Essays, reviews, notes and videos on film, storytelling and the work of making them.
Batman v Superman A compelling concept creates possibility. A finished story must narrow those possibilities into desire, resistance, consequence and an ending.
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Comparing Gone Girl and Arrival to ask why the strongest revelations do more than reinterpret what happened—they transform what can happen next.
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The baptism and milkshake scenes viewed through playable actions—bargaining, submitting, exposing and humiliating—rather than a vague demand for greater intensity.
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Breakfast and mushroom dinner as two negotiations over power, dependence and love—tracking how Reynolds and Alma change tactics when resistance hardens.
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Notes from Underground and the unsettling possibility that a character’s intelligence can become the very instrument through which responsibility and change are avoided.
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Gregor Samsa’s transformation does not create his family’s distortion or his exploitation at work. It makes the existing reality impossible to disguise.
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Scene breakdowns and reflections from inside the filmmaking process.
New essays, reviews and notes will be published as they are finished.
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