SHOW ABYSMAL
(There’s no abysmal like) Show Abysmal is a monthly column dedicated to publishing experiments in film criticism. The series is edited by Benjamin Shearn. For inquires, email Ben at ben@thequarterlessreview.com
July 8, 2022
BODY HORROR (WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?)
by BENJAMIN SHEARNAt this time of publication, there's nothing more horrific than the unthinkable setbacks for women's rights rapidly tightening their grip on America's fragile legal architecture. Body Horror, as both a genre and a concept, has for decades offered a prophetic and unnerving double-edged blade of violence against women in film. More often than not it’s a transparent expression of mostly male filmmakers’ obsessive, conflicted and ultimately fearful relationship with female anatomy.
Underneath that fraught membrane, however, one can sense a feminine consciousness (sometimes intentionally, oftentimes accidentally) talking back - with yearning, sadness, defeat, rage and, inevitably, vengeance.
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September 23, 2020
A BLANK CHECK FOR UNCHECKED ADOLESCENCE
by BENJAMIN SHEARNI knew it was risky. And almost certainly... illegal? Echoes of a past scandal concerning Pee-Wee Herman and a movie theater and Florida rattled around somewhere in the muddle of memory.
And yet... I proceeded... slowly... outwardly covering my guilt with nonchalance. A tan windbreaker slipped off the back of my seat onto my lap - adjustments were made, both physical and psychological.
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August 14, 2020
ACTORS ARE IDOLS:JAMES SPADER
by AMANDA KRAMERI’m often shit on for my Hollywood People-Worshipping of white straight men. It’s wildly out of fashion, I guess, especially for a woman like me. You don’t know me, but you’ll have to trust that no one around me wants to hear about how much I adore this popular actor or that rich actor.
Anyway fuck fashion: I LOVE JAMES SPADER.
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July 15, 2020
WELCOME TO THE END OF OPINION
by BENJAMIN SHEARNThis moment, the moment you’re reading these words, right now, whenever that may be, is – and yes, this is quite official – the End of Opinion.
The commonplace qualitative model of judgement, that tedious vertical Good-Bad binary, is now as unimportant as your vague reasoning for why The Lobster just “didn’t work for you.”
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK
EST 2020
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© THE QUARTERLESS REVIEW ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
EST 2020
︎
© THE QUARTERLESS REVIEW ALL RIGHTS RESERVED