Theory & Criticism

Why are so many audiences nowadays laughing at scenes that are meant to be uncomfortable? In this piece, Caleb Lee argues that the rise of inappropriate and performative laughter is a reflection of a more disturbing social trend that prevents us from dealing with sincerity in our everyday lives.

Imagine this: you are walking down the street at 9 a.m., barely awake, caffeinated beverage in hand, merely trying to make it through another day when you make eye contact with a stranger.  They’re cute.  They raise their eyebrows slightly. Are they surprised? Okay be nice.  You smile. They don’t smile back. Did you smile too wide? Are they disgusted by you?  Wait!  Someone else is looking at you weird. You think?   Is there something on your face? Oh god.  There are more peo

Awareness of mortality ultimately gives life its meaning, a truth explored through Harold and Maude (1971) and Y tu mamá también (2001). In both films, the presence of death, embodied in the older women, Maude and Luisa, awakens younger men to the urgency and fragility of existence. Set within different cultural landscapes, each story approaches mortality differently, with one as a performative assertion of freedom, the other as a quiet, inescapable reality woven into social

Although the post-irony poison in our 2026 water may make us inclined to giggle at the prospect of an isolated group of crewmates being picked off by a mysterious “imposter” identical to themselves, John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece The Thing remains heralded as one of the greatest (horror) movies of all time–while the same cannot quite be said for its 2011 prequel. Taking a retrospective glance at both films, it’s evident what makes the classic so untouchable.

Set in 1920s China, Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, 1991) follows a young woman who becomes the fourth mistress in a wealthy household. Jessie Li’s article analyzes the film through Michel Foucault’s concept of the panopticon, arguing that the film visualizes a system of patriarchal control by enforcing constant visibility and rivalry among women. 

A wave of TV shows is quietly overwhelming our not-so-distant past with the likes of Ripley, One Day and The Gentlemen asking why Hollywood can’t bear to let last decade’s movies grow cold. This article follows that inquiry from IP-hungry streamers to prestige makeovers, nostalgia on fast-forward, ideological rewrites and an industry terrified of irrelevance. Whatever it may be, we obtain a culture remaking what it still remembers and calling it “new” with suspicious enthusia

In this article, Jackson Palmer explores the thematic parallels between stop-motion animation and the autumnal aesthetic, and how these connections pay homage to stop-motion’s foreground ability to produce fabricated stories that beautify our corporeal world from which it physically derives.

Jean Rollin’s films blur the line between dream and death, portraying women as extravagantly spectral figures who resist definition. This essay argues that his work transforms the unknowable feminine into poetic myth, mystery becomes a form of understanding beyond patriarchal narrative, rather than a base level fetishization of the female mind.