Released in 1984, the unheralded The Terminator not only propelled director James Cameron and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to stardom, but would eventually become recognized as a landmark work that would influence cinema for decades to come. Sitting at the center of a hub of themes ranging from corrupt A.I.s to dystopian futures, The
George A. Romero. Wes Craven. John Carpenter. These three icons revolutionized the horror genre of cinema during the late 1960s and ’70s via films like Night of the Living Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, and Halloween — movies that were particularly attuned to the American zeitgeist at the time. Why do many credit this
Much like the concept of time travel, the subject of dreams is a creative playground for filmmakers, both in terms of narrative as well as visuals — when you’re not bound by the laws of reality, you can go anywhere… and more importantly, be anyone. Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound and Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries broke new
It’s been over four years since the infamous “Cut to Black” finale of The Sopranos polarized America — while many vociferously protested the lack of closure, some argued that the ambiguous (or perhaps not?) closing was simply the last in a long line of masterful strokes from the paintbrush of creator David
How much of our political information is gathered through the filter of comedic shows? What does it mean when the writers for Saturday Night Live seemingly have a concrete impact on the way that our elected officials are being perceived? No format in recent years seems to have had as important
It’s long been said that perception becomes reality, and for much of our nation’s history, mass media has not been kind to minorities — in particular, the African-American community. From Birth of a Nation (where the Ku Klux Klan were portrayed as crusading heroes) to the bumbling, shiftless TV characters of Mantan
How has Generation X been defined in film over the past few decades, from the landmark John Hughes films of the ’80s through the “slacker” movies of the ’90s and beyond? What distinct qualities do Gen X films possess which differentiate them from those of previous (and later) generations? We’ll
My new show on cinema, Split Reel, has debuted — for now, you can listen at CHIRP (Chicago Independent Radio Project), but you’ll also be able to access archives here as well as subscribe to the podcast. What were the “flash points” which signified that the “War on Terror” was having a concrete impact
If there’s one genre of television that seems to be on life-support, it’s the traditional sitcom. As long-running shows such as Frasier, Everyone Loves Raymond, and Friends have shuffled off the airwaves in recent years, some have commented that the prototypical three-camera sitcom is finally being put out to pasture. Do new approaches to
How have horror films been reflective of the times in which they’ve been made? What sorts of differences do we find between American and foreign perspectives on horror? How has the depiction of religion in horror evolved over the years? My guest is Kendall Phillips, a professor of communication and
The fifth and final season of The Wire just wrapped up on HBO this past Sunday, and thus I decided to post a special two-part show that I recorded a couple of years ago about this landmark series. My guest was freelance writer and pop-culture critic Leonard Pierce, and we
With the advent of a new year comes a brand-spankin’-new website, which currently houses many of the episodes from my now-defunct show Under Surveillance on WLUW, and will feature everything from new radio projects to pop-culture essays. Feel free to drop me a line via the links below if you are so
So, I originally wrote this essay about time-travel a year ago for the online pop-culture mag The High Hat, but they’ve been experiencing technical difficulties for quite a while, and… well, I wanted to put it out there before too much more time (no pun intended) had passed. Enjoy! ——- If
The AMC drama Mad Men will begin its third season within the coming week, and so it’s a pertinent time to turn our sights on this critically-acclaimed series. Mad Men focuses on the Sterling Cooper advertising agency, set against the backdrop of 1960s America, and creator Matt Weiner uses the show as a vehicle
About a year ago, I wrote an essay for the online magazine The High Hat on the depictions of mental illness in film and television over the years — you can find that essay here. However, a few months earlier, I’d done a radio show on the very same subject with my friend
How do we define “happiness?” How has that search been depicted in film and television throughout the years, through introspective characters who seek greater meaning in their lives (American Beauty), to displays of marital trauma and the breakdown of long-term relationships (The Ice Storm, War of the Roses)? Has the
Summer has long been synonymous with action blockbusters as far as Hollywood is concerned, for better (Predator) and for worse (the new Michael Bay Transformers film). What cinema genres gave birth to the American action film? How have action movies evolved based on the changing social and political climates of each era?
How has the cinematic genre of romantic comedy been reflective of the evolution of the courtship process over the years? What do these sorts of movies say about the institution of marriage? And how have they depicted changing gender roles within relationships? We’ll examine a host of iconic romantic comedy
In commemoration of the recent conclusion of the critically-acclaimed Battlestar Galactica television series, here is an interview I recorded with Robert Thompson near the end of 2006 covering all sorts of issues discussed on the show. We’ll be examining the political and religious themes depicted in the series, but don’t worry