Long-Form Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs
On his instagram account yesterday, Kevin Smith posted a screenshot of the complete first draft of the newest entry into his View Askewniverse: a sequel to 1995’s Mallrats with the current title of MallBrats. Since struggling with directing Cop Out, the only time Smith has helmed a movie he did not write, Smith has gone … Read more
Avengers: Age of Ultron is everything one could want in a big budget summer action movie: multiple great action sequences, compelling characters, and kicking ass. Obvious comparisons will emerge between this film and its predecessor, but I very much see them as equals. Both films balance humor and action, juggle myriad superheroes, and portray interpersonal … Read more
One of the trailers that played before Avengers: Age of Ultron this weekend was a psychological science fiction thriller starring Ryan Reynolds, Matthew Goode, and Ben Kingsley called Self/less. The trailer, which can be seen here, is intriguing, but may reveal too much of the plot for my liking. Kingsley plays a billionaire genius stricken … Read more
Here in Madison, Wisconsin, the Overture Performing Arts Center screens silent movies with live accompaniment from an organist as part of a program they call, “Duck Soup Cinema”. On April 18th, I had the pleasure of watching Buster Keaton’s, The General in this setting, and it was one of the more fun movie-going experiences I … Read more
The Red Band trailer for the sequel to the Vacation series was released online yesterday (it isn’t a reboot, as the old characters appear and it is the same timeline). I was surprised to see both raunchy and updated subject matter, and a tongue-in-cheek tone to aspects of the movie. Much as 22 Jump Street … Read more
With Avengers: Age of Ultron hitting theaters early in May and Ant-Man putting the finished touches on Phase II, I found myself thinking again about the other ten films that form the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Generally speaking, these blockbusters based on Marvel’s comic book heroes offer a fun movie-going experience, but having seen them … Read more
Predestination is a movie which rewards viewers for knowing as few details of the plot as possible, and yet it is hard to talk about this film without revealing at least something, so I will keep discussion of the plot to the first seven minutes of the movie – certainly sufficiently intriguing to whet your … Read more
Ex Machina, the directorial debut of Alex Garland (screenwriter of 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and Dredd), is a fascinating exploration of the essence of humanity which challenges an audience to wonder at the nature of not only consciousness, but independence and justice. The movie opens with a plain title screen and we are introduced to … Read more
Quentin Tarantino’s World War II historical fiction revenge film, Inglourious Basterds, makes specific stylistic choices with regard to language which significantly affect the quality of the film by providing characterization, generating thematic tension, and even directly influencing the plot. Generally speaking, the choice of which language to use in a film is almost done by … Read more
In the mission statement of this blog, I indicated that I would be approaching the field of film criticism from the perspective of a particular school of aesthetics – Romantic Realism. But, in order to establish what is meant by “Romantic Realism”, to explain its principles and apply its methods of analysis, there is a … Read more