Murder at the Presidio (2005)

What makes the lighting in Casablanca even more impressive is how it reflects the emotional states of the characters without needing explicit dialogue.

"Boston Strangler" pulls the curtain back on a well-documented historical moment involving significant contributions from women reporters. 

Outer Banks (2020-) knows its audience: young adults in a country that can’t stop romanticizing good ole’ treasure hunts. Add a little of Riverdale’s (2017-) sex appeal, and no one can look away. Forty years after The Goonies (1985) America’s consciousness hasn’t strayed from the same tropes: treasure hunts, a vulnerable white male lead, and the whitewashing of a racially segregated setting.

What makes a person different, and who is considered normal? Based on a true story, The Unbreakable Boy follows the life of Austin LeRette, a young boy with autism and osteogenesis imperfecta, as he navigates daily life with optimism and resilience.

This is ambitious horror filmmaking, and in a lot of ways, I fully admire its ambitions. For me, the film’s sloppiness defines its overall quality.

Netflix’s Shadow and Bone has a complicated relationship with race. It has a diverse cast, but not without its problems. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s two book series, the show features characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which is very straight and white, and the Six of Crows duology, which is much more diverse. When bringing together a cast and writing about these characters, the team behind the show expanded upon some of the representation missing from the first trilogy, then seemed to take away representation from the duology. Shadow and Bone seems to play a bit of a push and pull game when it comes to portraying diversity onscreen.