Author Archives: Halynna Snyder

Entering the Industry During Super Dark Times An interview with the writers and director of Super Dark Times about their process, understanding your own art, and breaking into the film industry By Melissa Tomczak and Malley Nelson In October 2020, … Read more

Cosmic Rays Film Festival 2020 – Continued Introduction by Josh Martin   Aspect closes out its coverage of the 2020 Cosmic Rays Film Festival with reviews of three compelling and complex films from Alee Peoples, EB Landesberg, and Aaron Zeghers, … Read more

Cosmic Rays Film Festival 2020  Introduction by Josh Martin   Immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, student writers for Aspect: Journal of Film and Screen Media had one last chance for a film festival experience, attending and screening films at … Read more

Euphoria’s Unflinching Analysis of 2020 in its Season Two Premiere: “Trouble Don’t Last Always” Johnathan Brown   Abstract: HBO’s hit show Euphoria (2020 – ) delivers “Trouble Don’t Last Always,” the long-awaited special episode meant to sate fans who are … Read more

Tom Hanks Carries News of the World through Narrative Woes Josh Martin *This review was originally published on Inside the Film Room* Photo credit: Universal Pictures In the years since the runaway critical and commercial success of Captain Phillips, the … Read more

You Made Me Do This: On representation and identity in Friedkin’s Cruising By Melissa Tomczak   Abstract:  William Friedkin’s 1980 Cruising takes place in a New York City that stopped existing only a couple years after the premiere of the … Read more

Blumhouse hits the mark with new horror/comedy Freaky: Review + roundtable interview with Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton By Melissa Tomczak & Malley Nelson   Vaughn and Newton in “Freaky” – Universal Pictures   One cannot emphasize this enough: Freaky … Read more

The Inhuman Violence of Capitalism in Alien Josh Martin   “You’ll get whatever’s coming to you.” Hidden in shadows, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the only eventual survivor of the Nostromo’s crew, predicts the fate of her colleagues. From the moment the … Read more

Winner, Best Undergraduate Essay in Film Studies, 2019-20 Surreal Exposures: Found-Footage Experiments in Avant-Garde Cinema Lexi Baird   Barbara Hershey in Peter Tscherkassky’s Outer Space (1999).  As we watch a film, the continuous act of recognition in which we are involved is … Read more

Earn ‘n’ Cash: Surrealist Comedy, Code-Switching, and Capitalism in Atlanta and Sorry to Bother You Dylan O’Connor   LaKeith Stanfield (left) of Atlanta and Sorry to Bother You, and Donald Glover (right) of Atlanta A recent surge in popular Black art that … Read more