Thirty-five random thoughts on all four Mad Max movies
When you get the chance to watch all four Mad Max movies over a few days, you have many thoughts. Here are mine!
Category: Movies
Masculinity in the Movies
This year has seen a lot of long-overdue discussion of (and action against) sexual harassment, and with it a focus on the “toxic masculinity” that underlies it and other societal ills. In some ways, the world has almost always skewed toward the patriarchy, but there are some elements of the culture that are actually fairly recent developments, which a look back through recent history will serve to illustrate. We’ll start with my central thesis: the modern American model of masculine and feminine roles is a post-World War II invention.
Hell Plaza 2: Electric Boogaloo, the Heretic
It turns out that everybody has a list of truly bad movies and wants to share. Again, we’re not talking “so bad it’s good” movies; we mean movies more in the category of “drunkenly calling an ex is a better idea than watching this.” The numbingly bad movies that you can’t even laugh at. Let’s see what we’ve got this time…
Dr. Mabuse: “A picture for our times”
Dr. Mabuse is Weimar Berlin’s Professor Moriarty. He uses his power like a kid kicking over an anthill and watching the insects run.
‘Black Panther’: It’s About Damn Time
Once in a while, the studio machine gets it right, and what was supposed to be a typical genre picture hits all the right notes and becomes a timeless classic that transcends genre. The audience, or at least a segment of the audience, responds on a visceral level to the film, and it becomes a landmark in their lives. I believe Black Panther is one such film.
Gambling With Men’s Souls: Dr. Mabuse
Before comics were even a thing, Germany’s Dr. Mabuse became a legacy supervillain. Norbert Jacques created Dr. Mabuse (pronounced like “a boozer,” not “abuse”) Weimar Germany’s master criminal, in …
Recasting CLUE
Ryan Reynolds has announced that he’s remaking the 1985 cult classic CLUE. While I don’t think that CLUE necessarily needs to be remade, I have to admit it’s an intriguing idea. And heck, if it gets more people to rediscover the 1985 original, that can only be a good thing. I got to wondering how you’d recast CLUE with the stars of today. Here are my choices.