The Odyssey

"Step up and show me who you are."

How can one review a thousands-of-years-old poem, given the movie treatment by one of the biggest movie directors working today, who, himself, is a myth in his own right? Let’s find out together!

Dunkirk

"...This is a pleasure yacht. You're weekend sailors, not the bloody navy!"

Dunkirk isn't your average World War II movie. It may not even be a war movie, at all. It is a big spectacle (with cross-cutting galore), and all of the crafts firing on all cylinders but instead of big battle scenes and 'men in rooms' strategizing, it pinpoints a specific window of time in the early days of the war, one whose outcome would have had a staggering effect on England's psychology.

Inception

"A man possessed of some radical notions..."

Have you ever seen the logo for Christopher Nolan’s production company, SYNCOPY?

Insomnia

“You’re my job. You’re what I am paid to do.”

Halfway though Insomnia, I was wondering: Could Detective Will Dormer (played by Al Pacino) sleep better during the Alaskan midnight sun if he hadn’t been plagued by guilt, or could the darkness of nightfall have provided adequate passage to sleep, even with his guilt? It’s hard to say. This upside down kind of question is not only the sort of thing that Christopher Nolan likes to toil with in fiction, in the real-life lead up to being hired to direct Insomnia also lay an upside down question.

Following

"You take it away and show them what they had."

Inside Chris Nolan's Following are two wolves. (There are also two wolves inside of Chris Nolan, but we'll get to that later.) One is a scruffy, wannabe writer who lacks self-confidence (he calls himself "Bill" but is credited as "Young Man") and the other is a smooth, coiffed and dashing thief named Cobb. These two men represent a duality. Could the difference between them simply be defined by clothing and swagger? Well, yes, in a way. And also no.

Hamilton: An Exquisite Corpse Review

It all started, as such things do, about 100 years ago with some extraordinarily drunk French surrealists.

Their legacy lives on here, in the Agents of Doux exquisite corpse review of 'Hamilton: The Version Currently Airing on Disney+.'

The X-Files: Nothing Lasts Forever

Case: The ritualistic nature of a crime scene catches Mulder and Scully's attention.

Destination: NYC, D.C.

A complicated episode that produces complicated feelings in this X-Phile.

The X-Files: Rm9sbG93ZXJz

Case: Mulder and Scully reconnect to one another after they're awakened to the imperfectness of technology.

Destination: D.C.

Black Mirror meets Christine.

The X-Files: Ghouli

Case: Two teenage girls attack each other, but claim that they were attacking a monster.

Destination: Norfolk, Virginia

Morgan and Wong! The bad boys of FOX are back, you guys.

The X-Files: Plus One

Case: A rash of unusual suicides leads Mulder and Scully to a quirky set of twins.

Destination: Virginia

Well, here we all are again, with a Chris Carter penned episode.

The X-Files: My Struggle III

Well, that title seems right for the faithful X-Phile. (Except why stop at three?)

The X-Files: Underneath

Case: John has to re-solve an old case involving mistaken identity.

Destination: New York

Ever notice how multiple Doggett-centric episodes are like The X-Files: NYPD edition?

The X-Files: Hellbound

Case: Murder victims of a cyclical serial killer emerge once again.

Destination: Novi, VA.

Reyes relives her past, and by past I mean past lives (because The X-Files) in this lyrical addition to the ninth season.

The X-Files: 4-D

Case: While pursuing a suspect, Doggett crosses into a parallel universe, where he needs help from Reyes to bring him back.

Destination: D.C. and D.C. adjacent.

Doggett and Reyes get their 'Folie a Deux' in '4-D'.

The X-Files: Existence

Case: Agent Scully is ready to have her baby but a crew of super soldiers wants to intervene.

Destination: DC, Doggett's hometown (location never revealed)

It all ends here! Well, not all of it. Let me try that again. Lots of things end here in 'Existence'.

The X-Files: Empedocles

Case: A man who was recently fired, seemingly becomes possessed and shoots his boss.

Destination: New Orleans, LA

Elegant and seamless, this episode isn't. But! It does portray the better and more interesting qualities about Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) in a pretty great way. And, in turn, we become quite endeared to her.

The X-Files: Per Manum

Case: A genetic clinic is under suspicion for tampering with the fertility process.

Destination: Germantown, Maryland

'Per Manum' — Have you seen it? Scully was a patient at a fertility clinic, and Mulder was the donor! RETCON.

The X-Files: The Gift

Case: Doggett retraces Mulder's steps to find strange happenings in a small community.

Destination: Squamash, Pennsylvania

'The Gift' is an X-Files invitation to Agent Doggett to go big or go home. A Scully-free episode, and one where Doggett's mettle is tested on every level, this episode pulls off some nice moves.

The X-Files: Salvage

Case: A man is found dead by mysterious circumstances, not the least of them that the crime scene is covered with the DNA from his recently deceased friend.

Destination: Muncie, Indiana

'Salvage' is another very decent episode, in a string of them, and it even throws in some in-jokes on behalf of Robert Patrick.

The X-Files: Invocation

Case: A boy, abducted 10 years ago, returns, having not aged a day.

Destination: Dexter, Oklahoma

We find out Agent Doggett had a son in this mediocre retread of several X-Files of yore.