podcasts! | Tagged: book of boba fett, jack packard, Keanu Reeves, Lana Wachowski, marty silva, star wars, the book of boba fett, the matrix, the matrix resurrections, your feature presentation | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Scream” is a Cutting Commentary on the Noise Around the “Star Wars” Sequels…

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Scream this weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity to delve into the latest entry in the beloved horror franchise.

What is most interesting about the latest Scream is the extent to which it feels largely divorced and separated from the horror genre, particularly compared to the earlier films in the franchise. Instead, Scream seems much more engaged with the modern Star Wars films, borrowing key plot points and background lore from recent entries in the franchise. More than that, it’s a film that is very aggressively engaged with the fandom discussion around those films.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: fandom, horror, in the frame, Movie, Scream, star wars, the escapist | Leave a comment »

269. Smolensk (-#35)

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, Antoni Krauze’s Smolensk.

After a horrific plane accident wipes out a significant portion of the Polish political class, people begin to question the official narrative. Nina is a journalist who initially sets out to confirm the official story, but who begins to spot gaps and lacunas, all of which point to something a little more sinister.

At time of recording, it was ranked 35th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: antoni krauze, conspiracy theories, Movie, Poland, qanon, Smolensk, The 250, The Bottom 100 | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Topps Comics #1 (“Not to Be Opened Until X-Mas” / “A Dismemberance of Things Past”)

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Darren

I’ve been thrilled to guest on The X-Cast over the past few years, and have really enjoyed digging into The X-Files with the guests and hosts. However, this is particularly thrilling, because it’s particularly geeky. The wonderful Tony Black asked me join him for a discussion of the first two stories published by Topps comics, Not to Be Opened Until X-Mas and A Dismemberance of Things Past, written by Stefan Petrucha and illustrated by Charlie Adlard.

I have made no secret of my long-standing affection for these comics. I think that they are probably among the very best licensed comic books ever published. So it was a delight to be asked to talk about them, and to get to geek out with Tony about these stories. There’s a lot of fun stuff here, including context about the comics industry in the nineties and the question of what was possible in a monthly tie-in to a weekly television series.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Comics, Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: Charles Adlard, comic books, Comics, Stefan Petrucha, the x-cast, the x-files, tony black, Topps | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How the “Chucky” Franchise Is About Being Both Mass Produced and Remaining One of a Kind…

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. I’ve been watching the Child’s Play and Chucky franchise, and so it seemed like a good opportunity to delve into one of the more distinctive major horror franchises.

There’s an interesting tension to the Chucky franchise, one that plays out across the various entries. This is a horror series about a mass-produced piece of children’s entertainment, controlled by the demented soul of a monstrous serial killer. Much of the franchise is about the contrast between those two ideas: the factory-assembled doll and the distinctive spirit inside of it. It works well as a metaphor for the larger Chucky franchise as a whole, which has changed form repeatedly across its various incarnations, but somehow managed to retain a unique and consistent identity.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Brad Dourif, child's play, chucky, fiona dourif, franchise, horror, jennifer tilly, postmodern, self-aware, slasher | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Darren

There is something inherently cinematic about Macbeth.

More than the other three of Shakespeare’s “big four” tragedies, Macbeth is a movie that lends itself to bold cinematic adaptations. To be fair, there are great cinematic adaptations of Hamlet and King Lear, but there don’t seem to be quite as many of them that linger in the consciousness. It’s interesting to wonder why cinema seems to be such a perfect form for this Jacobean tragecy. Maybe it’s the overt supernatural elements, or the grim setting, the intersection of stark morality and brutal violence. It might even be uncanny imagery suggested by the dialogue. Perhaps it’s all of these. Perhaps it is none of them.

Black and white morality.

Whatever the reason, from straight adaptations like those of Orson Welles through to Justin Kurzel and more abstract interpretations like Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, Shakespeare’s historical tragedy is one that really pops within these heightened and formalist adaptations. It helps that the play works in any number of registers: as tragedy, as horror, as drama, as morality play. Indeed, in the context of The Tragedy of Macbeth, it’s tempting to argue that Macbeth fits surprisingly well within the Coen Brothers’ larger filmography of inept and over-confident criminals undermined by their own incompetence.

The Tragedy of Macbeth is a worth addition to both this list of impressive adaptations and the filmography of director Joel Coen.

A doorway to madness…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, joel coen, macbeth, Movie, non-review review, review, shakespeare, the coen brothers, the tragedy of macbeth | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Peacemaker” Juxtaposes Eighties Nostalgia and Modern Masculinity…

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. We’re hopefully doing a series of recaps and reviews of James Gunn’s Peacemaker, which is streaming weekly on HBO Max. The first three episodes of the show released today, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the series.

Gunn’s filmography is saturated with an affectionate nostalgia for the eighties. It comes to the fore in Peacemaker, down to the casting of John Cena. Cena is a lead actor in the style of classic eighties “hard body” action heroes like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, that nostalgia does not exist purely for its own sake. Peacemaker is a show engaged with modern masculinity, in particular deconstructing the sort of eighties masculinity embodied by its central character. Peacemaker is a story about whether its lead character can change and evolve, emerging from a cocoon as he investigates “Project: Butterfly.”

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