SINISTER : STORY ANALYSISSINISTER : STORY ANALYSIS

Sinister is a horror thriller that was released in 2012. A commercial smash at the time, Sinister grossed over $87 million against a production budget of $3 million!
(more…)Sinister is a horror thriller that was released in 2012. A commercial smash at the time, Sinister grossed over $87 million against a production budget of $3 million!
(more…)Alright, so The Boys Season 2 just ended with an amazing season finale. Thus far, we have covered Episodes 1 – 5 in two tranches viz. here and here. Now that we have the entire season available, let’s dive deep into a story analysis for The Boys Season 2. Heads up, this will contain spoilers!
(more…)Film-maker Ridley Scott has certainly left his mark on the science fiction movie genre. Seminal movies like Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982) have had an undeniable influence on the scifi movies that followed in their wake. Scott’s association with the HBO Max series Raised by Wolves raised anticipation levels for its 10-episode run, which had recently concluded.
(more…)Antebellum is a 2020 American horror film. Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz are making their debuts as directors. The film stars Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons, and Gabourey Sidibe.
(more…)Fargo is a crime drama – black comedy anthology series from FX. The series is inspired by the Fargo movie (1996), which was directed by the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan). The Coens’ film oeuvre is a heavy influence on the tv series. Each season is different with very minor overlaps. Fargo Season 4 is set in 1950 Kansas City, Missouri. The latest series revolves around two crime families – one African-American and the other, Italian – struggling for supremacy.
(more…)Based on James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty, The Comey Rule is a two-part political drama that focuses on events relating to the 2016 USA presidential election, and Comey’s role as FBI director that were crucial to the final result, i.e. Donald Trump’s victory.
(more…)What is the allure of true-crime drama, especially involving serial killers? Is it the need to understand these murderers or is it a sick fascination with the grisly details? Either way, depicting the horrors of murder is tricky business especially where dealing with real life events. Enter : Des.
(more…)Downton Abbey was an award-winning historical drama TV series that enjoyed a six-season 52-episode run from 2010 to 2015. The series revolved around a fictional English aristocratic family, the Crawleys and their servants, who reside and work at the titular location. Contains spoilers!
(more…)Story analysis of i’m thinking of ending things, with spoilers.
Charlie Kaufman is a critically acclaimed screenwriter/director. His best known writing credits include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (for which he won an Academy Award), Being John Malkovich and Adaptation (he received nominations for both).
(more…)The Story Analysis series is intended to offer a different take on film and TV appreciation above a typical review. The idea is to break down the stories into their components in order to understand them better. It is also an intellectual exercise on my part to help me to develop my logic capabilities. Thanks for indulging me!
(more…)Nolan begins….
Christopher Nolan’s much vaunted Batman trilogy consisted of Batman Begins (BB), The Dark Knight (TDK) and The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR). The trilogy has been credited for legitimising superhero movies after the damage done by the campy Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.
(more…)Not your typical superhero drama …
(more…)Besides being a singer-songwriter/composer and a pop culture writer, I am also a teacher of arts and music subjects. Which comes in handy as I find myself thinking in terms of carrying out music and story analysis in order to write about an appreciation of music, film, TV and comic books.
(more…)I believe in story analysis. As a pop culture commentator writing about film and TV, it is important to discuss story using rules of story analysis. Without story, films and TV shows would merely be a collection of loosely connected events and action sequences. With regards to Wonder Woman 1984, I had previously posted a non-spoilers review. Perhaps it is time for a story analysis of Wonder Woman 1984 to illustrate my point.
(more…)Crimson Peak is a 2015 gothic romance horror drama directed by Guillermo Del Toro. The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain in the lead roles with Charlie Hunnam and Jim Beaver as support.
(more…)As mentioned in my PoP Theory article on Story Analysis, besides being a singer-songwriter/composer and a pop culture writer, I am also a teacher of arts and music subjects. So the same approach I applied to Story, I can also apply to Music but of course, with different elements. Now, I don’t intend to go into any musicological concepts that require music theory training to decipher but will try my best to keep things simple for non-musicians as well.
(more…)Once upon a time, Warner Bros ruled the superhero movie genre with its DC Comics lynchpin characters Superman and Batman.
300+ paged book on Green Arrow? You have got to hand it to writer Richard Gray and publisher Sequart Organization for investing the time and effort into this unlikely character study.
Last time out, we took a closer look at POWER POP in our analysis of the key genres that make up our preferred musical styles. Next, we look at POP.
Back in 1980, singer-songwriter Billy Joel was already railing against the stratification of rock & pop music.
As the title of his autobiography Not Dead Yet suggests, singer/drummer/producer/actor/film composer Phil Collins is a bit of a joker. This 400-page book is written in a breezy style and it would not be too difficult to finish it all off in a couple of days.
Spoilers, duh!
Has social media been taken over by Disney press-bots? It gets very distressing when twentysomethings declare the standalone Star Wars film, Rogue One as “the best Star Wars movie ever”!
Who is this Singapore comic book artist Charlie Chan Hock Chye that was able to channel the history of comics through the critical Singaporean events of the last 60-70 odd years? Well, he does exists… BUT only as a figment of artist Sonny Liew’s fecund imagination.
So yes, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is an imaginary tale presented within the context of Singapore history but an imaginary tale nonetheless. It is an artfully constructed “What If” tale and encourages the reader to imagine – “what if Singapore had an legitimate comic book history”. What if, indeed.
Thus, though couched in biographical terms as some kind of historical document – the story of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is a fantasy, a fairy tale where the history of comic books unfolded in decidedly Singaporean circumstances.
So while everyone (including the authorities) seem hellbent on treating the story as some kind of political commentary with the potential to undermine the status quo, a more accurate understanding would be to perceive The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye as a tribute to comic books and to Singapore itself.
In that sense, I would state categorically that the true purpose of this ambitious graphic novel would fly over most Singaporean heads and by the story’s denouement would leave the same disappointed that it was not the middle finger to the Government that it had been perceived to be.
With references to Osamu Tesuka, Harvey Kurtzman, Windsor McKay, Eagle, Pogo, MAD, Spider-Man and the like, it would be abundantly clear to a comic book geek what Sonny is trying to achieve here. And the manner in which he is able to weave these references into the Singaporean narrative is sheer genius.
My particular favourite moment is where Sonny channels Philip K Dick by paying homage to Dick’s alternate reality opus The Man in the High Castle (google it for details) to imagine a Singapore where history was altered somewhat from reality. Again, the shock of seeing this alternate reality is probably worth the entire price of the book!
And what about the artwork itself? Any description I would give would not do it justice, surely. Reflecting the stylistic changes in comic book history, Sonny handles each different ‘genre’ like a master, while keeping his own artistic identity intact. No mean feat! A wonderfully immersive visual experience with an eye for detail that will blow you away.
In the final analysis, I will not mince my words – The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is a masterpiece. Nuff said.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is a nine-part limited series on the Netflix streaming platform. The series is produced by the same creative team (headed by writer-director Mike Flanagan) that made the popular Haunting of Hill House. The two narratives are not connected whatsoever.
(more…)Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) was that rare thing in the 60s and 70s – a film sequel. Something that has been so common since the 80s was totally unfashionable back then. Apart from the James Bond franchise that is.
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