Brandon Streussnig

Freelance Film & Culture Writer

United States

I'm a freelance culture writer with a passion and emphasis on action film. My work has been published in a variety of online publications such as Vulture, GQ UK, Polygon, Fangoria, and The Playlist.

In addition to film writing, I've been a guest on many podcasts, interviewed filmmakers, and covered news as it's broken.

[email protected]

Twitter Icon LinkedIn Icon
Portfolio
Vulture
03/06/2023
The Stunt Awards

We sometimes talk about stunts as if they are distinct entities from the movies around them - a single, spectacular moment that makes us go "Wow." Tom Cruise is free-climbing a cliff ! Jackie Chan is dangling off a helicopter ! A cameraman just followed Matt Damon's stunt double as he jumped through a window into another building !

The Playlist
07/28/2021
'Miami Vice': Quintessentially Michael Mann At 15 Years

Early on in " Thief," Michael Mann's 1981 feature debut, James Caan's Frank stares out at a body of water enveloped by a sky that seems to go on forever. He's just returned from another successful heist in Mann's subterranean underworld, and he wants out. His life of crime is no life at all.

Secrethandshake
10/04/2022
Dirtbag Nihilism and Crime Scene Donuts: Christian Gudegast's DEN OF THIEVES

"I told you." These are the final words of Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber), as he bleeds out onto the streets of Los Angeles in Christian Gudegast's dirtbag crime epic (2018). Though the (1995) parallels had been obvious from moment this movie was spotted coming around the corner, they solidify across the film, concluding with Merrimen's dying breaths echoing those of De Niro's Neil McCauley.

Spoilerfreemoviesleuth
Interview: Filmmaker Isabel Sandoval Discusses Lingua Franca

a language that is adopted as a common language between between speakers whose native languages are different. That commonality is at the heart of Isabel Sandoval's excellent Lingua Franca. A modern love story set in Brighton Beach, New York, Lingua Franca follows a Trans Woman and Filipina immigrant, Olivia (Sandoval) as she seeks citizenship through marriage.

Secrethandshake
08/01/2022
Crisis Actor: Rebecca Hall and RESURRECTION

"It's about trauma." This is the reductive sentiment we've heard bandied about quite a bit in a post-A24, "elevated horror" landscape. Of course, most horror heads know their gory diversions have always been about something. Romero's zombies became walking societal ills. Craven's Nightmare pictures shredded our subconscious.

Secrethandshake
05/20/2022
His Own Worst Nemesis: The Films of Albert Pyun

Simply through cultural osmosis - be it bad YouTube channels, MST3K, or someone's janky blog - Pyun became the bozo responsible for a deluge of sub-sub-schlock, with the (1990). It wasn't difficult to give into the impulse to relegate Pyun and his body of work to the mental waste bin of "highlight" being his disastrous 21st Century adaptation of "great VHS cover, awful movie."