Many people will walk away from Bring Her Back thinking it’s primarily a story about grief. That makes sense. Piper and Andy are dealing with the loss of their father. Laura is still reeling from the death of her daughter.…

There are people who complain Marvel movies aren’t artistic. Of course, there are others who scream back that Marvel movies don’t have to be artistic because the point isn’t art, the point is entertainment, so don’t hold the movie to…

The Main Theme Of Sinners Ryan Coogler uses the opening shot of Sinners to establish the film’s primary theme: freedom.  Modern cinema has defaulted to using the very beginning of the movie as a thesis for the story’s main intention.…

What Is The Amateur About? The Amateur is strange, because it presents itself as a revenge thriller and a man dealing with grief after the death of his wife. But there’s a lot more subtextual nuance to what’s going on.…

Death of a Unicorn conveys its major theme in the opening seconds of the film. Ridley, stuck on the plane and tired, leans her head on her father’s shoulder. He’s excited  but also taken aback and drops some paperwork on…

Melancholia has two layers. One is more obvious and familiar and shouldn’t surprise you in any way. The other is a bit more abstract and you’ll have to bear with me. The good news is, you’ll come away from this…

Opus is about a weird trend in modern society. Historically, negative press would create negative pressure that often ended someone’s career. For example, national news coverage of the Watergate Scandal was directly responsible for the public demand that Richard Nixon…

Typically, I like to walk people through the thematic meaning and machinations of a movie then use evidence from the filmmaker to help confirm my interpretation. But, for Sorcerer, I thought it would be fun to do the reverse. Let’s…

Black Bag uses the intelligence world as a backdrop to explore themes of loyalty, relationships, and marriage. It’s actually a really cool example of how theme informs story.  Black Bag Explained I think most people who love movies understand the…

I’m going to take you through how I understand The Descent. Remember, storytelling is based on known techniques and best practices, with the goal to have viewers experience specific emotions from one beat to the next. The filmmakers make conscious…