I used to work in a grocery store deli. Most of the customers would be regulars, coming daily to get the same half-pound portions of meats, cheeses, and salads. As time went on, you began to learn the little quirks for each one; Some were kind, some were funny, some were rude, but most were simply trying to get their food and go. Regardless, I was a part of their routine as much as they were a part of mine,…

This review is a critical look at Sound of Metal's exclusionary stance towards cochlear implants, and the ways in which it personally demeans me as a hard of hearing individual with the procedure. Sound of Metal is a worthwhile film that takes a staunchly traditionalist perspective on deafness, and while I would ultimately recommend it for the mere fact that it is one of the few fictional features that attempts to depict a "deaf perspective," that it comes at the…

There has been no force in my life as constant and formative and comforting as film.

Film shaped me as a child. Star Wars, Toy Story, Spider-Man, these magical adventures that felt so far beyond a world I ever knew, so far beyond the scope of my imagination, and let me believe that anything could be possible. My toys could talk, I had power, there were countless adventures and stories that lay beyond the stars, things I could never imagine,…

One of the most interesting things about genres, to me, is the stories that genre movies tell from their contexts.

This is a thematically Modern Western, Clint Eastwood's self-reflexive study of Clint Eastwood the western star, the spaghetti westerns that made him famous themselves being intense reactions to the golden age Hollywood fare of the genre (themselves an evolution of serials and silent westerns from years prior... you see the pattern). Even if these deserts and badlands are all ostensibly…

There was a time in my life where I longed to die.

Wake up, go to class, go to work, go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. The tedium, the monotony, a mask to help me confront the crushing loneliness I felt at the time. Wake up, go to class, go to work, go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. I wanted to heal the hole in my heart, but no matter how often I reached out, I only seemed to be…