Inspiration (Part 2) “Art has to be about more than just, ‘My life is great and I’m good at drawing,’” says Spencer (Barry Keoghan), the protagonist of American Animals, as he plans a robbery. He’s clearly going about giving his life meaning via a significant
Inspiration (Part 1) “Do you ever feel like your life has turned into something you never intended?” asks Amy Adams about a quarter of the way into fashion designer turned writer and director Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals. She’s sitting at a desk in the art
Home Medley The Chipotle I work at plays mostly indie pop songs and remixes that I’m sure some guy in an office somewhere curated into a playlist with a title like “songs that won’t offend anyone while they eat their burrito.” Usually, I’m not bothered
Reciprocity One day over winter break, during a week in which I was by myself in the city working, I got home and decided I needed to cry. I ended up watching Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. It’s a fantastic little film that
Love, Simon As much as I love movies, one genre that I mostly steer clear of is the romantic comedy. For the most part, I don’t find any of these sorts of films appealing. Occasionally, I do want to watch a good romance (which is
Honesty In the film Interstellar, a robot named TARS travels with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway through a wormhole to save humanity. Voiced by Bill Irwin, TARS acts so much like a human that it’s easy to forget he is, in fact, a chunk of
In Memoriam In the early afternoon hours of Saturday, Jan. 25, I received a text from an old friend in Alabama. She told me the sad news that a middle school teacher of ours had passed away at the young age of 68. The teacher’s
Write What You Know Over the past few months, I’ve begun to realize that being a filmmaker and a writer is perhaps a bit more of a curse than a blessing. What I mean by this is that a professor once told me that because
How to Write Like a Pro I haven’t mentioned it before, but I’m like a professional actor. Just kidding, but I am in an acting class, which is way more enjoyable than I ever expected it to be. I went to an open audition for short
Brokeback Mountain Even before I came out as gay in my junior year of high school, I was scrounging every available platform to watch gay-themed films. Though I didn’t watch many gay movies prior to coming out, I do remember watching both Shelter and Geography