I earned my M.A. in Cinema Studies from SCAD and received the program's Outstanding Achievement Award and Most Outstanding Thesis of the Year Award. I am an alumna of the New York Film Festival Critics Academy.
Currently, I am a Staff Writer for SlashFilm and also the Managing Editor of BOSS: The Biannual Online-Journal of Springsteen Studies.
My book Springsteen as Soundtrack: The Sound of the Boss in Film and Television (McFarland & Company, Inc.) is available now!
Virginity on Screen: The First Time in American Teen Films is available for pre-order.
Take a look at some of my clips here
Read some of my notable work below
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IndieWire
Westerns, Redefined: How Two New Movies Provide Fresh Meaning to a Dated Genre
Both Chloe Zhao and Valeski Grisebach cast actors to play versions of themselves and constructed narratives loosely based on their lives — and neither movie relied on a traditional screenplay. These inventive techniques provide a sense of candid verisimilitude rarely seen in the scrupulously-constructed western genre.
Roger Ebert
The Underrated Sayles: An Appreciation of Baby It's You on Its 40th Anniversary
A complex portrait of growing up, Baby It's You explores an important but largely underrepresented time period in young people’s lives, when you romanticize your school memories and confront your destiny.
Polygon
Ariel was always a role model, but the live-action Little Mermaid makes her stronger
The changes in the latest adaptation of The Little Mermaid let Ariel break even further out of her traditional Disney shell, and turn her into a dynamic female protagonist who’s truly admirable.
Vulture
The Best Masturbation Scenes, Ranked
It’s been 25 years since ‘American Pie’ showed us one of the goofiest ways to beat off, but plenty of other films have led the charge for more open, subversive, or just plain weird depictions of masturbation.
Roger Ebert
How Martin Scorsese Uses Music to Enhance His Visions
Scorsese's robust body of work invites us to examine how his use of popular music has shifted and blossomed across the decades, becoming one of his most indelible directorial hallmarks. This perfect harmony of music and image creates visceral moments that arrest the audience with cinematic sophistication and contours narratives with a greater emotional depth and cultural resonance.
Vague Visages
Grief is the Key to Getting ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’
While the Coen brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ primarily revolves around a musician hungry for success within the waning genre of folk music during the 1960s, it is grief that emerges as the film’s veneer. The overwhelming emotion cloaks every element, including the visuals, the featured music, Oscar Isaac’s downtrodden lead performance, and the overall structure.
Film Daze
How Female Filmmakers Are Redefining Virginity Tropes
It was not until recently that coming-of-age films moved away from a male-centric, traditional vision of virginity towards a sex-positive, feminist one. The creatives behind the scenes pushing for these changes are often women; female writers and directors are stepping up to transform cinema’s frequently unhealthy portrayal of teenage sexuality.
The Daily Beast
In Her PC Games, Barbie Taught ’90s Kids They Could Do It All
They are especially uplifting for young girls, teaching that there is more than one definition of femininity. Our desires to hit the slopes, study dolphins, or get married are equally valid. Barbie’s entry into the digital age gave me the tools to discover and embrace my true, unique self.
Fandor
How Clint Mansell Scored Requiem for a Dream
Mansell worked with the Kronos Quartet to craft a mesmerizing score with dramatic highs and lows, evocative of the drugs that the film’s characters covet. He deftly captures the hopes, scheming, and hunger of Aronofsky’s doomed protagonists.
Little White Lies
Why I love Rebecca Hall’s performance in Christine
Depression is a nebulous condition to get across on film, but Hall remarkably manages to do so in her corporeal performance. Chubbuck’s eyes are large, downcast orbs that bore into whoever approaches her. Her long, straight black hair hangs limply around her face, matching her gangly limbs. She comes across like a pubescent teenager uncomfortable in her own skin with her hunched shoulders, crossed arms, and balled fists.
SlashFilm
Raging Bull Ending Explained: Jake LaMotta Loses It All
By the end of "Raging Bull," Jake has fallen from prizefighting grace, but the has-been pugilist still presses on, shadowboxing an invisible opponent — ready to unleash the electric rage that constantly courses through him.
Reverse Shot
Possible Faces review
Possible Faces animates a generation’s spiritual void and gnawing search for emotional fulfillment within contemporary urban life. In fragmented short scenes intertwined by the turn of chance, Possible Faces keenly studies aimless characters whose lives pinball between despair and grasping the last vestiges of hope.
