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HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 is All Smoke With No Fire

In Crumbs, Film, Literature by Alcy LeyvaLeave a Comment

There was a moment during the HBO film adaptation of the Ray Bradbury classic Fahrenheit 451 that I audibly groaned. Up until that point, I had been enjoying seeing the establishment of this dystopia and the struggle of it’s characters come to grips with its oppressiveness. There was subtle social commentary sprinkled here and there, and I enjoyed connecting the …

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5 Things We Learned From the Westworld Season 2 Premiere (And 3 Things We Didn’t)

In Film, Marry + Screw + Kill by Alcy LeyvaLeave a Comment

Sunday night was the premiere of “Journey Into the Night”- the first episode of the HBO hit show Westworld’s second season. The show’s writers (Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and Halley Wegryn Gross) spent the better part of 2016 crafting an extremely tight story throughout the span of the first season. Weaving its characters through the vicious and violent world of …

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Ready Player One: The Modern Day Coin-Op

In Crumbs, Film by Alcy LeyvaLeave a Comment

As you can tell from my reviews for Pacific Rim: Uprising and A Wrinkle In Time, films which use nostalgia or adaptations of popular kid’s books can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, you have the happy thoughts and all of the warmth that comes along with a trip down memory lane. On the other, you have the realization that …

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Where Homage Meets Understanding: What Pacific Rim: Uprising Gets Wrong

In Film, Marry + Screw + Kill by Alcy LeyvaLeave a Comment

There’s a moment in the third act of Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018, dir. Stevens DeKnight), right in the middle of its thunderous final battle, where a character runs by a giant mecha statue right in the heart of a Tokyo. This moment single-handedly ruined the whole movie for me. Yes, I had already been engaged by its metal munching, monster-crunching …

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Just A Wrinkle: Why Disney’s Newest Adaptation Shows the Flaws of Bringing Classics to Theaters

In Film, Marry + Screw + Kill, The Actual Factual by Alcy LeyvaLeave a Comment

When it was announced that Disney was finally bringing a film adaptation of bring the beloved classic “A Wrinkle in Time” to the big screen, fans rejoiced. Adding Ava DuVernay (director of the 2015 film Selma) to the fold as the director seemed liked icing on the cake. With DuVernay’s eye and a Disney budget, it was safe to bank …

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The Beauty of Culture and Conflict in Marvel’s Black Panther

In Film, Marry + Screw + Kill by Alcy LeyvaLeave a Comment

There were a few moments while watching Black Panther (2018, dir. Ryan Coogler) in which I found myself laughing out loud in the theater, and it wasn’t because there was anything particularly humorous happening on screen. I mostly laughed because I wondered how director Ryan Coogler was able to accomplish something so simple and yet still unheard of during my …

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Film Poetics: Spotlight on Guillermo del Toro

In Film, Marry + Screw + Kill by Alcy LeyvaLeave a Comment

“Film poetics” is a term which runs parallel to the David Bordwell theory of the “historical poetics of cinema” in that it looks at the specifics of film production. Film poetics takes this a step further in stating that everything that goes into a film (set design, writing, lighting, wardrobe) harmonizes with the vision of its director to create one …