Ranking The Deaths In [Jurassic Park]

Jurassic Park is a subtle tribute to the inherent duality of life. How technology can both be good or bad, nature can be both beautiful and deadly, life is both good and evil.  So let’s RANK THE DEATHS BY DINO IN THE FILM FROM WORST TO BEST!  4. SHOOT HERRRR!! Just to establish a baseline, all

Tony’s Pride [The Sopranos] (Season 5) Part 2

In my first post about season five of The Sopranos, I addressed how heavy the season felt due to an existential crisis the likes of which the series had not experienced to that point. However, underlying that tension is a much more subtle theme that holds the season together, Tony’s pride. Sylvio calls it out towards

Language, Wharfianism, Diplomacy, and [Arrival]

Arrival is a movie about language- its importance and how it impacts those who use it. Most of the movie is based on a linguistic field of study popularized by Benjamin Lee Whorf (and named after him) called Whorfianism or an updated version called Neo-Whorfianism. Whorfianism is even mentioned in the film. The gist of the

The Threat Of New York [The Sopranos] (Season 5) Part I

The Sopranos season five is heavy. Spurred on by the release of imprisoned mafiosos back into the hands of both the Jersey and the New York crime families, the season rides upon their velocitation of old ideals in a new world, new relationships, new objectives, new values, and new bosses. And as the released mobster’s lives

The Battle Of The Titans: And The Roundabout Way We Got There [Godzilla vs Kong]

On my journey through the Godzilla and Kong movies to get to the debut of Godzilla vs Kong, I have come to love the series for all that is good and bad about it. The positives and negatives seem to come in equal proportion, and the victories and mistakes are as large as the main characters.

Ishiguro’s Unreliable Narrators [Klara And The Sun]

A lot has already been said about Ishiguro and his new book, Klara and the Sun– the consistency of his tone and theme, the simplicity of his prose, his foray into many literary genres, and his return to science fiction, the role of inconsistent or conflicted narrators in complicating his stories. And this last point appears

[Godzilla: King of the Monsters] But That’s About It…

Well that went bad really fast. I loved Godzilla (2014), and I loved it even more on the re-watch. I thought Kong: Skull Island was a delight, and just when I assumed this universe had a system in place for telling these monster stories, they went and did a thing like this.  Everything that was good about Godzilla was completely absent

Harry and Meghan and [The Crown]

My wife and I resumed watching The Crown (we re-entered at season 3) at the most culturally relevant moment we could have hoped for, just as Harry and Meghan sat down with Oprah to spill all the tea on the royal life and its pitfalls.  I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to

Big Monkey Breaks Stuff [Kong: Skull Island]

Kong: Skull Island gives anyone wanting to watch a monster movie exactly what they are looking for, a big-ass monster who wrecks shit right from the jump.  Godzilla (2014), which I wrote about here, builds slow and burns long, equal parts disaster film and monster movie. Kong at times, maybe due to their eventual convergence, feels like it is

The Long Slow Burn: [The Sopranos] (Season Four) Review

Season four of The Sopranos is a victim of its own greatness. For me, Whitecaps, is the best episode in the entire series, a wrenching, hour long tour de force by Gandolfini and Falco. But to reach that peak, the show needed to burn slow, slower than they normally burn. Which means the first half of this season