Returning to the films of childhood. Our nostalgia-obsessed culture has left few childhood stones unturned. Thanks to the great streaming wars - where old television and film properties of yesteryear are brought back from the dead - you can typically revisit many of your childhood favorites. I love watching random episodes of Sister Sister on Netflix. Almost like I did growing up: flipping through the channels as a child twenty years ago. Or maybe I hit Disney+ to watch The Sword in the Stone and have a love-drunk squirrel teach me a thing or two about heartbreak. But there is a part of my childhood experience that I almost forgot about. One that was hiding underneath my nose this whole time. That is the abundance of Bollywood films that are available on Netflix . My father, an immigrant from India, made it his mission to expose my brothers and I to Bollywood films. We grew up in a modest middle class home, where my parents did what they could to get by. But at a young age I understood my father was springing an extra buck to get satellite TV. Why was a man standing on our roof trying to find a place to install what looked like a satellite used to contract extraterrestrials? This was so that my father could access the few Indian channels available in the United States in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. One of those channels was called B4U. B4U, or what I assume stands for “Bollywood for You,” was an all-Bollywood-films-all-the-time type channel. They played everything from classic black and white Bollywood films, to Bollywood films that were recently released in theaters in India. It was basically a Bollywood version of HBO, without the original content. B4U was the easiest way for my father to help us understand his culture. Back in the early days of B4U, the films did not have English subtitles. So, my father would have to translate each film as they went along for us to understand them. This made the experience somewhat difficult, and as a child with the attention span of a goldfish, I sometimes found watching a Bollywood film with my father to be more of a chore than anything else. But I quickly learned that there were great films in the Bollywood genre, and that there would be times where I was hanging off of my father’s every word as I watched the screen. As a 31-year-old film lover, I am sorry to say that I had almost forgotten all about Bollywood. I am Indian in name and blood, but I never fully identified with that part of my life as strongly as I identify as American. Finding that Netflix had such a deep collection of Bollywood films that I had grown up with, really made me realize how much I love them, and how much of my Indian heritage is a part of who I am. Watching some of these films now, I was surprised at just how great they can be. A Bollywood film is an all-inclusive entertainment experience. The formula typically calls for songs, dances, fights, romance, stunts, and comedy. All of this is packaged in a melodramatic narrative with subplots and coincidences at every turn! The films I am going to talk about all came out between 2000 and 2001, and strictly follow this formula. I was 11 years old when these films were released, and rewatching them almost twenty years later has been an interesting experience. We will look at a patriotic dramedy, a period sport piece, and a modern coming of age tale. Let’s be honest, international traveling is limited, if not all but impossible. Catch a flight on your couch, no passport needed! Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani ( Yet, My Heart Is Indian) 2001 Dil Hai Hindustani is the most over the top Bollywood film on this list. I wouldn’t even say it’s that great of a film, but it is a study on just how crazy these films can get. Starring superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, this film opens with a media war between two Television networks whose lead anchors are Shah Rukh Khan (Ajay) and Juhi Chawla (Ria). Ajay is at the top of the ratings and is loved by the public. He is willing to go the extra mile when covering stories like interviewing a bomb squad at the same time that they are trying to dismantle a bomb. Ria is the new girl in town trying to get her big break, and she is not afraid to step on Ajay’s toes to do it. All Ajay wants to do is impress his attractive new enemy, but he ends up looking like a real Chad in the process. There is a song in the film called “I am the best,'' sung by Ajay, that really gets this point across. They both are covering the latest political scandal of the moment. A rich financier is assassinated at a political rally for a candidate he supports. The murderer, named Mohan, is labeled a foreign terrorist, and is sentenced to be hanged to death. Case closed, right? Absolutely not, this is a Bollywood film! We find out that Mohan is not the terrorist we are led to believe, and his reasoning behind committing murder is much more complicated and heartbreaking. We learn that there are powerful forces that want to keep Mohan’s truth hidden from the public, and Ajay and Ria team up to find out the truth. This leads them on a wacky adventure that is typical of Bollywood films, that includes hijinks like going undercover as Chinese nationals (in a scene that today would be called racist) and a number of song and dance sequences where Ajay and Ria flirt. There is a local gangster played by the comedy legend Johnny Lever, who is trying to get his own publicity, and goes from hindering Ajay and Ria’s plans, to helping them out in the end. This film moved me as a child because the level of corruption that was on display was maddening. That level of corruption did not seem real back then, but my father assured me that India did have a serious problem with political corruption. Watching Ajay and Ria fight that corruption head on was amazing. Watching this film as an adult was hard because India is still dealing with serious corruption. But the media in India has been regularly active in revealing all kinds of political dirty work and it has had a positive impact. There are come cringy overtly racist scenes in this film that I totally forgot about, but it’s important to remember that this film was made for an early 2000’s Indian audience, not the politically correct American audience of today. Watching this film as an adult did make me appreciate the power of the media and the good it can do when there are blurred lines between truth and fiction. Lagaan ( Tax ) 2001 Lagaan was a domestic and international hit when it came out. It was even nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2001 Academy Awards. The story is set in Champaner, a city in the state of Gujarat in Western India. The time is 1892, when India was well under British colonial rule. The farmers of Champaner are unable to grow their crops due to a delayed monsoon season. The villagers pay a visit to their local Indian king, a nominal figure who answers to the British, to ask for an exemption of taxes (Lagaan). They meet the King at a British Cantonment where British officers are playing a game of cricket. During the game at a local village, our hero, named Bhuvan, played by superstar Aamir Khan, gets into a scuffle with one of the officers. Bhuvan thinks the game of cricket is stupid, and he mocks the British soldiers playing it. The commanding officer Captain Andre Russell hears Bhuvan’s taunts and decides to challenge him and the other villagers to a cricket match. If the villagers win, they will not pay taxes for three years, if they lose, they will have to pay triple the amount of tax. Without any deliberation, and to the horror of the other villagers, Bhuvan accepts Captain Russell’s challenge.This sets the stage for one of the greatest sport films you have never seen! The villagers must learn the game of their oppressors and they only have a few months to do so. At first, the villagers believe what Bhuvan has agreed to is impossible, and they dismiss him all together. But Bhuvan slowly turns a few of them to his side, and things take a drastic turn when Captain Russell’s sister, played wonderfully by Rachel Shelley ( The L Word , Toast of London ) decides to help Bhuvan and the villagers, even the playing field so to speak. With her help and Bhuvan’s optimism, the village team begins their training. The climactic cricket match is one of my fondest memories watching any Bollywood film. As a child this movie made a strong impression on me. This is mostly due to its music. The film’s music is composed by legendary composer and songwriter A.R. Rahman, and his mixture of classical Indian and orchestral music gives this film a tone that can only be described as epic. I used to own the soundtrack on CD, and I would listen to it every day. The music of this film would even make me very emotional, and it still does. My favorite song must be “Radha Kaise Na Jale,” a beautiful song about the god Krishna teasing his lover Rada. This song really shows off the traditional music and dance of Indian culture. There is a love triangle subplot between our hero Bhuvan, a village girl, and Captain Russell’s sister, that I swear could have been its own movie. Many of the villagers that end up on Bhuvan’s team are memorable for their unique personalities, and you can’t help but root for this ragtag team of misfits. As an adult watching this film, I realized that it has the comedic timing of Cool Runnings and the kind of high stake’s drama of Miracle , the 2004 film about the U.S. Hockey Gold win against Russia at the 1980 Olympics. My most recent viewing of this film was full of joyful tears and loud cheering. You cannot help but get swept up in this film. Dil Chahta Hai ( The Heart Wants ) 2001 Dil Chahta Hai was one of my favorite Bollywood films as a kid. I think what made me love this film was that it created a modern story for modern times, but still adhered to its Bollywood formula. The movie is about three friends: Akash (Aamir Khan), Sameer (Saif Ali Khan), and Sid (Akshaye Khanna) who have all just graduated college, and must now navigate the world as adults. Akash is the privileged rich kid who can be irresponsible but charming. Sameer is a hopeless romantic who falls in love with any girl who looks his way. Sid is the quiet artistic type who is often the group's voice of wisdom. They are living modern lives in India. They watch American films, date women, and go to clubs. I was used to watching Bollywood films where young characters lived in the modern world but still adhered to strict conservative values. Akash, Sameer, and Sid were living a Western lifestyle that seemed to reflect what I saw on T.V. and in films in the U.S., which made it that much more appealing to me. Our three friends take a road trip to Goa, a coastal state where tourists and young people come to party. As they make their way to Goa, the title track to the film: “Dil Chahta Hai ” plays. They are young, the world is in front of them, why not follow their hearts, the song asks. I remember being in India when this film came out, and the title track was a massive hit. It could be heard on every radio station. It really resonated with the young people of India who were demanding more and more of a Western lifestyle. While in Goa, a reflective Sid wonders where he and his friends will end up. Akash reassures him that whatever happens, they will always stay friends. This foreshadows the film’s later conflicts. The music of this film was also special to me. It is a soundtrack that relies on a more modern sound than Indian music, which works well with its modern story. There are songs that feature electronic music, bluegrass fiddling, and there is even a song with a didgeridoo! The first song of the film, “Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe,” is a rebellious anthem about ignoring tradition and indulging in one’s pleasures. Remember how when these movies came out there were no subtitles and my father had to translate them for me? Well, I will never forget asking my father what the lyrics of this song meant. He was extremely uncomfortable with his answer, basically saying, “they don’t want to listen to their parents, it’s a very dirty song.” This made sense later when I did watch the film with subtitles and saw the song had lyrics like: “We are the men of today, why should we be old-fashioned?” I grew up with a father who himself was a very old-fashioned man. At a young age he instilled in my brothers and I the values of a college education and marriage. He talked about how important it would be to get a good education that got you a good job, so that you can provide for a big family. He spoke to us about arranged marriages and the benefits of going that route. It was all very intimidating at a young age but that’s why Dil Chahta Hai was so important to me growing up. In Dil Chahta Hai , I watched as three young Indian men navigated these same issues only a few years older than me at the time. I saw a little of myself in Aakash, Sameer, and Sid, and it made me feel less alone. I will say that watching this film as an adult I was initially impressed by the modern themes it tries to tackle. But without spoiling the film too much, it really ends up dealing with these issues in very conservative ways. The movie really wants to be progressive in its style and story, but ends things in predictable Bollywood ways. One must remember that this film was to be watched by an Indian audience that, while more modern in its ways of thinking, still clung to conservative values. All that being said, it still makes a memorable film and if you want an example of a modern Bollywood film, then Dil Chahta Hai is a good place to start. Sahil Sharma Sahil is a full-time student at Dutchess Community College and a part-time cinephile. He has been known to quote the film Step Brothers word for word, and he likes water to be at room temperature.

It's here. Our Tenet episode was finally recorded, edited and is now live. Robby is joined by fellow Nolan-Nutz, Bernadette Gorman-White and Mike Burdge, to discuss the heady-filmmaker's latest foray into cinematic trickery. So, after all these months of waiting, how was this thing? Listen on.... (The Story Screen Family would like to say that, while we are excited we finally get to talk about this film, we understand that times are still wild and some of our listeners may not be comfortable going to theaters to catch this movie just yet. We'd like to be clear: Our coverage of Tenet is not an endorsement to risk your own safety for going out to a movie. If you do not feel safe in that type of environment, wait. The movie will be available to you soon in some way or another, and this episode will always be here. And, naturally, if you're looking for spoiler-free conversation, the first 20 minutes or so of this episode are completely spoiler-free. Take care, and we luv ya.)

Mike and Robby breakdown the perspective analysis theory, and how the concept of trust works as both character and plot motivator in John Carpenter's Kurt flicks, Escape from New York and The Thing . Be sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE, and would you kindly share with all your other cool movie folks? Watch on....

Mike Burdge sits down with official Bond-Nut, Reeya Banerjee, to discuss a few more Bond movies in this third installment of their special eps on the series. In this episode, the pair discuss the legacy of the recently departed, Sean Connery, using three of his Bond films as a springboard: his first film, Dr. No , his last film, Diamonds Are Forever , and his cheat film, Never Say Never Again . Listen on....

Jack and Robby record their discussion over the highly appreciated sequel to Borat . I'm thinking about just keeping this one simple. It's Borat, y'know? Everybody loves that guy. I don't really need to sell this one. It's on Amazon for practically free, so really there's not the usual boxes to check for interest. Is this thing typing what I'm saying? Listen on....

Midsommar is the new symbol laden film released by A24 and director Ari Aster. Animals, plants, language and colors all have meaning. Midsommar is also one of the most emotionally annihilating films I have ever seen. The Bear The film’s American protagonists and their Swedish guide Pelle, arrive in the Swedish province of Halsingland, specifically the idyllic commune of a people known as the Harga and the first animal they see is a caged, subdued bear. In ancient Scandinavia, Vikings were said to go berserk (bear-serk) during battle, transmuting from mere humans to grizzly supernatural warriors, imbued with the spirit of bears. Bears were highly revered for their single-minded ferocity. Another quality highly revered by the ancient Norsefolk was honesty and loyalty, aka Oathkeeping. The rune Othila (like a diamond with two legs) represents this characteristic. Anyone found to be an Oathbreaker was viewed as the weakest and least noble of persons and was sentenced to death. One of the main characters, Christian, is portrayed as such an Oathbreaker. He lies to his friends, cheats on his mentally unbalanced girlfriend Dani, underhandedly appropriates his colleague’s thesis, and shows no bravery or will to rescue his friends from impending doom despite Dani's warnings. His fate concludes with him being drugged, paralyzed and placed into the skin of the same bear, which has been killed and gutted. The Harga have invested him with the odious traits of darkness and animosity and they banish him to the dark realm like that of Helheim (Hell in Norse mythology) and burn him alive. Though Christian possesses none of the bear's noble or threatening traits, this sequence is a poetic reversal, a turning inside out, which we see more of in this film. Riding the Runa Runes are the individual units of the Norse futhark, an alphabet that possesses linguistic and symbolic meaning. When runa are inverted -- flipped horizontally, vertically, or at a 90-degree angle -- they indicate converse qualities. Raido (the R rune) is often seen backwards. Raido literally means 'riding' or transport. It represents moving through space or time. Though I'm no astrology enthusiast, I recognize the power of ancient symbols in our collective unconscious. I saw this film during Mercury Retrograde, a phenomenon which causes observers to see the planet Mercury as moving backwards even though it is not. Raido Inverted indicates a perceived backward motion, but also symbolizes the cyclical nature of movement and time -- not necessarily a going forth, but rather a return to. The character of Dani, has just suffered the premature loss of her parents and her sister Terri, after they poisoned themselves with toxic car exhaust fumes. Pelle draws a portrait of Dani marked with Raido Inverted, she is due for a return to her past pain, as well as a newfound home and family. The portrait Pelle gives her also bares the rune Dagaz, or day –a sideways hourglass--turned at a 90-degree angle. Day and night, consciousness and unconsciousness are rich themes in Midsommar . Inversion is also portrayed by the Harga maidens walking backwards as they pick ripe flowers for their midsummer ritual. The scene where the cast is transported into Halsingland is turned upside down, as well. They are not merely entering the underbelly of reality; they are returning to it. Blue and Yellow, Blue and Yellow, Blue and Yellow The Harga, an imaginary Swedish cult conceived for this film, seem to have their own origin story for the colors of the Swedish flag. Blue is worn by Dani's aging parents when they die, and this motif is mirrored later in the film with the elderly Harga couple who wear the same shade of blue as they throw themselves off cliffs in ritualistic suicide. Dani's sister Teri also committed suicide by exhaust along with her parents but was wearing yellow, and had a yellow hose duct taped to her mouth; yellow flowers flame a picture of Dani as her parents sleep, never to wake. Here, yellow alludes to youth, but a youth that must be sacrificed. Yellow flowers are plucked (backwards style) in their prime to make a potent hallucinogenic tea. But blue represents age, the elders' duty to give up whatever potency remains within them and pass it on to future generations. Perhaps the midsummer ritual is an ancient charm meant to protect the pagan culture, ancient rituals formed during the crusades when Christians -- Christian -- invaded. In 1990's Norway, there was a spate of church burnings undertaken by anti-Christian, anti-Colonial metalheads. Many of these churches were built on top of Norse sites of worship to Odin and other Norse gods. The church burnings, seen in news headlines around the world, are reflected during the ending sequence when the yellow temple is burned to the ground, with Christian and the other 8 human sacrifices inside. Lastly, the opening sequence shows a single artwork divided into four parts, rich in blues and yellows, dark night and sunlight, death and life. Alice in Unterheim No mention of the Norse gods is made in the film, even though runes like Teiwaz (the upwards arrow sign which represent Tyr, the god of war) appear throughout. The Harga seem to operate in murky realms of Norse mythos. The movie was shot mostly in Hungary (according to the credits), not in Sweden at all. Perhaps Hungary was scouted for convenience, or perhaps being true to Norse mythology doesn't matter at all. Still, there are parallels between the various mental and emotional states of the film's characters and the nine ancient worlds of Norse mythology. The nine realms are conveyed through the nine sacrifices made. Of the nine realms, most important are Midgaard (the world of man), Asgard (the world of the high gods or Aesir), and Helheim (well...hell, but more specifically the realm of darkness and the dead souls who may never cycle back to life; the realm of oathbreakers). Midsommar viewers are first ushered into the supernatural motif used in Lewis Carroll's “Through the Looking Glass”. Dani and Christian come home after a party, where the former learns of the latter's plans to visit Sweden without her. She is filmed on camera while Christian appears in the mirror to her left. He abjectly apologizes and invites her without his mates knowing. A few sequences later, when Christian is with his mates discussing their theses, Dani enters and is filmed through a mirror while the guys are filmed on camera. She barely occupies the same space as them, emotionally or spatially. When the protagonists arrive in Halsingland they ingest some psychedelic shrooms and begin hallucinating. Eat them, Drink them, they do and enter a world where the supernatural can possess them. Dani envisions herself merging with nature throughout the film. Her perception of the tree above her is distorted, the branches crossing each other like an MC Escher painting. Grass grows through her hand, later in the film, her feet blend in, disappearing into the grass below. Communal suffering Dani experiences an intense pain, the death of family, and the only other person in her life, Christian, does not seem to care. Her sister was bi-polar, and she herself may suffer from the same ailment. Throughout the film, her complex grief bubbles over, but she tries her hardest to hide it from everyone. She runs, hides, cries in the shadows. After being crowned May Queen, she stumbles upon the love ritual between her boyfriend and the Harga girl, Maya or Maja, and has a complete meltdown. She tries to find somewhere to cry alone, but the Harga women take her, and they cry together in chorus. This communal wailing is mirrored in the sex throes during the love ritual, the cries of pain when the Harga man falls to his death but fails to kill himself. The air they breathe, in and out, connects them all. Breath and the lack of, is a motif. More Vedic than Norse, the breath joins us all on a meditative level. After imbibing the hallucinogenic holy aquavit tea, the Harga and Dani make a sharp outward breath. Maya does this same sharp exhale her first time on camera. Her first real night in the commune, Dani dreams of her American acquaintances driving off without her and the air fills with exhaust. She screams after them, but her screams are also black exhaust, alluding to her family's death. This black exhalation is reflected again when Dani is crowned May Queen and the flowers in her basket-like, Hathor-like crown pulsate in their dark centers; plants which give oxygen rather than steal it. The pulsing black flowers’ centers also allude to Pelle's paintings, which illustrate the stages of a love spell. One panel in particular features a bare vagina, rimmed by black pubic hair --which stands out since none of the Harga women have black hair. Dani silently sentences Christian to death, even when she is given a proxy sacrifice. She is draped in a mountain of flowers, only her crowned head exposed. Completion of the ritual. As the temple burns with its human sacrifices, the Harga cry and thrash together in Dionisian ecstasy. Dani is the only one who is calm and smiling. The circle of suffering is complete and she can now move on. On a personal note, I have recently suffered one third of Dani's loss. Losing a close member of one's nuclear unit is debilitating. I had kept composure for a month, but found myself wailing all the way home from the theatre. Unable to sleep, I write this. The way in which Dani cries in pain over the loss of her family, and is coddled by Christian, harkens back to Aster's previous film Hereditary , where the protagonist Annie, mourns the loss of her child, also while being held by her similarly aloof husband--the same way a few of us may have soothed a sick, alcohol-poisoned roommate as they purge themselves of toxins. Other motifs shared by both films include the uncanny use of breath, atonal violins layered over eerie vocals, a mentally unbalanced supernatural female protagonist, and symbols. I have not ascertained the origin of the strange crucifix 'rune' on the yellow temple, but assume it is another cinematic invention like the Harga cult itself. Byrdie Gaither Byrdie is the co-owner of Accuprint Pack 'N' Ship in Beacon, NY. She is a film lover and proud mom to one non-human. #Newsletter #Article #Byrdie #Midsommar #Horror #Cult #AriAster #A24 #Symbolism #Meaning

How Psycho Makes Voyeurs of Us All I have a confession to make: before viewing it in preparation for this article, I had never seen Psycho . I know, I know! But don't we all have certain blind spots in our experience of popular culture? I'm sure there's something you've never seen before that would shock me. Like, I bet you've never seen the 1983 Stratford Festival video production of 'The Mikado!’ Okay, yeah... my cultural reference points are sometimes kind of niche. Maybe that's how I managed to get this far in life without ever seeing Psycho . The thing with a film this iconic, though, is that even if you haven't seen it, you still know certain things about it. (Sixty year-old spoilers ahead!) I knew going into it that Marion would die in the shower. I knew that Norman was the cross-dressing killer. I knew his mother was already dead. I knew Bernard Hermann's piercing, shrieking score. I even knew taxidermied birds would loom over the proceedings. I don't know when or how I first encountered this knowledge. It's just one of those things that you absorb through social osmosis. Like Beowulf. Or The Bible. Or W.A.P. (It stands for "Why 'Aven't-you-seen Psycho ," right?) What's more, this is a film that casts a very long shadow. So a lot of it felt familiar in an eerie, deja vu kind of way. Why? Because I've seen Psycho 's influence on other pieces of media all of my life. A hundred "creepy motel proprietor" scenes gurgled in my subconscious as Norman first appeared. A hundred slasher movie killers crept into the bathroom behind him. Even Hitchcock's groundbreaking use of false protagonists made me think of Game of Thrones . And yet, in a testament to Hitchcock's genius, none of this made the film less suspenseful, engaging, or frightening for me. Granted, I can only imagine what audiences must have experienced watching Psycho for the first time in 1960. The plot twists and subversion of expectation and form must have been thrilling -- yes. But imagine watching it in the cultural context of 1960. Hitchcock was showing audiences things they'd never seen on screen before: sexuality, cross-dressing... toilets! There is so much that's so good about this movie, and it's hard to find anything new to say about it. The shower scene. The black and white. The low budget. The television production crew. The Freudian subtext. Those screeching string instruments. Psycho has been so picked over that a lesser film would be nothing but bleached bones by now. So instead of reiterating the same analyses you can find in dozens of other articles, I want to look at one minute of footage from this film. And no, it's not the one that you're thinking of. The one minute immediately following Marion's death demonstrates a key dynamic of this film: voyeurism, and viewer complicity. (I'm placing my thesis statement at the midpoint of this article because, much like Hitchcock, I'm subverting your expectations. You may now praise me for the next sixty years.) Until her murder, forty-nine minutes into the film, Marion is more than a main character, she's a viewpoint character. Every scene plays out from her point of view, and we witness her every decision. Compare this to Game of Thrones , which pulled off a similar false protagonist subversion. Ned Stark was a main character, for sure, and we see his investigation into the Lannisters from his point of view. But Game of Thrones , of course, juggled many viewpoint characters. Psycho locks us into Marion's head. We even hear her thoughts as she imagines the reactions to her crime. When she's killed, it doesn't only overthrow the story. It rips away our point of view. Not for nothing does Hitchcock begin a fascinating, mostly unbroken shot with an extreme closeup of Marion's dead eye. The subjective narrative has died with her. And yet, the camera is still there. Still filming. With Marion's death, it seems to have become omniscient. It drifts away from her body, aimless, as if unsure what to focus on. As it leaves the bathroom, the camera is drawn immediately to a rolled up newspaper on a nightstand. As audience members, we know that the newspaper conceals the $40,000 that Marion stole. In fact, we've been tracking the whereabouts of that bundle of cash throughout the entire film. Hitchcock has returned our gaze to it over and over, which served to underline Marion's obsessive thoughts and feelings of guilt. But he was also up to something else. He was making sure we were obsessing about where that money was, too. When the camera immediately seeks it out, it seems to read our minds. The movement also delivers a thrilling revelation: we are now the only people who know where the money is. There's a pleasure in knowing more, as an audience member, than the characters do. Hitchcock knows this. He's primed us with our knowledge of the hidden cash. This transition from subjective to omniscient narration is a big part of the shock value of Marion's death, but it also reveals something critical to the foundation of this film. The viewpoint has actually never been inside of Marion's head. It has also never been omniscient. The camera is us: the audience. We've been peeping at Marion this whole time. We are voyeurs. And what's more, by tracking the money, by taking pleasure, and by knowing more than the characters do, we are complicit in their crimes. Our point of view finally lands on Norman, just one short minute of screen time later. And Hitchcock does his due diligence: he leads us to sympathize and identify with Norman as a new protagonist. We watch his emotional reaction. We see him problem-solve. And it works. As Marion's car, corpse, and (unbeknownst to anyone in the film) the money, sink into the swamp, we watch through Norman's eyes. With him, we're nervous that it won't sink all of the way. We are again lulled by the appearance of a subjective viewpoint. But things are not the same. On a fundamental level, our relationship to this narrative has changed. The second half of the film is a protagonist free-for-all. Lila, Sam, and Arbogast all carry the torch at different moments. But if Hitchcock gave us a false sense of subjective narrative, it was a trick from the very beginning. Don’t believe me? Watch the one minute following Marion's death, as the camera roves, seeking a viewpoint. Then, watch the very first shot of the film. The camera roves, the same way, over the streets of Phoenix, seeking something to observe. When it finally settles on Marion, it does so by drifting through a window, into an intimate post-coital moment. We enter the story like Norman at his peephole: sneaking a glimpse of Marion in her underwear, and liking it. From the very beginning of Psycho , Hitchcock has made us voyeurs. Edward Gibbons-Brown (Sometimes) a theatrical director/actor/producer and writer, and (mostly) a bartender and New Beaconite, often found in semi-aimless wander. Edward is pleased and honored to contribute to the most excellent Story Screen.

Hosts Bernadette Gorman-White and Mike Burdge kick-off their exclusive Edgar Wright retrospective-mini-series with a look at three of the director's most well known works: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End . Listen on....

In the first episode of Story Screen Presents new mini-series, Stalking Carpenter , Mike Burdge and Robby Anderson embark on a journey through the filmography of the masterful John Carpenter, starting out with his first two hugely iconic independent features: 1976's Assault on Precinct 13 and 1978's Halloween . Listen on....

Robby has a delightfully cheery conversation with guests, Bernadette Gorman-White and Mike Burdge, about the latest Netflix-Sandler film to release exclusively through the streamer, Hubie Halloween . Throughout, the trio discuss Adam Sandler's career as a whole, the concept of Halloween movies and the absurdity that is Steve Buscemi's continued evolution into Sex-Icon. Listen on....

A Look Back at The Blair Witch Project It’s been over 20 years since I saw The Blair Witch Project in theaters shortly after its release. Back then, I didn’t have a cell phone. NO ONE I knew had a cell phone. There wasn’t any Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. When I went into the theater, I really had no idea what I was about to watch. That first viewing of the “found footage” movie left me both literally and figuratively shaken. (The bumpy camera footage left many viewers with a headache.) I remember feeling completely disoriented after the movie. Was the story real? The actors didn’t look like actors. The film quality was grainy at best. And in the grand scheme of things, the horror of the film wasn’t that far-fetched. The plot was simple: three film students hike off into the woods outside Burkittsville, MD, to make a documentary about a local myth: the Blair Witch. They never return. Their cameras are found much later. The story seemed like something that could actually happen. Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick co-wrote, directed, and produced The Blair Witch Project. They were college students from the University of Central Florida. They wanted to create something within the horror genre that combined the documentaries and horror movies they had always found frightening. The film stars three unknown actors: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard. After some initial equipment training, the three college-age performers were given hand-held cameras and GPS coordinates, then sent off into the woods to improvise dialogue. The film feels fairly unscripted, helping give credibility to the idea that it was actually real found footage. Myrick explained in an interview with Vice that the directors would leave notes for the actors hidden in the woods inside “tiny little film canisters...so they were then told to read their individual directing notes and not tell each other what the other read.” In interviews, Eduardo Sánchez has said: “We would leave them [the actors] alone as much as possible and then intersect with them at certain points with certain directing notes. It was mostly hands-off. We wanted it to feel real. We wanted them to feel like they were really lost.” Meanwhile, the film’s crew members were running around the woods at night, playing recordings of creepy sounds, creating piles of stones, and hanging the wooden figures in trees that came to be synonymous with the Blair Witch. As part of the marketing campaign for the film, Sánchez, Myrick and producer, Mike Monello, launched a website that included the mythology behind the “documentary,” as well as photos of the actors - asking people to help look for the “missing” film students. While it is not the original website, a fairly close replication still exists here. Check it out. It’s pretty fun. The documentary within the film itself includes interviews with “residents” of Burkittsville, MD regarding the legend of the Blair Witch. The varying degrees in which these stories line up, despite being slightly different, make them all the more believable. Much of what is truly frightening about the film is what remains unseen; there are no special effects, only scary figures made out of sticks. We witness through a first person viewpoint as our protagonists run through the woods, hearing screams and sounds off camera. Heather’s “selfie” monologue to the camera has become iconic since the release of Blair Witch . Many who have never seen the movie still recognize the intense close-up of Heather’s face as she cries, nose-dripping, while apologizing for getting her crew into this mess. The shaking camera footage is nauseating and adds to the viewer’s disorientation. The fear of the unknown is much more powerful than any jump scares or costumed monsters that could appear. Back in 1999, film critic Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times , said about the film: At a time when digital techniques can show us almost anything, The Blair Witch Project is a reminder that what really scares us is the stuff we can't see. The noise in the dark is almost always scarier than what makes the noise in the dark. The film continues to build in anticipation, until it reaches its climax at an abandoned house in the woods. The final scenes of the movie were filmed inside the Griggs House, a historic 200 year old building located in Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. In an interview with BuzzFeed , Mike Williams explained how horrible he felt during that final act, because his direction was to run through the house away from his co-star, Heather, leaving her scared and screaming. The ambiguity of the film’s ending is what really sells it. Rather than reveal the Blair Witch, Heather sees Mike standing in a corner of the room before dropping her camera and being (presumably) attacked by something we cannot see. Then the credits roll. Your imagination does the rest. Originally budgeted for around $35,000, Blair Witch was produced for $60,000 and initially grossed $140 million in the US. The film went on to make a worldwide gross of $248.6 million. Over 20 years later, the residents of the real Burkittsville, MD still feel the effects of the film’s release. Sánchez has reflected that if he knew how successful the film was going to be he would not have used the town’s real name. Fans of The Blair Witch Project have stolen the “Welcome to Burkittsville” sign repeatedly; many have visited in hopes of discovering whether or not the witch is real. Unfortunately, some fans even vandalized or desecrated areas like the Burkittsville cemetery, leaving many residents with a bad taste in their mouths regarding the film. As for this viewer, rewatching The Blair Witch Project more than 20 years after its release has only made me appreciate it more. Sánchez and Myrick - two recent college grads - used a simple premise, practical effects and a lot of improvisation to create something that changed the game within the horror genre at the time. Despite the knowledge that the movie is not a documentary, many fans (myself included) still get spooked by unknown sounds and bumps in the night. Diana DiMuro Associate Editor Besides watching TV and movies, Diana likes the great outdoors, drawing and reading comics, and just generally rocking out. She has a BA in English Literature and is an art school drop out. You can follow her on Instagram @dldimuro

This is the second movie I have reviewed in 2020 that relates to women’s rights and state restrictions regarding abortion. In Eliza Hittman’s film, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, we get a stark, but realistic view of the struggles the two main characters endure in order for one of them to get an abortion. They are underage girls from rural Pennsylvania going to New York City in order to receive an abortion without parental consent. The film is uncomfortable – both visually and in tone – and it is, at times, heartbreaking. Nevertheless, it is an exceptional film and deserves your time. You can check out my review of it here . Unpregnant is NOT the same movie; it does, however, deal with very similar subject matter. In this film, a 17-year-old girl from Missouri named Veronica (Haley Lu Richardson) discovers she is pregnant and wishes to have an abortion without her deeply religious parents knowing. Where is the closest state that will allow a 17-year-old to receive an abortion without parental supervision? New Mexico. Veronica teams up with her now-estranged childhood friend Bailey (Barbie Ferreira) to take a road trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico to have said abortion. Thus, begins a weird buddy road trip film, that also deals with a woman’s right to choose. Goldenberg’s film is so vivid in color and landscapes - wide open plains, shiny cars, flashing lights - that the film feels more like Palm Springs than the gray claustrophobic version of New York City in Never Rarely Sometimes Always. The two main characters are friends that grew apart as they entered high school. Bailey embraces her weird: she is a child of divorce, she dyes her hair crazy colors, she is a gamer, and she sits alone at lunch (although this is never explained why, she seems cool to me). Veronica is a preppy smart type A girl; she’s looking forward to going to college, but she happens to have fallen in with a kind (but vapid) group of girls who like mani/pedis and gossiping about their classmates. Veronica’s boyfriend, Kevin, seems like a caring but clueless dude that she is hoping to leave behind upon graduation. Her pregnancy changes that plan when Kevin decides to pop the question in response to the news. This gesture spurs Veronica to plan a trip to New Mexico, and attempt to hock the diamond ring Kevin just gave her along the way to help with the costs of travel and the abortion. This sounds harsh, but Kevin also admits to not telling Veronica that he knew the condom broke about a month ago – thus causing her pregnancy. The major differences between Unpregnant and Never Rarely, really boil down to their differences in tone. Unpregnant is much more reminiscent of Booksmart (another female led buddy trip movie of sorts) but it is far less engaging and funny. Its two main characters are on a journey to regain their connection and rekindle their lost friendship. There is no doubt that Haley Lu Richardson and Barbie Ferreira are both extremely charismatic and have great chemistry with each other. I would definitely watch something starring them again. But the movie as a whole is less engaging than Booksmart or Never Rarely . Kevin pops up again and again, despite being a fairly bland character. We get a few cameos of varying degrees of awesomeness – from an intense pro-lifer played by Breckin Meyer (Clueless), to the always amazing (and highly underutilized) Giancarlo Esposito, playing a limo driver with a heart of gold. In between all of their “on the road shenanigans,” they get a chance to stop at a fair and meet the talented racecar driver and all-around-hottie, Kira (played by singer Betty Who). Bailey is rightfully overwhelmed by this awesome babe, and the two have a short but endearing meet-cute while checking out the rides at the fair. This short scene allows for Bailey to come out to Veronica and have it not be a very big deal. If there's one thing I did especially enjoy about Unpregnant, it was the realistic approach to how it portrayed the friendship between Bailey and Veronica. Their friendship works. This brings me to the film’s conclusion: what worked, and what didn’t. The final act of the film deals with two major plot points: 1) Bailey visits and confronts her estranged father (with Veronica coming to the rescue); and 2) Veronica finally tells Kevin it is: “my life, my choice,” before she finally has an abortion. The lead up to Veronica following Bailey while she attempts to meet her dad works really well. The relationship between these two characters, more than any other characters, is what is really interesting about the film. Their dialogue feels real. It is not especially over the top with unnecessary crying and hugging. And Giancarlo Esposito being there to escort them to the abortion clinic just makes everybody feel good. (Honest, it does). Now, what doesn’t work as well: Kevin and the abortion clinic process itself. Having Kevin pop up again and again throughout the film like Ghostface from Scream is more annoying than anything. He is not particularly evil or interesting. He is just meh. Fairly bland. It seems like a waste of time to have Veronica deal with him again and again vs. having more screen time for another better character (say, Kira?) instead. Once Veronica has her showdown with Kevin in the clinic lobby, we finally have that moment of relief when Veronica is led away to have the procedure. This in my opinion is where the film should end. What happens afterwards seems to taint the positive feelings created by the friendship of these two girls. Part of this is due to the way the abortion clinic is portrayed. The clinic process is so drastically different from the one in Never Rarely that it is very jarring. It is warm and pink, more like a welcoming spa environment than a clinic. I understand that the idea is to portray the procedure in a positive light, but it seems a little over the top after watching Hittman’s more realistic portrayal. Veronica leaves the clinic with Bailey afterwards, ready to go eat a big breakfast, seemingly in no pain whatsoever. Maybe that is the case for some patients? I don’t want to assume. But it seems like a best-case scenario. The two friends make it home - confront their moms - and are back to school on Monday like nothing happened. Only that’s not quite true. Veronica decides that Bailey is the better friend, and forsakes her usual clique to sit with her old friend in the lunchroom and plan future road trips. What it boils down to is: Unpregnant is a pretty fun buddy road trip movie dealing with surprisingly serious issues; Booksmart is a coming of age buddy movie with better jokes and stronger moments of poignancy; Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a more devastating but realistic look at female youth, the predatory nature of our society, and the struggle to maintain a women’s right to choose. But it may still be the best film of the three listed here. Check it out. Diana DiMuro Associate Editor Besides watching TV and movies, Diana likes the great outdoors, drawing and reading comics, and just generally rocking out. She has a BA in English Literature and is an art school drop out. You can follow her on Instagram @dldimuro