Author: Seth Harris

An immigrant from the U.S. trying to make sense of an increasingly saddening world.

Movie Review – Days of Heaven

Days of Heaven (1978)
Written & Directed by Terrence Malick

When I was a child, my dad had a bookshelf in his home office. This was the place I first stumbled across the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I never finished (it took me a year to complete Fellowship, and admittedly I was ten years old, so maybe not quite old enough for Tolkien’s prose?). However, another book on this shelf highly interested me even though I didn’t have much context for it, The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible by Otto Bettmann.

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Movie Review – A Woman Under the Influence

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
Written & Directed by John Cassavetes

If you have never watched much outside of classic American cinema, even the supposedly envelope-pushing independent film industry that came to prominence in the 1990s, you will likely be turned off by A Woman Under the Influence at first. Writer-director-actor John Cassavetes broke the accepted forms & structures of filmmaking in ways that critics were highly divided at the time of their release. Some could see the brilliant mind at work while others became quickly frustrated at scenes that linger and editing that doesn’t follow the smooth narrative flow we have become accustomed to. I can imagine your average MCU stan wouldn’t know what to make of these pictures at all. They don’t provide easy morals, and their characters are so complex you find yourself always seesawing between frustration and sadness over them.

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Movie Review – After Yang

After Yang (2022)
Written & Directed by Kogonada

The aesthetics will strike you first when watching writer-director Kogonada’s newest film, After Yang. The world feels influenced by Asian & Scandinavian architecture, fashion, and overall design. It’s done in such a subtle manner, using elements from various sources that have a visually pleasing unity. This is not the neon glow of Blade Runner’s future, but a warm, earthy home with a family going about their life. It’s the sort of portrayal of the future that feels revolutionary in its mundanity. Technology is not an object of spectacle; it’s blended into people’s everyday existence. The characters and the film never directly comment on these things because, in real life, we don’t outwardly talk about an appliance as we use it, declaring wonder. We lose the magic of these things we have created; they become a part of the domestic landscape.

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Comic Book Review – Batman: Year One

Batman: Year One (2007)
Reprints Batman v1 #404-407
Written by Frank Miller
Art by David Mazzucchelli

I’ve immensely enjoyed going back to older DC Comics these last few years, and every once in a while, you’re reminded of how great a particular work is after it faded in your memory a little. Batman: Year One is a comics masterpiece. One thing I’ve liked to do is go to the DC Database, search an issue I’ve read and see what else was published that same month. It can give you a great picture of what the publisher felt like at the time. Batman #404, the opening chapter in this story, hit the stands in February 1987, almost one full year after the final issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths (March 1986) was published and a month before Legends wrapped up (April 1987). This was right in the middle of DC Comics reinventing itself as a modern comics company, trying to catch up with the headway Marvel had. Year One was sharing the comics rack with Byrne’s Superman run, Watchmen was halfway through its twelve-issue run, George Perez’s Wonder Woman #1, and a handful of mini-series and other comics attempting to inject some new life into these characters. Nothing came close to Batman: Year One.

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Movie Brain – March 5th, 2022

What a time to be alive, eh? Not only is there a pandemic killing waves of people daily, now there’s a fucking war in Europe? Involving a nuclear power? Over the last week or more, it has been quite eye-opening to watch the Western war propaganda machine whirr into action so effortlessly. But, of course, I have to state before I go any further that Vladimir Putin is a horrible man. The way discourse works in Western circles is that everything exists in binaries: this or that. So, if I levy a critique against the United States or ask why NATO exists in a post-Soviet world, I will immediately be condemned as supporting Putin. It could never be that we’re watching the horrible results of capitalism and imperialism play out and that the only people we should stand in solidarity with are, you know, people, not governments.

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Movie Review – The Batman

The Batman (2022)
Written by Matt Reeves and Peter Craig
Directed by Matt Reeves

There are few comic book characters with as many iterations in popular media as Batman. From the 1943 movie serial to his appearances in Zack Snyder’s superhero films, if you’d like to see a version of Batman, you only have to take your pick. One of the aspects of Batman we haven’t seen too much of in cinemas is that of the Detective. Most films centered on the character focus on action and big set pieces but give little time for investigation. However, some of the best Batman stories from the animated series focus on the character following clues and uncovering the truth. Matt Reeves has delivered the first Batman feature film to really showcase that aspect and has also provided some of the best interpretations of the series villains we’ve ever had.

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Supervillain Spotlight – The Riddler

For most people, The Riddler is seen as either Frank Gorshin’s iconic performance from the Batman ‘66 series or Jim Carrey from Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever. This portrayal of the puzzle-obsessed villain mimics the persona of The Joker more than presenting how The Riddler was shown in the comics. It makes sense, The Joker is the villain we most associate with Batman, and that type of insanity is the element actors pick up on. Tommy Lee Jones’ performance as Two-Face in Batman Forever is another example of someone aping the mannerisms and behavior we would expect from The Joker. So just who is The Riddler then?

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Supervillain Spotlight – The Penguin

Few Batman’s Rogues Gallery members have seen as many radical changes as The Penguin. He first appeared in Detective Comics #58, co-created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Like many new villains of the time, he had no secret identity and was simply The Penguin. Creators would come up with concepts for adversaries for their title heroes without any real plan for them to come back. They would merely gauge how the audience felt through letters or how the creators themselves felt after the fact. While most villains had an apparent gimmick (The Joker uses deadly pranks, The Riddler leaves riddles, Catwoman is a cat burglar, etc.), The Penguin was a bit of an odd duck (no pun intended). His crimes were often bird-themed, but he was also known for using gimmicky umbrellas…you know, like a penguin.

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