observationsabout

Depth

A Look at Iconic Versus: The Post-9/11 Significance of the Freddy vs. Jason and Alien vs. Predator Movies

Fears of vicious attacks and random massacres are not the product of some aberration of the natural order but an honest reflection of how the universe actually works. Thus, fears of this type of world do not center on vanquishing monsters to save others so much as on just surviving in a pre-determined situation. What kind of horror film is this? The crossover film that has the word "versus" in the title -- namely, "Freddy vs. Jason" (2003), "Alien vs. Predator" (2004) and the recent "Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem" (2007).

Haunting Our Homes: Nightmares of Gentrification

The modern haunted house film is fundamentally about gentrification. Again and again we see fictional families move into spaces from which others have been violently displaced, and the new arrivals suffer for that violence even if they themselves have done nothing wrong.

Apocalypse Now!

The films of Summer 2003 reflected a fascination with metamorphosis that spoke to our anxieties toward a world in flux

The Culture Industry Has You

How the Frankfurt School might be the key'to unlock the postmodern mysteries of The Matrix

George W as Henry V?

Political commentators have been claiming Dubya as a modern-day Prince Hal since the 1990s, eager to ascribe a kingly divine right to a ruler who, from his assumption of the throne to his current crusade, lacks justification

”What Are You Doing Now?”

If embedding is a next logical step for reality TV (with all stakes raised, for consumers as well as performers), it's also a huge leap in political, ethical and commercial terms

One Night in Baghdad

"You own this war," CNN producer Robert Wiener is told in Live From Baghdad, a sentiment that already seems dated

”Breaking News”

Most of the emerging stories concerning the sniper shootings have to do with this unexpected turn, this unexpected blackness

Orientalist Kitsch

To accuse Abercrombie & Fitch of 'misrepresenting" Chinese or Asian men, culture, whatever, with negative stereotypes, is to forego the messier aspects of contemporary cultural politics

White Men Can’t Pass

Racial pigeonholing persists because the stereotypes of white and black basketball players dovetail so perfectly with the deeper archetypes that are at the core of how Americans think about race