Joker: Folie à Don’t—Filmmaking as Penance

A burning clown

Seldom is a sequel widely recognized as superior to its predecessor, with most follow-ups struggling to recapture the relevance or dynamism of the original. There are exceptions—Aliens comes to mind. But they are few and far between. As often as not, a sequel is a shameless and hamfisted cash grab, with remakes typically no better. Yet … Read more

Orwell’s Two Minutes of Hate and Affirmative Consent in Today’s Cancel Culture

Two Minutes of Hate. When I first read George Orwell’s 1984 as a kid, I was confused by the scene in the movie theater, where the masses are watching video clips of military helicopters destroying boats full of unarmed refugees, and then projecting their hatred onto the regime’s worst enemy, Goldstein. Why show the army mowing down … Read more