Film

A Diamond and a Kiss: The Women of John Hughes

There was a reason none of the teens in the legendary director's films were real rebels, but rather outsiders with an eye on upward mobility.

Schlocknado

The third wave of B-movies—straight-to-streaming films made cheaper, faster, dirtier than ever—exist to pad streaming and on-demand services’ libraries. 

Small But Supa Tough

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTABLE: Welcome to Wakaliwood, where rebellious, popular action films upheave classist Ugandan logic.

Heroin Clique: On Trainspotting, Twenty Years Later

Danny Boyle's film presented a stylish rendering of a very '90s binary: counter-culture cool, or mainstream-endorsed responsible living?

Boston Rules

The city became the go-to for a very specific type of crime movie, but Spotlight is the first film to truly capture it since Good Will Hunting. 

Mainstream Creep: Keeping Feminist Film Criticism Subversive

Feminist film writing has historically struggled with a problem of reach limited by privilege. Can online journals solve the access issue without bowing to popular influence? 

Winona, Forever

Ryder has always been trapped in her own anticipatory nostalgia, and the public has always wanted to keep her there.

A Perfect Companion: On Alan Rickman

He does the job so well you don’t notice he’s doing it better than anyone else could. 

 

Unearthing the Sea Witch

Ursula was a singular Disney villain, and behind the animated tentacles was a real-life, big-haired, poo-eating Baltimore drag queen named Divine.

The New Daughters of Bollywood

The rising influence of women in Indian film has been crucial to how their stories are told on and off-screen, putting more power into their hands.