The tension Michael Mann’s Collateral sustains is effective because the movie understands the unequal relationship between employer and employee, between driver and passenger. Read More
JoinedMay 28, 2017
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Sarah Welch-Larson lives in Chicago with her husband, their dog, and two dozen houseplants. She is the author of the book Becoming Alien: The Beginning and End of Evil in Science Fiction's Most Idiosyncratic Franchise, now available from Cascade Books. In her spare time she enjoys reading, knitting, and shouting about science fiction.
In this single shot, The Hunt for Red October presents its stakes: the struggle between an individual and the vast and powerful forces that threaten to swallow him. Read More
Alien: Resurrection swings the pendulum away from the dour grimness of its predecessor towards a sense of humor and ironic self-awareness; the result is an Alien eager to thumb its nose at its precursors. It doesn’t care if anyone who loves those earlier films gets caught in the crossfire, either. Read More
Anxiety is Fury Road’s strongest throughline: the beating heart at its center. Read More
It is the first day of summer 1962 in Paris, and it is a beautiful day, and for Cléo, everything is falling apart. Read More
Tron: Legacy's lasting reputation is mostly that of a flashy action blockbuster, with plenty to show and little to say. But the film's unique visual aesthetic elevates it a level beyond similar films of its kind. Read More
Only Lovers Left Alive is about marriage, and about weathering long dark nights of the soul just long enough to see the light again, taking each wave as it comes and then bracing for the next one. Read More
The Return of the King is an object lesson in satisfying endings. Each one is necessary, a coda for an important story thread; each one folds in on the others like the pages of a book. Read More
This scream is a scream of defiance. Read More
In Howl’s Moving Castle, food is more than just a necessity—it sustains life, in every sense of the phrase: helping a body hold skin and sinew together, while acting as an expression of love and care. Read More
More than any other Alien movie, David Fincher's Alien 3 is aware of Ripley’s existence as a woman, and the unique and universal horrors that come with the territory of inhabiting a woman’s body. Read More
On 2001, Interstellar, and Love. Read More