Most Ambitious Man Of Steel Movie? All-Star Superman
All-Star Superman is an absolutely refreshing break from that capitulation. Here’s hoping Hollywood is watching, and learning.
film that matters
Brad Bird Leaves Animation (at Gunpoint)
Is Ratatouille director Brad Bird leaving feature animation? Not if Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg take their guns out of his face.
Extra! Iconic American Superheroes Subjected to British Invasion!
Holy multinational vertigo, Batman! With the announcement of Tudors thespian Henry Cavill as cinema’s newest Superman, the British invasion of American superhero turf has reached a Kryptonite pitch.
All Hail Our Robot Overlords! Sci-Fi’s Best Bots
Czech playwright Karel Capek popularized the term robot in the 1921 play R.U.R., spawning a deluge of artificial life forms in popular culture.
Plastic Planet Pollutes Our Minds With Truth
It floated atop a garbage patch of discarded water bottles.
The Reboot’s the Thing: 10 Genre-Busting Shakespeare Remixes
Shakespeare transcends time and media, mostly because creatives can’t stop remixing his legendary language across time and media. Julie Taymor’s up next with The Tempest, starring the always captivating Helen […]
John Lennon’s Assassination Simulations
Unable to shoulder the burden, reality splintered and began to virally replicate the assassination and its effects across media, slowly replacing that reality along the way.
Daniel Clowes + Wilson + Death Ray = Hollywood Comics Smarts
At last Hollywood is turning back to Daniel Clowes, one of indie comics’ crossover titans.
John Lennon, Working Class Mythmaker
Because he is unfairly lost to us now, all we have are mounting media replications to inform and console us.
Darth Vader Art Feeds Your Head
Stars Wars is no longer the haven of geeks who like to pretend they’re space-faring saviors. It’s gone viral for decades as a pop-culture cipher begging to be filled in […]
Is This The Last Airbender? M. Night Shyamalan Hopes Not
“I love this idea that there would be a mythical leader in our world who is equally learned in all religions, one person whose job is to constantly remind everybody that they are all the same.”
Avatar’s Cinematic Compression Implodes
M. Night Shyamalan’s compression of Nickelodeon’s stunning animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender has serious boots to fill. And it needs much more time to fill them.
Geek The Beatles: Let It Be’s Recombined Reality Programming
Forty years ago, Let It Be closed out a decade of The Beatles’ artistic and technological influence.
Airbender Posters Whip Up Anticipation
High expectations for the film exist in a space apart from the trepidation found in some corners of the Airbender nation…
Best Concert Films Ever? Screen These Legends
On Apr. 30, Phish 3D hit theaters in a limited engagement, taking concert films into the multiple dimensions of the post-Avatar era. But Phish’s 2D predecessors still have a serious […]
In Praise of Ralph Bakshi, Animation Pioneer
One of animation’s most influential artists, Ralph Bakshi made his mark on pop culture by refusing to sacrifice his singular vision to popular tastes and trends.
In a Parallel Universe, These Songs Win Oscars
From “Purple Rain” to “Kickapoo” to “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life” to “Uncle Fucker”
What’s the Secret of Boba Fett’s Staying Power?
The bounty hunter has lately infused The Clone Wars with some much-needed threat, now that its main evils, such as General Grievous, have been unmasked as mostly comic relief.
Adam Curtis: Meet the New Yemen, Same As the Old Yemen
Our current obsession with Yemen is anything but current, brainiac documentarian Adam Curtis argued in his BBC blog “The Medium and the Message.” In fact, it’s older than Osama. “What […]
Viggo Mortensen’s Apocalyptic Road
“Further devastation of the air, land and sea is obviously a very real possibility.”
Superman + Batman = Public Enemies
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies packs more heroes, action and political satire into a couple hours of entertainment than either icon’s animated series did in the course of several seasons.
Michael Moore: America’s Teacher
[Naomi Klein, The Nation] On September 17, in the midst of the publicity blitz for his cinematic takedown of the capitalist order, Moore talked with Naomi Klein by phone about […]
Who’s The Greatest Lex Luthor Ever?
From Buckaroo Banzai to SpongeBob SquarePants, veteran actor Clancy Brown has brought a long string of compelling characters to life on TV and movie screens.
A Decade Later, The Iron Giant’s Weaponized Soul Still Stirs
The Iron Giant is beyond naivete or political correctness. It’s a hilarious, tear-jerking and sci-fantastic analysis.
David Lynch Launches Transcendental Television Site
“The anger that I had when I first started meditating in 1974 lifted in two weeks. It kinda just went away.”