About Films and Feelings

The quote by Raymond Durgnat atop this page comes from his 1977 book, Films and Feelings. I came across this book while I was working toward my bachelor's degree in Media Arts, and it profoundly influenced how I viewed film criticism.

Titanic (1997)

Maybe your mental image of "film criticism" mostly consists of some obnoxious internet character and his or her hoard of YouTube videos like "87 Reasons Why the Harry Potter Movies Failed Us" or "The Lion King Makes No Sense!" That was my perception of the film critic world for a long time. Imagine my relief when I learned that the real film critics of the world, those who actually know film, aren't content to just give something a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down."

In this age of the internet, we tend to view "smartness" as being able to point out what's wrong with something, and I want to provide an alternative. That doesn't mean everything gets a pass, but informed film discussion, the kind of film discussion that matters, doesn't seek to tear down. Informed film discussion uplifts and edifies. It's more interested in understanding something than just deciding how many stars a thing deserves. It knows that there can be a lot of right ways to do approach a subject. Indeed, if more people understood just how little "hating" there actually is in proper film criticism, we'd see far fewer imitators.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

I started this blog hoping to counteract some of negative associations connected to film criticism. I don't pretend to be the first of my kind--there are many voices in film criticism doing their part to keep the discussion edifying--but I hope to bring my own spin with this blog.

I'm not trying to convert the entire internet to any specific schools of thought or Top 10 Movies lists. But I hope that through these writings my readers will acquire the tools to expand the range of films they view, learn to detect and interrogate the implicit ideologies that films communicate, and add texture to their feelings for the films they already enjoy. You don't have to agree with all my conclusions, but I hope you'll at least consider them.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

I have been known to dabble in film reviews occasionally, but the majority of the content here will be essays. We'll take a film, or sometimes a group of films, and read it through various academic lenses to discern meaning. In the spirit of Durgnat's wise words, these essays will study films with both the heart and the head. We'll look at some old films, some new films, some popular films, and some obscure films. The essays here are all written by me unless otherwise specified. I publish a new essay every . . . every time I finish one. Let's say once a month?

Let it be known that these essays are not meant to be hard-to-read, and you need not be academically versed in film studies to join here at Films and Feelings. Any theories or historical perspectives used will be thoroughly and easily explained. Dare I say, I hope that our friends from other fields and careers who still have an interest in film will find this site enjoyable. Consider this blog to be your Film Studies 101 class, and me your Professor.

If this sort of thing interests you, come back and check in on this site every so often and give some of these pieces a glance. Feel free also to subscribe to this blog and "follow" under the drop down menu. You can also follow this site through its Facebook page for updates including interesting articles from around the web as well as teases for future posts.

Stand By Me (1986)

So everyone, bring your hearts, bring your heads, and let's talk about some movies.

--The Professor

To contact The Professor, shoot an email at filmsandfeelings19@gmail.com

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PROFESSOR'S PICKS: 25 Most Essential Movies of the Century

"Best." "Favorite." "Awesomest." I spent a while trying to land on which adjective best suited the purposes of this list. After all, the methods and criteria with which we measure goodness in film vary wildly. "Favorite" is different than "Best," but I would never put a movie under "Best" that I don't at least like. And any film critic will tell you that their favorite films are inevitably also the best films anyways ... But here at the quarter-century mark, I wanted to give some kind of space to reflect on which films are really deserving of celebration. Which films ought to be discussed as classics in the years ahead. So ... let's just say these are the films of the 21st century that I want future champions of the film world--critics and craftsmen--to be familiar with. Sian Hader directing the cast of CODA (2021) There are a billion or so ways to measure a film's merit--its technical perfectio...

Year in Review: 2024

Let me start this party by admitting ... I really dropped the ball on reviews this year, folks. Not counting my Percy Jackson response , which in practice plays more like one of my essays anyways, there was a six-month gap between reviews with Wish last November and The Fall Guy this May. More than once during that drought, I took my notebook to the theater and came back with a page full of notes, but for various reasons I was unable to piece together anything. It didn't help also that deliveries this year were comparatively sparse, what with the strikes strangling the production line. I will try to do better this year. (For those curious, I am also going to try to review the final season of Stranger Things , like I did with the 4th season, when it drops sometime this year. That will all depend on a lot of things, including the method by which Netflix chooses to release these episodes.) My reviews didn't par...

REVIEW: Enola Holmes

Inspired by the children's book series by Nancy Springer, Netflix's new film, Enola Holmes , turns the spotlight onto the younger sister of the famed detective as a new mystery thrusts her into an insidious conspiracy that compels her to take control of her own life and leave her own mark. The film's greatest achievement is reaffirming that lead actress Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things is indeed one of the most promising up and coming talents around and can seemingly step into any role with enthusiasm, but beyond that there's little about this film to celebrate. Enola Holmes lives alone with her mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham-Carter), away from the pursuits of her much older, much more accomplished older brothers--the snooty Mycroft (Sam Clafin) and the ever-charming, ever famous Sherlock (Henry Cavill). Enola enjoys the attention of her mother until Eudoria vanishes without warning. It is this disappearance that summons her older brothers back to the estate to se...

REVIEW: Wolf Man

The thing about any figure as iconic as The Wolf Man is ... you already know how his story ends because there's only one way it can end. Much in the same way that any "King Kong" movie has to end with the ape falling off of the Empire State Building. Any other ending just feels incongruent. Grafted from some other story. The equation can only produce a single sum. As Maria Ouspenskaya warned us in the original Wolf Man, "So tears run to a predestined end." I'll break the film critic's seal here a little and say that, if you love the Wolf Man figure, then you already know what happens to him at the end of Leigh Whannel's film, and you already basically know why. But I don't for a second count that as a bad thing. Reinvention is easy. Doing your homework, that takes commitment. And Whannel's new film does its homework. Here, our Wolf Man is Blake, a loving father living in the city with his daughter, Gi...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Do Clementine and Joel Stay Together or Not?

Maybe. The answer is maybe. Not wanting to be that guy who teases a definitive answer to a difficult question and forces you to read a ten-page essay only to cop-out with a non-committal excuse of an answer, I’m telling you up and front the answer is maybe. Though nations have long warred over this matter of great importance, the film itself does not answer once and for all whether or not Joel Barrish and Clementine Krychinzki find lasting happiness together at conclusion of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Min d. I cannot give a definitive answer as to whether Joel and Clementine’s love will last until the stars turn cold or just through the weekend. This essay cannot do that. What this essay can do is explore the in-text evidence the film gives for either side t...

REVIEW: Mufasa - The Lion King

To get to the point, Disney's new origin story for The Lion King 's Mufasa fails at the ultimate directive of all prequels. By the end of the adventure, you don't actually feel like you know these guys any better. Such has been the curse for nearly Disney's live-action spin-offs/remakes of the 2010s on. Disney supposes it's enough to learn more facts or anecdotes about your favorite characters, but the interview has always been more intricate than all that. There is no catharsis nor identification for the audience during Mufasa's culminating moment of uniting the animals of The Pridelands because the momentum pushing us here has been carried by cliche, not archetype. Director Barry Jenkins' not-so-secret weapon has always been his ability to derive pathos from lyrical imagery, and he does great things with the African landscape without stepping into literal fantasy. This is much more aesthetically interestin...

Pan's Labyrinth: The Fantasy and Reality of Good and Evil

So here’s a question I’m sure no one’s asked yet: what is the point of fantasy? Ask your resident D&D enthusiast or aspiring fantasy writer what it is about the fantasy genre that excites them so much, and you’re bound to get a variety of answers, but the topic of escapism tends to be a common thread. Sometimes the trash compactor of the real world just stinks so much, and you just need to vacation in someone else’s world. You can only stew in real world politics for so long before you just have to unwind by tracing the Jedi lineage or memorizing the rules of alomancy. This is where you commonly run into thoughts that fantasy nerds are just incompatible with reality and are deliberately shirking any responsibility from participating in it. This mindset has a lot in common with the nostalgia stigma we discussed with “Roger Rabbit” and “Detective Pikachu.” It is also a very elitist perspective born out of the same attitude...

The Power of the Dog Doesn't (want to) Understand Toxic Masculinity: A Deconstruction and History of the "Toxic Cowboy"

I want to start this piece by recounting my very first experience watching John Ford’s 1956 masterpiece, The Searchers . The film sees John Wayne playing Ethan Edwards, rugged cowboy who embarks on a years-long quest to recover his young niece, Debbie, after she is kidnapped by a band of Comanche Indians, who also murder her entire family. Ethan is joined on this adventure by Debbie’s adopted older brother, Martin, played by Jeffrey Hunter. Ethan does not welcome Martin’s presence on this mission and even tries to leave him behind at the start, and he will continue to menace Martin as they travail the desert. Part of this is because Ethan does not consider Martin to be Debbie’s real family, and he also resents Martin’s Native American lineage. But most of his animosity stems from the fact that he simply sees Martin as weak. He does not seem like the kind of guy who can ...

We Did Not Deserve The Lion King

Concept Art by Lorna Cook It has been thirty years since household pets everywhere started resenting Walt Disney Animation. In the three decades since The Lion King popularized the ritual of hoisting the nearest small animal up to the heavens against its will, the film has cemented itself as a fixture not just within Disney animation, but pop culture as a whole. The internet has an ongoing culture war with Disney as the cradle of all evil, as seen with something like the bad-faith criticisms of The Disney Princess brand ( which I have already talked about ), but these conversations tend to skip out on The Lion King . There are some critiques about things like the coding of the hyena characters or the Kimba controversy, but I don't see these weaponized nearly as often, and I see them less as time goes on while the discourse around the movie itself marches on unimpeded. (We can speculate why movies like The Little Mermaid or Cinderella are subjected to more s...

REVIEW - The Little Mermaid

There's been a mermaid on the horizon ever since it became clear sometime in the last decade that Disney did intend to give all of their signature titles the live-action treatment--we've had a long time to prepare for this. (For reference, this July will mark four years since Halle Bailey's casting as Ariel made headlines.) Arguing whether this or any of the live-action remakes "live up" to their animated predecessor is always going to be a losing battle. Even ignoring the nostalgic element, it's impossible for them to earn the same degree of admiration because the terrain in which these animated films rose to legend has long eroded. This is especially the case for The Little Mermaid . Where this remake is riding off a years long commercial high for the Walt Disney Company, the Disney that made The Little Mermaid in 1989 was twenty years past its cultural goodwill. Putting out an animated fairy-tale musical was not a sure thing, yet its suc...

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