Today we're announcing the relaunch of my essay collection The Wisdom of Walt Disney: The Themes, Ethics, and Ideas of His Greatest Films. In it I take a closer look at twelve of Uncle Walt's most important films to dig out the morals and ideas woven into the story: essentially, considering the films as examples of … Continue reading The Wisdom of Walt Disney Relaunch!
Movies
Infinity War at the Federalist
A new Federalist article is up, this one based off of Avengers Infinity War and talking about some of the same things I've been writing about recently. Sample: In other words, Thanos is a classic student of Thomas Malthus: a believer in the threat of overpopulation, only on a universal scale and with a blend of Marxist … Continue reading Infinity War at the Federalist
How I Would have Written ‘Black Panther’
As I've said before, the more I think about Black Panther the worse the writing in the film gets. As a side effect, I found myself thinking about how I might have done it instead, had I been in charge of writing it. The result was the following rough outline, which I now present to you … Continue reading How I Would have Written ‘Black Panther’
Thoughts on ‘Rampage’
Over the past few weeks I've been to see Steven Spielberg's film about a world bounded only by the imagination, the ultra-hyped latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a Dwayne Johnson vehicle based on a cheesy arcade game. Guess which I think was the best. Go ahead; guess. Rampage is basically a sci-fi … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘Rampage’
More on Black Panther
One of my favorite YouTube critics, Maulr, absolutely tore into 'Black Panther.' After watching his video, I think I still liked the movie better than he did, but...yeah, it's really not a well-put together film at all. Something he brings up repeatedly is that there really is nothing binding T'Challa to the Black Panther: it's … Continue reading More on Black Panther
Thoughts on Black Panther
Finally got out to see Black Panther while it was still in theaters. My reaction is definitely ‘good not great.’ It was…fine. There was a lot to like about it, though on the whole it wasn’t really that impressive to me as a film, or even compared to the rest of the Marvel universe. First … Continue reading Thoughts on Black Panther
Thoughts on ‘Ready Player One’
Today I went and saw ‘Ready Player One.’ It was more or less what I expected: shallow pop-culture porn, only not as good. I won’t say I didn’t enjoy parts of it, but the enjoyment was mostly of a very simple nature: ‘oh, hey, this is cool, oh, I recognize this.’ I think there is … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘Ready Player One’
Thoughts on the Greatest Showman
The other day I got out to see The Greatest Showman before it left theaters, which I’d been meaning to do for a little while. I’d known almost nothing about the film before, except that it was about P.T. Barnum and the founding of his circus. Then a month or so into its release I … Continue reading Thoughts on the Greatest Showman
Thoughts on ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’
Today my family and I finally got out to see Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, this season's sleeper hit. Having seen it, I absolutely can understand why it's found the success it has, because, yeah, it's really very good. The story has four teenagers - nerd, jock, popular girl, awkward girl - being sucked into a … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’
Godzilla: Monster Planet
Being the huge Godzilla fan that I am, I of course had to check out Netflix’s Godzilla: Monster Planet anime, supposedly the first in a trilogy. And…yeah, I didn’t care for it. The story is that humanity has been driven off the planet by Godzilla and the other monsters, but have failed to find a … Continue reading Godzilla: Monster Planet
Serpent's Den 