Critique

X as in Madame. Top Story - September 2026.

Lana Turner excels as the sacrificial wife and mother in this superb hanky soaker, released in 1966. Madame X plays like a Sirk melodrama but they couldn't get the master to helm, so David Lowell Rich got the job and it's obvious he knew his way around a melodrama. The source material was a 1908 play that received a few cinematic versions, none as good as this one.

Two Drifting Grifters in a Large City. Top Story - August 2026.

I'm going to be crucified for tearing into the beloved American classic, but I never understood all the fuss and critical acclaim around it.

Conversations on a Dog Walk. Top Story - August 2026.

Kat had just met up with Ian as they did their daily walk with their dogs along the green space through the hydro corridor.

Technically Brilliant, Emotionally Dead. Top Story - August 2026.

What makes something overrated? Surely it is that acclaim and praise that has been bestowed upon it has been largely accepted as the general consensus. When people suggest something is the greatest and others nod in agreement for fear of speaking ill of that which should not be derided or criticised.

It Could Have Been good…. Top Story - August 2026.

I was introduced to Dhar Mann videos rather reluctantly, via them showing up everywhere I scrolled. YouTube, Facebook... All I wanted to do was scroll through some videos while exercising, and bam! Every other clip was one of those infernal, badly-acted Morality videos that made it very easy to understand why Morality Plays were only ever popular when people didn't have a choice in their entertainment.

All that Glitters. Top Story - August 2026.

My mother said, “if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.” She didn’t, actually. But somebody did, and many have repeated it since. I confess, I am uncomfortable. I will not pretend to be a creature of such gracious loving kindness that to level criticism at my fellow man would be entirely foreign to my nature, but I will own a hesitance here. Do I have opinions that some books are shit, some movies suck and the budget for some TV shows might have been better spent on compensatory measures for the flatulence that the studio has issued forth? Of course I do. Do I own, too, that those opinions might be wrong? In almost every case, yes. Do I, in the privacy of a personal relationship, espouse these views anyway? Honestly not that often. The co-incidence of me finishing my consumption of a work of creativity and of me spending time with other humans with the mutual leisure to discuss said work is as rare as a baby panda. But I would, if life were more clement currently.

You'll Never Guess the Ending!. Honorable Mention in The Most Overrated Challenge. Top Story - August 2026.

I've always loved a thriller. A quick read with twists and turns and short, snappy chapters- sign me up! Especially when there's a mysterious dead body or a long-dead small town or family secret to uncover. But lately I've noticed something I absolutely HATE in two of the most recent thrillers I read, a kind of trend I wasn't aware was happening until I read two of the books that had been sitting on my TBR list for months, and was disappointed and driven to rage (lol- but really) over the same thing twice in a row.

The Fishnet Delusion. Runner-Up in The Most Overrated Challenge. Top Story - August 2026.

I haven't written any criticism since my Master's, so I'm really grateful for the Overrated Challenge for encouraging me to do so. I have thoroughly enjoyed the process. Having always held reservations about The Rocky Horror Picture Show , it feels great to finally get them off my chest!

The Conspicuous Stupidity of the European Movement

Review of Movie-Nelly Knows Mysteries: All Manners of Murder

The Psychogeography of Global Capital

Review of Movie: Haul out the Halloween Starring Lacey Chabert and Wes Brown

Gods in the Mud: The Embodied Soul, Cosmic Indifference, and the Rejection of the Divine

Manufacturing Bullshit: The Planned Obsolescence of Any Fucking Meaning and Morality

Progress of a Nation

Review of Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Haunted by Murder