It always starts with a lighthouse

How BioShock makes you forget you’re playing a game (2K Games)

Review
Rebecca de Jongh
6 minutes to read
13/10/2023

BioShock's narrative and clever game design fully immerse you into its story. You forget you are playing a game until suddenly the game makes you painfully aware you were never truly in control...

BioShock's narrative and clever game design fully immerse you into its story. You forget you are playing a game until suddenly the game makes you painfully aware you were never truly in control...

JEf Verschueren, complicity, practice, discourse

Complicity in practice and discourse (Jef Verschueren)

Review
Tom Van Hout
16/08/2023
4 minutes to read

In this thought-provoking essay, Jef Verschueren marshals progressive values of solidarity, community, and engagement and compels us to embrace and share responsibility for a healthier public sphere. 

Stephen King's mixed bag of a Fairy Tale (Stephen King)

Review
Vinicio Ntouvlis
29/03/2023
7 minutes to read

Stephen King's 65th novel is a loving tribute to the stories he grew up with, but does it have a worthwhile new one to offer?

the joy luck club movie review

The Joy Luck Club: the joy in finally being understood (Amy Tan (author); Wayne Wang (director))

Review
Jessaline Tanjung
23/12/2022
10 minutes to read

The Joy Luck Club is the pioneer of Asian American representation on the big screen. It emphasizes the expectations to be 'Chinese' from your own family and the struggle to be understood by your own family, all due to the cultural gaps.

Promotional material for GLOW

GLOW: Critiquing the Stereotypes of American Identities on TV (Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch)

Review
Marit van Dijck
05/10/2022
8 minutes to read

Glow critiques how stereotypes in the media do not do justice to the complex lived realities of multicultural individuals in America through the juxtaposition of stereotypical performances with the lived realities of individuals.

 

Wie is de Mol?, more than a TV show (Wie is de Mol?)

Review
Kristi van der Zanden
28/09/2022
6 minutes to read

"Wie is de Mol?" is a reality show with a very active and partecipative fanbase. Learn about how the fanbase and the production are creating a collective culture. 

Five of the main characters of Skam walking, with yellow text saying SKAM in front of them.

The lived experience of teenagers in Norway and beyond in Skam (Julie Andem)

Review
Marieke Weeda
07/09/2022
7 minutes to read

This review explains how greatly the Norwegian show SKAM deals with themes of identity in both globally universal and locally specific ways.

Rhythm and Rebellion - a review of Fela Kuti’s activism and music (Fela Kuti)

Review
Daniel Obubo
19/11/2021
10 minutes to read

This review looks into two songs by Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti, Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense and Sorrow tears and Blood.

TACOMA(2017) (Steve Gaynor, Nina Freeman)

Review
Daniel Obubo
12/12/2021
11 minutes to read

This review explores the procedural and rhetorical rules involved in videogames as well as narrative and database aesthetic techniques utilized in the 2017 adventure videogame Tacoma.

Deep Medicine - review

Can artificial intelligence make medicine more humane? (Eric Topol)

Review
Jenny Slatman
22/11/2021
7 minutes to read

Eric Topol, the author of Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again (2019), argues in this book that articificial intelligence can make healthcare more humane. 

kajillionaire

California scheming: Miranda July's Kajillionaire (Miranda July)

Review
Bettie Cörvers
04/06/2021
8 minutes to read

In Miranda July's 2020 film Kajillionaire, Old Dolio's life is turned upside down when her criminal parents invite an outsider to join them in their scamming practices. She feels the need to detach from her hustling parents.

Netflix series Emily In Paris

Emily in Paris: Bonjour clichés! (Darren Star)

Review
Tinka Krikke
05/05/2021
8 minutes to read

The new series 'Emily in Paris' has already received a lot of attention, but not without the critique. Parisians are routinely portrayed with a very essentialized and stereotypical national identity, which shapes our idea of 'Frenchness'. 

Westworld review hbo thinking

'Westworld' - The Contemporary Jurassic Park You Cannot Miss Watching (Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy)

Review
Kristiana Naydenova
09/05/2018
5 minutes to read

The new HBO series 'Westworld' is intelligent and full of mysteries for the patient viewer to uncover. Everyone interested in exploring the humand mind and behavior will love it.