Nicolas Cage Descends into Self-Loathing in ‘Dream Scenario’
Nicolas Cage uses every bit of his talent to play an irredeemable, self-loathing character trapped in a nightmare scenario in Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario.
Kevin Craft
Kevin Craft is a freelance writer who has contributed to publications such as PopMatters, Slate, Salon, The Washington Post, The Almanac of American Politics, The Atlantic, and GQ. He's also the author of the Kindle Single Grunge, Nerds, and Gastropubs: A Mass Culture Odyssey.
Tom DeLonge’s ‘Monsters of California’ Is So Blink-182
Tom DeLonge’s sci-fi film Monsters of California is the cinematic manifestation of a Blink-182 song crossed with a paint-by-numbers tour of paranormal activity.
‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ Nails Middle-Age Malaise in the Tinder Age
Middle age is inherently bleak in ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’, and there’s no easy cure for the early-40s blues, but Tinder takes a swipe at it.
So High School: Taking Back Sunday’s ‘Tell All Your Friends’ Is the Quintessential Emo Album
Taking Back Sunday’s Tell All Your Friends shows emo for what it is: a sonic representation of what it really feels like to be an American teenager.
How Should We Remember the Controversial Rom-Com ‘(500) Days of Summer’?
The debate over whether the 2009 rom-com (500) Days of Summer is sexist is valid, but the filmmaking and acting are superior to its dull contemporaries.
‘The American President’ and the Aesthetics of Rising NeoLiberalism
In the prescient The American President, the president and his love interest push the liberal agenda while simultaneously living in the lap of luxury. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too.
‘Nightcrawler’ and the Brand Called Lou Bloom™
The personal branding phenomenon is an ongoing crisis of humanity.
Puzzle’s Answers Lie Beyond the Pieces
Puzzle is a film that's enjoyable whether or not you have a special talent or idiosyncratic hobby, the sort of film that understands life is a puzzle that requires solving even if it can't be won or lost.
McDonald’s Story ‘The Founder’ Illustrates Yankee Ingenuity’s Fall and American Innovation’s Rise
Though the word "innovative" is spoken only once in The Founder, this plot point is just one example of how the film deftly skewers the hollow nature of American Innovation, a meretricious form of late capitalist creativity that currently exerts outsized influence on American society.
Will Billy Corgan, the Uncoolest of Rock Musicians, Achieve Cool Status with ‘Ogilala’?
Corgan's willingness to be himself regardless of the critical and social blowback he suffered for doing “unhip” things made him a singular weirdo within a ‘90s rock scene stuffed full of weirdos, loners, and ennui-saturated youth. To this day, and with this album, he continues to be himself. Are you cool with that?
#EverythingGetsAThumbsUp: How Avidity Has Overtaken American Culture
An oh-so-brief and intentionally broad characterization of American life in these times of the Avidity Epidemic.