Constructing a Madman: Lee Harvey Oswald’s Screen Life
“In our attempt to fill in the gaps of the Oswald character, we recast him again and again, hoping that the latest iteration will reveal a previously hidden angle.”
Know the Cast: ‘Friday’
‘Friday’ Cast: A Vague Visages guide for every actor and character in F. Gary Gray’s 1995 movie.
Crime Scene #7: ‘Twilight’ and the Hungarian Hills
“In ‘Twilight,’ Fehér suggests, the force of authority truly loses its voice.”
Don’t Expect Roses: Growth, Transformation and Illusion in Tony Blair’s Britain
“The ghosts of the divisive past that New Labour set out to consign to history’s trash heap reared their heads, presaging a politics that would cast off the Blairite technocratic order.”
Forbidden Worlds Film Festival: ‘Cliffhanger,’ Sylvester Stallone and Realism
“‘Cliffhanger’ is emblematic of a specific kind of big-budget Hollywood blockbuster that was very much in vogue at the time: dumb, full of testosterone and British villains.”
Soundtracks of Cinema: ‘Heat’
‘Heat’ Soundtrack: A Vague Visages guide for every song in Michael Mann’s 1995 movie.
Know the Cast & Characters: ‘Heat’
‘Heat’ Cast: A Vague Visages guide for every actor and character in Michael Mann’s 1995 movie.
Follow That Dream: Generation X and Addiction Cinema
“In a climate of secular uncertainty, the addict’s commitment to something larger took on an almost religious significance; the user was transformed into an intrepid traveler.”
Choose Death: Gregg Araki’s Apocalyptic 90s
“Gregg Araki’s 90s films feel like prophecies of a cataclysm that never happened.”
Collecting Movies with Raymond Rea
Raymond Rea Interview: Greg Carlson and the filmmaker/educator discuss movie collecting.
Visions of the Future from 1995: Touching with Synthetic Hands
Visions of the Future from 1995: Touching with Synthetic Hands by D.M. Palmer: “These films posited that to dream in public, to build new worlds on this freshly privatized terrain, was to risk new and previously inconceivable forms of personal ruin.”
Visions of the Future from 1995: I Am the Law
“The capacity to dehumanize has always been present in cinema; to witness the vanquishing of enemies on the screen has served a cathartic function for every society in which cinema has taken hold.”
Visions of the Future from 1995: The World Is Screwed
“‘Waterworld,’ ’12 Monkeys’ and ‘Tank Girl’ posit that when a civilization collapses, many of its customs will be upheld through authoritarian means…”
Femme Fatales in ‘Batman Returns’ and ‘Batman & Robin’
“With ‘Batman Returns’ and ‘Batman & Robin,’ Burton and Schumacher apply their collaborative and authorial sensibilities to iconic female villains.”
Death Is Not the End: Self-Destruction in the Films of David Cronenberg
“Perhaps David Cronenberg is owed another kind of reputation: that of a humanist filmmaker who observes and questions, who understands our pain and sorrow as well as our ambitions both intellectual and libidinous.”
Blonde Ambition: ‘Showgirls’ and ‘Mulholland Dr.’ as Two Sides of the Same Coin
“Nomi of ‘Showgirls’ and Betty of ‘Mulholland Dr.’ seem to be communicating with each other across space and time, from entirely different films yet resolutely from within the same universe.”
The World Is Working: Michael Glawogger’s Trilogy on Poverty and Labor
“The real horrors of Glawogger’s films are the moments when people, having been given an opportunity to open up, are crushed by their own words.”
Embracing the New Normal: ‘The Addams Family’ Is Timeless at 30
“‘The Addams Family’ is a beacon of hope for weird kids everywhere, since Wednesday and Pugsley are never forced to change who they are to fit in, nor do they care what anyone thinks.”
Know the Cast: ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’
‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Cast: A Vague Visages guide for every main performer and character in Jim Gillespie’s 1997 movie.
Soundtracks of Television: ‘The Sopranos’ Season 1, Episode 1 (‘Pilot’)
The Sopranos Soundtrack: A Vague Visages guide for every featured song in season 1, episode 1 (‘Pilot’) of the HBO series.