black swan

The Darkness Within: 13 Films That Burrow into Our Psyches

The Darkness Within: 13 Films That Burrow into Our Psyches

These 13 films help us understand horror as an important mode of cultural expression, as a means to explore the dark inner recesses of ourselves and our society.

PopTalk: The 2015 Academy Award Nominations

PopTalk: The 2015 Academy Award Nominations

PopTalk is a new podcast on PopMatters that casts its gaze on exciting developments in culture and the arts. In this first installment, we examine the 2015 Oscar nominees, and the broken rules of the institution that is the Academy.
A Call for the Academy to Reconceptualize the Best Original Score Category

A Call for the Academy to Reconceptualize the Best Original Score Category

So long as the Academy clings to a myopic definition of what an "original" score is, too many deserving composers will be left out come Oscar night.

2012: Another Year the World Should Have Ended

A View Out: The Search for Identity in ‘Cléo from 5 to 7’

Identity and Desire: The Search for Emotional Realism in Cinema

Finally Getting It? The 2011 Oscar Nominations

Gotta Be ‘In Treatment’

Critical Confessions: Part 24 – Awards Season Workhorse

Critical Confessions: Part 23 – Venice Envy

Best Folk of 2006