An earlier analysis of whether movies lag or lead historical events failed to yield a definitive answer. This finding of chronological ambiguity could be because the events evaluated were discrete historical moments, not broad societal trends spanning decades. To evaluate whether movies lag or lead broad societal trends, we examine movies that may relate to the growing distrust of governmental authority in the United States. Such "paranoia pictures" were first made during WWII, enjoyed a sharp rise in popularity in the early 1970s, and began to decline in popularity in the early 2000s. The rise in popularity reflects a growing distrust of the motives of government, while the decline in paranoia pictures may mean the genre is flawed as it fails to offer viewers a sense of catharsis. Paranoia pictures became prevalent coincident with our growing distrust of public institutions, and our distrust was reflected back to us from the movie screen, in a way that validated and may have augmented our angst and anxiety. We conclude that movies can both lag and lead societal trends; they are not so much a cause or consequence of societal trends as a way to process emotions associated with historical events.
This paper introduces the concept of "queer cuts" and explores it through two popular North American pieces of filmed media: Russian Doll (2019-present) and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Both Russian Doll and Everything Everywhere are contemporary pieces of speculative fiction, featuring female protagonists who are members of a diaspora (Jewish-American and Chinese-American respectively). Russian Doll's Nadia is sent back through time to occupy her mother's and grandmother's bodies in 1980s New York and Nazi-occupied Budapest, while Everything Everywhere's Evelyn can "verse-jump" into infinite alternate versions of herself, whether a queer woman, kung fu master, or sentient rock. Queer cuts smash together "real" histories and alternative pasts and presents through film techniques, allowing characters and viewers to recover lost or deliberately erased histories. Queer cuts are more of a philosophy than a specific aesthetic, choosing to emphasize a sense of uncanny unreality that repudiates realism narratives in favor of joyfully queer manipulation of time and space via a near-invisible cut. These practices heighten both the arbitrariness of the present and the past as navigable and recoverable, whether to emphasize a queer model of history or highlight the non-inevitability of any present day normativities.
Liam Calvert's feature-length debut A Night Like This (2025) draws inspiration from classics such as Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise (1995). Set in London over the course of an evening, the film brings together the privileged Oliver (Alexander Lincoln) and the gay actor Lukas (Jack Brett Anderson). This chance meeting at a pub proves transformative for them both as they confront their individual traumas. As the night progresses, they come to know each other, and we them. In this interview, Calvert goes over his inspirations for this dialogue-heavy film, how it evolved and developed with the casting of Lincoln and Anderson, the changes to London including those brought about by Brexit, and the characters' physical and emotional journeys as they tour the city. We see and experience London, including some hidden gems, through their eyes. This interview advances scholarship by introducing us to Calvert's project, by going over some of the affordances and challenges of filming in the city, and by exploring how he sees the characters developing (and not developing).
