The Rumpus Review of It Comes at Night
“It” does not even “come” in the traditional sense. These primal, atavistic qualities are with us all the time, lying dormant until the right situation coaxes them forth.
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Posts Tagged: joe sacksteder
The Rumpus Review of Rogue One
So, what would populist ideology even look like in Star Wars?
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The Rumpus Review of One More Time with Feeling
“We didn’t ask for it,” Cave begins another poetic flight, and again we think he’s talking about something ghastly, “but it’s all around us, a gratuitous beauty.”
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The Rumpus Review of The Witch
The most interesting part of The Witch is that the family is so convinced of humanity’s fallen, sinful nature that it never occurs to them to even look for an aggressor from without.
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The Saturday Rumpus Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
However, it’s taken me too long to say: The Force Awakens really is a fun and breathtaking movie
...moreWeekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks criticizes parental hypocrisy in “Colorful Language.” Meanwhile, in the Saturday Review, Joe Sacksteder offers a detailed portrait of the film 99 Homes, by director Ramin Bahrani. The 2008 mortgage crisis serves as the backdrop of a fraught storyline that brings together its protagonist, a victim of the recession, and antagonist, the real estate broker […]
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The Saturday Rumpus Review: 99 Homes
99 Homes continues Bahrani’s tendency to take on big topics, to cut them into chewable pieces for its audience
...moreWeekend Rumpus Roundup
First, the topic of artificial intelligence is the focus of drama in the Saturday Review of Ex Machina. Joe Sacksteder describes the “murky moral terrain” of the film, which follows an unwitting participant in a modern-day mad scientist’s experimentations. Then, in the Sunday Essay, Thea Goodman shares a difficult story of harassment from her teenage years. The […]
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The Saturday Rumpus Review of Ex Machina
Ex Machina is pretty adept at tricking viewers into thinking we’re smarter than the film.
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