There may be no single author in science fiction more persistently misread than Robert A. Heinlein. He is a militarist, a mystic, a libertarian firebrand; he writes novels that venerate duty and others that dissolve it, texts that praise hierarchy and others that work to dismantle it. Starship Troopers is cited by conservative politicians for its advocacy of earned citizenship; The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is direct rebellion. In between, Stranger in a Strange Land was adopted by free-love communes as spiritual scripture. The contradiction seems total. How could one author plausibly inhabit all these roles at once—much less within a single decade?
Essays
“One Battle After Another”: a Complete Satire of Polarization
A film that turns America’s ideological fever into satire— and dares us to see the joke’s on us.
From Fairy Tales to Facsimiles: Fizzling Disney Magic
Why Live-Action Remakes Feel Fake and Hollow
I. Introduction – The Experiment That Broke Disney’s Spell
Disney’s live-action remakes of original animation began as an intriguing question posed in the language of modern filmmaking. What might it look like to re-stage an animated classic using today’s cinematic tools: digital effects, live-action framing, modern sound? The 2015 Cinderella answered with a polite flourish. It kept the bones of the original but dressed them in new fabric, nodding toward elegance and restraint. It felt like a thoughtful curiosity, charming in its own way, like a balloon released gently into the air.
It’s Finally Time for a “Top Ten Movies of 2017” List
It’s finally time for me to reveal my Top Ten Movies of 2017 here on Plot and Theme. I know, everyone settle down. Now, in previous years this piece has come out sometime around the middle of January, as I hastily throw together a Top Ten list ASAP. Usually, this means that a few films … Read more
The Immaculate Magic of the World of Barry Lyndon
The eighth entry in my series, Stanley Kubrick – A Year of Masterpieces. Barry Lyndon is one of Stanley Kubrick’s most overlooked films. Cinephiles and casual fans alike are quick to list a dozen other Kubrick films as a favorite before even considering this film – if they even care for it at all. But, … Read more
“A Clockwork Orange” and the Scary Defense of Free Will
In A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick means to make you uncomfortable. The magic of the film is that it can show terrible things and then making us care about the mind of the man responsible for them. Kubrick accomplishes this titanic task through three main techniques, each of which will be detailed in this piece: … Read more
“2001: a Space Odyssey”: The Eye-Opening Beauty of Powerful Cinema
Introduction It is a sin to write this. Mr. Stanley Kubrick told me so: 2001 is a nonverbal experience; out of two hours and 19 minutes of film, there are only a little less than 40 minutes of dialog. I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the … Read more
“Dr. Strangelove” and the Absurdity of the Politically Powerful
A Year of Masterpieces: The Filmography of Stanley Kubrick Introduction Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a satirical masterpiece. In this piece, we will discuss the germination of the great film and then detail how the director combines a serious camera (Part I), genuine but … Read more
The Time Has Come to Make a Choice: The Strong Volition of “The Matrix”
The Matrix is replete with allusions to classic philosophical ideas. The plot references Plato’s Cave and the world of forms, Descartes’ First Meditation and the evil demon, and Hilary Putnam’s “brain in a vat” scenario – all ruminations on the nature of reality and the possibility that we only perceive an illusion. The film also … Read more
Clarice, Meet Dr. Lecter: How to Craft a Masterful Intro Scene
One of the most enthralling sequences in The Silence of the Lambs is the first meeting between Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and it is a masterclass in visual storytelling. This piece will analyze this entire sequence shot-by-shot, explaining the cinematic techniques that director Jonathan Demme and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto use to tell this … Read more