I wrote this essay about the politics of Todd Phillips’s Joker almost five years ago, and posted it to my Facebook page. That was a turning point in my decision to start this site. It wasn’t the first time I’d posted lengthy and detailed thoughts about a film and its politics, but I worked especially … Continue reading Joker and the problem of identity
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King, which completed his triumphant adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I recently watched the entire film trilogy for the first time in probably 15 years. As much as I know these films backwards and … Continue reading Peter Jackson’s Return of the King is a supreme classic, but here are some things that bug me about it
Black Widow is a lot of things. It’s long overdue. It’s a great deal of fun. It’s a bit of a mess. It’s admirably quirky and original, until it isn’t. It’s a significant entry in the genre of feminist superhero films. It’s too little too late. We waited a long time for this film. Not … Continue reading Black Widow review: Finally, Natasha Romanoff gets to be a whole person
My name is Jim, and I‘m a writer, DJ, presenter and activist based in Sydney. This is a blog about culture and politics — a home for my ideas and for my writing that’s not published elsewhere. I write primarily about film and music, with some forays into TV, popular fiction and comic books. But … Continue reading Who I am and why I’m doing this
Under the Paving Stones 