“We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do ‘Star Wars,’ they’re set up for success. They’re gigantic films, and you can’t come into them with essentially no experience.” Much has been made of this comment by Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy, the woman presently behind the wheel of the “Star…
If there is something that has struck me most since Donald Trump was elected, it’s the sheer amount of people who I have seen claim that racism was not the reason he won. That’s an overly simplistic dismissal of what has been a pretty central theme in this election. Racism as it is understood by…
To my fellow liberals: This election season has been shocking and disheartening. It’s hard to recall an election when the American public was so dissatisfied and disillusioned with its choices for the presidency. But I think one of the most disturbing ways that this election has laid bare the collective American mind is how far…
In my last column, I wrote at length on pundits’ appropriation of Martin Luther King Jr. as a way to decry today’s movements against racial injustice. What I think this all points to is a surprisingly common misconception amongst Americans, particularly white Americans – that we have had our day of reckoning with race. The…
Racial tensions are at the forefront of this year’s presidential debate. There’s no way around it. Over the past few years, there has been a resurgence in open racial strife in the United States, and the two major candidates are working aggressively to play to their end of the field on the subject. It has…
Donald Trump created a fissure in the Republican Party. His campaign was originally greeted with dismissal, but as the seriousness of his candidacy became apparent, many conservatives took staunch stances against him. Though many have fallen in line (the manner in which Republican leaders have bowed to Trump would be comedic were it not so…
Donald Trump is a disaster. Let me be abundantly clear about that. He represents a decaying breed of anti-intellectual American exceptionalism lashing out as it comes to realize that it is fundamentally incompatible with an increasingly globalized society. Trump emboldens the white supremacist, xenophobic values at the heart of American jingoism that keeps the foreigner…
Earlier this week, I shared an article on Facebook. The subject of this article was Bernie Sanders, specifically his awkward, fumbling interview with New York Daily News from last week. The article in question laid out a potentially damning reality for the Sanders campaign: Bernie doesn’t seem to know how to fulfill his campaign promises….
Among digital filmmaking technology, online movie distribution and rapidly evolving home media, the world of moviemaking has had a trying decade and it doesn’t look like things will cool down anytime soon. This year, Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker introduced a new movie-distribution service called the Screening Room. The Screening Room presents…
In December 2015, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino rolled out a unique cinematic experience around his new film, “The Hateful Eight.” Prior to its wide release in theaters across the country, “The Hateful Eight” first received a limited release in what was called the “roadshow version.” Modeled after the release style of major blockbusters in the first…
Last year was the year of the long-prophesied sequel. Many long-anticipated revivals of iconic films brought in box-office booms. Between “Creed,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Jurassic World” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Hollywood studio executives got the message loud and clear: audiences love a classic franchise. On the creative side, however, the results are…
With “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” storming into theaters last month, fans across the globe collectively rekindled the venerable “Star Wars” franchise, catapulting it back to the top of the box office. While there has been plenty of buzz about “The Force Awakens” itself, off to the sidelines, long-term fans have reignited conversations about the…