Category: Columns
Want more posts like these, straight to your inbox?
-
Destroy All Monsters: THE PHANTOM MENACE Started The Conversation On Fan Entitlement
We are in the midst of a renewed conversation about fandom’s relationship with the properties they cherish. This is thanks in no small part to (of all things!) a white male internet dweeb proclaiming to all who would listen that he is putting his foot down and not watching Ghostbusters this summer. Honestly: if you…
-
Destroy All Monsters: Mad As A Hatter And Half As Fun
As of today, we cleanly divide Depp’s career into two parts: before Jack Sparrow, and after. Certainly, for my generation and and a lot of other people, Johnny Depp before Jack Sparrow (and, arguably, including at least the first instance of Jack Sparrow) was one of Hollywood’s rarer, braver gifts: an idiosyncratic, deeply committed performer…
-
Destroy All Monsters: Woody Allen And Rape Culture
Well, here we are again (inasmuch as the word “again” can be applied to a problem that never went away, and which we’ve all known about for as many as twenty years). The subject of a blistering indictment penned by Ronan Farrow (plus one jaw-dislocatingly savage jab in an opening monologue at Cannes), Woody Allen,…
-
Destroy All Monsters: Ideals Will Destroy Us All, And Other Things I Learned from CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
Hard to believe I’ve been writing this column for 3 years – literally feels like I just got started. Naturally, this week, the conversation turns to Civil War.
-
Destroy All Monsters: Hey Disney, We Need To Talk About The Shitty Experience Your Release Strategy Is Giving Your Customers
Isn’t the movie being fun, for a movie called Captain America, and as the creators of Batman v. Superman very recently discovered to their detriment… kind of the point? Isn’t that aspect – the movie’s fun – the only marketable product that Disney is selling, i.e. the secret sauce; the finite, non-replenishable resource that they…
-
Destroy All Monsters: GAME OF THRONES Is Better On TV. Who Needs The Books?
I swear to you – I thought I was OUT of this whole thing. The last year and a half really sucked the will to Thrones right out of me. Last night’s premiere, though – the first “post-books” episode – had an intriguing sense of purpose.
-
Destroy All Monsters: Nostalgia, Loss, And Purple Rain
Turns out I had a few things to say about losing Prince. And, as usual, writing this made me feel better. Crank “Purple Rain” while you read this and try to get to the bottom in time for the “wooo-hooo-hooo-oooo.” It’s worth it.
-
Destroy All Monsters: Scarlett Johansson And Our New, Digital Plasticity
Beyond merely her voice, Johansson was pretty much made for [The Jungle Book], and its seamless blending of performers with digital avatars. She is quickly becoming a one-woman cottage industry in exploring our relationship between our physical and virtual selves.
-
Destroy All Monsters: DEEP SPACE NINE And The Challenge Of Community
You owe Star Trek: Deep Space Nine a second look. It might be a good way to drain the time between now and Bryan Fuller’s Star Trek reboot next year. The best aspects of Deep Space Nine set a benchmark that Fuller (who started his writing career with a one-shot on the series) will be…
-
Destroy All Monsters: Mindfulness In STAR WARS
This one, obviously, means a lot to me! I’ve been on the mindfulness/meditation journey for a couple of years now, ever since I decided to start taking the fight back to my own anxiety disorder (which isn’t a very mindful notion, is it?). The importance of mindfulness as an anxiety strategy, and its centrality in…