The Work of Survival in Before Tomorrow

By the light of a seal oil lamp, Ninioq (played by co-director Madeline Ivalu) begins her nightly tradition of telling tales to her grandson Maniq (Ivalu’s real life grandson, Paul-Dylan Ivalu). In the darkness, these stories are as much about passing the time as they are about survival. Demonstrating how every part of life can […]

“Can I Fuck This?”: Alex Garland’s Ex Machina

For all their glossy futurism, female cyborg stories overwhelmingly pivot on the immemorial horror of rape. Whether such films and TV shows allegorize radical social upheaval or contemplate the mysteries of human consciousness, rape scenes inevitably lurk within their narratives. Sexual assault plots pair frequently enough with women’s bodies onscreen, but when those bodies are […]