the kino park

     one of the more dynamic images in Thunderbolts* * this review includes non-specific spoilers for the film*      Perhaps it is surprising, if tragically still not a saving grace, that the first Marvel movie in several years to actually somewhat get me, if not to the theater then at least to press play, features its characters grappling to reconcile “nothingness.” In the six plus years that have somehow elapsed since Avengers: Endgame , it has become a conventional take that the once mighty Marvel Studios has lost its way, however, as can happen, sometimes convention is accurate. Even allowing for the odd glimmer of life, the (seemingly) endless onslaught of Marvel properties of the past few years have by and large verged from outright unwatchable to merely poorly made. Diagnoses for these conditions have come from everywhere and everyone, perhaps even all at once, and while I readily admit that I held on longer than some, quitting somewhere around Moon ...

a child behaving normally *no overt spoilers, though allusions are made to major plot points and the ending of the film, though these might not be spoilers in the purest sense* “What did we learn?” can be a double edged sword, and in that way, a often preferred *weapon* of the critic. While the declaration certainly hopes to provoke further education and study, or at the very least reflection, it can also often serve as, especially in cases of critical analysis, a compressing process, one that smashes a certain work into the confines of a singular theme, or dare I even utter the word, moral. While many a genre can suffer when placed in this context, the horror genre is typical fodder for these oversimplifications, and it is admittedly not much of a surprise. “What [can] we learn,” seems at times an honest response when faced with repeated mutilations of unwitting teenagers, sprees of grisly murders, or yet another exorcism, yet, likely thanks to its innate emotional triggers, the horro...