The first part of this series, where I talk about the historical context for superhero movies as a genre, is here. The second part, where I talk the superhero movies I think are the best, as well as the superhero movies other people think are the best, is here. The Auteurs of the Superhero Genre… Read More The Fourth Genre: The Auteurs
This is the second part of a three-part series. The first part, where I talk about the superhero genre’s place among other quintessentially American film genres, is here. The Best of the Fourth Genre What I was going to do here, in the interests of giving you the wisdom of crowds and critics, was one… Read More The Fourth Genre: The Best Superhero Movies
The Fourth Genre (Just in Case You’re from Space and Haven’t Seen The Avengers) Before I watched a bunch of DC animated movies, I watched A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies. In that doc, Scorsese says there are three American genres, genres which sprung up in their fullest forms in American movies:… Read More The Fourth American Genre: The Superhero Movie
The actor: Michael B. Jordan The character: Killmonger The film: Black Panther The line: “Is this your king?” Google “best mcu villains” and you’ll get the usual suspects (Collider, Empire, Nerdist, Mashable, etc.) listing the usual suspects. The top three on these sort of lists are nearly invariable. Thanos gets one of those spots because… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #3
The actor: Chadwick Boseman The character: T’Challa The film: Black Panther The quote: “Wakanda forever!” Wonderland, Narnia, Shangri-La, Oz, Brigadoon, the Wizarding World, Atlantis. One accesses these fantasy places from a place in the real world, as we know it. A rabbit hole or a wardrobe, a plane crash or a tornado, a train platform… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #90
You can find the full list of the top 100 blockbusters since 1972 here, as well as an index for other posts in this series. If your monster has a mirror in it, do not shout. This kind of situation does not call for freaking out. And do nothing that you would not like to see… Read More Top 100 Blockbusters of the Multiplex Era: The Monster in the Mirror
To see my running list of the hundred greatest movie stars in American film history, click here All stars are listed with a single film which is particularly important, though not exclusively so, to understanding what makes them vital to American movies. 100) Vivien Leigh / Key film – Gone with the Wind The chauvinists… Read More Better than AFI’s 100 Years…100 Stars: 96-100
The question of “What is the best MCU movie” feels like a fairly pointless question, but as one of the idiots who lives in it, I’ve come up with my own set of answers. (You can find my intro to my rankings, 1-8, and 9-23 elsewhere on the site!) I feel pretty strongly about my own… Read More Infinity Saga/MCU Ranking: Critical Meta-Analysis and Poll Results
To read my introduction to this set of rankings, go here. I’ve broken the twenty-three movies from this franchise into tiers of irregular size. I still have a fairly firm ranking in my head for each of them, but I include the tiers to give a sense of what movies roughly match each other in… Read More Infinity Saga/Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies Ranking – Part 2
To read my introduction to this set of rankings, go here. I’ve broken the twenty-three movies from this franchise into tiers of irregular size. I still have a fairly firm ranking in my head for each of them, but I include the tiers to give a sense of what movies roughly match each other in… Read More Infinity Saga/Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies Ranking – Part 1
Seeing Things Secondhand 