TV

Captain America (1990) and Season One of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Unbeknownst to those who have traditionally eschewed the comic book scene, superheroes like Captain America have long been tackling some of Earth’s most complex and perplexing problems. Some viewers may have been surprised by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier tackling themes of race, displacement and immigration, radicalization, and the troubling hubris of American nationalism, but that just means they have never spent any serious time in the comic book universe prior to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The social commentary told through the perspectives of Sam Wilson, John Walker, James Barnes, and Karli Morgenthau in Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is neither foreign to nor new in the realm of comic book superheroes, villains, and anti-heroes.

Continue reading →

Godzilla vs Kong, Aaron Rodgers on Jeopardy!, and Attack of the Monsters

Monster movies such as the Godzilla and King Kong anthologies have long reflected the anxieties of the culture surrounding them. Over the decades as our fears and worries about the world and ourselves have morphed in some ways and stayed the same in others, so to have the monsters we watch onscreen. As much as the concept of Godzilla vs Kong is and has long been delightfully fictional monstrous fun in the cinema, it has also served as an onscreen reminder of how the myriad monsters we face in the real world feel beyond our control and, sometimes, in conflict with one another.

Conversely, for every nerd like Know-It-All who wants to overanalyze a big bombastic monster mash there is a Fanboy or two who is content to enjoy a popcorn flick without having to try to twist it to fit the thesis of their Philosophy 101 term paper.

Continue reading →