Portfolio

I have written about pop culture and film for some of the most prestigious names in the business.

The Hollywood Reporter

Kenyan Director Wanuri Kahiu Is Fun, Fierce, Frivolous, and Timely

Hope looms large in Kahiu’s abundant imagination. It is the pulsing heart of Afrobubblegum, her artistic philosophy, which is also the name of the company she launched to curate, commission and create fun, fierce, frivolous art.

Emotion Transcends Borders in Bai Xue’s ‘The Crossing’

Although this is her first film, it comes 11 years after her graduation from the Beijing Film Academy. Bai Xue completed her studies at a time when the Chinese film industry was in a slump, and there were few opportunities for emerging filmmakers. She’s spent the 10 years on a journey of self-discovery while exploring and researching potential themes and subjects for her films. She also got married and had a child during this decade away from filmmaking.

Gender Parity Is Center Stage at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival

There are efforts underway to make gender parity a reality. Two such initiatives intersected over the first weekend of the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

Comic Book Resources

DC Comics Just Published the Perfect Superman Story

In Superman #39, Tomasi and Gleason serve up an unabashedly positive take on the Man of Steel. They give us a Superman who exemplifies the legacy of hope and optimism trumpetted by Geoff Johns as the core of DC’s Rebirth initiative. The exploration and the deconstruction that characterize, say, Tom King’s take on Batman are absent here. Instead, we are presented with a précis and a mission statement of Superman, as envisioned by his creators.

Cancer Sucks: Mar-Vell’s Greatest Legacy is His Death

In the real world, death is a certainty, but in comics, it’s more of a revolving door. Superheroes die with alarming regularity, only to be restored through various contrivances a few months or a few years down the line. Even Superman, who was killed by Doomsday in 1992, rose from the dead, and as a result of his regeneration process, returned as strong as ever, but also sporting a mullet.

Daily Xtra

Stonewall is not worth boycotting

In the canon of schlockmeister Emmerich’s oeuvre, Stonewall ranks even below 1998’s Godzilla, and shares with that failed creature feature a complete disregard for its source material. Even the film’s title is deceiving. The Stonewall Inn, and the four days of rioting that broke out after the bar was raided on June 28, 1969, are incidental to this coming of age story about Danny Winters (Jeremy Irvine), a gay youth who runs away to New York City to escape the prison of his rural existence.

Ratuken Kobo

Star Wars: The Universe Books Built

Star Wars opened on only 32 screens but quickly grew into a monster. Fans and critics raved about the film. Roger Ebert called it an “out-of-the-body experience.” He said that it “relies on the strength of pure narrative, in the most basic storytelling known to man, the Journey.” A.D. Murphy of Variety said that the film “sweeps away the cynicism that has in recent years obscured the concepts of valor, dedication and honor.”