The classroom has been a cinema battleground for students and teachers alike — from tales of social outcasts (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Napoleon Dynamite) to crusading educators (Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds),…
One of the many “taglines” of America is that it is the “Land of Opportunity” where anyone can succeed… and above all, get rich. How has this impacted the depiction…
How much of a role did religion play in the 2008 elections? What might the founding fathers think of the fact that today’s presidential candidates are frequently peppered with questions…
Whereas classic film noir (French for “black film”) typically defines movies — mostly crime dramas — depicting moral ambiguity that were released in the 1940s and 50s, the neo-noir genre has been…
How does the inauguration of incoming President Barack Obama compare with those of other chief executives in recent history? Will the American public give Obama a much longer “honeymoon” of…
“Duck and Cover” has been replaced by “Shock and Awe” in the public lexicon where military matters are concerned, but the prospect of nuclear war has loomed for decades, even…
It’s no surprise that the recent Oliver Stone film, W, has bombed at the box office — much like its ’90s pseudo-predecessor, Primary Colors. Regardless of how good the movie is (and W is…
“What do we do now?” — Victorious Senate candidate Bill McKay, in the film The Candidate Returning as my guest is Loyola political science professor Alan Gitelson for a special one-hour post-election show,…
Due to the history and prominence of Hollywood, the world of cinema has long been considered to be an intrinsically American art form, and youth culture is one of the…
These certainly aren’t the superheroes our parents grew up watching. The critical and box-office smash The Dark Knight is Exhibit A of how superhero films are now free to aim squarely at adult audiences…