The Inhuman Violence of Capitalism in Alien
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
Lexi Baird – Deconstructed Surrealism in the Austrian Avant-Garde (winner, 2020 Best Undergraduate Essay in Film Studies)
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
Dylan O’Connor – Earn ‘n Cash: Surrealist Comedy, Code-Switching, and Capitalism in Atlanta and Sorry to Bother You
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
Felix Murithi – Is this Some Kind of Joke? The Function of Tragicomedy in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman and the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man
Is this Some Kind of Joke? Surrealist Tragicomedy in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman and the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man Felix Murithi As if belonging to another film, a meteor falls through the sky in the curious opening seconds … Read more
Patrick Costley – New Queer Surrealism in Cemetery of Splendor
Cemetery of Splendor as New Queer Surrealism Patrick Costley Jen’s (Jenjira Pongpas Widner, right) love for an afflicted soldier leads to new understandings of gender and sexuality through their surreal relationship with a spiritual medium. When the surrealist movement began … Read more
Hateya Foxx – Supernatural Suspense in Personal Shopper and Let the Right One In
Suspense and the Supernatural in Personal Shopper and Let the Right One In Hateya Foxx Maureen (Kristen Stewart) obscured from our view in Personal Shopper (2016). Categorized as an arthouse thriller, Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper (2016) details the life of Maureen (Kristen … Read more
Claude Wilson – Fascism, the Phallus, and the Grotesque in Dr. Strangelove
Fascism, the Phallus, and the Grotesque in Dr. Strangelove Claude Wilson Riding a nuclear bomb, Major Kong (Slim Pickens) launches global annihilation. Throughout the films of Stanley Kubrick, the intertwining of erotic sexual desire and self-destructive violent impulses is … Read more
Carissa Roets – A Thousand-Year Enigma: Adapting The Tale of Genji
A Thousand-Year Enigma: Adapting The Tale of Genji Carissa Roets The Tale of Genji (2011) is the latest film adaptation of a story that has been retold since the 11th century. Written in the 11th century, The Tale of Genji … Read more
Timothy Dement – Minds Full of Scorpions, Witches in the Wings: Probing the Liminal Spaces of Welles’ Macbeth and Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood
Minds Full of Scorpions, Witches in the Wings: Probing the Liminal States and Marginal Spaces of Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood and Welles’ Macbeth Timothy Dement The witch hut figures as an uncanny, hallucinatory space in Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of … Read more
Miguel Penabella – The Unfixed Present of Memories of Underdevelopment
Excerpted from the author’s 2015 undergraduate honor’s thesis The Unfixed Present of Memories of Underdevelopment Miguel Penabella Eslinda Núñez and Sergio Corrieri in “Memories of Underdevelopment,” directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Nothing endures. – Sergio Mendoyo, Memories of Underdevelopment Based … Read more