Movies from Swank: Paranormal Activity

Will Sorg- It is difficult to think of a genre more dead than found footage horror. Found footage movies had the horror market in a stranglehold for about a decade, and then they vanished from the box office by the mid-2010s. Still, for me, it’s hard to forget how big some of those really popular found footage films were. Paranormal Activity was one of those … Continue reading Movies from Swank: Paranormal Activity

Movies from Swank: Friday the 13th

Will Sorg- Friday The 13th has a very unique place in horror history: it’s the second biggest slasher film to capture the world’s movie-going audiences. Friday The 13th was originally conceived off of the name alone; the filmmakers put out an ad with the title and almost immediately received funding for the entire project. By that point, a script had not even been made, it … Continue reading Movies from Swank: Friday the 13th

El Conde: beautiful, bloody, and boring.

Will Sorg- Augusto Pinochet was a monster. Propped up by the CIA and the Chilean military, Pinochet was the dictator of Chile for almost 20 years. In that time he oversaw murders, tortures, assassinations and so much corruption that he was said to have stolen over $26 million of his people’s money. Chile eventually managed to oust Pinochet and established a non-dictatorial government, Pinochet died … Continue reading El Conde: beautiful, bloody, and boring.

Nobody Loves You and You Don’t Deserve to Exist

Will Sorg- Supporting independent cinema is essential in this day and age. It has become easier than ever to make a movie with little to no money; if you have a phone you can do it. That’s what makes truly excellent microbudget films really stand out. I was recently reached out to by Jack Clarke, a producer for the independent film Nobody Loves You and … Continue reading Nobody Loves You and You Don’t Deserve to Exist

Movies from Swank: How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Will Sorg- People recycle. People watch documentaries about dying coral reefs and disappearing animals. People turn to veganism or environmental activism. People install solar panels and drive electric cars. Some people blow up pipelines because in the seemingly never-ending fight for a livable planet, it starts to feel like nothing else can even make a dent. How to Blow Up a Pipeline follows a group … Continue reading Movies from Swank: How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Immortality: transcendent video games and the nature of art

To write about Immortality in a way that would do it justice, I would need to likely fill every page of this newspaper and then some. Immortality –a Half Mermaid Productions’ video game from 2022– is unlike any video game I have ever played. However, it is not the first of its kind. The lead developer, Sam Barlow, has been making live action, interactable mystery … Continue reading Immortality: transcendent video games and the nature of art

Oldboy: 20 years of perfection

Perhaps the crown jewel of Korean cinema, Oldboy is a seminal work of not only modern East Asian cinema but also modern cinema in general. Park Chan-Wook’s 2003 masterpiece is undoubtedly influential, the film’s one-take hallway scene alone has inspired countless movies, and the dark revenge neo-noir has been essentially guaranteed a spot in film history due to its following among movie lovers and critics … Continue reading Oldboy: 20 years of perfection