Home » Archive by Category

Articles in Essays

Fish Out of Water (Dickens, 2010)
April 25, 2010 – 12:21 pm | One Comment
<em>Fish Out of Water</em> (Dickens, 2010)

In the television show Cosmos astronomer Carl Sagan once famously opined that “to truly make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”
I suppose a Christian corollary would be that to truly …

Family Affair (Colvard, 2010)
April 10, 2010 – 8:48 pm | 2 Comments
<em>Family Affair</em> (Colvard, 2010)

One in four.
In an age of information glut, the power of certain numbers lies not in their ability to shock us but in their ability to slide by, barely making an impression.
One in four women …

A Serious Man (Coen & Coen, 2009)
December 10, 2009 – 10:14 pm | No Comment
<em>A Serious Man</em> (Coen & Coen, 2009)

Author’s note–this isn’t a review of the film, really. It’s a meditation spurred by seeing the film. If a critical judgment is implied by the nature of the meditation…c’est la vie. If some of my …

To Be or Not To Be (Lubitsch, 1942)
September 7, 2009 – 1:59 pm | No Comment
<em>To Be or Not To Be</em> (Lubitsch, 1942)

With the recent success of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and last year’s Best Picture nomination for Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, there has been a resurgence of discussion surrounding how Hollywood depicts World War II in …

You’ve Come a (Long?) Way, Baby
September 6, 2009 – 7:59 pm | One Comment
You’ve Come a (Long?) Way, Baby

When I watch films, I don’t normally arrange my schedule around themes. I sometimes do auteur studies, but this division inevitably gets complicated when I hear of interesting things that jump the queue or want …

Dis-Enchanted: Female Power and Authority in Ella Enchanted and Kill Bill:Volume 2
August 16, 2009 – 8:44 pm | No Comment
Dis-Enchanted: Female Power and Authority in <em>Ella Enchanted</em> and <em>Kill Bill:Volume 2</em>

Originally delivered as an address to the Midwest Conference on Language, Literature and Media (MCLLM) in DeKalb, Illinois. 2 April 2005.