Category: Criticism

Criticism

Bath Haus Asks the Question: Aren’t Gay Sugar Daddies the Ultimate Villain?

P. J. Vernon has perhaps done the previously unthinkable: set himself apart from the usual mold of gay fiction with his sophomore novel, Bath Haus. Unlike more recent efforts in the gay male genre, namely Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s Yes, Daddy, inexplicably praised with generic words like “propulsive” and “ambitious” (sort of a polite way of saying that the ambition was not achieved), Bath Haus turns expectation on its ear through a thriller … Continue reading Bath Haus Asks the Question: Aren’t Gay Sugar Daddies the Ultimate Villain?

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Criticism

It’s Not the Internet, It’s You: Fake Accounts

Being meta is pretty much essential to the twenty-first century “novel.” So is exhibiting signs of “immediate retromania.” In the case of Fake Accounts (a non-risqué double entendre of a title), that means taking us “all the way back” to the Women’s March that transpired on Donald Trump’s inauguration day in 2017. As Lauren Oyler’s debut, Fake Accounts firmly establishes her place in the usual insular “New York … Continue reading It’s Not the Internet, It’s You: Fake Accounts

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Criticism

Women Posing As Men Posing As Women

As recently as this year, a movie was released with a preproduction backstory that included how the female director considered submitting the script under a male pen name. Lisa Joy, the writer in question of Reminiscence, feared that because of her gender, she wouldn’t be taken seriously in the “action” genre. Naturally, her attempts to “prove herself” as a woman in the male-dominated category failed spectacularly … Continue reading Women Posing As Men Posing As Women

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Criticism

The Library and Literature of Gunpowder Milkshake

There are few movies that make libraries “sexy” (or even use libraries at all for that matter). Certainly not The Pagemaster. Maybe Funny Face. But with Navot Papushado’s latest film, Gunpowder Milkshake, the cachet of the library might just get a brief defibrillation (because Ghostbusters and The Day After Tomorrow certainly did not make the library look inviting, nor did Sex and the City: The Movie with Carrie and her dramatic “left at the … Continue reading The Library and Literature of Gunpowder Milkshake

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Criticism

Yes, Daddy Is A No

In 2005, a “trick” movie called Self Medicated was released. “Trick” not meaning prostitute, so much as deception. Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s Yes, Daddy, in some sense, feels like that movie. It’s marketed as being “raw” and “unbridled,” when, in fact, it’s all ultimately a bid to get people to see the “good” in Christianity (or at least Christian principles)—no matter how many times it (and life) fucks you over. … Continue reading Yes, Daddy Is A No

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Criticism

2012 and Alcoholism Survivor Support Group: Megan Nolan’s Acts of Desperation

Like her main character, Megan Nolan feels bad. Bad that she couldn’t have offered a “cheerier” book, perhaps, to the masses–but most especially bad for those in her hometown of Waterford, Ireland, which also cameos in what, for some, might be an all too recognizable tale. Aptly called Acts of Desperation. A title, in fact, that makes one marvel at how no author ever thought … Continue reading 2012 and Alcoholism Survivor Support Group: Megan Nolan’s Acts of Desperation

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Criticism

When Will You Accept Yourself?: Milk Fed

We don’t choose to exist on this earth any more than we choose who our mother might be. Accordingly, Melissa Broder’s latest, Milk Fed, wields Mother as the crux of Rachel’s daily struggle. Just three years after the release of The Pisces, Broder is building on an oeuvre of highly specialized neuroticism. The kind, they say, is unique to the Semitic mindset. And oh how … Continue reading When Will You Accept Yourself?: Milk Fed

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Criticism

Invented Work and Patheticness…Not Amplified, But Described As Office Life Truly Is: Halle Butler’s Jillian and The New Me

Although released four years apart, there can be no denying that Halle Butler’s debut novel, Jillian, is now like a “sister book” to The New Me (you know, the way Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore are “sister albums”). Variations on a theme, if you will, and an extremely grim one. Even if there are actually freaks in this world who–in the wake of corona “forcing” … Continue reading Invented Work and Patheticness…Not Amplified, But Described As Office Life Truly Is: Halle Butler’s Jillian and The New Me

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Criticism

Joan Didion Knows Where to Cut: Plucking Flowers With “Pretty Nancy”

The excitement surrounding Joan Didion’s release of a “new” book called Let Me Tell You What I Mean needn’t be mitigated by the fact that it is a collection of older essays (previously unreleased, therefore everything old is new again), gathered from 1968 to 2000. For Didion is perhaps at her most signaturely eviscerating during this period, and one wonders if a release of truly … Continue reading Joan Didion Knows Where to Cut: Plucking Flowers With “Pretty Nancy”

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Criticism

The Basement Poetry Reading Comes To the Capitol (And No, That’s Not A Compliment)

It is said that you cannot judge someone “so young” with the same yardstick of measurement that you would someone more mature, more established in their field. With 22-year-old Amanda Gorman’s poetry reading at Joe Biden’s inauguration, however, that becomes something of a tall order. Her delivery of the roughly six-minute long “The Hill We Climb” felt, by and large, rough-hewn, as though we were … Continue reading The Basement Poetry Reading Comes To the Capitol (And No, That’s Not A Compliment)

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