The Cinematropolis

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The Innocent and Unlikely Little Shop of Horrors
November 7, 2017

The Cinematropolis cofounder, Jacob Leighton Burns kicks off our November theme by reflecting on the film experience he’s most thankful for this season, Little Shop of Horrors.

A sea of stars fades into view, a drum roll leads us to the first familiar orchestral hits, and then, “On the twenty-third…

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Featured The Cinematic Schematic
Do Podcasts Dream of Electric Sheep? – The Cinematic Schematic #1
October 30, 2017

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Welcome to the debut episode of The Cinematic Schematic, the official podcast of The Cinematropolis. Each month, The Cinematic Schematic will deliver a multi-segment show covering different aspects of our monthly theme. As the title of the episode “Do Podcasts Dream of Electric Sheep,” hints, October 2017’s theme was…

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Now Playing
Jigsaw: When a Fan Film Misses the Point
October 28, 2017

Welcome to the first edition of Now Playing, The Cinematropolis’s essay dedicated to new releases.

After seven years away from the big screen, the Saw franchise has finally made a return. In the world of studio filmmaking, the runaway success of the annual franchise year after year made a…

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Essays
The Deathly Dangers of Creating A David
October 27, 2017

Spoilers for Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are discussed in this article.

Synthetic humans AKA androids are created to be human entities without the vices of their creators— greed and emotion — They are “more human than human,” as the inventor of the replicants, Dr. Eldon Tyrell, proclaimed in Blade Runner. They…

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Becoming Human: What Blade Runner Reveals About Humanity Through AI
October 17, 2017

Spoilers for Blade Runner(1982) and Blade Runner 2049 lay ahead!

Creating sentient beings and exploring exactly what might happen when the human race finally cracks the code to create new life is one of genre cinema’s favorite past times. Ever since the idea was first realized on film with 1927’s…

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Essays Featured
Mother! Should Be Retitled “The Gospel of Aronofsky”
September 28, 2017

FULL MOTHER! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Darren Aronofsky has long been one of the more polarizing filmmakers of our time. He made himself a name with films like Requiem for a Dream, Pi, and The Wrestler eventually rising to the ranks of Oscar contender with Black Swan. Mother! isn’t quite like any of those films,…

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Stephen King: Master of Horror or Cultural Critic?
September 12, 2017

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” – Stephen King.

As we approach the end of the second decade of the millennium, it is fair to argue that the single most innovative, psychological, and intellectually stimulating literary or cinematic…

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Essays Featured
What Does Captain America: Winter Soldier Have To Do With Fighting the Alt-Right?
August 24, 2017

Remember 2014 when the idea of our government being taken over by white nationalists, fascists, and, yes, even Nazis seemed so far-fetched that it was the plot of a Marvel Cinematic Universe masterpiece? Well, now we live in a time where such an idea is so realistic…

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Essays Featured
Detroit in 8 Mile: The City of Broken Artists
August 10, 2017

Cracks in a dingy bathroom mirror warp Jimmy Smith’s face. He runs in place with Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones (Pt. II)” blasting in his headphones as he mimes his practice moves in the mirror to prepare for a battle. A battle not fought with a sword, but with a…

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