Animating Our Souls

Animating Our Souls

Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art by Susan Napier. Yale University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 344 pages, $30. Reviewed by Titus Techera We owe Susan Napier and the Yale University Press a debt of gratitude for her efforts in Miyazakiworld, a book that shows everything...
Rethinking Hollywood History

Rethinking Hollywood History

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Annapurna Pictures, 2018. Reviewed by Titus Techera The most interesting thing on Netflix now is the new Coen Brothers movie, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a Western in six episodes, starting with...
Casting Extras in The Truman Show

Casting Extras in The Truman Show

The Truman Show Written by Andrew Niccol. Directed by Peter Weir. Paramount, 1998. Reviewed by Titus Techera On its twentieth anniversary, The Truman Show turns out to have been prophetic about what happens to us when we go digital. In the terms of the old world of...
The New Storytelling, From Tocqueville to Fortnite

The New Storytelling, From Tocqueville to Fortnite

By Titus Techera Computer games are the least discussed of our massive entertainment industries. Gaming is uniquely dominated by men and newest among our forms of entertainment, so the suspicion that it owes its success to its criticism of our society is still fresh....
The Cinema of Failure

The Cinema of Failure

Four films of Terrence Malick. TITUS TECHERA Terrence Malick is American cinema’s one Christian artist and he has now reached his most productive years, his Social Security years. His four recent movies, The Tree of Life (2011), To the Wonder (2012), Knight of...