Film Essays and Analysis
Top Gun: Maverick Is in Love With Companionship, Familiarity - 'Top Gun: Maverick' is the biggest hit of 2022 because it's more than an action movie, it's a romance flick dedicated to all the things we love, and love, and love again. Essay by Callum McGuigan.
Straightwashing Removes All Rainbows: Removing Bisexuals from Comic Book Films - In 2022, the blockbuster sphere's choices in representation must face more scrutiny, particularly with regard to straightwashing bisexual comic book characters. Essay by Paul Klein.
‘Blue My Mind’ and New Female Monsters - 'Blue My Mind' cathartically redefines the old-fashioned film logic that pain must be felt in the coming-of-age period and thus redefines the rulings of the monstrous feminine. Essay by Grace Britten.
Is Marvel’s Insistence on Being So Firmly On-The-Nose Rooted in a Distrust of Its Audience? - In 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness', Marvel, writer Michael Waldron and director Sam Raimi, tell rather than show. Is this because they don't trust us to understand film language? Essay by Callum McGuigan.
What Film Can Teach Us About Heartbreak - "Real life is often nonsensical and absurd – if art can truly mirror that experience, something special can occur." What abstract ideas in film can teach us about heartbreak. Essay by Sam Florsheim.
The Before Trilogy: How to Capture a Moment - A love story is made of moments, and in no place are those moments captured better than in Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy - Sunrise, Sunset, Midnight. Essay on why, by Jack Fanning.
Cooper Raiff and the Strength of Vulnerability - Cooper Raiff uses his films 'Sh*thouse' and 'Cha Cha Real Smooth' to re-evaluate the limits of masculinity, confronting limited stereotypes to present vulnerability as a strength. Essay by Tina Kakadelis.
Spielberg’s ‘Jurassic Park’ VFX Remain the Industry’s Gold Standard - How Steven Spielberg's direction helped to make the visual effects on 'Jurassic Park' (1993) not only revolutionary but the Gold Standard of Hollywood CGI. Article by Joseph Wade.
In Defense of the Happy Ending: Alice Wu and LGBTQ+ Movies - For so long, Hollywood has made it seem like only white, cisgender, non-disabled, heterosexual people fall in love. The films of Alice Wu offer condolence for those outside of that box. Essay by Tina Kakadelis. 
How ‘The Worst Person in the World’ Redefines Romantic Cinema - How Joachim Trier rewrites the rules of silver screen romance to create one of the best romantic dramas of recent years, 'The Worst Person in the World'. Essay by Rehana Nurmahi.
‘Wanderlust’ and Its ‘Bizarro Cut’ at 10: How David Wain Split His Sensibility in Two for the Studio System - 10 years on from the release of David Wain's cult comedy 'Wanderlust', starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, its 'Bizarro Cut' remains transparent about the comedy process. Essay by Nicholas Armstrong.
Little Women Is the Ultimate Christmas Film, Actually - Greta Gerwig's 'Little Women' (2019) starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and more, is the ultimate Christmas film, even if it's arguably not even a Christmas film at all. Rehana Nurmahi explains.
There’s No Place like St. Louis at Christmas - If 'The Wizard of Oz' taught us that there’s no place like home, 'Meet Me in St. Louis' taught us that, actually, there’s no place like St. Louis. Essay by Margaret Roarty.
85-Year-Old ‘My Man Godfrey’ Is a Crash Course in Comic Perfection - Gregory La Cava comedy 'My Man Godfrey' (1936), starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, could teach modern Hollywood some lessons, even at 85 years old. Retrospective essay by Sloan De Forest.
Prone to Bouts of Mania, Narcissism and Power Failure: Watching High-Rise and Snowpiercer in 2021 - With hindsight and terrifying changes in the real world, Ben Wheatley's 'High-Rise' and Bong Joon-ho's 'Snowpiercer' have been given new power and relevance as socially conscious art. Essay by Sam Sewell-Peterson.
Conjuring Nonsense: Devils Didn’t Make Him Do It - The third 'Conjuring' film reinforces the dangerous myth that the supernatural is somehow responsible for the heinous crimes of humanity, and it's a problem as big as cinema itself. Essay from Jacob Davis.
The Duality of the Female Psyche in ‘Mouthpiece’ - How 'Mouthpiece', created by Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, forges a moving insight into womanhood through its presentation of the duality of the female psyche. Essay by Gala Woolley.
How Did I Fall in Love with this Little Thing Called Cinema? - How an early life encounter with James Cameron's 'Aliens' (1986) shaped The Film Magazine writer Mark Carnochan's love for movies.
Thelma and Louise: The Most Powerful Final Image in Cinema - How the ending to Ridley Scott's 'Thelma & Louise' (1991) is one of the most iconic and powerful in all of cinema, and how it can be interpreted. Essay by Gala Woolley.
DC’s Lightest Movie, Shazam!, Also Contains Its Darkest Moment - In the light-hearted family movie Shazam!, that subverted the tone of the earlier DCEU, David F. Sandberg finds space for a heartbreaking character moment. Article by Rob Gifford. 