Break Down Cinema

The following is a slightly edited and reformatted backup of my article for the Centre for Social Development blog in 2021. I cannot find an archive of the original. I wanted to preserve it but with better wording. The original essay also used a different referencing style; I have converted it to the Harvard style to be more consistent with my other essays for this blog. Additionally, I used Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) as one of my key examples. However, I overlooked that Renegade Cut - whose video I cited in my section on The Incredibles (Bird, 2004) - also briefly discussed the potential interpretations of Fight Club that I mentioned. In the interest of transparency and sufficient attribution, the feminist and Marxist readings of Fight Club I mentioned come from Renegade Cut. While I otherwise present my article as published in 2021, I would not attempt to fit the different types of thematic criticism into a finite number of categories if I discussed the topic today, as such a methodo...

Content Warning: occasional strong language (in quotes;) references to 9/11, war, murder, violence, misogyny, transphobia, bullying, sexual assault, domestic abuse, mental health issues, suicide, self-harm, stalking, and abandonment. Spoiler warning for the following: La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc , The Passion of the Christ , Perfect Blue , Joker , Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me , the Noumena books, Fluids , Girl Flesh , and several episodes of Doctor Who , Family Guy , and Twin Peaks. Introduction: Twin Peaks and Shared Humanity Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Lynch, 1992) is about the last days in the life of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), the murder victim at the centre of the television series that originated the film (American Broadcasting Company, 1990-1991). Fire Walk with Me is highly disturbing and quite visceral in its depictions of domestic abuse, psychosis, and sexual violence. British film critic Mark Kermode discusses the film in an instalment of his "Film Club...