2018 is turning out to be a truly inclusive year for on-screen representation. “Black Panther” invited African-American audiences to see themselves in a massive superhero movie that wasn’t about their own oppression, “A Fantastic Woman” gave transgender women the chance to see themselves in an acclaimed film that wasn’t terribly retrograde, and now Eli Roth’s dangerously enjoyable “Death Wish” gives right-wing lunatics the opportunity to see themselves in a fascist fairy tale that wasn’t directed by Dinesh D’Souza. To each their own cinema.

Set in an alternate-reality Chicago where the police are so overwhelmed by inner-city crime that they can’t spare the resources required to solve the murder of an affluent white woman, this contemporary riff on Charles Bronson’s vigilante…

Bruce Willis awakens from his acting coma and actually acts as Dr Paul Kersey in Eli Roth’s remake of the Michael Winner / Charles Bronson revenge classic.

Chicago has a high as a kite murder rate, and that’s not fake news. Chicago is the perfect setting for the retelling of Death Wish.

Death Wish is the most un-Eli Roth film I’ve seen. You couldn’t tell he directed, and in my opinion, that’s a cool thing. Some might throw the term “torture porn” for some of the kill scenes. But, I would argue, calling Death Wish torture porn, is like calling American Hustle a T & A flick because it shows Amy Adams’ side boob. The home invasion scene could’ve been a…

"that sounds like a good scream" "that sounded like a very good scream"

all of roth's movies make explicit the stuff thats unspoken in normal movies, like de palma* crankin up (& to) the shit implied by old hollywood (pre-frenzy) hitchcock, except brian depalma never used splitscreen to put up worldstar memes of his main character cold-blooded murdering a car thief ("when somebody spoils game of thrones"). its disgusting to imagine the world's worst assholes swallowing this as a news report from trump's chiraq (stand-in for oprah & obama & everything black they hate) but all of roth's politics & signifiers fly scattershot to avoid revealing his real target - studio notes aside, death wish is a mess because hes not indulging, hes…

What's maddening to think about while watching Death Wish (2018) is someone like Philando Castile who owned a legally registered firearm and who followed police instructions and who was shot to death by the cops in his own vehicle while breaking no law. I thought about that a lot. This movie is a fantasy of white privilege, of a legitimate use of extralegal assassination by someone just and wise enough to wield it properly. That it is not only some white guy, but the ur-white-guy in Bruce Willis, who is reprising a role of Grumpy White Dude Exasperated With The Slowness Of Authority Engages In A DIY Project, the plaint of every libertarian white dude everywhere who is like 'i…