Is it perhaps a bad portent that I’m about to kick off my entry in Grumpire’s “Gen-X Essentials” series by quibbling over semantics? No matter. I’ve never let those stop me before. And in this […]
Author: Tyler Peterson
Tyler Peterson is a writer from Iowa. His work has appeared on The Agony Booth, Points In Case, Film Daily, and others.
VISUAL TENSION, IRONY, DISCOMFORT, AND METAFICTION IN ‘THE VISIT’
Something I think about sometimes is how I basically never had a grandpa. My grandpa on my dad’s side, Grandpa Ted, died when I was two and I don’t remember him one bit. On my […]
LIVIN’ THE DREAM: THE SLY SUBVERSION OF ‘THE BEACH BUM’
Twice in the course of The Beach Bum, Matthew McConaughey’s greasy itinerant poet-drunk, known only as Moondog, recites his piece “The Beautiful Poem” – once at the beginning, to the weeknight crowd at a beachside […]
NO-LIFE CRISIS: ‘CARNIVAL OF SOULS’ AND THE CULT OF YOUTH
The middle of the 20th century saw of a period of shakeup in the normal course of Western life. As things used to be, we had childhood, devoted to growing, learning, preparing to care for […]
OUT OF THE SKY: HOW ‘EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS’ (1956) CHANNELED WAR TRAUMA INTO CINEMATIC FANTASY
No single artifact is more synonymous with ‘50s sci-fi than the flying saucer. You see one and you can almost hear a theremin playing. And no single movie has done more to solidify the conventions […]
BE FRUITFUL: ‘SPECIES’ (1995) TACKLES THE SCARY AND THE SEXY OF (IN)HUMAN REPRODUCTION
Given that it’s ostensibly what sex is for, it’s surprising how the act of impregnation is the source of so much psychosexual drama. I know for most men, the thought of knocking someone up you […]
WELCOME TO AMERICA! ‘RUMBLE IN THE BRONX’ AS A MASTERCLASS IN CULTURAL FUSION
The 1994 movie Rumble in the Bronx, which launched Jackie Chan into international superstardom overnight, was the result of a carefully-planned effort to bring Jackie to Western audiences. Chan, already in his 40s at the […]
UNCLARITY OF PURPOSE: THE NATURE OF COMEDY AND THE ENDURING APPEAL OF ‘PCU’ (1995)
“The strange thing about Political Correctness,” wrote Roger Ebert in his 1994 review of PCU, “is that it seems to have many opponents and no supporters. No one ever describes themselves as Politically Correct, and […]
NAME DROP: WHAT HOWARD KAYLAN’S ‘MY DINNER WITH JIMI’ GETS RIGHT ABOUT THE ROCK BIOPIC
In 2016, I went with my mom and my aunt to go see The Turtles play. It was a good time– Iowa’s a good state for that sort of thing. We went to see them […]
PRETTY PARTS, UGLY WHOLES: SEX, LONELINESS, AND INCEL PANIC IN MAY
By now you’re assuredly at least somewhat familiar with the term “incel.” An abbreviation of “involuntarily celibate,” the word refers to a group of people – mostly young, mostly male – united by extreme difficulty […]
“READ MY LIPS – NOT X RATED!” 1995’S EVIL ED TACKLES CENSORSHIP, PUNK, AND POLITICS
PUMP UP THE COLUMN EXPLORES THE MANY INTERPRETATIONS OF PUNK AESTHETIC USED IN CINEMA Genre film – in particular, horror – and punk rock have enjoyed a long and comfortable kinship. For bands like The Misfits and The Cramps, […]
HUMBUG: ELF, A SACK OF SUPERFICIAL SPIRIT
The “Christmas movie” is a vital part of the experience of Christmas under modern consumer capitalism, which sustains itself by transforming vital human experience into commodities and selling them back to us. Christmas is red […]