I’ve been asked the question many times throughout my research on James Bond and the media franchise: have you seen the original Zatoichi films starring Shintaro Katsu? Well, now I have–the first four, that is: The Tale of Zatoichi (Misumi, 1962), The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (Mori, 1962), New Tale of Zatoichi (Tanaka, 1963), and…
Category: Plot Structure in the Movies
What’s a “Fictional Universe”? Some Thoughts on Markstein’s Theory
It’s something that no contemporary film critic or commentator can do without: the concept of fictional universes. “Worlds” are no longer sufficient to contain the stories of a film or media property. The scope of a franchise must be cosmic. Now fictional universes are multiplying faster than the umpteen ones predicted by string theory. Marvel’s…
What Can Formalism Teach Us about Seriality? Some Remarks on Frank Kelleter’s Media of Serial Narrative (2017)
This is a rather heady entry, an attempt to work through some questions of method. As I continue to research my book on James Bond and the franchise’s multimedia storytelling, I’ve had to confront some basic questions related to seriality itself. What is it exactly? And how should we study it? The answers I propose…
How BLACK PANTHER (Coogler, 2018) Writes Its Own History–Film History, That Is
Of the many conversations that Black Panther (Coogler, 2018) has sparked over the last few weeks the one that has interested me the most touches on the film’s sources. For some, this means tracing its relationship with Afrofuturism or uncovering its roots in the history of Black Panther comics. The conversation, as far as I can see, has tended…
Sleuths in Space: Valerian–and Laureline!–and the City of a Thousand Planets (Besson, 2017)
Luc Besson has made his first James Bond film. Well, in a manner of speaking. His source material, the Franco-Belgian serialized comic Valérian et Laureline (1967-2010), was created in the mid-1960s, when the Connery Bond films were gangbusters at the box office and Eurospy thrillers, often little more than cheaply produced Bond rip-offs, were sweeping across Europe (Fig….
Another Strange Path: I, DANIEL BLAKE (Loach, 2015)
Easily the best movie I’ve seen all season is I, Daniel Blake (Loach, 2015), my first at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto (which in many ways has the feel of a second Cinémathèque). Much like the Dardennes’ Deux jours, une nuit (2014), the protagonist, a 59-year old carpenter from Newcastle, is desperate to sustain an…
STAR TREK BEYOND (Lin, 2016); or, How to Write the First Act of a Blockbuster
Star Trek Beyond is first-rate. If the first installment laid a solid foundation, and Into Darkness made the foundation look a little wobbly, Beyond builds atop it a pretty sturdy form. An instance of the structure above ground stabilizing much of what’s below. You know from the opening act that you’re in for a far better movie…
THE WAVE (Uthaug, 2015): Modern Classicism in Norway
The Wave is a very well crafted, captivating piece of filmmaking. It gives the disaster genre a new lease on life and shows yet again that some of the best one-off blockbusters are coming from outside Hollywood–in this case, Norway–as franchises crowd out the well-made single installment film in the American film industry. The Wave…
To The Wild: A Few Thoughts on THE REVENANT (Iñárritu, 2015)
The Revenant receives my vote for the best event film of the season. It all comes together far more effectively, and is far more engaging visually and dramatically for longer stretches, than The Hateful Eight, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or Spectre, if one can reach back that far. And now, deservedly so, the film has been…
Does Star Wars: The Force Awakens “Plagiarize” the Originals? No. Just Look at the Plot Structure.
J.J. Abrams’ sequel to Return of the Jedi (1983) has been certified fresh, as the saying goes, by RottenTomatoes.com. Despite this, some critics have taken it for granted that the latest episode of the Star Wars saga is little more than a “plagiarism” of the original films, to cite this L.A. Times piece. This claim…
Moving Patterns 