Engineered Criticism

1. How Happy is the Blameless Vestal’s Lot? Eternal Sunshine was one of the first movies that showed me what film could do, and what power it had to inspire feeling and passion. Even more specifically than that, however, are three things I can point to that drew me to film, and one thing that inspired me to delve into Eternal Sunshine  when I did. The first of these influences, specifically with respect to forcing myself to take the plunge and start this blog, was Film Critic Hulk (@FilmCritHULK). If you’re unfamiliar, Film Critic Hulk is, as the name suggests, a twitter account that offers incredibly insightful and emotion criticism and analysis of film, TV, and the like, in the style of the Hulk (writing in all caps, referring to themselves in the third person, etc.). This style of criticism – insight mixed with an intense vulnerability – informed my approach to film writing. The second was my best friend growing up. He always seemed drawn to film and screenw...

    1.   Background Radiation It is no wonder that ancient civilizations often deified the Sun. It is the source of all life on Earth. Without it, we would be a frozen husk of a rocky planet, no different from any of the countless celestial objects in the night sky. At the same time, it contains some of the most dramatic forces in the universe. It’s gravitational force is so large that it undergoes nuclear fusion, turning it from a bundle of gases into a fiery plasma, with incredibly high temperatures and dramatic magnetic fields – noticed here on earth in solar flare blackouts and auroras (the Northern Lights). It is so bright, even millions of miles away, that we cannot stand looking into it for more than a fraction of a second, lest we cause permanent damage to our eyes. Sunshine (2007) is, on its surface, another space movie. It predates other fantastic movies like The Martian and Interstellar , yet it fits right alongside them, and, in m...