American Film Studies Commons^™

Blade Runner 2049 (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"'Blade Runner 2049' tries to ask the question of whether androids, like humans, are souls."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie Blade Runner 2049 from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/blade-runner-2049/

Fixing Ground Zero: Race And Religion In Francis Lawrence’S I Am Legend, Michael E. Heyes

Journal of Religion & Film

Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend is a complex intertext of Matheson’s novel of the same name and its two previous film adaptations. While the film attempts to depict racism as monstrous, the frequent invocation of 9/11 imagery and Christian symbolism throughout the film recodes the vampiric dark-seekers as radical Islamic terrorists. This serves to further enshrine an us/Christians vs. them/Muslim dichotomy present in post-9/11 America, a dichotomy that the film presents as “curable” through the spread of Christianity and the fall of Islam.

Impressive Failures: Mavericks Of Film Authorship And The Impossibility Of Success In Hollywood, Tom S. Davies

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation directly challenges the critical and commercial primacy of success attached to Hollywood films and their filmmakers, especially when one argues for or against their quality and/or importance within cinematic history. Through a process of shifting and multiplying perspectives within a broader narrative that is critical of what separates success and failure, certain films and filmmakers that were judged as failures or disappointments under impossible prerequisites of creating a successful film––commercially, aesthetically, or both–– are, instead, reconsidered as constructive counterpoints to the expectations of the Hollywood economic field of production as well as to the inevitable disappointment ...

Logan Lucky (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"If it’s watched closely, 'Logan Lucky' offers a complete artistic experience. It is a movie that both exists in and transcends its genre."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie Logan Lucky from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/logan-lucky/

The Dark Tower (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"The Dark Tower destroys, through its reductive vision, creative possibilities for good fantasy storytelling."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie The Dark Tower from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/the-dark-tower/

Noir Westerns After World War Ii, Kenneth Estes Hall, Chritian Krug

Kenneth Estes Hall

Excerpt: Towards the end of Ethan and Joel Coen's Academy-Award winning No Country for Old Men (2007), Carla Jean Moss's life depends on the toss of a coin. Heads or tails will decide whether she lives or dies.

Apaches And Comanches On Screen, Kenneth Estes Hall

Kenneth Estes Hall

Excerpt: A generally accurate appraisal of Western films might claim that Indians as hostiles are grouped into one undifferentiated mass. Popular hostile groups include the Sioux (without much differentiation between tribes or bands, the Apaches, and the Comanches).

Mountain Men On Film, Kenneth Estes Hall

Kenneth Estes Hall

Excerpt: The mountain man of American folklore and history is a man between cultures. Like Janus, the doorkeeper god of the Romans, he is bifrontal, looking back at European, white civilization, and forward toward Indian civilization and culture.

Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"Midway through Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, I thought we were witnessing one of the greatest visual experiences in movie history."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets/

Dunkirk (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"In an era of superhero movies galore, Dunkirk reminds us again of real human fragility and fear."

Posting about the movie Dunkirk from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/dunkirk

War For The Planet Of The Apes (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"This movie asks us to side with the apes, to root against the human army that they face, and to feel elated at the prospect of a planet full of sentient apes, without sentient humans."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­a review of the movie War for the Planet of the Apes from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes/

Wonder Woman (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"'I used to want to save the world, but I knew so little then.'” So says Diana the Amazon in the opening of Wonder Woman, a movie that mixes the worlds of comic books, World War I, and ancient Greek myths."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie Wonder Woman from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/wonder-woman/

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword (Movie Review), Donald Roth

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"First, I really liked this movie, and, second, I think it says something really interesting about the nature of evil."

Posting about the movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/king-arthur-legend-of-the-sword/

The Case For Christ (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"The Case for Christ tries to present a rational defense of Christ’s death and resurrection."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie The Case for Christ from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/the-case-for-christ/

The Circle (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"The prevailing point in The Circle is that privacy-eliminating technology exemplifies a growing, heinous class division in American society."

Posting about the movie The Circle from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/the-circle/

She Would Not Be Silenced: Mae West's Struggle Against Censorship, Charlotte N. Toledo

The Downtown Review

Mae West, an actress during Hollywood's Golden Age, used her fame on stage, in films, and on the radio to offer social commentary on relationships between men and women in society. Her irreverent style of addressing issues of female sexuality and power certainly caught peoples attention and made them think about these issues in new ways. At the same time, her racy delivery made her a target of stage, film, and radio censorship. She refused to be silenced and continually pushed against restrictions to deliver he message of empowerment in her trademark provocative manner.

Life (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"Given the name 'Life,' the title of this new outer-space science-fiction thriller, I was looking for a grand artistic gesture."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie Life from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/life/

"This Aggression Will Not Stand": The Coens On Masculinity, Evan Kelly

Honors Projects

This research examines the constructions of masculinity within the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. Through textual analysis of three film, Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo (1996), and The Big Lebowski (1998), three key themes emerge: masculinity as performance, children and family as ego extensions, toxic masculinity personified, and children and redemption through rejection of hegemonic masculinity. Comprehensively, the paper seeks to prove the Coens uniquely construct masculinity as a performance which can override public policy and interpersonal prosperity. This research serves several functions. First, it recasts the Coens as cutting-edge progressive filmmakers, despite their protestations to the contrary. What we ...

The Shack (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"[The Shack] deals head-on with the vexing questions of why a good God allows evil to exist and why people have to suffer."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie The Shack from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/the-shack/

Hell Or High Water: Tattered And Familiar, Bob De Smith

Faculty Work: Comprehensive List

"Turns out the hell or high water of the title is less about lines in the sand than it is about commitments."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie Hell or High Water from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/hell-or-high-water-tattered-and-familiar/