Film Essays
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Jackie Chan Does NOT Do All His Own Stunts, or the Perils of Stunt Double Erasure
I’ve been a vocal Jackie Chan superfan on this channel for years, so a video essay about Jackie Chan using stunt doubles and not doing all of his own stunts is certainly not something I had planned on making. Just to reiterate once more, I love all of the films discussed in the video. Stunt… Read more
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How a South Korean Horror Film Became A Japanese Musical
1998’s The Quiet Family from South Korean writer/director Kim Jee-woon is a dark comedy horror/thriller. When Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike decided to remake the film as The Happiness of the Katakuris, he did so as a musical with goofy humor and wild stop-motion animation. This video essay explores how the story translated into different genres… Read more
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The Tragic Story of Barbara Loden, the Lost New Hollywood Pioneer
The tragic story of Barbara Loden, who helped pioneer the New Hollywood movement but was almost entirely forgotten in her time. Her lone feature film, Wanda, wasn’t properly reevaluated as a groundbreaking achievement until many years after her death. The video essay below covers her entire all-too-short body of work. Read more
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