A Poet at the Pictures

The Creature, the Prince, and the Human Condition: Reflections on Hamlet's Soliloquy and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
The Creature, the Prince, and the Human Condition: Reflections on Hamlet's Soliloquy and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
words by J.A.G. Mabbutt   To be or not to be? A question often recited and orbited by academics, actors, directors, and creatives across the centuries since Shakespeare first etched... Read more...
Human Transgression and Natural Consequence in I Kicked a Mushroom and The Green Knight
Human Transgression and Natural Consequence in I Kicked a Mushroom and The Green Knight
words by J.A.G Mabbutt Causality dictates that every action, in effect, is bound to have a consequence. As humans, we cannot ignore this principle because we have enough power and... Read more...
Depression, Chaos, and Clarity in Melancholia and Coney Island of the Mind 8
Depression, Chaos, and Clarity in Melancholia and Coney Island of the Mind 8
words by J.A.G. Mabbutt | image credit Alamy Do depressed people react better to disaster? Do they inhabit a calmness that is lacking in others? Is judgment day just another... Read more...
Liberating Cinematic and Poetic Narratives of Black Female Revolutionary Identity
Liberating Cinematic and Poetic Narratives of Black Female Revolutionary Identity
words by Josh Mabbutt   If someone had told me that the best film of 2025 would be a Thomas Pynchon-inspired, thunderously dynamic work that borrows its protagonist’s quirks from... Read more...
Black Femininity, Biopower, and the Whiteness of Romantic Narratives
Black Femininity, Biopower, and the Whiteness of Romantic Narratives
words by J.A.G. Mabbutt | photo of Jackie Kay by Caroline Forbes, 2007 The absence of ‘blackness’ in both cinema and classic literature is unquestionable. While arts and cultures have... Read more...
Romantic Ideals and Material Realities in Pride and Prejudice and Materialists
Romantic Ideals and Material Realities in Pride and Prejudice and Materialists
word by Josh Mabbutt   Celine Song’s sophomore work, Materialists (2025), is a film burdened with the challenging task of repeating the riotous acclaim of her first film, Past Lives... Read more...
A Place as a Personal Mythology in Patricia Lockwood’s The Arch and David Lowery’s A Ghost Story
A Place as a Personal Mythology in Patricia Lockwood’s The Arch and David Lowery’s A Ghost Story
words by J.A.G Mabbutt Places present difficulties and challenges. In their symbolism, they might offer us sanctuary, being locations that lend themselves to profound memories. Alternatively, in our observation of... Read more...
Magnifying the fear beneath the fairytale in Weapons and The Stolen Child
Magnifying the fear beneath the fairytale in Weapons and The Stolen Child
Often fairytales have a disguised, darker, more sinister seed buried beneath the roots of their fantastical worlds. In the latest Horror blockbuster ‘Weapons’, and the poem ‘The Stolen Child,’ both... Read more...