Andrew Root, Author at Bright Wall/Dark Room

Our son watches more television than we’d planned; one of the many side effects of living in pandemic times. Coming from a media background in criticism and textual analysis, children’s entertainment drove me insane, but one day, something cracked open.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Universal Pictures

At Least It’ll Give Us Something to Complain About

Andrew Root·

Issue 58: Magical Realism

I feel like an apologist for complex filmmaking when I ask you to give Scott Pilgrim vs. the World a second watch, but perhaps I shouldn’t. This is a film that was made for people like me.

A Book That Breathes

Andrew Root·

Extras

Crimson Peak: The Art of Darkness offers delicious insights into the making of the film, and more than a few glimpses of how director Guillermo del Toro invests himself in every note of it.

A Certain Man

Andrew Root·

Issue 50: Survival Kit

This is the real image of Kane, passing a set of adjacent mirrors, and the one that resonates through to a present moment that believes wealth and power are the only things worth pursuing: an endless parade of identical angry white men.

Divinity on the Upper East Side: Heroic Transformation in The Fisher King

Andrew Root·

Issue 48: The Hero's Journey

The Fisher King is a wonderful blending of the realistic and the fantastic, a reminder that the mythic need not be inaccessible, and that the hero need not slay a dragon.

Hunt the Boar

Andrew Root·

Issue 44: True Stories

In the early 1990s, Al Pacino began a project that would span years and continents; a multi-level documentary chronicling his attempt to understand and convey how he felt about Shakespeare’s Richard III.

Sticks & Stones

Andrew Root·

Issue 43: Best of 2016

Arrival purports to have a circular structure itself, through the use of flashbacks and forwards, but subsequent viewings reveal it to be linear by way of a palindrome.

The Legend of Swift Adam (The Fast & the Furious)

Andrew Root·

Issue 38: Literary Adaptations

Modern audiences will hear echoes of that folk tale in the high-octane antiheroes of The Fast & the Furious film franchise, a series of films that has mystified some with its longevity.

Letter from an Editor

Andrew Root·

Issue 34: LGBTQ

We lose nothing from a fuller representation of what it means to be human; we gain everything from a more empathetic understanding of our friends.

Concerning Hobbits

Andrew Root·

Issue 32: The Unloved

What I wanted The Hobbit to be, and what that says about me.

Letter from an Editor

Andrew Root·

Issue 29: Lenses

We’ve got a wonderful grab bag of cinematic ephemera for you this month.

Letter from an Editor

Andrew Root·

Issue 27: Paris

In this month's issue, we are thrilled to bring together essays that touch on themes of love, loss, self-discovery, intrigue, films, food and finding where you're supposed to be.