Oh So Geeky

Superhero movies weren't new when Iron Man strolled onto the scene in 2008. Superman had been fighting kryptonite since 1976. Throughout the 1990s to early 2000s went either straight-to-video ( Captain America  and  The Death of the Incredible Hulk) or were on their third sequels ( X-Men, Spider-Man ). Though Christopher Nolan's Batman overshadowed 2008 with The Dark Knight , a string of lukewarm movies ( Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and Ghost Rider ) made the superhero genre seem less and less like a gamble worth betting on. But fast-forward ten years from 2008, and generations have grown up knowing and loving the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. With a slew of characters and multiple spin-offs on the way, Iron Man is where it all started and where it changed everything, and where it seems to remain as one of the most underrated Marvel films.

photographer Peter Lindbergh When A Star Is Born was released in late 2018, it received acclaim by both critics and moviegoers. But a not-so-subtle critique about the film was how it didn’t change its messaging about the tragic love story or its characters: does a male lead have to sacrifice himself as a woman rises to the top of their industry? Is the relationship between the love birds toxic more than purely romantic? With my love of director Bradley Cooper’s latest version in mind, I wondered about Jackson Maine and Ally Campana both on the page and screen, and if anything has truly changed in eighty-four years. (This post is l-o-n-g. Thanks in advance if you take the time to read it. Hope you enjoy!)

Every day there are always more shocking and disturbing headlines highlighting what’s going wrong in the world. Not that tragic, controversial, or destructive incidents haven’t been occurring since the beginning of time, but now with social media, the spotlight singles out every event at the same time: gun violence, net neutrality, police brutality, incompetent governments, Families Belong Together, horrific allegations of abuse and sexual assault - to name a few. As technology captures every minuscule or massive piece of news, the world never stops watching and reporting, moving faster than humans can process one event from the next. The news has become so rampant and extreme, reality is a blender of all of our scariest dystopias because life is becoming a real dystopia . One day it’s The Handmaid’s Tale . The next day it’s 1984. Or Brave New World or Animal Farm.  Combining them all together can feel like we're in a never-ending episode of Black Mirror , so much so we...

Women are more than cardboard cut-outs. But that's not how they are portrayed in pop culture. One term comes up a lot when the media or a fandom want to describe them, and that's Strong Female Character. In fact, that label comes up so much, I'm at a point where I don't know what it means anymore except that if there's a poster of a heroine wielding a weapon "she's a bad-ass and I'm automatically supposed to love her". Recently I started thinking about SFCs, and how they're stuck with a copy-and-paste-personality of one part brawns and two parts boobs, measured by a standard that keeps moving and yet stands still. If a heroine dismantles the system, she's automatically more interesting than the ones who stay behind to serve in politics or keep their families safe. If an independent bosslady falls in love, that's the only aspect of their life that matters. If the girl-next-door doesn't want anything to do with a guy, he'll co...

Harry Potter's been alive and well for two decades. While celebrating the 20th anniversary, I started wondering what bewitching memories I've been lucky enough to experience since I was a kid. From reading the books for the first time to visiting the theme parks, it's been one magical journey so far. Let's take a dip into my own little pensieve with a tour of my ten favorite memories as a Potterhead. What are your favorite memories of Harry Potter so far? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

On June 26th, 2017, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone turns officially turns twenty years old. As a devout Potterhead, I tried thinking back to the time when I was a kid during the very beginning of the series J.K. Rowling had created. I don't remember much about the nineties, and maybe that's a good thing, just by the lack of coherent trends that took place then. The memories that came to mind was just how much Harry Potter means to me, and the weird road it took from pre-fan to a hardcore one. Unlike an almost entire generation, I didn't grow up with Harry Potter in a typical way - dressing up and queuing at bookstores, anxiously reading each new adventure, chatting and befriending other Hogwarts students on forums and websites until the new book was released. Ultimately, being apart of the fandom culture that is so much more well-known and celebrated today in the open. As a pre-teen, my little town was very hush hush about the wizarding world. In class...

Similar to studios releasing horror movies into theaters at New Years or Christmas movies in July, romantic comedies haven't been relegated to February releases in several years. But it still has remained a strange mood to adjust to when Cupid's month rolls around and there isn't a bundle of swoon-worthy films to enjoy a girls' weekend or single's dalliance at the theaters. In fact, looking at the next year ahead in 2017, only a handful of romantic-centered movies are coming out in theaters or on a streaming service like Netflix. And the lack of popularity of this once inescapable genre makes me ask: where did all the rom-coms go? While pondering about recent releases at home and in theaters, I reasoned that my inability to find more options was because my own personal tastes for this genre are limited. Generally, I like to be swept off of my feet, but prefer rom-coms where the characters aren't around to fill a 'swooning' quota, the script offers dy...

As far back as I can remember, Leonardo DiCaprio has been one of my favorite movie stars. The tall tale of his fans' adoration is an extraordinarily common one: young girl watches Titanic (or Romeo and Juliet ), falls in love, and continuously cries out for the subsequent snubs he's received with every Academy Awards ceremony. Rewind back to my 1997 where every friend, friend of friend, and relative took me to see Titanic - a film  about  two fictional passengers from opposite social classes who fall in in love on the fated ocean liner.  The chemistry between the film's stars Kate Winslet and DiCaprio radiated on-screen making it easy for the world to fall head over heels.  As I grew up, most movies of my teenagerdom fell to the wayside except for Titanic . Its intricate production was filed into my fandom archives under "I Will Defend This Movie Until My Last Breath". And, DiCaprio remained a hardcore favorite. Pinpointing the exact origin of my love for...

Excluding a few excerpts I heard online and around friends, I had no idea what the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon was in 2011. The sweeping story of Anastasia Steele being swept off her feet by a control freak and "BDSM" millionaire Christian Grey didn't sound special, let alone memorable. Yet the series pulled in sales by the hundreds of millions and attracted just as many genuine readers. Parodies and celebrity readings went viral while targeted quotes haunted aspiring writers. Criticism of author E.L. James was less than favorable, and for the adult world of literature, the buzz for her series was as big as the magical obsession many bookworms had towards J.K. Rowling's  Harry Potter. If you follow me online, and put up with my incessant reblogs, you are well-aware of my current obsession with  Fifty Shades of Grey.  But, as obvious as my interest in the film might be, you can also call me Fifty Shades of Confused. I still don't know how I became obsessed w...

photograph by Dove Shore Every six months or so it seems a title of Best Leading Man Ever is passed around. Cleverly, the media tries to distract us into thinking there is only one actor who has ever earned the blue ribbon of being leading man material. But really stardom is a cycle: One month it's George Clooney, the next it's Brad Pitt, or Ben Affleck or Matthew McConaughey, and onwards. Though the media tries to convince us, there's hardly ever just one man in the limelight, behind the curtain, or capable of having it all. One actor comes to mind who has recently popped up on everyone's radar, and has utilized his nearly lifelong recognition in film with attentive creativity and ambition. That guy, which comes to mind, is Jake Gyllenhaal. For such a mildly young talent (34 years old), it's difficult to remember that he has been tagged with fame since he was eleven years old. And yet his career has garnered just about the right amount of everything it ...

In comparison to the McConnaissance - a media-wide hailed return of Matthew McConaughey - Ben Affleck's star status has held up strong despite the variety of guilty pleasure movies he's starred in. After nearly twenty years in showbusiness, the California actor has evolved into a filmmaker forging a strangely brilliant career. Before he had taken on roles in major blockbusters, Affleck's filmography kicked off on a high note. After acting in several indie movies, the young impressive star and co-star/writer/actor/friend Matt Damon struck gold with  Good Will Hunting . An unrecognized genius student (Damon) is forced to become a therapist's patient (Robin Williams) after assaulting a police officer. Gaining critical acclaim, the 1998 drama earned the newbies an Academy Award for Best Screenplay and an Academy Award for supporting actor Robin Williams.