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As my life has evolved since I started Express Elevator to Hell (EEH) almost 10 years ago, so has my analytical study of my favorite extracurricular passion, cinephilia. I have long used film studies to counterbalance my professional scientific career and give perspective to my personal life. That is one thing that has not changed … Continue reading
One of the earliest attempts by my high-school friends and I at “branching out” from Hollywood blockbusters (Star Wars [1977-]! Jurassic Park [1993-]! The Dark Knight [2008]!) and our childhood favorite genre movies (e.g. Aliens [1979-]! Predator [1987-]!) were the annual Oscar nominations, or Academy Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and … Continue reading
Over the past winter break, I took time to binge-watch large sections of several noteworthy television series I own on Blu-Ray format. These included shows from multiple networks, but one distributer in particular stood out from the bunch: Game of Thrones (2011-2019), developed by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for Home Box Office (HBO) … Continue reading
A few years ago, I wrote a double-review of sorts for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1984) and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (2017); I remarked the latter filmmaker, recently ascended to the big-budget, high-concept genre blockbusters of Hollywood, should be given the keys to any franchise he wanted given his filmography’s remarkable consistency and innate … Continue reading
I’ve discussed my distaste for viewing movies in public before, and with some exceptions (e.g. college campus, independent arthouse, and film festival theatres), I argue the theatrical experience is not worth the money, time, and energy necessary to patronize it. Most patrons themselves are obnoxious, loud, and disruptive, distracting from the “immersive cinematic experience” of … Continue reading
I do not care for contemporary superhero movie franchises, their fanbases, their audiovisual styles, or the superhero archetype on film in general; I have tired of their overexposure in the popular culture zeitgeist since at least the early 2010s. Like Japanese animation, I’m aware these movements are passionate and have achieved significant mainstream acceptance, having … Continue reading
In light of the successful revivals of intellectual properties (IPs) like Star Wars (theatrical releases [1977–2019]; expanded as The Mandalorian [2019-] and other shows on Disney+), The Karate Kid (theatrical releases [1984, 1986, 1989]; expanded with Cobra Kai [2019-] on YouTube Premium and later on Netflix), and Lost in Space (original broadcast television series [1965-1968]; … Continue reading
In my struggles to define the different audiovisual styles of various films, including and especially the diegetic minutiae of the worlds in which their narratives inhabit, I stumbled across numerous articles, forums, and reactionary podcasts discussing the numerous “punk” aesthetics of fictional words in different art forms, including but not limited to novels, comic books, … Continue reading
A fellow blogger‘s preliminary review of the pilot episode of The Mandalorian (2019-), as well as discussions of the contemporary Walt Disney era Star Wars (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) films by Red Letter Media, prompted this question: Is the Star Wars franchise more “Space Western” or “Space Opera?” If those hybridized genre amalgamations sound weird … Continue reading
A prominent feature of my cinephilia is my affection for two seemingly unrelated film genres: The action movie and the film musical. The key word in the previous sentence is “seemingly,” because while action and musical films may attract different audiences and imply disparate narrative tones, the core of their appeal and their overarching visual … Continue reading
Express Elevator to Hell 