The Land of Dumb
Welcome to the Land of Dumb. In The Land of Dumb, movies and television series fool people into thinking that they’re not in the Land of Dumb, but somewhere else entirely – somewhere compelling and exciting and adventurous. No matter how much you point out to these people that they’re actually in the Land of Dumb, no matter how many ways you explain how they got there, they’ll deny it, because nobody wants to admit they’re holidaying in the Land of Dumb. Nobody wants to admit they were fooled into enjoying the Land of Dumb. To make sure you don’t get duped into visiting and enjoying movies and/or television that…
Embracing the Mess
An interesting criticism of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) is that it’s ‘fan service’. I wasn’t aware that fans desired plot holes, shallow characterisations, contrived narrative, an incomprehensible edit, and the return of a villain long dead. They were never on my wish list. I don’t think they were on anybody’s. The Rise of Skywalker isn’t fan service. It’s damage control. It’s Disney backtracking from what they’ve given us and trying to find the Star Wars in their Star Wars. And they accomplish that in the tiniest and briefest ways. The Rise of Skywalker puts the trio of main characters in an adventure together. It gives Rey an…