On September 22, 2017, Kingsman: The Golden Circle will be released in theaters, marking the 8th theatrical live-action film based on a Mark Millar comic. Mark Millar, to those who aren't comics fans, is a Scottish writer who has been working in mainstream comics since the 1990s, and has written for titles including Swamp Thing, X-Men, Superman, and Judge Dredd. Despite Millar's work on big name titles like these, he is possibly more famous for his incredible success in getti

The way in which Hollywood often depicts professors, instructors, and teachers is often vastly removed from the reality that many of us live in. Unsurprisingly, films that focus on instructors tend to be much more serious in tone and genre than films that focus on students. In creating this listicle, I tried to move away from many of the utterly empty portrayals of the profession, choosing to focus, instead, on films that emphasize instructors as people who have lives and dem

Title: Perfect Strangers (2016) Genre: Comedy, Drama Director: Paolo Genovese Stars: Giuseppe Battiston, Anna Foglietta, Marco Giallini, Edoardo Leo, Valerio Mastandrea, Alba Rohrwacher, and Kasia Smutniak. Bias: Initially, I thought it might be Coherence (2013), but with fewer colliding alternate realities. Grade: B- In a Nutshell: On the night of an eclipse, plastic surgeon Rocco (Marco Giallini) and his therapist wife Eva (Kasia Smutniak) invite their five close friends to

In honor of the upcoming release of It (9/08), our Weekend Watchlist for this week will be focused on horror film adaptations. For the purposes of this list, we are considering "adaptations" to include films based on books, comics, video games, and so on, as well as reboots, remakes, and revivals. Editor's Note: A big thank you is owed to DeShawn Dillard, who helped us brainstorm the films featured in this week's watchlist! Shelby Cadwell It (1990) - This television miniserie

Title: The Big Sick (2017) Genre: Comedy, Romance Director: Michael Showalter Stars (Primary Actors): Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, Holly Hunter Bias: I am not the hugest fan of romantic comedies, but the amount of hype I heard around the film made me come in with extremely high expectations. After hearing almost no bad things about this, the cynic in me almost wanted to dislike it, to stand out from the pack. But after seeing it twice and listening to countless int

Lacey Skorepa Fear INC. (2016) Horror is, without a doubt, my favorite film genre, and Fear INC., surprisingly, surpassed any of the expectations I had for it. Fear INC. capitalizes on the recent trend of immersive and extreme horror experiences (McKamey Manor, The Victim Experience at Freakling Bros., Blackout, etc.), resulting in a film that is both comedic and terrifying while offering up a substantial helping of meta-commentary on the horror genre and its constructions. S

In 2017, Netflix launched the last of the four solo Marvel series leading to the upcoming Defenders, bringing the characters together as a team. After the positive acclaim for Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, expectations were, unsurprisingly, high. For Iron Fist, those expectations became baggage very early on. Jessica Jones tackled issues of gender and sexual assault and Luke Cage engaged with issues of race (though not without some problems) – two areas that comics

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) – While much of the focus on this thriller by Alfred Hitchcock is on the small town Americana setting (and rightfully so), the truly subversive element is the situating of the horror within the family itself. From a fairly young age, we’re often told “don’t talk to strangers!” with the assumption being that our trust should lie with family. In constructing a growing cat-and-mouse relationship between the younger Charlie (Teresa Wright) – who begins to

Title: Atomic Blonde (2017) Genre: Spy/Action/Thriller Director: David Leitch Stars (primary actors): Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, John Goodman, Toby Jones Bias: I’m a huge fan of John Wick and John Wick 2, and Leitch was the uncredited co-director of the first film. Grade: C In A Nutshell: It’s the twilight of the Cold War, and a British secret agent, in possession of a list of agents, is murdered. Lorraine Broughten (Theron) is sent to meet up with the Bri

Matt Linton Gone Baby Gone (2007) – Ben Affleck made his feature directorial debut with this adaptation of the novel by acclaimed mystery writer Dennis Lehane. The novel is the fourth in a series focusing on a pair of detectives, Boston friends Patrick Kenzie and Angie Genarro (played in the film by Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan). What begins as a simple missing child case quickly becomes far more complex. Affleck shows a facility for not only building the necessary ten