Author Archives: Eric Thirteen

Monster worlds on sound stages! A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from both destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves. A boy who has a bad Christmas ends up accidentally summoning a festive demon to his family home.

Two Al Pacino films that tell us about humanity. Scent of a Woman as a film that was definitely of the time. Taking a stop down for the question of “how did this get made?” A prep school student needing money agrees to “babysit” a blind man, but the job is not at all what he anticipated. That’s right, Scent of a Woman is just The House of the Devil. In Simone, styled as S1M0NE – a producer’s film is endangered when his star walks off, so he decides to digitally create an actress to substitute for the star, becoming an overnight sensation that everyone thinks is a real person. How Simone predicts the 45th presidency and, perhaps more usefully, its supporters.

Rooting for bad people. How human conflict helps audiences enjoy the bad acts of bad people. Charley Varrick is a self interested man who doesn’t seem too bothered by everyone around him being shot, tortured, or meeting an otherwise terrible fate. When a small immoral act turns out to have been a big one, how does the responsibility of having committed it respond? Shane Black’s history of pulp’d fiction. The little American Pulp novel and the little Italian yellow novel. People love conflict! Successful conflict and its relationship to the fuck-you-ending. Rolling the bolder up Franz Kafka Hill.

Yesterday’s movies with today’s progressive ideas. Two films that may have found an exploitation hook and used it for something socially positive. Edward D. Wood Jr.’s Glen or Glenda. LGBTQ politics from the 50s, as viewed today. An anthology film with several extra narrative devices and no short-form content. Repetitious stock footage and repetitious stock footage. Idea that think they’re clever and repetitious stock footage. The infectious enthusiasm and inspirations of a series of public failures. Who’s Afraid of a Black Hat? Not the Sundance film festival. Fear of a Black Hat and Public Enemies’ Fear of a Black Planet. The accidental dog whistle that keeps white folks dancing. Criticism that’s kept in-house. The case of public face and private face strikes again. How far can and should metaphor go?

Exploring two very different aspects of social media in modern society. Tragedy Girls as a commentary on branding. Set up a humorous device, overcome audience expectations. The narcissism potentially illuminated by social media as told through absurd extremes. Best of friends, stick together! Be your best self, even if that means stabbing your peers to death. Ok, maybe don’t do that. Ingrid Goes West, audience is hash-tag-blessed. The annoying sounds of Instagram. The evolution of the word “stalker.” Exposing the somewhat creepy Hollywood networking strategies no one is supposed to talk about. Begging to be literally followed. Society needs a stop-down two think deeper on wanted attention vs unwanted attention.