Category Archives: Art Reviews and Articles

[Film: Red State, Kevin Smith, 2011]
A True View Askew:

On the Merits of Kevin Smith’s Genre-bending Late-career Surprise, Red State

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Caricature Sketch by M.R.P.

Introduction:

Kevin Smith’s personal anecdotes are more entertaining to me than any of his supposedly comedic films. I like his attitude, and I like his perspective, but I don’t like his writing. When his writing is not pandering to below the lowest common denominator or disproportionately praising George Lucas’ weakest films, it is still generally a set of superficial observations about malaise or adulthood dressed up as profound insights. But Red State is a curious case.

Red State, the story of a group of teenagers’ run-in with a fanatical and violent cult, is totally unique among Smith’s films. For one thing, unlike nearly every Kevin Smith movie, it’s quite good. It’s tense, interesting, and there are only two or three minor actors who don’t give excellent performances. Further, it is one of the few films in his filmography which do not take place in the meandering boredom of his so-called ‘View Askewniverse.’ Red State fails as both an action movie and a horror movie, but it succeeds as an interesting film.

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[Film: Red State, Kevin Smith, 2011]
A True View Askew:

On the Merits of Kevin Smith’s Genre-bending Late-career Surprise, Red State

 was last modified: October 10th, 2022 by Daniel Podgorski

[Game: FTL: Faster Than Light, Subset Games, 2012]
Style by Necessity:

On FTL: Faster Than Light, and Pixel Art as an Art Movement

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Introduction:

FTL: Faster Than Light bead sprites - pixel art analysis - Subset Games

Bead Sprites by The Gemsbok

The artistic movement of Cubism has had an incalculable influence on the art history of the past century. Its temporal and spatial fluidity was new and exciting, and carried art yet further along its strange journey of influence from Impressionism toward Abstract Expressionism. Some formal attributes of Cubism, such as flattened perspective plane, an emphasis on forms and experiences over realistic minutiae, a reduction of realistic complexity to geometric simplicity, and sharply contrasting regions of intense color, are also present in a much more recent art form: pixel art.

One recent game which uses pixel art to great effect is Subset Games’ acclaimed strategy roguelike, FTL: Faster Than Light. By taking a quick look at some of the art in FTL, one can acknowledge and remark upon the meaning it carries, in the hopes that others will go on to do the same for pixel art that interests them.

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[Game: FTL: Faster Than Light, Subset Games, 2012]
Style by Necessity:

On FTL: Faster Than Light, and Pixel Art as an Art Movement

 was last modified: August 26th, 2020 by Daniel Podgorski

[Work: The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas, 1844]
The Electronic Serial:

5 Lessons for Internet Writers from Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo

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Alexandre Dumas Sketch by M.R.P. - writing advice - The Count of Monte Cristo

Caricature Sketch by M.R.P.

Introduction:

It would not be too much of a stretch to say that the serialized format for creative writing has made a comeback in the internet age. Blog writers, video essayists, fanfic writers, youtube educators, web comic artists, online journalists, and many other content creators operating in various formats are working on and releasing smaller pieces of content at frequent intervals.

Novelists, especially from 100 years or more back, are no strangers to serialization. One of the all-time masters of the serialized format was Alexandre Dumas, whose international success as a writer has continued into modern day with the enduring popularity of such tales as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Paying attention to one of his works (for our purposes, the epic tale of the Count) provides an internet writer (or artist or videographer) with plenty of good advice. Five pieces of that advice are listed below.

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[Work: The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas, 1844]
The Electronic Serial:

5 Lessons for Internet Writers from Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo

 was last modified: October 10th, 2022 by Daniel Podgorski

[Topics: Cultural Relativism, Culture, Moral Realism]
Cultivating Moral Humility:

What Cultural Differences and Similarities Have to Say about Morality

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Ruth Benedict - cultural differences - morality - cultural relativism - moral realism

Introduction

In my prior post, I explored the notion that moral realism is not as pragmatically attractive as it presents itself when its proponents are comparing it to opposing systems. I would now like to take up another narrow topic in the discussion of morality—the notion that moral realism must be true for the opposite of the reason that others feel cultural relativism must be true: while some relativists feel that cultural differences demonstrate the lack of objective moral truth, some realists feel that morality must be objective and real because all people across the world, and throughout history, have held certain values in common.

Well, in response, first, I would recommend reading my initial article in this series, on how some basic aspects of what we call morality are necessary features of our evolutionary past, but not ‘objective’ in the desired sense. But second, and more importantly, I would seek to show that this argument for moral realism and the opposite argument for cultural relativism actually fail for the same reason.

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[Topics: Cultural Relativism, Culture, Moral Realism]
Cultivating Moral Humility:

What Cultural Differences and Similarities Have to Say about Morality

 was last modified: March 26th, 2020 by Daniel Podgorski

[Film: Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino, 1997]
Tarantino’s Odd Film Out:

The Uniqueness of Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown

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Introduction:

Quentin Tarantino Sketch by M.R.P. - Jackie Brown - unique

Caricature Sketch by M.R.P.

Just like this week’s Mid-Week Mission, this will be a light recommendation to follow last week’s heavier entry (in the Theater’s case, last week was a criticism of the inconsistent philosophy of Slumdog Millionaire). And the film which I would like to recommend is Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.

Jackie Brown is certainly one of the two or three least viewed works in Tarantino’s catalogue, and it’s not hard to see why. Tarantino followed up two extremely violent dramas full of fast, aggressive dialogue with a slow-paced, traditionally structured heist movie. Jackie Brown centers on a stalwart stewardess and a cautious clerk, while relegating Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson to roles as sleazy, unlikeable criminals.

In short, the movie was not at all what the audience was expecting, and was soon over-shadowed by the grandeur and gratuitousness of Kill Bill. But this is a film every bit as entertaining as his others, and totally unique in his oeuvre for many reasons, explored below.

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[Film: Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino, 1997]
Tarantino’s Odd Film Out:

The Uniqueness of Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown

 was last modified: October 10th, 2022 by Daniel Podgorski