Unwinnable

             

Unwinnable Monthly Exploits Games Movies Comics TV Music Store Subscribe

Author: Phillip Russell

Feature Excerpt

An Ode to Little Freaks

By Phillip Russell • December 20th, 2022

On a surface level, Gremlins is a movie that evokes classic horror tropes, but when you dig deeper you find a meta horror satire that attempts to comment on American excess and consumerism.

Eyeing Elsewhere
Hellraiser's Female Cenobite, Pinhead, and Butterball stand in front of starkly back-lit binds.

On Monsters and Ourselves

By Phillip Russell • October 25th, 2022

Hell in the Hellraiser universe reflects back to others what they struggle with the most. It’s a fluid space that changes as our own sense of self does.

Eyeing Elsewhere
A chef in a fast-casual Chicago restaurant kitchen, screaming intensely while simultaneously cooking.

Just Above the Noise

By Phillip Russell • August 31st, 2022

The Bear is a show about the traumas that our previous workplaces, managers and family members imprint on us and the struggles we face not only in trying to overcome them, but to break the chain.

Eyeing Elsewhere
A close-up of Robert Pattinson wearing cape and cowl in The Batman.

Something in the Way

By Phillip Russell • May 30th, 2022

In The Batman we’re presented with a caped crusader who is an extension of the police – he isn’t just a nocturnal animal prowling the streets for crime, he’s their nocturnal animal.

Eyeing Elsewhere
In a screenshot from the videogame Yakuza: Like a Dragon, a shirtless man lies prone in a pile of rubble.

Taking Up Space

By Phillip Russell • March 28th, 2022

Yakuza: Like a Dragon impressively leans into the friction that exists when deploying political statements into its narrative.

Eyeing Elsewhere
A master chocolatier stands behind a kitchen workstation lecturing to contestants on the reality show "School of Chocolate."

A Different Reality

By Phillip Russell • January 26th, 2022

Unlike more standard reality television fare, School of Chocolate shows there is drama to be found in the struggles of learning new things.

Eyeing Elsewhere
A tiny figure in a flowing cloak stands atop an enormous sand dune, the sun setting directly behind them.

What Lies Beneath The Sand

By Phillip Russell • November 30th, 2021

How deep into Dune is Hollywood willing to dig?

Eyeing Elsewhere

It Takes a Village

By Phillip Russell • September 24th, 2021

Evangelion has always been interested in cycles, in unpacking oneself through the looping of experience.

Eyeing Elsewhere
A creature that looks a bit like a mutated red panda/raccoon holding an over large sword over its shoulder and looking out over a rainforest.

Feeding The Chimera

By Phillip Russell • June 11th, 2021

I’m stuck on this feeling I have while playing Biomutant where I want to like it. I want it to succeed, and I want it to figure out its own voice.

Eyeing Elsewhere
A silver haired woman in white.

What Happens Next?

By Phillip Russell • April 6th, 2021

Phil’s thinking about the ending of things.

Eyeing Elsewhere

Owning the Mask

By Phillip Russell • February 8th, 2021

I want Black stories to feel whole, to feel uncompromising and to take risks.

Feature Excerpt

Watching Myself Die

By Phillip Russell • September 22nd, 2020

On Blackness in The Last of Us

Video Games - Comics - Sci-Fi - Pulp

© Unwinnable, LLC.

All content is owned by Unwinnable and the fine folks who contribute to it, so just back up off it Mr. Sticky Fingers. Support criticism with your clicks, quality publications with your bucks and always tip your bartender.

  • About
  • Staff
  • Advertise
  • Submissions
  • Privacy