Brandon Wagner

Opinion Editor | Brandon Wagner is a College Senior from God Only Knows Where, America studying Film and Media Studies with a minor in Religion. This is his first year for the Wheel, in a likely misguided experiment to be a film critic. When he's not writing on the biggest blockbusters or the films of Spike Jonze or Andrei Tarkovsky or Zack Snyder, he's writing on comedic television, the future of gaming as an art, or the relationship between audience and cinematic experience. In other words, Brandon Wagner has basically nothing else going on but this.

Hot on VOD Pt. 1: After the Apocalypse

Hot on VOD Pt. 1: After the Apocalypse

Posted by | Oct 1, 2015

Munro Chambers (left) and Laurence Leboeuf in 'Turbo Kid.' / Courtesy of Epic Pictures Group Welcome to Hot on VOD. This column highlights some of the more interesting or relevant films that appear on the video on demand, or VOD, platform. VOD is a new avenue for digital subscription that involves purchasing films to stream [...]

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American Ultra’s genre mash-up thrills provide mixed results

American Ultra’s genre mash-up thrills provide mixed results

Posted by | Sep 11, 2015

Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart in a promotional poster for American Ultra. Courtesy of Lionsgate. The mixed reaction is likely the hardest to process for any filmgoer or, really, any person. Human nature is to classify our experiences into good and bad. So when anything is a mix of both, it tends to get shoved [...]

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‘Mistress America,’ An Effortless Meditation on the Joys of Youth

‘Mistress America,’ An Effortless Meditation on the Joys of Youth

Posted by | Sep 7, 2015

Director/writer/the idol of every self-identified “indie” guy Noah Baumbach has been a man on a mission. It seems that this year he’s set out to document and explore the world of millennials. His first film this year, the disappointing “While We’re Young,” set out to document the world through the eyes of the cynical Generation [...]

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You’re Living in a Golden Age of TV Comedy

You’re Living in a Golden Age of TV Comedy

Posted by | Sep 1, 2015

“My sense is that 2015 or 2016 will represent peak TV in America and that we’ll begin to see decline coming the year after that and beyond,” President of FX Networks John Landgraf said at this year’s seemingly endless semi-annual Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles. Whether or not you believe that the [...]

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