A Beautiful Tragedy: Reimagining the Blacklist
“Even the most cynical satire is half in love with the object of its barbs; there is a part of every constrained creative that loves their shackles and will make great play of rattling them.”
New Targets: Assassins at the End of History
“The 90s variant of the hitman archetype became entangled in the disorientation of the time, prone to the same neurotic preoccupations as the cultural cadres warring around them…”
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.”
Having It All: The Career Woman Takes Over
D.M. Palmer on the career women of ‘9 to 5’ (1980), ‘Baby Boom’ (1987), ‘Big Business’ (1988), ‘Working Girl’ (1988) and ‘Disclosure’ (1994).
Nine-to-Five Fellows: The Company Man Comes Home
“The generation that had fought the war was confronting the generation that had overseen it, staging a sub-rosa assault on entrenched power.” – D.M. Palmer on ‘Patterns,’ ‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit’ and ‘The Apartment’
Money Is the Game: The Strange Journey of ‘The Magic Christian’
“‘The Magic Christian’ cries out to be re-visited. For all the cultural specificity of the novel and film, Grand remains a strikingly modern figure.”
First as Tragedy: ‘Winter Kills’ and the Twilight of the Conspiracy Thriller
“The demise of the conspiracy thriller pointed to a broader shift; it signalled the rise of a new credulity, a willingness to re-engage with the idea of America in spite of its reality.”
The Spirit of Revolution: How World Cinema Defined the 1920s
“There is a danger and dynamism to 20s cinema which was gradually eradicated by the standardisation of production processes.”
Things Go Wrong: Tony Hancock’s Cinema of Despair
“The Hancock persona tapped into a uniquely British strain of malaise, which manifests itself in a fractious fatalism, a dread of impotence which finds its expression in outlandish displays of petulance, pettiness and pomposity.”
Vague Visages Short Stories: Only the Names Have Been Changed by D.M. Palmer
Vague Visages Short Stories #15: Only the Names Have Been Changed by D.M. Palmer (Sheffield, UK)
VVIBES: Martin Scorsese and Marvel
VV’s D.M. Palmer, Peter Bell and Q.V. Hough on Martin Scorsese and Marvel
The Western Enters the 70s – Part 3: Expansion Pains
“The cowboy is an emissary of civilisation, enduring all the hardships the elements can throw at him to create a space in which civilised values can flourish unhindered. The symbolism of the cowboy is so potent that it continues to be invoked for political gain.”
A Divine Madness: Gregory La Cava’s ‘Gabriel Over the White House’
“There is little doubt that ‘Gabriel Over the White House’ was a test balloon of sorts, priming the audience for a discussion on the merits of the strongman leader, asking them what they would be willing to sacrifice in order to ameliorate the national plight.”
Vague Visages Short Stories: iamdifid: by D.M. Palmer
Vague Visages Short Stories #13: iamdifid: by D.M. Palmer (Sheffield, UK)
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)