|Tim Schwagel| When I eagerly popped in my copy of Collateral to prepare for this article, I had a lot of potential topics rattling around in my head. I could ramble for days about the magic of films that take place over one night, the overt themes of not letting perfection get in the… Continue reading
|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
|Matthew Christensen| I teach film and theatre at an international high school in Japan, and have spent the last few days in tech rehearsals for our theater club’s production of Our Town. I have pulled out what little hair I have in my head handling last-minute crises—a locked door… Continue reading
|Hannah Baxter| 1917 (2019) was not the first project on which director Sam Mendes collaborated with cinematographer Roger Deakins.1 It’s not even the first war story they made together: that would be Jarhead (2005), a film that makes an interesting counterpoint to 1917. The latter film… Continue reading
|Daniel McCabe| Strangers on a Train (1951) comes from the darkness, and not only because Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) shot the film in black and white. It draws influences from the German Expressionist films of the 1920s to create a foreboding mood while using the conventions… Continue reading
