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

Shades of Gray: The Legend of Korra
The central conflict of Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra has been anything but black-and-white. In “The Revelation,” series antagonist...
Review: Tully
Saw Tully, the latest effort from frequent collaborators Jason Reitman (director), Diablo Cody (writer), and Charlize Theron (star), and...
A Personal Cinematic Journey: An Addendum
Recently, I wrote about the ten movies that have most significantly influenced my cinematic tastes. As you can probably imagine,...
On Endings
Between Mass Effect 3 and The Legend of Korra, I’ve found myself reflecting on endings quite a bit recently. What makes a good ending?...
The Importance of Escalation
Stories are driven by conflict. The protagonist wants/needs something—to become a gigolo in New York, to produce the worst show in the...
Thoughts on Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Mission: Impossible—Fallout is one for the fans. In terms of its plot and tone, it’s a near-perfect synthesis of everything that’s...
An Addendum to My Review of City of the Living Dead
You know, in retrospect, I don’t think my initial review adequately conveys the oppressively bleak atmosphere that pervades City of the...
Review: The Unholy Three
Caught a screening of The Unholy Three at Metrograph. It’s been a while since I sat down and watched a silent movie, and while this is...
Review - Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1
Just got back in from the Fathom Events screening of Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1. Studio-produced animated shorts...
Review: Stan & Ollie
Comedy and tragedy are a double act, and few movies in recent memory embody that notion quite as elegantly as Stan & Ollie, the sad story...
Call of Duty: Black Ops II and the Illusion of Choice
Paragon or Renegade? Deal or Payback? Doug or Carley? Video games like Mass Effect, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Telltale’s The Walking Dead...
Review: 007 Legends
Comfort food. That’s the best way to describe 007 Legends, at least in terms of gameplay. It won’t win any awards for innovation–it...
Review: Doctor No (Novel)
I like Eon’s James Bond films, but I love Ian Fleming’s original novels (except for Live and Let Die, which makes for a profoundly...
Review: Chanoyu (Usagi Yojimbo #93)
Stan Sakai likes to spin multi-layered tales. Several of his Usagi Yojimbo one-shots—“Kaiso,” “Jizo,” “Kite Story”—seamlessly weave...
Between the Lines
The other day, I finished reading Usagi Yojimbo vol. 21: The Mother of Mountains. As always, Stan Sakai crafts his tale with superb...
A Dream: The Future of Cinematic Storytelling?
Last night, I had a dream. A dream in which I slipped into a dark, quiet theater to watch Rian Johnson’s Looper for the third time. But...
On Second Viewing: The Magic of Christopher Nolan
Borden: He came in to demand an answer and I told him the truth. That I have fought with myself over that night, one half of me swearing...
Review: Mysterious Skin
What do a self-destructive male prostitute (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and a UFO-obsessed community college student (Brady Corbet) have in...
Review: Safe House
I love genre conventions. I really do. Two gunslingers stare each other down, waiting to see who will draw first. An honorable samurai...





















