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Logan Is What Happens When the Franchise Finally Looks at What It Did
Riggan Thomson couldn’t stop being Birdman. The voice followed him through hallways, through mirrors, through the continuous unbroken shot of his desperation. He wanted out. The role wouldn’t let him out. Logan doesn’t want out anymore. That’s the difference. That’s the distance between a man fighting his irrelevance and a man who has accepted it…
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Joker Is Not Dangerous Because of the Violence. It’s Dangerous Because of the Empathy.
Nina Sayers danced until her body broke. The audience stood and wept. The institution that broke her took a bow. Arthur Fleck laughs until his body breaks. The audience riots. And the institutions that broke him burn. The difference between Black Swan and Joker is not one of quality or genre. It is a difference…
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The Dark Knight Doesn’t Trust You. And It Might Be Right.
Fight Club ended with buildings falling. Two years later, buildings fell for real. And nothing in American cinema was ever the same. The Dark Knight was released in 2008, seven years after September 11th. It never mentions the attacks. It never references terrorism by name. It is set in a fictional city populated by comic…