Saturday, May 23, 2009

The Film Reviews of Rob Ager

Rob Ager's Youtube videos - start here for his analysis of The Shining - are brilliant, detailed looks at various horror and SF films. Occasionally - in the two reviews I've looked at - Ager stretches credibility, but for the most part, he does an excellent job at teasing out levels of subtextual meaning and symbolism within these films (for example, that the genocide of Native Americans plays a significant role in The Shining - a film I actually don't care for, because of, I believe, its strong misogynist streak, but that undoubtedly has a great deal of craft and intelligence in it). I had always sensed that this American genocide was figured in the film, but Ager impresses me mightily by teasing out several details that I had previously missed, and has won my admiration for seeing more than I did and making convincing arguments that what he sees is indeed present in the film. Ager's website, which I have not looked at yet, is at http://www.collativelearning.com/ ...I'll be spending a good part of the day looking at his video reviews of Alien, The Exorcist, Psycho, and more...

Thanks to Theodore Stinks of the Art Bergmann fansite for pointing this stuff out!

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