Lackluster execution makes ELEVATION feel extra derivative
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
Elevation feels like a TV movie made in the early 2000s.
Goth Week: Ruined Houses, Ruined Families
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
Why do we find these old houses in books and film creepy? It’s because they are externalizations of their inhabitants, a physical intrusion of abstract ideas like secrets, trauma, lies, and violence.
YOUR MONSTER is a horror rom com about why we love monsters
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
Writer-director Caroline Lindy expertly weaves in horror elements into the film to challenge both Laura and the audience’s perception of themselves.
Goth Week: 100 Years of Dracula: Small Screen Edition
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
Tessa is back to talk about Dracula, but this time she turns her attention to the small screen!
GOODRICH can't hold its central character accountable or let him grow
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
Goodrich doesn’t seem that interested in interrogating traditional gender labor distribution or in holding its protagonist accountable for his choices.
THE WILD ROBOT offers a beautiful escape into nature
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
It’s a difficult line for many children’s films to walk—entertaining both children and adults—but The Wild Robot walks it well, most likely due to the fact that its middle grade source material allows it to be more nuanced than your average children’s film.
OMNI LOOP takes the time loop idea in a new direction
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
I’ve watched many, many, many time loop films. And some time loop episodes of TV (it seems like most sci-fi or magical shows that go on for any length of time have at least one). But none of them are quite like Omni Loop, a quietly ambitious entry into a staple genre.
THE SECRET ART OF HUMAN FLIGHT never quite takes off
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
The grief that comes from the loss of a partner is especially difficult, and that is the kind of grief that is at the center of The Secret Art of Human Flight.
Action Movie Countdown #8: ALIENS turns a horror sequel into a "roller coaster"
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
While Alien is a masterwork in slow tension building, Aliens is bombastic.
Action Movie Countdown #11: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT is the peak of an all-time action franchise
by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor
Truly a modern action classic, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a stand-out in the franchise and in a genre that that franchise helped to create.
Artificial Bodies, Artificial Lives: A Panther Woman and a Raccoon
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
Science fiction–particularly sci-fi horror–has been fascinated by the idea of hybridization, of combining different species via technology.
HEROES SHED NO TEARS is an early John Woo film about the aftermath of the Vietnam War
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
Heroes Shed No Tears is an unpolished but charming piece of Woo filmography that I would recommend to anyone who wants to see an early example of the action master at work.
Artificial Bodies, Artificial Lives: Introducing Robby the Robot
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
Created by such members of the MGM prop department as Arnold Gillespie and Robert Kinoshita, Robby is another leap forward in android design.
100 Years of Dracula on Film Part 2: Exploring 6 more portrayals of our most famous vampire
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
I have returned this SpookyJawn with a second installment examining six more portrayals of the dark prince over his hundred years of gracing the screen.
No fate but what we make: Are humans and machines destined for war?
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
With a very few exceptions, many of these filmmakers seem to agree with Javik from Mass Effect 3 that conflict between humans and synthetics is inevitable, at least in a world where AI is self-aware and intelligent enough to make its own choices.
THE POD GENERATION uses a sci-fi allegory look at bodies, productivity, and wellness
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
The Pod Generation isn’t perhaps the most subtle sci-fi film, but considering the timeliness of its subject matter, maybe it doesn’t need to be.
Flop and Fizzle #5: ANNIHILATION looks at evolution through a cancerous prism
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
In Annihilation, cancer is just another mutation, a lifeform on its own evolutionary journey.
Flop and Fizzle #19: ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE reinvents Gothic literature for the 21st Century
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
“I mainly blame Shelley and Byron and some of those French assholes he used to hang around with.”
Artificial Bodies, Artificial Lives: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
Science fiction provided many filmmakers and writers in the early '50s a chance to peel back the veneer of those "classic" American values, to examine the rotten underbelly of paranoia, conformity, and hatred.
Artificial Bodies, Artificial Lives: THE PERFECT WOMAN and a Barbie
by Tessa Swehla, Staff Writer
This month, I returned to films with gynoids–androids with femme appearances–to continue the ongoing conversation about gender and sexuality introduced in Metropolis (1927).