'In this article I revisit the distinction between criticism and reviewing in cultural and film studies. I focus on three attempts to tackle this distinction. The first comes from Colin McArthur, who published ‘British Film Reviewing: A Complaint’ in Screen in 1985. The second is from Meaghan Morris, and her seminal 1988 article, ‘Indigestion: A Rhetoric of Reviewing’. The third is from more recent work by Tom O’Regan and Huw Walmsley-Evans, which is redefining the terms upon which we encounter the review around the concept of ‘media containers’ and aesthetics. Through discussion of these three attempts I examine the extent to which reviewing is constructed as a form of media practice in its own right.' (Publication abstract)
'Despite the rapid expansion of counter-terrorism legislation in Australia since 9/11, recent polls show that Australians feel no safer. In this article, I examine the affective dimensions of national security in Foxtel’s political thriller Secret City (2016). I draw on Lauren Berlant’s concept of cruel optimism to illustrate the ways in which Secret City frames the desire for security itself as problematic. Secret City uses the logic of security and the visual language of surveillance to alert viewers to the threat that national security legislation poses; when politicians and intelligence agencies erode civil rights, journalistic freedoms, and democratic processes, citizens lose their ability to secure against their own security forces. However, in creating such a pervasive atmosphere of fear and threat for its viewers, Secret City actually validates the foundational desire for security which it shows to be so easily exploited. I argue that Secret City illustrates an impasse in which the desire for security is affectively binding, even when security practices jeopardize the very safety and wellbeing they promise.' (Publication abstract)
