This Thanksgiving, Sylvester Stallone returned in Ryan Cooger's Creed to play the iconic palooka Rocky Balboa for the seventh time. Standing easily as one of the greatest performances of his career (it's hard to top the original Rocky), the film beautifully bookends the man's work up to this point. Even better, it opens up new,…Read more On Creed, Sylvester Stallone and Why Now is the Time to Make “Poe”
Essays
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
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”
“Do You Really Think This Will Change Anything?” – How Marvel’s Daredevil is a Half-Measure
Superheroics are inherently stupid, and the best comics acknowledge this. The Batman canon has wallowed in this harsh truth for years, with its characters (in every medium) openly wondering if the Caped Crusader does more bad than good. Moore famously designed his seminal superhero text Watchmen to be the genre's epitaph. Its central cast of…Read more “Do You Really Think This Will Change Anything?” – How Marvel’s Daredevil is a Half-Measure
The Psychotic Rebel – A Dramaturgical Analysis of American Psycho
For most who have encountered the character of Patrick Bateman – either in the original 1991 novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, or in its adaptation starring Christian Bale – it is difficult to associate him as a symbol of rebellion. Greedy, misogynistic and utterly vapid, the character seems to be a rock-solid personification…Read more The Psychotic Rebel – A Dramaturgical Analysis of American Psycho
“There Are No More Surprises” – On The Last Kiss and The Problem With the Zach Braff Brand
Between his starring role in Scrubs, and his auspicious directorial debut Garden State, Zach Braff was endeared to nearly an entire generation of viewers in the early/mid-2000s. However, by 2006 things were starting to slow down. I'll never forget seeing Braff's pensive mug staring at me that year from the posters of The Last Kiss,…Read more “There Are No More Surprises” – On The Last Kiss and The Problem With the Zach Braff Brand
On American Sniper or How Chris Kyle Put Aside the Cowboy and Became a Man
The late Chris Kyle was a highly decorated veteran, dubbed "The Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History". However, Kyle's story has also been polarizing, with seemingly everyone having an opinion on the man's actions. Nowhere has this debate been more recently visible (or more humorous) than in the Internet's response to Clint Eastwood's American…Read more On American Sniper or How Chris Kyle Put Aside the Cowboy and Became a Man
Examining Exodus: How Ridley Scott’s Film Hates Not Only Brown Actors, But All Actors
"I can’t mount a film of this budget [...] and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such." - Ridley Scott (2014) A feeling of castration and omission pervades the heart of Ridley Scott's new film, the big, lumbering, impersonal and frankly idiotic Exodus: Gods and Kings. Not only do many of the…Read more Examining Exodus: How Ridley Scott’s Film Hates Not Only Brown Actors, But All Actors
The Expendables 3: On the Grim Acknowledgement of the Action Hero’s Setting Sun
Sylvester Stallone's stubborn, borderline insane refusal to surrender to the normal human aging process is by now well-known. It has been well publicized for years, and the musclebound star has been communicative about it. In fact, a good majority of his work since 2006's Rocky Balboa has dealt with his rapidly advancing age in some…Read more The Expendables 3: On the Grim Acknowledgement of the Action Hero’s Setting Sun
Adam Mohrbacher 