Thursday, May 5 2011
Summer Movie Preview: August 2011
August brings us a clash between horror and sci-fi as vampires, demons, and super-intelligent apes battle the Grim Reaper and a beefy Barbarian for your last few popcorn coins.
Wednesday, May 4 2011
Summer Movie Preview: July 2011
If automatons are battling genetically altered soldiers, talking animals, extraterrestrials, and cowpokes for box office supremacy, it must be July.
Allen Ginsberg Didn’t Say That: A Conversation on the Film ‘Howl’
C.E. McAuley and friends get wordy about Allen Ginsberg, Howl, and the release of the film now on DVD.
Tuesday, May 3 2011
Summer Movie Preview: June 2011
The return of everyone's favorite mutants, the arrival of an intergalactic peacekeeper, and some guy with a bunch of birds marks June's idea of sunny Summer fun.
Monday, May 2 2011
Summer Movie Preview: May 2011
This month, the God of Thunder, the return of Captain Jack Sparrow, and the continuing adventures of the bachelor partying Wolf Pack mark the start of the Summer season.
Thursday, April 28 2011
On Truth and Lies and the Full Frame Film Festival 2011
What is the connection between cloned puppies and a 32-year-old sex in chains story? This and other questions raised at this year’s Full Frame Film Festival.
Wednesday, April 27 2011
Celebrity and the Celebration of Art: The Transformation of Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch’s body of work is impressive. So what has previously prevented his transformation from a highly talented, sought-after actor to bona fide international celebrity?
Friday, April 15 2011
Whedon and Company: Worlds Await
The formal creation of Buffy Studies -- and therefore Whedon Studies -- was born with the creation of the online journal Slayage 10 years ago. Here the coeditor of Slayage, Rhonda V. Wilcox, offers some reflections on our obsessions with the output of a certain TV creator.
Can’t Stop the Serenity: Taking Fan Activism to the Next Level
A member of Whedonites United, a Tennessee group associated with the Can't Stop the Serenity movement, explains how a group of fans of Joss Whedon and the film Serenity takes fan activism to a new level by actively trying to make the world a more humane and just place.
Thursday, April 14 2011
Six Reasons Why Joss Whedon Is the Perfect Director for ‘The Avengers’
It was announced last year that Joss Whedon would direct the most ambitious superhero movie ever, teaming Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye all in one enormous film. Matthew Hurd thinks Whedon was the perfect choice.
Joss Whedon 101: The Avengers
The Avengers will be Joss Whedon's most ambitious project to date, the culmination of a string of Marvel Studios superhero films, including the Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America films.
Tuesday, April 12 2011
The Power of Fandom in the Whedonverse
While viewers watch television and film for entertainment, it's easy to forget that these media are industries. In this essay the changing relationships between creators, studios, distributors, and an increasingly active fandom are examined.
Joss Whedon 101: Cabin in the Woods
Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods has been as star-crossed as a show can be. Although Goddard and Whedon had finished principle filming, MGM requested a year delay to convert the film to 3D, and then promptly went bankrupt. Although the film is finished and MGM now refinanced, Whedon and Goddard fans continue to wonder when
Monday, April 11 2011
The Dystopian Future in Joss Whedon’s Work
In contrast to the utopian vision of the future found in sci-fi series like Star Trek, Joss Whedon's creations show a different vision of the future. And it isn't pretty.
Friday, April 8 2011
Revolution in the Mirror: Life Imitates Art in the Middle East and North Africa
Mass uprisings were sweeping the Middle East and North Africa just as Sergei Eisenstein’s 86-year-old agit-prop masterwork, Battleship Potemkin, commenced a multi-city US tour.
Wednesday, April 6 2011
TV’s Grim Reaper: Why Joss Whedon Continually Kills the Characters We Love
Among Joss Whedon's greatest contributions to television has been the invention of the Body Count, the willingness to kill off recurring characters in order to ratchet up the narrative tension and create a sense of danger. This is the first of two essays examining Joss Whedon as a televisual mass murderer.
Monday, March 28 2011
National Theatre Live Shocks ‘Frankenstein’ Back to Life
Why did you create me? The plaintive question adorning National Theatre Live posters may echo critics’ question about the need for yet another in a long line of Frankensteins. Previous Frankensteins and monsters have been entertaining but less socially relevant. The National Theatre’s production, as directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle, to use a cliché, is Alive!
Friday, March 25 2011
Five Hot Chicks and the MPAA, Why Can’t This Be Europe? Zack Snyder’s ‘Sucker Punch’
PopMatters was in Beverly Hills for the Sucker Punch press junket, and sat down with among others, Director Zack Snyder, Producer Deborah Snyder, and stars Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jamie Chung.
Monday, March 21 2011
A Postcolonial Provocation: ‘Serenity’
Joss Whedon's Firefly and its film sequel Serenity achieved acclaim for their generic hybridity, a sci-fi western offering a dystopian vision of the future. Here Serenity is positioned as a postcolonial text.
Friday, March 18 2011
Joss Whedon 101: Serenity
Although Joss Whedon's Sci-Fi Western Firefly was cancelled after the completion of only 14 episodes, DVD sales and fan support was so exceptionally high that Universal Studios acquired the rights to make a film sequel, Serenity.