Gone with the Wind Rider: Shintoism in Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

|Lars Johnson| In the early 1980s, an idealistic Japanese animator entered into an agreement with a magazine to create a manga on the condition that it would not be turned into a feature film. The series immediately took off and became popular. The publisher, presumably caught… Continue reading

Don’t Stomp On Bugs

|Noah Frazier| Bugs are gross. They look scary. They’ve got creepy legs and weird pincer mouths. A lot of them have an alarming amount of eyes. They bite, they sting. Sometimes they…let me double check my notes here…drink! your! blood! Like it’s a tasty treat to them!… Continue reading

When in Rome: La Dolce Vita and Life’s Imitation of Art

|Courtney Kowalke| On October 21, 2025, around 1:00 pm, YourClassical MPR played Ottorino Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome.” I know because I was listening to the station in my car. As I drove through Uptown, I listened to Lynne Warfel wax poetic about the piece. She pointed out that the… Continue reading

We’re All Buddies Here

|Devin Warner| I am so happy that this movie is being shown. While waiting in line to buy a ticket for the first 80’s Action Extravaganza at the Trylon, John wandered the line and asked everyone for movies they would like to see. My response was Shakedown, a buddy cop action… Continue reading

Okinawa, Baby: Exploration, Exes, & Extreme Private Eros

|Chelli Riddough| When my ex-boyfriend Chris and I were splitting up, we had a breakup photo shoot. Our friend Zoey came over and took a series of photographs of us in the living room: hugging, holding the cat, sitting side by side. At the time, my close friends… Continue reading

The Shocking Direct Cinema of The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On

|Ed Dykhuizen| Throughout the twentieth century, few documentaries managed to be both truthful and entertaining. Some were dry and deadly serious explications of important societal issues that, while enriching in the end, could feel a bit like homework. Others that provided thrills… Continue reading

The Burnt-Out Artist and the Truth: Federico Fellini’s 8 ½

|Dan McCabe| Note: This article contains spoilers for Federico Fellini’s 8 ½. If you want to see the movie without knowing anything about it, stop now. Guido (Marcello Mastroianni) hates the science fiction movie he’s making.  He thinks such b-movie genre fare is cheesy and… Continue reading

Collectivization, Creation, and Composition: Scoring Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s Earth

|Chris Polley| The “ooh, a project!” to “omg this is a huuuuge project” pipeline is real. In less than a week, my ambient post-rock band PRGRPHS will be performing our first live score for a silent film at the Trylon—Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s 1930 agitprop Rorschach test Earth… Continue reading

“The Way The Whole Darned Human Solidarity Keeps Perpetuating Itself” One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Intentional Distancing, Accidental Empathy, & Rebellion as A Way To Pass The Time

|Phil Kolas| Can selfishness be intersectionally liberating? Can assholes help to free strangers? Those are two sentences saying the same thing, and I’m being repetitive only because I feel like I’m going to be fighting both of those conflicting impulses while I write… Continue reading