Elisabeth Geier, Author at Bright Wall/Dark Room

Grosse Pointe Blank, to me, is the definition of a desert island film: a foundational text, a perennial source of comfort, a go-to reference that lives, in the parlance of today’s youth and the adults who want to be like them, rent-free in one’s brain.

Reality Bites (1994) | art by Brianna Ashby

Welcome to the World of the Emotionally Mature

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 69: 1994

When I watch Reality Bites now, it’s like reminiscing with old friends, sharing an inside joke: Hey, we were a bunch of young idiots, but we made it out okay.

Afraid of Not Changing

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 56: Mental Health

Monk is imminently reliable—you tune in to see a character you know and love do exactly what they do best, over and over again. It’s perfect binge viewing for the chronically depressed.

So, Charlie Korsmo, You’ve Become a Pirate

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 47: Childhood

It's easy to project one's entire childhood onto the child stars one loved most, and to imagine them growing up into the kind of person you want them to be, maybe even a person like yourself.

In Defense of Sentimental Schlock: A Taxonomy of Made-for-Television Holiday Films

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 42: Holidays

Add a little eggnog to that rum. Settle in to your corner of the couch. Turn on the flatscreen. Refer to this guide to made-for-television holiday films.

What’s It Like for You?

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 39: Friends and Enemies

Nicole Holofcener's Walking and Talking is the kind of movie that makes you immediately text a friend, especially a friend whose everyday presence in your life you took for granted until she was gone.

Floating in Jars

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 35: Sci-Fi

In the early 1980's, director Carl Reiner and comedian Steve Martin collaborated on two films that challenged the laws of physics.

Girls Like Us

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 28: Teenagers

The first time I watched My Mad Fat Diary, I felt understood in a way I never before had by a movie or television show.

Why God Made the Movies

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 22: Music, pt. 2: Musicians & Fans

Paul Simon was never not in my life. It started with Simon & Garfunkel, of course, Bridge Over Troubled Water blaring from...

I Heart the 80s

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 19: Reflections on 2014

Movies in 2014 were a disappointment to me. Guardians of the Galaxy, Gone Girl,and Maleficent all showed up in fussy packaging...

You Already Have Your Poetry

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 16: School

Il Postino is about love, lust, and politics, but most of all it's about discovering the power of language, the way the right string of images can elicit a feeling for which there are no words.

The Man in the Mirror

Elisabeth Geier·

Issue 10: History

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished.