Stigmata is a raw and unsettling portrayal of early marriage and the way traditional Azerbaijani wedding customs strip women of their dignity. The film uses stark, disturbing imagery to reveal how these rituals inflict wounds that are more than symbolic, they are lifelong scars, carved into the body and soul. The crucified child bride becomes the ultimate manifestation of this suffering: a living sacrifice to tradition, marked forever.
In order to learn why an arguably outdated fanfic trope was resurfacing in the contact zone of popular culture, I dove into a vibrant trough of character development.
"65" (2023) is the latest Dino flick to try and answer "what else can we do with dinosaurs?"
The Bluff unravels its mystery slowly, opening on the capture of a ship captain named Bodden (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and the swift execution of his entire crew. Then, viewers are treated to a tranquil British settlement in the Cayman Islands in the 1850s, where a mother bakes a coconut birthday cake for her son in a house suspiciously rigged with makeshift tripwires and burglar alarms. As it turns out, that mother is Priyanka Chopra’s quick witted and resourceful ex-pirate Mrs. Ercell Bodden, and her husband’s captors are on the way to the island to hunt her down for abandoning them and stealing their loot. The pirates of the Libertas land on the beaches of Cayman Brac, and the scenes that follow show a Viking-esque slaughter of half the island.
As this critic continues to look back at some of this Summer's films I have taken in, I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the most overall unsettling trends in Hollywood over the last several years.....sequels, reboots, and remakes. Look, I am all for seeing more than one film for certain originals that made a splash, ie: "Jurassic Park", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Transformers", etc.
Juneteenth is a day to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States on June 19th, 1865. We did it! Everyone is free! Everyone is equal! End of story, right?
Remember Caroline from Vampire Diaries? Well, now she’s The Suitcase Killer, allegedly.
