In my mind, I see Joss Whedon sitting down with Drew Goddard and studio execs and saying something like this; "Listen, I know you guys want me to do The Avengers, and I will, but I want you to let me do a Shakespeare film, and I want you to let me and my friend Drew here do a horror comedy." The studio execs then murmur to themselves, and nod in agreement. Whether or not that meeting ever actually came…

I was recommended this film by my mentor as a study in catharsis. For those who have never read Aristotle's poetics (which every artist or critic should), Aristotle defines catharsis in no clear terms, but in his explanation one can safely judge that what he means by the term is a reversal of attitude; from fear to love, from death to life, from depression into elation etc. When a character reverses his attitude to something that is enlightened, the feeling…

Director Christopher Nolan waited to show much of the screenplay for The Dark Knight Rises to any of his crew or fellow professionals because of his neurosis and paranoia regarding people around him giving out plot points. This is truly unfortunate for him, because had he shown the script to someone who knew what they were talking about, they might have told him how terrible it is. I'm not going to talk about plot holes in this review. For that,…

I had a dream about this film last night. There was nothing particularly special about the dream, which essentially consisted of me watching moments in the film. What was interesting to note is that when I woke up I had this sincere feeling of appreciation for this work. I had, and held onto for many hours, an understanding of what made this film so unbelievably popular when it first came into the world. I can't express in words just what…