BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea Episode One Review

The story’s cool, but the game needed extra cooking.

The Last American Virgin - When Teen Movies Go Wrong

What’s the worst thing that happened to you as a teenager?

If you answer this question by saying “I watched The Last American Virgin,” then you are a frontrunner for the most worthy answer.

Blockbuster Memories - Final Thoughts and Further Analysis

I share more final thoughts about the shuttering of Ol' Blue & Yellow, why I'm so passionate about something I left so long ago, and send you to further online writings about the end of a business and an era. 

Angus Retro Review - An Atypical Teen Movie for the Quiet Normal Teen

Angus couldn’t be made as a wide release today, and it might have slipped away without the fanfare that it receives in this post. But that’s its true strength. Angus is something special in every sense of the word. While it’s a small story, the tale being told touches on universal concerns and strikes a powerful note for all that are traveling on its wavelength. The film is a small story about a minor triumph for a minor character. It’s quiet and shy, not a film that jumps out at you at your local Redbox, and that's the point of what makes it great. 

Goodbye Blockbuster

With the ultimate shutdown of Blockbuster Video, we lose another vanguard in our group consumer culture. This is a truly sad day for media junkies everywhere, and one more reminder that our culture is changing in ways that go beyond sets of doors closing and overhead lights fading for the last time.

Check out UI journalism teacher adds video game narrative writing course to Fall 2012 curriculum - The Daily Iowan

Check out UI journalism teacher adds video game narrative writing course to Fall 2012 curriculum - The Daily Iowan

Scapegoating, Holy Terror, and Catching Hell

This week brought the premiere of two mass media products that serve to enlighten how the past decade has created a very ugly society. The documentary Catching Hell and graphic novel Holy Terror come from people that are masters of their craft: Alex Gibney (Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Taxi to the Dark Side – all masterful documentaries) and Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, Sin City, where hyperbole and control mix elegantly), respectively. However, what we’re looking at today is not the author, but rather the very artifact of people that cannot let go. By talking about scapegoats and creating a donkey on which people can pin the fears, despair and anger of a certain situation, we feel collectively better about ourselves.

And that’s messed up on several levels.