the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” as a Superheroic Reconstruction….

Posted on March 20, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, it seemed like a good time to talk about the film.

In particular, it’s interesting to look at Zack Snyder’s three films as a set, and to chart the journey through deconstruction from Man of Steel through Batman v. Superman and into the final reconstruction. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is essentially a reconstruction of these iconic characters and a celebration of the potential of these comic book characters.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: deconstruction, escapist magazine, justice league, man of steel, reconstruction, the escapist, zack snyder | 1 Comment »

New Escapist Video! “A Marvelous Escape” – Falcon and the Winter Soldier – “New World Order” Discussion…

Posted on March 20, 2021 by Darren

With a slew of Marvel Studios productions coming to Disney+ over the next six months, The Escapist has launched a weekly show discussing these series. I’ll be joining the wonderful Jack Packard and the fantastic KC Nwosu to break down WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki as they come out.

This week, we take a look at the first episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which offers a promising start to the new show. it does a lot of basic character work, but also establishes a lot of the show’s tone, most notably anchoring it as a Reagan era action throwback. It’s a lot of fun.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: a marvellous escape, escapist, jack packard, kc nwuso, the escapist, the falcon and the winter soldier, wandavision | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Review! On the “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” as an 1980s Buddy Action Movie…

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Darren

I published a new review at The Escapist this evening. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is premiering on Disney+ tomorrow, so I took a look at the first episode.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier obviously exists as a follow-up to the thrills of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, but the most canny shift is to swap the obvious influence of seventies paranoid thrillers on those earlier films for a more bombastic sort of action inspired by eighties action action movies. It’s a switch that works well enough, playing very much to the strengths of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: disney, escapist, falcon and the winter soldier, review, streaming | 1 Comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Horror of Joss Whedon’s “Justice League”…

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League this week, it seemed like an appropriate opportunity to take a look at the original theatrical cut of Justice League, which remains one of the worst blockbusters of the past decade.

What makes the theatrical cut of Justice League such an insidious film isn’t just what it is, although it is terrible on its own terms. It’s what the film represents. It’s a very conscious and very deliberate erasure of a distinct vision of an expensive creative project, in the hope of serving reheated nostalgic leftovers that fans might gorge themselves upon. It’s pure, empty, vacuous content – a pale imitation of what other companies do better, without a single unique perspective of its own.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: art, batman, Comics, Content, continuity, directors, joss whedon, justice league, media, superman, the flash, the snyder cut, zack snyder, zack snyder's justice league | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 3, Episode 18 (“Bardo Thodol”)

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Darren

Last year, I was thrilled to spend a lot of time on The Time is Now discussing the second season of Millennium. Since the podcast has moved on to the third season, I have taken something of a step back as a guest. That said, I have been a bit more active in the second half of the third season. I was flattered to get an invitation to discuss Bardo Thodol with host Kurt North.

As with Saturn Dreaming of Mercury two episodes prior, there’s an appealing oddness to Bardo Thodol, which often feels like something of a waking dream. It is an episode that seems to exist as a collection of dream imagery combined and compressed into an episode of television. It’s an episode that I struggle to properly makes sense of which, which is undoubtedly part of the appeal.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: bardo thodol, buddhism, kurt north, millennium, podcast, the time is now | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the “Superman II” as the Rosetta Stone of Zack Snyder’s DCEU…

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League this week, it seemed like an appropriate opportunity to take a look at the strange and enduring influence of Superman II on the DCEU, from Man of Steel forward.

Superman II is one of the cornerstones of the superhero genre. It was the first big superhero blockbuster sequel, setting the stage for the franchises that would follow. It was the first depiction of the urban devastation that has become a fixture of the modern superhero spectacle. However, what makes movies like Man of Steel and Zack Snyder’s Justice League so interesting is the extent to which they interrogate and explore the fantasy presented in Superman II.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 9/11, dceu, deconstruction, devastation, exploration, general zod, justice league, man of steel, richard donner, superheroes, superman, superman 2, superman ii, superman returns, violence, zack snyder, zack snyder's justice league | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On the Paranoid Claustrophobia of “10 Cloverfield Lane”…

Posted on March 16, 2021 by Darren

So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with the Monday article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film channel – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, to mark the fifth anniversary of 10 Cloverfield Lane, I took a look back at one of the most underrated paranoid thrillers of the decade, arriving on the crest of a wave that included similar films like Room, Green Room, The Hateful Eight and even Carol. It’s a timely, even prescient, snapshot of a cultural moment – and a very well-made film.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 10 cloverfield lane, abuse, america, claustrophobia, fear, in the frame, john goodman, Misogyny, paranoia, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Escapist Movie Podcast – “Stop the Oscar, I Wanna Get Out”

Posted on March 16, 2021 by Darren

The Escapist have launched a movie podcast, and I was thrilled to join Jack Packard for the tenth episode of the year, with a special guest Raymond Creamer, to talk about the Oscar nominees.

You can listen to back episodes of the podcast here, click the link below or even listen directly.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts! | Tagged: academy awards, awards, jack packard, Oscars, raymond creamer, the escapist movie podcast, wisecrack | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Zack Snyder’s Justice League – Review in 3 Minutes +”

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching 3-Minute Reviews on Escapist Movies. 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 three-minute feature film review to the channel, discussing Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: ceu, comic book, comic book movies, dc, escapist, justice league, superheroes, zack snyder, zack snyder's justice leage | 1 Comment »

New Escapist Column! On “WandaVision” and the Death of Ambiguity…

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With WandaVision ending just over a week ago, I had some thoughts about art, ambiguity and meaning. You know, small things.

One of the more interesting aspects of WandaVision was the way in which it presented itself, and was received as, a “mystery box” show. It was framed and treated as a puzzle to be solved. What’s interesting about this is the care that the finale took to carefully explain and confront each possible fan theory and speculation, to communicate very simply and very straightforwardly not only what its audience was supposed to take from this story, but also how they were supposed to feel in response to certain key plot beats.

This is arguably a reflection of a larger trend in pop culture, in which there’s a strong rejection of the idea of ambiguity and an embrace of the idea that everything has a fixed meaning that can be clearly determined and objectively derived. This ignores the reality that art exists in ambiguity, that there’s no simple, single decoder ring and that meaning is often something derived from conversation between the art and the audience consuming it.

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