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Welcome to Rad Imagination Project, a hub for engaging film reviews that open up conversations on how films can steer us towards a brighter tomorrow.

If you’re like me, you’ve spent the last couple of weeks screaming into the void and are now looking for something meaningful to do. As a film professor who studies culture and social change, I’m doubling down on building community around culture by starting this project. This isn’t a retreat from politics; culture is political! 

Cultural products contain a lot of information about what society considers good or bad, desirable or disgusting. Culture affects what people are scared about, what they are hopeful for, and it influences the types of futures they can envision. Culture can change the world in very real ways; for example, after the release of Bambi hunting in the United States declined and deer populations rose, whereas after the release of Jaws shark hunting increased dramatically and the great white shark became endangered for a time. Much of the technology we have today was dreamt up by science fiction authors before it was executed by scientists and engineers. 

Every week, I will review a new film to determine if it is helpful to us in this moment. In writing these reviews, I’m going to tap my academic training to think about the ideologies of each movie; ideologies are like shared cultural scripts that ask us feel, think, and behave in certain ways. In other words, I’m looking at the film’s deeper messages.

In my reviews, I’ll focus on whether or not these films can help us get through hard times while envisioning a better future. My recommendations will not be based on the question “Is this film ‘good’?” - whatever that means! - but is this film good for you? Is it good for us? Can it help us sustain ourselves while we try to imagine what a better world might look like? 

That’s what radical imagination is: envisioning a future that is better and more equitable than the one we seem to be headed toward, because once you've dreamed up a future in your head you can grasp big ideas and pull them back to the current moment to assemble a plan of action. It’s sending up a flair to light a new path in front of you so others can see the way, too, and you walk that path together. People of color have been doing this work for generations in this country. It’s a way to keep hope alive and move forward.  It’s not about turning away from things that are scary and bad, but about acknowledging reality and then using the power of imagination to create a road map to a better future. 

Each film I review will be rated 1-5 rainbow light bulbs to indicate its radical imagination quotient. In order to determine the larger messages of the film, I will run it through what I call my (ID)ology Decoder Ring. This is a list of questions I’ve come up with over my years of teaching film studies to university students. Asking questions about the following three things can help us get to the heart of a movie’s meaning quickly:

1) Historical context: What was shaping culture when this film was made?

2) Ethics:  What qualities are considered good within the world of the film? Bad?

3) Problems/Solutions: What are the problems that keep the protagonists from achieving their goals? What are the real or imagined solutions to those problems?  How do those problems and solutions correspond to anxieties and hopes in the real world? 

Once you’ve answered those questions, you can answer the big question:

4) Message: What does this film imply we should think, feel, or do in our own lives?

In my ratings, one light bulb will mean that the film has little to offer; a five-lightbulb rating means that the film is rich in content to sustain our spirits and help us move toward a better future. 

In addition to rating each film based on its radical imagination potential, I will also assess its

Energy Vampire Factor: 

I’ll give you a heads-up about how much watching the film will take out of you in the short term, even if it’s worth it in the long term. Each film will get an “energy vampire” rating of 1-5 blood drops. I’ll also note if there are any serious triggers so you can take care of yourself while engaging deeply with movies. 

Enjoyability: 

This is important! I may sometimes argue that a movie is worth watching even if the experience of watching it is kind of rough, but I’m going to let you know whether that’s the case upfront so you can make informed decisions about whether and when you want to watch it. 

Artistry: 

Is this movie beautiful to watch? Is the acting good? Is the story well told? I'll let you know!

It's my hope that this site builds community. I want to remind myself and others that we can find agency in unexpected places, even when things seem grim. Good ideas are everywhere. Let’s face the hard stuff together while looking for glimmers of the path forward. R.I.P. to the old world - we’re drawing a map to a better one.