Scent, Sense, and Senselessness in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Bennie sits in a dimly lit bar, wearing sunglasses and a patterned jacket.

|Sophie Durbin| Bennie (Warren Oates) drives across the Mexican countryside in a sweaty white suit stained with blood and dirt. Gasping for air, he swats flies from his passenger, a decaying human head in a burlap sack. He’s speaking to the head as if it’s the most normal… Continue reading

A Head’s Tale: The Emotional Journey of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Bennie, white male in dirty beige suit, pointing a pistol with right hand, holding bag with Head of Alfredo Garcia in left hand.

|Lucas Hardwick| Everyone has a head and we’re all kind of obsessed with them; so obsessed, in fact, that the conceit of removing it forcefully will never not be the most macabre form of dismemberment. After all, decapitation was a rather popular crime deterrent in the Dark Ages. Continue reading

Stardust and the Quest for Childhood Wonder

Young Tristan stands in front of an armed Prince Septimus, preparing to fight to save his love Yvaine.

|Finn Odum| Since the dawn of time—which began either in a rural Tennessee farmhouse or a rented duplex in Milwaukee—I have been a movie person. My early childhood memories overlap with scenes from A Bug’s Life, A Night at the Opera, and Air Bud. Some of the… Continue reading

Sick Day Story Allegory: The Princess Bride Integrates Grief on the Sly

Inigo Montoya brandishing his sword, left hand raised to the side, with Fezzik out of focus in the background.

|Jake Rudegeair| Forget everything you know about The Princess Bride.

It won’t be easy. Rob Reiner’s hilarious classic from 1987 is fused to our collective filmic memory like a sixth finger. It would be like asking you to forget your favorite grade school teacher or your first crush. Continue reading

A Stitch In Time: Picking at the Seams of To Catch a Thief’s Costume Design

A color image of John Robie, a white, dark-haired man standing next to Frances Stevens, a white, blonde woman on a lawn.

|Courtney Kowalke| Does anyone who enjoys classic Hollywood films get sick of talking about Edith Head? I’m sure those people exist, but I’m not one of them. I’m actually a bigger fan of Head’s work styling Kim Novak in Vertigo, but if you want to discuss Head and Hitchcock, To Catch aContinue reading

Head in the Clouds: La Vie Rêvée Wishes Dreams Would Become Reality

A woman with multicolored face paint gazes off into the distance, flanked by red borders on both sides.

|Matthew Lambert| La Vie Rêvée (The Dream Life), a revolutionary 1972 Canadian feminist film directed by Mireille Dansereau, follows the everyday life of Isabelle (Liliane Lemaitre-Auger) and Virginie (Veronqiue Le Flaguais) in Quebec. The movie is highly… Continue reading