Review of Ghosts in the Machine: The Dark Heart of Pop Cinema (1999)
Michael Atkinson (writer).
Read in 2026.
A collection of Atkinson’s essays from various magazines, from all over the 1990s: Back when the abbrevation “T2” was universally understood to refer to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The subject matter ranges from the work of Ousmane Sembene to the cultural construction of the objectified blond woman as a type in Hollywood movies.
The highlight of this collection is a short 1997 essay for The Village Voice, titled “It’s Off to Work We Go: Labor in Movies”. While breezy, it shows a solid understanding of why and how work is generally excluded by Hollywood, with glorious exceptions like The Conversation (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), and Do the Right Thing (1989).
References here: Reviews on this site, Æon Flux (1991), Planet of the Apes (2001).