What Makes a Man: Wounded Masculinity in William Lustig’s ‘Maniac’ Cycle
“In its own histrionic way, the ‘Maniac’ cycle presages a wave of reaction that would draw its power from the patriarchal fear of dispossession.”
D.M. Palmer
ArteKino Festival 2018 Review: Babis Makridis’ ‘Pity’
“What saves ‘Pity,’ and the ‘Greek Weird Wave’ as a whole, from tipping into nihilism is the humanism at its core; it is the pessimism of thwarted hopes rather than the negative drive of cynicism.”
Vague Visages Short Stories: Beaming by D.M. Palmer
Vague Visages Short Stories #11: Beaming by D.M. Palmer (Sheffield, UK)
In Real Life: ‘Slender Man’ and the Clash of Media
“Just as the internet unleashed the Slenderman, it is culpable in bringing forth another seductive monster who uses this technology to warp minds and sow division…”
Welcome to the War: Power Politics in the ‘Predator’ Franchise
“The ‘Predator’ franchise is a repository of the fears that plague the powerful. The context changes, but the fear persists — the fear that the conqueror may one day become the conquered.”
An Expedient Portrait: Robert Mullan’s ‘Mad to Be Normal’
“As a primer on Laing, ‘Mad to be Normal’ offers nothing substantive; there is little attempt to explicate Laing’s ideas, or to pursue how he formulated those ideas while working in Glasgow’s mental hospitals…”
A Terrain of Violence: Clio Barnard’s ‘Dark River’
“‘Dark River’ excels in the areas where Barnard has already proven herself adept: she draws stellar performances from her cast across the board, and creates a vibrant naturalism without sacrificing tone or style.”
Vague Visages Short Stories: Find Your Perfection by D.M. Palmer
Vague Visages Short Stories #10: Find Your Perfection by D.M. Palmer (Sheffield, UK)
Lost Amidst the Architecture: Aaron Katz’s ‘Gemini’
“In straining to emulate something in the order of a traditional thriller, Katz and his team of long-time collaborators find themselves sliding perilously towards the formulaic.”
The Transcendent Banality of ‘Joe Pera Talks with You’
“In its absence of cynicism and surface mundanity, ‘Joe Pera Talks with You’ presents a conceit that feels genuinely daring in the context of a comic universe which prides itself on provocative fare from the likes of Tim and Eric, Dave Willis and Eric Andre.”