Every James Bond film involves a battle, and not just against a flabby big bad or an impending global catastrophe. Instead, the primary battle of the James Bond franchise is one of relevancy. Each adventure must answer some very big questions. How do you take a dinosaur of a character and make him feel fresh?…Read more Film Review: The Living Daylights (1987)
The Complex – Chapter IV: A Homecoming
There were times where Sarah knew where she was going, and there were times where she didn't know at all. After leaving work and the apartment complex, she had driven eastward, towards the highway, but had become stuck when her car had come up against a slight, snow-covered incline. Out of frustration, she quite literally…Read more The Complex – Chapter IV: A Homecoming
Film Review: The End of the Tour (2015)
If you're a writer the odds are against you regarding ever achieving success. Most of us are fated to toil in relative anonymity, while our creative output is stymied by the fiscal need to work a day job. That's why the new film about David Foster Wallace (played by a revelatory Jason Segel), and the…Read more Film Review: The End of the Tour (2015)
On Minnie: Four Days Later
Someone once told me that all dog stories end in pathos, and can't avoid being mawkish and trite. I think this is true. People don't really blab about their dogs if everything is going fine, much less on the Internet. That's why in writing Minnie's obituary a few days ago I tried to be straightforward.…Read more On Minnie: Four Days Later
Minnie Mohrbacher (2001-2015)
Minnie "The Moocher" Mohrbacher Beloved friend and pet Minnie Mohrbacher, 13, died peacefully Tuesday, August 11th, at her home in Hastings, Minnesota with her family by her side. Born on a crisp fall day in 2001, Minnie became the sole pet of the Mohrbachers, a family who at the time was living in Cottage Grove,…Read more Minnie Mohrbacher (2001-2015)
The Straight Story: On the Passage of Time and David Lynch’s Cautious, Small-scale Optimism
"It was a really hopeful time, and things were going up instead of going down. You got the feeling that you could do anything. The future was bright. Little did we know we were laying the groundwork then for a disastrous future. All the problems were there, but it was somehow glossed over. And then…Read more The Straight Story: On the Passage of Time and David Lynch’s Cautious, Small-scale Optimism
The Humbling of an Icon: On Maggie and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Paternalistic, Post-Political Career
One of the most interesting moments in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s long, explosive career occurs during the first third of the zombie movie Maggie, which was released a couple of months ago and was quickly forgotten about. In the scene, Arnold’s character Wade (a farmer and father to the film’s titular character) has traveled to a neighboring…Read more The Humbling of an Icon: On Maggie and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Paternalistic, Post-Political Career
Double Feature: Stay Hungry – Frankenweenie (1976 and 2012)
Upon first glance Bob Rafelson's Stay Hungry and Tim Burton's Frankenweenie could not be more different, which makes their inclusion in my world-renowned Double Feature series feel rather strange. Not only are the two films separated by 36 years, but the basic genres they belong to are wildly divergent. Stay Hungry is a small dramady…Read more Double Feature: Stay Hungry – Frankenweenie (1976 and 2012)
Film Review: Memories of Murder (2003)
Bong Joon-ho's masterful Memories of Murder is a great work of humanism, one which easily transcends its genre-trappings. Utilizing the 1980s Hwaseong serial murders as its launching pad, the film formulates a searing indictment of South Korean society from that era. It also parses the psychic scars left on those who were caught up in…Read more Film Review: Memories of Murder (2003)
On Nostalgia, American Pie and Otherness in the Early “Aughts”
Like many people, nostalgia runs my life. As a child of the swinging 90s, who came of age in the first half of the aughts, I have a particular affinity for certain cultural products. From Boy Meets World to Batman: The Animated Series, that era's media is something I find undeniably compelling, even if its…Read more On Nostalgia, American Pie and Otherness in the Early “Aughts”
Adam Mohrbacher 