After being greenlit and produced during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hacks had something of a tough road ahead of it. Now five seasons and dozens of Emmy nominations later—including 24 for the latest season—the series has become a beloved institution and gets to go out on a high note with a funny and emotionally … Continue reading HACKS – Crafting a Cinematic Sitcom
Even amidst an illustrious career, Steven Spielberg’s films about visitors from other worlds stand out. Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial remain some of the filmmaker’s most enduring, beloved works. At a glance Disclosure Day appears to follow in their footsteps, and though thematic lines can be drawn between these movies … Continue reading DISCLOSURE DAY – Building Trust
More than a decade before he created one of the most heralded television series of all time in Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan cut his teeth as a writer, director, and executive producer on The X-Files. With Pluribus—now nominated for 18 Emmy Awards—Gilligan is returning to his roots in weird science fiction and paranormal thrillers in … Continue reading PLURIBUS – Unity and Desolation
For almost as long as there have been horror movies, there have been horror-comedies. The peanut butter and chocolate of cinematic genres. From Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to Shaun of the Dead, filmmakers have long been playing with tension and release to deliver screams of laughter alongside screams of terror, but there’s always room … Continue reading QUEENS OF THE DEAD – Operating to Convey Confidence and Terror
With a lineage tracing back to The Office, St. Denis Medical is the latest in a series of mockumentary workplace comedies from writer/producer Justin Spitzer, this time trading the setting of an office park or a big box store for an underfunded hospital in small town Oregon. In that way, St. Denis Medical manages to … Continue reading ST. DENIS MEDICAL – Exaggerating Reality
Arriving two years after the successful first season of The Terminal List, the prequel series The Terminal List: Dark Wolf trades the more straightforward revenge structure of James Reece’s story for a trip into the shadowy underworld of covert ops and moral ambiguity with Ben Edwards. This darker, grittier corner of the story in turn … Continue reading THE TERMINAL LIST: DARK WOLF – Into Darkness
In just two seasons, The Pitt has already entrenched itself as something of a cultural institution. Despite airing on the HBO Max streaming service, the series is structured more like an updated take on network medical dramas, with longer seasons, a weekly release schedule, and—at least so far—regular intervals between seasons. The characters of Dr. … Continue reading THE PITT – Immersed in the Moment
Fresh off the historic success of Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski took the approach to shooting vehicles in motion at incredibly fast speeds that was pioneered for that film and adapted it to a new form. F1 launches like a rocket from its very first moments, putting audiences in the driver’s seat of cars that can travel … Continue reading F1 – Prepared for Anything
What does it cost to be the greatest? That’s the question at the heart of HIM, the twisty new sports-horror film that dives into the dark heart of ruthless ambition and the parallels between America’s fascination with sports and religious practices. To get inside the psyche of Cam, the young pro-football hopeful at the center of … Continue reading HIM – Getting Into Character
Based on the stage musical adapted from Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Terrence McNally, Kiss of the Spider Woman contrasts the bleak reality of its principal characters against the romantic, Technicolor fantasy and spectacle of a movie musical from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Bill Condon’s film adaptation draws a starker line … Continue reading KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN – Classical Framing, Modern Techniques
David Daut 