The ramblings of a wannabe cineaste. Join me as I dissect the art of storytelling in films, comics, TV shows, and video games.
O'GRADY FILM

The Small Town Horror of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki
[The following essay contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Junji Ito’s Uzumaki begins unassumingly enough. The protagonist, Kirie...
The Cosmic Horror of Junji Ito’s Remina
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of...
The Biomechanical Horror of Junji Ito’s Gyo
[The following essay contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] When questioned about the underlying themes of Gyo, author Junji Ito...
Werewolf by Night: Gods, Monsters, and Caped Crusaders
[The following essay contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] From their very inception, Marvel’s spandex-clad vigilantes have shared a...
From Our Nightmares: The Shape, Halloween Ends (2022)
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Evil is a virus. As glimpsed in 2021’s Halloween Kills, its...
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners - The Road to Hell
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The narrative structure of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is unconventional,...
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners - Neon Drenched Nihilism
[The following essay contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] You either lose your mind or die. No in between. That quote is Cyberpunk:...
Bodies Bodies Bodies: Burying the Lede
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] [Seriously, I LITERALLY GIVE AWAY THE ENDING IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH;...
Bullet Train: Nonstop Service to Destiny
Fate. Karma. Luck. Do such intangible forces truly govern the trajectory of human existence? Or is our suffering simply the result of...
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Inner Demons
There was no other way. It’s no hyperbole to claim that Doctor Strange played an instrumental role in thwarting Thanos’ genocidal...
Nope: #CloseEncounters
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The Digital Age has transformed mankind into a society of insatiable...
Lafcadio Hearn's In Ghostly Japan: The Afterlife of the Author
I was not emotionally prepared for what I encountered within the pages of In Ghostly Japan. I was only vaguely familiar with author...
Crimes of the Future: The New Flesh
[The following essay contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Over the course of his career, David Cronenberg has become...
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Laundry and Taxes
[The following essay contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] One of Everything Everywhere All at Once’s many spectacularly...
Cyrano: All the Words I Don’t Have
[The following essay contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Early on in Cyrano, Joe Wright’s delightfully maximalist musical...
Mamoru Hosoda's Belle: Form and Function in a Tale as Old as Time
Belle is Mamoru Hosoda’s most artistically accomplished work to date. As a longtime fan of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer...
Valentine’s Day Movie Recommendation: Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
I’m a skeptic by nature. When the blandly attractive heroes and heroines in romcoms talk about “love at first sight” and “true love,” I...
Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth: The Bard Distilled
A24’s The Tragedy of Macbeth begins with narration over a blank screen. William Shakespeare’s familiar verse immediately establishes the...
Ghostbusters: Afterlife - What’s Wrong with a Little Fan Service?
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] A tower of books stacked from floor to ceiling, so perfectly...





















