In keeping with the Halloween spirit, the next lecturer in the Humanities on the Edge speaking series, Dr. Claire Colebrook, will focus on the concept of extinction within post-apocalyptic films. Dr. Colebrook is currently an Edwin Erle Sparks professor of English, Philosophy, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Colebrook will present her talk, “What would you do (and who would you kill) in order to save the world?: Post-Apocalypti

Last Friday evening, February 9th, João Moreira Salles visited the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center to screen his new documentary film essay No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now). Following the screening of the film—which was presented as a part of the Ross’s Norman A. Geske Cinema Showcase as well as the Humanities on the Edge lecture series—Salles appeared for a Q&A with the audience. No Intenso Agora combines archival footage, both professional and found amateur footage,

Wes Anderson’s fictional worlds are outside of history. Or rather, they are mostly beside history. My personal favorite, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), shows 2001 dates in the frame several times, but the material world of the film can’t be historically identified. It’s obviously a New York City film, but unlike some film presentations of the city (say, the obsessively accurate period scenes of Madmen) it is not a historical Manhattan; rather, it is one made of second-hand impr

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) ROBERT: So, we’ve made it to the final Mad Max post. We need to state from the outset that this post will contain SPOILERS about the fourth film in the series, Mad Max: Fury Road. For anyone that hasn’t seen it, we recommend that you do. It is truly a remarkable spectacle, even for those who don’t typically go for this sort of film. Either of us would probably be willing to loan out our copies. It is also perfectly fine to watch Fury Road even if you

Everyone seems to agree that Alejandro Inarritu’s most recent film is beautiful. The expansive shots allow the Western mountains to rise and recede. Scenes unfold in the midst of open forests yet the whole depth of field is in precise focus. The sky is full, so that even when it is no more than the uniform grey of impending snow it rises to carry the viewer outside of the cinema to the actual sky overhead—to the inescapable cold of deep winter. What is less agreed upon is the

The Road Warrior (1981): The sinthomosexual and his catamite. In the first post in this series, we covered some of the discussions surrounding the role and purpose of feminism in Mad Max: Fury Road. One thing is clear, there is as of yet no consensus or even settled terms of debate regarding this topic. For this post, we will review the first three films in the Mad Max quadrilogy. We will explore topics and themes that appear and overlap in these films. We hope, through our c

Spoiler Alert: We are going to talk about the latest Mad Max movie. There’s really no way to do this without discussing some major plot points. We state from the outset that we like the Mad Max franchise. We believe there are some very high points in these films. We furthermore believe that at its worst, the films at least remain interesting and worthy of discussion. In brief summary, Fury Road deals with the battle-hardened Imperator Furiosa, played to shaved-headed perfecti

​​ I’ll admit to being late to the Mad Men party. While the series debuted in 2007, I am still slogging through season 6 on Netflix—emphasis on slogging. From Don Draper’s revolving-door series of sexual conquests to his clichéd childhood trauma (inflicted by the classic Bad Mother, soothed by the Hooker with a Heart of Gold in his inaugural sexual experience), the general thrust of the plotline has gotten old fast. (He’s tortured! He uses women! We get it already!) Mark Grei

Peter Berlin’s That Boy (1974) emerged within the golden age of gay male pornographic films and in the aftermath of the development of the gay liberation movement; however, the film strikingly imagines an ecstatic experience of sexual activity or becoming that disavows gay identity, and perhaps identity itself. In That Boy, Berlin (who wrote, directed, produced, starred in, and renamed himself for the film) presents himself as a chimerical character named Helmut who is create

I saw three films in a movie theater this summer, all science fiction. I will say that the last half of Godzilla was entertaining. I’m glad I was able to wake up and enjoy it. I was frankly surprised at how entertained I was while watching Guardians of the Galaxy. In addition to snappy dialogue performed with fearless eccentricity, the film owes a great deal of its success to the seemingly endless references to other sci fi movies. There’s even an allusion to Persis Khambatta