Casting recognizable actors in undersized roles can meaningfully dupe audience expectations. 

An unexpectedly abrupt ending can prompt consideration of why the story concludes on such a surprisingly unresolved note. 

To show or not to show, that is a fundamental question of storytelling. 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is an allegory about the social relations between a Christian majority and a Jewish minority.

A Real Pain centers a familial relationship that’s rarely the primary focus of art: cousins. 

The Gutter resides on the lowest-fi end of the Blackening/Wayans “studio comedy” spectrum. 

Slipstreaming explains the existence of *certain* (read: streaming) documentaries.