1. Breaking Bad: “Implicating the Rest of Us in His Fall” #CaPC25
But what not everyone seems to have noticed is that with each triumph of the will and ego, Walt was descending further into badness.
20. Mad Men: “There’s the Slightest Hope” #CaPC25
The Moviegoer: Lost in the Cosmos, a Review of Gravity
In Gravity, we’re invited to entertain the prospect of being lost in the cosmos.
The Breaking Bad Finale: Walter White’s Do-It-Yourself Project
“It would be a mistake to assume that any good that comes from the final episode is predicated on Walt’s goodness, as if undeserved instances of goodness didn’t happen in spite of ourselves all of the time.”
The Moviegoer: A Riotously Funny, Sobering Alcoholypse
“An emerging concern is how do we be grown ups in such a way that, by virtue of growing up, we grew more free?”
Mad Men Recap 6.12 & 13: There’s a Good Man in that Homesick Monster
The Moviegoer: Man of Steel in Awesome, if not Guiding, Beams of Light
“For a film that focuses so much on his secret identity and his plight as a wanderer, there’s never a significant reveal moment that connects Superman with the people in any relatable way.”
Mad Men Recap 6.10 & 11: “Be Slick, Be Glib, Be You!” But Don Has Children, Too
The Moviegoer: Ride or Die? A Fast and Furious 6 Conversation
Mad Men Recap 6.8 & 9: What Holds People Together, A Wellspring of Confidence
The Moviegoer: The Colossal Vitality of Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby Illusion
What the film misses is that Gatsby doesn’t truly care for Daisy so much as he cares about how attaining her fits in with how he’s imagined his ideal life.
Mad Men Recap 6.7: Are Good Deeds Ever Just Good Deeds?
The Moviegoer: Exorcising Iron Man’s Demons
Iron Man’s Avengers PTSD isn’t the only history that’s creating turmoil in the hero’s life.
Mad Men Recap 6.5 & 6: Hoping for Eucatastrophe, Worrying About the Bomb
The Moviegoer: The Renovative View From Up on Poppy Hill
It’s interesting to think about what the theme of harmonizing the traditional past with modern progress has to do with the melodramatic tone and shape that the film takes.
