cultural criticism
I am a culture writer focusing on contemporary cinema, video games, internet culture, and cultural representations of irony and sincerity. I have a Master’s degree in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London and wrote my dissertation on New Sincerity in contemporary indie video games with reference to Twin Peaks, David Lynch’s Lost Highway, and Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg.
film criticism
As a film critic, I have reviewed films from a range of film festivals including BFI London Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, and BFI Flare LGBTIQ+ Film Festival. I have also appeared as a contributing film critic on the film review podcast and radio show, Cinetopia.
Reviews Per Minute
In 2023, I reviewed every film I watched during the year with a word count that corresponded to the number of minutes long the film is. This project was called Reviews Per Minute.
selected film reviews
Below is a random selection from my film reviews for TAKE ONE. This random selection is auto-generated from a Zotero group using the Zotero API and will present a different selection every time the page is refreshed.
Her Way (Une femme du monde) (2021)
Little Joe (2019)
Sanctuary (2022)
Therapy Dogs (2022)
Alien on Stage (2021)
Shiva Baby (2020)
The Farewell (別告訴她) (2019)
Hommage (오마주) (2021)
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)
Honeymood (2020)
publications and presentations
This list of publications and presentations is auto-generated from my Zotero library using the Zotero API.
Bowie, Simon. 2023. ‘Glasgow Short Film Festival 2023’,
TAKE ONE <
https://takeonecinema.net/2023/glasgow-short-film-festival-2023/>
Bowie, Simon. 2022. ‘Only Time: Time and Trauma in Yellowjackets’ (presented at the No Return: A Yellowjackets Symposium, British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies Horror Studies SIG) <
https://baftsshorror.weebly.com/symposium.html>
Bowie, Simon. 2021. ‘'Under the Sycamore Trees’: Irony and Sincerity in Twin Peaks Episode 29’
Bowie, Simon. 2021. ‘Posthumanism in Outer Wilds’,
Press Start, 7.1: 45–65 <
https://doi.org/10.17613/d4rs-rx03>
Bowie, Simon. 2021. ‘Time and the Nuclear in Twin Peaks: The Return’ <
https://youtu.be/L_Cqo0JHiYc?t=5160>
Bowie, Simon. 2021.
The Fire in Which We Burn: Time and Trauma in Contemporary Television (County Tipperary: Beir Bua Press) <
https://doi.org/10.17613/yk49-zh32>
Bowie, Simon. 2020. ‘Grey Matters: Black and White Re-Releases’,
TAKE ONE <
https://takeonecinema.net/2020/grey-matters-black-and-white-re-releases/>
Bowie, Simon. 2020. ‘New Sincerity, the Weird, and the Post-Ironic Turn in Contemporary Indie Video Games’ (unpublished MA thesis, London: Birkbeck, University of London) <
https://doi.org/10.17613/5sje-w447>
Bowie, Simon. 2019. ‘A Brief Examination of Bowsette: Memes and Fandom under Late Capitalism’ (presented at the Fantastic! Conference 2019, Sheffield, UK) <
https://medium.com/@SimonXIX/bowsette-anti-capitalist-icon-1c988a5c51ed>
Barron, Simon. 2010. ‘The Magic of Fantasy: The Traditional, the Original and the Wonderful’,
Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society: 31–34 <
https://www.jstor.org/stable/48614719>
fiction
My fiction has been published in various literary publications and in New Scientist as the winner of their 2009 flash fiction competition.
Barron, Simon. 2010. ‘Foreword to Volume 421’,
Perigee: Publication for the Arts <
https://web.archive.org/web/20110521155141/http://perigee-art.com/index-3.php#story>
Barron, Simon. 2010. ‘Eduard Aster and the Möbius Play’,
Blankpages <
https://issuu.com/blank_media_collective/docs/blankpages_issue_21>
Barron, Simon. 2010. ‘Last Orders’, First Edition Magazine
Barron, Simon. 2009. ‘Body Search’,
New Scientist, p. 77 <
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0262-4079(09)63335-2>