Writing Great Villains: Why They Shouldn't Be Sympathetic
Writing great villains is about striking a balance between charming and evil, so we love them but also love to see them lose.

Every year thousands of Indonesians return home to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with their families. While Mother was waiting for her son to return, Mother prepared a big meal to welcome him.
Writing great villains is about striking a balance between charming and evil, so we love them but also love to see them lose.
The gentle, emotional nuances of Evan’s coming-of-age story would have been so beneficial to have incorporated into the life of a POC character. Showing a Black, Asian or Latino young man that is afforded the space to be vulnerable, flawed and sensitive while driving a compelling and widely-loved narrative would have been a game changer.
Spiral could easily spawn new sequels and will most likely churn a decent profit. Is it a good Saw film? Absolutely. Could it have been revolutionary though? Also yes.
“Trust your gut" is one of the most common pieces of advice you’ll receive during your lifetime. And as a person inclined to trust my intuition above all else, it’s the most common advice I find myself giving in real life and in my online socialising. But what happens when your gut is trying to warn you that something is seriously wrong without you being able to identify what triggered it in the first place? How can you act on a feeling or make it go away when you don’t have a clue about what could be wrong? How can you trust your intuition when you don’t know what makes it act out in the first place?
Perhaps the most amazing and groundbreaking quality about The Birdcage is how removed it is from both illness and insensitivity. Whereas films preceding it were often somber stories about the tribulations of being gay in a conservatively straight world, Nichols and screenwriter Elaine May expose the fallacies of conservatism as traditional values are thrown into a more open-minded space. They don’t care how far the community has fallen so much as how high they can rebuild themselves.