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The term “fan service” is often used in association with popular genre projects: Marvel films, Star Trek, Star Wars, and the like. The two Downton Abbey films (the first, released in 2019, and its sequel, A New Era) illustrate that even Ma...

For all that the description implies, Elvis is well and truly a Baz Luhrmann film. At times frustrating and at times exuberant, the movie is ultimately effective in capturing both the triumph and tragedy of the title character’s life. It’s une...

Emergency, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award winner at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, gives viewers things to think about, which is an infinitely preferable alternative to the kind of film where it’s possible to sense the mass demise of brain...

Academics will argue about which of the Bronte sisters left the most important literary legacy. All three died young – Emily in 1848 at the age of 30, Anne (Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) in 1949 at the age of 28, and Charlotte (Jane E...

Like Steven Spielberg with The Fabelmans, Sam Mendes has plundered his own memories of movie theaters to form the backdrop of Empire of Light. Mendes, however, lacks Spielberg’s deftness of touch. Although the scenes transpiring within the Empir...

These days, everyone wants a multiverse movie – Marvel, DC, and now the guys who made Swiss Army Man. If nothing else, Everything Everywhere All at Once shows that it can be done without committing a nine-figure sum to the production budget. Tha...

Paul Roland’s Exemplum opens with a definition (not a bad idea considering how obscure the term may be to all but classical literature scholars): “EXEMPLUM: 1. An example or model. 2. An anecdote that illustrates or supports a moral point, as ...

Over the course of a career that has spanned nearly 50 years, Steven Spielberg has often worked with children but this represents the first time he has attempted a coming-of-age story. What’s more, this isn’t any coming-of-age story, it’s ro...

Fall, from director Scott Mann, makes for a great trailer. The camera soars up the length of a 2000-foot high decommissioned television antenna and, when it arrives at the top, we’re treated to the sight of someone dangling in mid-air. Had the m...

Is this the end of the cinematic Wizarding World? Based on both the text of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and various extra-production cues, the answer may be “yes.” The eleventh film to transpire in the world created by J.K. Row...