Star-Crossed Chemo by Andrew Collins The Fault in Our Stars explores the psyche of the teenage cancer patient. For those of us whose inner circle has not been visited by the Big C, encounters with cancer can tend toward the distant — a sentimental charity ad, a scripted request at the grocery store checkout. We […]
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The Glorious Terror of Space by Andrew Collins Director Alfonso Cuarón’s IMDB biography says that he has always wanted to be two things: a director and an astronaut. No surprise, then, that he made Gravity. The film tells the survival story of astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and medical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) after […]
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The Science of Story by James Roland I had the opportunity to watch Gravity this weekend with Robby Stephenson, Senior Engineer in the Mechanical Engineering Division at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Afterward, we talked about the science on display in the film, what they got right and what seemed off. More importantly, we talked about how […]
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Clever Moments, Worn-out Tropes by Andrew Collins At film number three, the Iron Man series is starting to feel like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The first film had a solid story and was wildly entertaining thanks to a brilliant central character — Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. The following films? Not so much, […]
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It’s an Animal Thing: Why Riddick is a Franchise With Teeth by James Roland Less than a year after The Matrix caused a sci-fi frenzy, Universal dumped its low-budget space flick Pitch Black into the desert of February film releases and left it to die. But like its feral anti-hero, the film survived, earning more […]
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A First Draft for Our Newest National Myth by Andrew Collins It’s been said that journalists write the first draft of history. If that is the case, then cinema turns our drafts of history into cultural myths, endowing them with a fresh drama and significance for our generation (Spielberg’s Lincoln is a perfect example). Zero […]
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Back There Again by Andrew Collins Just like its villainous character Gollum, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey suffers from multiple personality disorder. Director Peter Jackson’s attempt to be true to the tale of a beloved children’s story while setting it in the context of an epic history is commendable, but he ends up treading a […]
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Another Stroke of Insensitive, Shoot-’em-up Genius by Andrew Collins Django Unchained, the latest from director Quentin Tarantino, self-consciously incorporates the classic tropes of a spaghetti Western with a brash flair of action-flick attitude that refuses to fall completely into our traditional expectations for the genre. We’re familiar with the opening credits in bright yellow font, […]
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Even the Best Men Are Only Men, at Best by Andrew Collins History has a way of idealizing great leaders by framing them in the simplistic light of a few key accomplishments. Not so in Steven Spielberg’s latest cinematic offering, Lincoln. This fresh take on one of the most revered figures in American history shows […]
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More Than Just Another Bond Film . . . Almost by Andrew Collins “Think on your sins.” A line like this should give you goose bumps — especially in the hands of a good filmmaker. The problem with the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, is that it doesn’t. We all know the tropes of a […]
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