April 28, 2019
“Can’t You Rest Now?”: Nightwood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Madness
I have a theory: the ending of Season 7, Episode 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (“Beneath You”) was inspired by Djuna Barnes’s queer modernist novel Nightwood (1936). I know it sounds […]
January 18, 2019
Tully: Savoir Mermaids and “the Wild Heart that Still Beats Inside the Docile Cow” of the Mother
[Spoiler Alert] At the simplest level, Jason Reitman’s Tully tells the tale of Marlo’s (Charlize Theron) struggle with the arrival of her third child and consequent hiring of a night […]
February 14, 2018
On Being an “Annoying Poet Girl” and “Art Monster”
As you might imagine, there was a comical symmetry when I, an often irritating female poet, watched the movie Adult World about . . . an often irritating female poet. […]
December 11, 2017
The Influence of Zora Neale Hurston’s Films on Beyoncé’s Lemonade
I re-watched Lemonade last night. From the moment Beyoncé’s “Visual Album” Lemonade exploded onto the aesthetic scene, everyone has been scrambling to trace its formidable roots. In mapping out Lemonade’s visual […]
November 28, 2017
Why I Love “Low” Art
Where to begin with why I have always valued entertainment considered (by snobs, let’s be honest) to be “lowbrow”? For one thing, this preference led me to my dissertation. I […]
October 11, 2017
Blade Runner 2049, Poetry, and Electric Sheep
In undertaking Blade Runner 2049, a sequel to Ridley Scott’s much-theorized 1982 cult classic Blade Runner, director Denis Villeneuve had some big shoes to fill. His shrewd move was […]
September 29, 2017
The Gothic Literary Roots of Darren Aronofsky’s mother!
Even if you never laid eyes on Darren Aronofsky’s mother!, you could still get lost for days surfing the labyrinthine links of think pieces that have erupted since it hit […]
September 20, 2017
Film as Poetry’s Modern Sister Art
People often ask me why I think poetry and film go together like peanut butter and jelly, and I say, “Well, it’s kind of like that Videodrome interview,” and they […]
August 25, 2017
The Night Charlie Chaplin and Gertrude Stein Talked Film
I just re-watched Charlie Chaplin’s film Limelight and was reminded of his relationship to Gertrude Stein. In 1934 Stein and Chaplin met at a dinner party, and both recorded their versions […]
July 21, 2017
On Writing at the Movie Theater
I covet the space of the in-between. This is why I see so many movies in the theater. The movie theater is a liminal space, situated between the darkened fantasy […]
July 14, 2017
Buckskin Cocaine
Erika Wurth’s lyrical short story collection Buckskin Cocaine, a compendium of voices from the Native American film scene, puts questions of seeing and identity at its center. “Robert Two-Stories,” for […]
July 5, 2017
A Writer’s Romance with Screens
When I can’t put my finger on what I’m feeling, I want to Shazam it or press Control+F, and then I realize I’m turning into a machine. In Adrienne Rich’s […]