Tag: essays

— ARC review, book review, nonfiction —

It Can’t Rain All the Time: The Crow by Alisha Mughal (ARC Review)

December 25, 2025

Released in 1994, The Crow first drew in audiences thanks to the well-publicized tragedy that loomed over the film: lead actor Brandon Lee had died on set due to a mishandled prop gun. But it soon became clear that The Crow was more than just an accumulation of its tragic parts. The celebrated critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lee’s performance was “more of a screen achievement than any of the films of his father, Bruce Lee.”

In It Can’t Rain All the Time, Alisha Mughal argues that The Crow has transcended Brandon Lee’s death by exposing the most challenging human emotions in all their dark, dramatic, and visceral glory, so much so that it has spawned three sequels, a remake, and an intense fandom. Eric, our back-from-the-dead, grieving protagonist, shows us that there is no solution to depression or loss, there is only our own internal, messy work. By the end of the movie, we realize that Eric has presented us with a vast range of emotions and that masculinity doesn’t need to be hard and impenetrable.

Through her memories of seeking solace in the film during her own grieving period, Alisha brilliantly shows that, for all its gothic sadness, The Crow is, surprisingly and touchingly, a movie about redemption and hope… Read More It Can’t Rain All the Time: The Crow by Alisha Mughal (ARC Review)

— ARC review, book review, nonfiction —

Ugh! As If!: Clueless by Veronica Litt (ARC Review)

December 25, 2025

Ugh As If! uncovers the complex layers beneath the glossy surface of the 1995 classic film Clueless. Litt investigates not just the Austen satire but the film’s deeper ethical questions about femininity, innocence, bias, and inequity.

A sweet and sly exploration of the Jane Austen–inspired teen movie and its evergreen imperative to be kind, do better, and find the activist within

We are totally butt-crazy in love with Clueless. Since the movie’s premiere in 1995, pop culture has mined Amy Heckerling’s high school comedy for inspiration, from Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX’s “Fancy” music video to Cher’s iconic yellow plaid suit appearing at every Halloween party.

In Ugh As If!, Veronica Litt argues that this seemingly fluffy teen romp is the quintessential thinking woman’s movie, one in which the audience is asked to seriously consider the beauty and power of naïveté. Cher Horowitz’s gradual pivot from oblivious it girl to burgeoning activist is a powerful reminder that even the most unlikely people can change for the better and contribute to their communities. In this bright, shiny film, pursuing a more just society isn’t just possible — it’s enjoyable. This fun, feminine, feel-good movie is a counter-narrative to nihilism, a refusal to give into cynicism, hopelessness, and passivity. Almost without viewers noticing, Clueless teaches Cher, and us, how to become better. Like the film it examines, Ugh As If! nudges even the most jaded viewer into feeling hopeful about the future… Read More Ugh! As If!: Clueless by Veronica Litt (ARC Review)

— book review, nonfiction —

Clever Girl: Jurassic Park by Hannah McGregor (Review)

October 21, 2024

A smart and incisive exploration of everyone’s favorite dinosaur movie and the female dinosaurs who embody what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free

The Jurassic Park series is one of the most famous and profitable movie franchises of all time — an entire generation of people has never known life without these CGI dinosaurs. The movie spectacle broke film and merchandising records, pioneered special effects, and made Jeff Goldblum into an unlikely sex symbol, and now it has also been re-envisioned as a classic of queer feminist storytelling.

In Clever Girl, Hannah McGregor argues that the female-only dinosaurs of Jurassic Park are stand-ins for monstrous women, engineered by men to be intelligent, violent, and adaptive, and whose chaos resists the systems designed to control them. As they run wild through their prison, a profit-driven theme park, they destroy the men and structures who mistakenly believed in their own colonialist and capitalist power, showing the audience what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free. The velociraptors were not just jump scares for children, but also revelatory and predatory symbols of feminist rage. Clever girls, indeed.… Read More Clever Girl: Jurassic Park by Hannah McGregor (Review)

— book review, nonfiction —

The Time of My Life: Dirty Dancing by Andrea Warner (Review)

August 19, 2024

An engaging exploration into the enduring popularity of Dirty Dancing and its lasting themes of feminism, activism, and reproductive rights When Dirty Dancing was released in 1987, it had already been rejected by producers and distributors several times over, and expectations for the summer romance were low. But then the film, written by former dancer Eleanor Bergstein and starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze as a couple from two different worlds, exploded. Since then, Dirty Dancing ’s popularity has never waned. The truth has always been that Dirty Dancing was never just a teen romance or a dance movie ― it also explored abortion rights, class, and political activism, with a smattering of light crime-solving. In The Time of My Life , celebrated music journalist Andrea Warner excavates the layers of Dirty Dancing , from its anachronistic, chart-topping soundtrack, to Baby and Johnny’s chemistry, to Bergstein’s political intentions, to the abortion subplot that is more relevant today than ever. The film’s remarkable longevity would never have been possible if it was just a throwaway summer fling story. It is precisely because of its themes ― deeply feminist, sensitively written ― that we, over 30 years later, are still holding our breath during that last, exhilarating lift… Read More The Time of My Life: Dirty Dancing by Andrea Warner (Review)

— book review, nonfiction —

I’d Rather Be Reading: A Library of Art for Book Lovers by Guinevere de la Mare (Review)

August 14, 2018

For anyone who’d rather be reading than doing just about anything else, this book is the ultimate must-have. In this visual ode to all things bookish, readers will get lost in page after page of beautiful contemporary art, photography, and illustrations depicting the pleasures of books… Read More I’d Rather Be Reading: A Library of Art for Book Lovers by Guinevere de la Mare (Review)