By amber BroYles  Don't Breathe / 2016 / Fede Alvarez I miss the days when thrillers actually said something, tapped into some deep-seated social issue. I miss the days when social commentary could be subtle yet provocative, a la Dawn of the Dead or The Crazies. There's a real elevation in story when a filmmaker can sneak those ideas in. Having said that, I'd like to point your attention to a little(ish) film that came out this year, Don't Breathe. Not only does it employ wonderful filmmaking techniques but it also uses current social issues as a backdrop for a grindhouse-esque thriller.
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By Casey Patterson Captain America: Civil War / 2016 / Anthony Russo & Joe Russo The Marvel Cinematic Universe is not improperly named. It really is galactic in size, both in the breadth of the settings and the endless chore that has becoming keeping track of all the canon. It’s so huge I’m going to have to publish this in multiple parts, meaning this will be a multi-part article criticizing the practice of multi-part storytelling. Thanks for making me look like a hypocrite, Marvel.
By Mary Thornton Ambrosia / 2016 / Qin Yuke For the 19th year, the Brooklyn Film Festival boasts selections from all over the world. With 107 films from 31 countries, there was no shortage of impressive films both feature-length and short. With an overall theme for the festival of "Experiment," there was no better place to be to be exposed to the up and coming people and trends in film.
By Mary Thornton
By Amber Broyles  The Witch / 2016 / Robert Eggers Horror films are a tricky thing. They teeter on the edge of thriller and terror. Some get muddled on either end of the spectrum while others gracefully embrace a bit of both. Either a film gets under your skin or it doesn’t. There’s no ifs ands or buts about it. Horror films do well to build tension and twist it into terror. Pacing is key. Plus, a great villain or monster never hurts.
By Mary ThorntonThe first in a series about how The End of Civilization is handled in different generations of science fiction. CONTAINS SPOILERS  Snowpiercer / 2013 / Bong Joon-ho I decided to watch the movie Snowpiercer as part of my NaNoWriMo attempt, which has since expired in a blaze of last-minute furious typing and me swearing not to even look at the story again until I'm full of enough goodwill and post-Christmas eggnog to get through the editing process. I expected to enjoy a thrilling science fiction saga of humanity's triumph in survival at the end of a global apocalypse, but instead found myself drawn into questions of what the end of the world really means and how the genre of sci-fi is uniquely equipped to handle them.
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was started in 2015 as a collection of thoughts about film. After a four year hiatus, it is back with some new thoughts and new contributors. Please check out our archives of past reviews and follow our social media to see new content. Archives
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