What's in the Frame

            If you’ve been on Facebook and seen videos of cops dancing to pop music or read an article about the police saving a kitten, you’ve been exposed to propaganda, or in this case, copaganda. The media has become saturated with imagery of “good” cops ever since the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction. In the digital age, police officers have had to up their PR game in order to keep the public’s trust. This form of marketing has transformed from quite obvious to more subtle and insidious. Copaganda has been able to permeate into our society through not only strategic reporting but also television shows and films.             One of the most recent examples of copaganda I was able to sniff out is Brooklyn Nine-Nine , the NBC comedy about a diverse group of quirky cops. The timing of the release of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is no accident. The show premiered on September 17, 2013, only tw...

            Now that the decade is coming to a close, we can know look back on the last ten years with clear eyes. The 2010s were dominated by surprise albums, Game of Thrones, and most importantly, Disney movies. Now, with the massive footprint Disney has left on our culture, it’s hard to imagine them as a struggling and desolate production company. The status Disney has today, however, didn’t happen overnight. The formula that Disney successfully crafted has now become weaponized against other studios to slowly shut them out and keep them from finding the same gradual success.             It’s common knowledge that Disney has, over the past decade, come to be the dominant force in both Hollywood and at the box office. An anonymous filmmaker told BuzzFeed News, “The days of competition are over. This is not, like, the Yankees win some, and the Red Sox win some, and occasio...

            When I walked into Honey Boy , I expected to see nothing more than a semi-biographical film about Shia LaBeouf’s turbulent childhood in the spotlight. When I left Honey Boy , I felt torn open, raw, and exposed. I felt a sense of healing—of peace. A feeling that Shia LaBeouf has been so desperately grasping for over the course of his life. Honey Boy (2019) dir. Alma Har'el LaBeouf’s retelling of his childhood is not an act of self-flagellation. He isn’t forcing pity out of his audience. LaBeouf is simply a man trying to find peace with his father in the best way he can—his art. Despite all of father’s faults—the abuse, the abandonment, the trauma—LaBeouf’s approach to his paternal guidance, or lack thereof, is kind. He isn’t trying to publicly shame his father for the years of pain and violence that were inflicted on him. He instead chooses to show a lost and broken man trying to navigate the world right alongside his 12-year-old son. ...