featured Archives - Bright Wall/Dark Room

Other, more recent superhero films may claim to be grim—and certainly achieve a gritty, surface-level style—but in Batman Returns, we have something that seems to deliver an underbelly of actual darkness: upsettingly discolored bodily fluids, thrillingly unhealthy psychosexual games, raw fish, toxic sewage, and a semi-catatonic ‘hero’ who barely speaks.

Until Lightning Strikes Again

Olivia Rutigliano·

Issue 98: Underdogs

The point of The Natural is not to give Roy Hobbs his longed-for second chance, but to destabilize the very concept of “second chances.”

How It All Came Crashing Down

Ethan Warren·

Issue 96: Best Laid Plans

With Southland Tales, Richard Kelly asked audiences to deal with the bleakest aspects of their current reality via a tonally ambiguous, hyper-taxing, incomplete narrative. When you look at it that way, even its sub-half-million box office take might sound high.

When Plans Run Counter to People

Cody Benjamin·

Issue 96: Best Laid Plans

Moneyball is not a baseball movie as much as it is a treatment on convictions, traditions, decisions, and how each of them have relational ramifications. Even the grandest plans have consequences.

I Gave You The Road, Why Don’t You Take It?

Elizabeth Cantwell·

Issue 95: 1971

If many of Steven Spielberg’s films are marathon novels, Duel is a sonnet—it has room to play because of its formal constraints.

The Surrealist Bond

Kent M. Wilhelm·

Issue 95: 1971

Diamonds Are Forever | art by Tony Stella

In the six-decade and soon-to-be-25 film oeuvre of the series, Diamonds Are Forever stands out as the most peculiar entry in the franchise thanks to its unintentional embrace of the surreal and the challenges it poses to its own pedigree and dogma.

The Best Actress in the World

Carrie Courogen·

Issue 95: 1971

Jane Fonda in Klute (1971) | art by Tony Stella

If much of Fonda’s life both before and after Klute was marked by losses of her own identity as she attempted to mold herself into whatever the dominant man in her life wanted, Klute captures a rare and specific transitional moment.

Why Wouldn’t I Believe You?

Sophia Stewart·

Issue 94: Forgiveness

Carrie Coon and Justin Thereoux in the series finale of The Leftovers | Art by Tony Stella

The Leftovers makes two competing claims: that other people are mostly what gives life meaning; and that, despite guaranteed loss, we have to invest in them anyway.

Abstract Tenderness

Ethan Warren·

Issue 94: Forgiveness

The Straight Story represents the Lynchian world redeemed, a pocket of America that battled dread and violence and won, earning its just reward.

Perfect Playmates: Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant

Julia Sirmons·

Issue 93: Dynamic Duos

Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn | Art by Tony Stella

Hepburn and Grant tumble toward happy endings through chaos and adventure, misunderstandings and trickery, all with an effortless grace.

Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmate

Sarah Shachat·

Issue 93: Dynamic Duos

Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World | Art by Tony Stella

The real crux of Aubrey and Maturin's friendship, what makes Master And Commander so rich in general, is the way in which the film challenges their relationship and also kind of has an answer for a very a la mode question: how do people with different political beliefs get along?

Notes on Marie Antoinette, or: the MTV Sensibilities of Sofia Coppola

Sydney Urbanek·

Issue 92: Music Redux

Marie Antoinette is arguably the centrepiece of Coppola’s MTV-inflected career, conceived as it was as a sort of love letter to the music and music videos she loved as a teenager.