Whether it’s succumbing to grief and seeking revenge for a loved one, reclaiming your humanity in a journey to spread your wife’s ashes with your son, or discovering what it means to be human as artificial intelligence, video games can produce authentic and powerful emotions through stories we would otherwise be unable to live.
I curated a playlist of songs that make me feel warm, anticipating that I’d need some soothing music to help me get through the next few months of cold temperatures.
I watched “The Virgin Suicides” twenty-five years after its release, and after speaking to a few friends, it’s clear that director Sofia Coppola’s stylistic choices may not be fully grasped by a modern audience. It is a shocking and polarizing movie — one that some see as fetishizing girls as well as mental illness.
I find horror films to be a wonderful merchant of empathy and understanding. Even through all the gore and terror, they still serve as a way for viewers to feel seen and heard, as well as supplying some much-needed escapism every now and then.
While she’s normally making headlines for her controversial body stature, Barbie is now making news for another reason: coming to a theater near you on July 21 is Greta Gerwig’s real-life adaptation of “Barbie”—but we would be remiss if we didn’t discuss how this stereotypical casting contributes to the unrealistic beauty standard discourse.
The art of storytelling — from books, to plays, to the big screen — is a timeless form of expression, but we cannot lose ourselves to escapism within these narratives.
If Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ reputation for posterity is going to be “the pandemic game” — which seems to be the case, if 2020 year-in-review articles are any indication — I hope people remember more than just its obvious utility as an escapist fantasy.
