Around the World: Ms. 45 (1981; dir. Abel Ferrara); Trauma, Gender Violence, and Revenge Fantasies
(Trigger warning: this review involves discussion of sexual assault, trauma, and gender violence.) Two years after the release of his gritty and noisy murder-fest, The Driller Killer (1979), Abel Ferrara returned to the director’s helm with Ms. 45 (1981), a revenge “fantasy” film. Though Ms. 45 still demonstrates some of that rawness present in Ferrara’s first feature film production, it […]
Episode 2. The Wages of Fear (1953): Playing Genre, Masculinity, and the Post-War World
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/TotallyPretentiousEpisode002TheWagesOfFear/TotallyPretentiousEpisode002–TheWagesOfFear.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSPlaying Genre, Masculinity, and the Post-War World! In our second episode, we open by discussing what we’ve been watching, how films “stand the test of time,” […]
Review: Nightcrawler; or, The Chill of Capital (2014; dir. Dan Gilroy)
To say that reviewing Nightcrawler (2014; dir. Dan Gilroy) is a difficult task would be an understatement. Nightcrawler haunts the viewer like something out of Poltergeist (1982; dir. Tobe Hooper). It’s the kind of experience that I find impossible to forget, not simply because of its focus on Los Angeles’ late-night chaos but also because its examination of that life […]
