A little research tells me that 59.3 million people, or roughly twenty-three percent of Americans, deal with mental health issues. Those figures come from the National Institute of Mental Health, and assuming that those figures haven’t been monkeyed with by DOGE, I’m inclined to treat them as accurate. I’m one of those 59.3 million people. […]

We can agree that the primary purpose of art is to elicit an emotional response, right? The way I understand it is, an artist creates their piece. That piece could be sculpture, painting, music, literature, film, or so much more. During the act of creation, they have an eye toward the hoped-for emotional response. A […]

We all know that the only constant in life is change. That’s an easy concept to wrap your head around in an abstract sense. But it’s far knottier to reckon with when you consider how much, in your own life, things have changed. The country has changed. How we relate to each other has changed. […]

The irony is not lost on me that Marvel Studios, a company that rose to prominence by making movies almost exclusively about superheroes, forgot what superheroes are. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve featured characters in flamboyant outfits with astounding powers punching each other in the head. By doing that, they’re halfway there. But really, at […]

I think there are two ways to approach movies that feature a mystery. The first is the puzzle box approach, where viewers sort the evidence alongside the characters, and try to “solve” the movie. Which…y’know, you can do that if you want to! It’s just that a) movies are generally meant to tell a story/elicit […]

When is a vampire movie not a vampire movie? When it’s Sinners. I’m totally cool with that, since we’ve had vampire movies all the way back to 1922 with the OG Nosferatu. For a century and change, the undead have slaughtered their way across movie screens, with virtually every possible variant having already been portrayed. […]

As of 2024, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 8.2 billion human beings on this planet. That’s a lot of us. A lot of possibilities for conflict, a lot of chances for misunderstanding, and a lot of opportunities to connect. But it’s been my experience that the majority of the meaningful connections we make […]

Christopher Landon excels at making gimmicky movies, and I mean that in the best way possible. To be clear, I’m not saying he’s gimmicky in the William Castle sense, where he’s electrifying movie theater seats.* Landon directs and/or writes movies which have a gimmicky premise, and he excels at making the most of those premises. […]

I’ve written about addiction before, specifically about the alcoholism my brother, Mark, dealt with throughout his too short life. The point shouldn’t have to be repeated, but addiction is not a moral failing. It’s not caused by insufficient churchgoing. Addiction is a disease. A physical affliction that sinks its claws into some of us and […]

Is your first breakup the worst? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it’s the most intense. It’s the one where you take the first steps away from childhood, and where you enter into a relationship that exists on a different plane than your family or friends. It’s one where you’re either vulnerable with another person, […]