Wagner's Writings

  I love film. I love watching films. I love talking about films. Films have helped me guide my way through life, to inspire me, and at the end of the day, entertain and lift me up. To me theaters are my churches which I sit down in front of a screen, popcorn in hand, and await the sermon in the form of storytelling to get the message from example of the characters of the movie. I’m always on the lookout for the newest releases. I research every crevice of a film from how it was written, how the director approached the story, and general behind the scenes notes. I love film! It’s no secret if you know me that I’d also LOVE to make a film. I’ve written a few short scripts that’ve just sat around gathering dust. I’m also in the process of writing two of my first feature-length films I’ve had brewing in my noggin, and a few treatments are brewing until I can get to them. I talk everyone’s ear off that’s a creative with the ideas and have such pride and hopes for it. Yet, I’m 30 and ha...

  Weapons is a mystery horror film directed by director Zach Cregger. It’s his second film after 2022’s Barbarian . Barbarian is also a horror film and it was one that I appreciate greatly. Weapons follows Cregger’s style and -isms if you will, non-linear storytelling, a healthy blend of horror and black comedy, and stories that follow multiple characters being traumatized from a single entity/event.  With the release of Weapons, I can confidently say Cregger is 2 for 2 with his directorial/writer efforts. Weapons plays off as if Prisoners had a supernatural element and a sense of humor. Prisoners is one of my favorite films. I greatly appreciate a mystery film if it nails its pitch, set up, reveal, and execution. Bonus points for rewatchability despite knowing the reveal.   The pitch for Weapons would be “17 children run off at 2:17 AM one night in a peculiar running pose and haven’t been seen again. The ones who remain are their teacher and one single student....

  Happy birthday, Mama. My mom, Melody, would’ve been 66 today. She should still be here. She isn’t, and I’m resentful toward the world for it. I feel a lot of anger lately. Angry that she isn’t here. Angry that such a loving person is gone when so many other terrible people walk the Earth. Angry that science and her doctors failed her when they said everything would be fine. Angry because I’m forced to keep moving, otherwise I’d be buried under the grief I carry. People sometimes pick up this energy, the intensity and tend to avoid me. But I could never explain myself why I’m feeling the way I do even if I was asked.  Think I hit that patch of not feeling great is the realization that no one is around to call me "Bear" anymore... There’s only so much suffering and pain because the love I hold is the size of my entire known world. That world is now gone and my love has nowhere to go, so I hold it still despite it getting hot with rage and sorrow, harming myself in the proces...

  It’s hard to keep going sometimes. The first half of 2025 was a repetitive kick in the nuts. In the past three months I’ve lost my job, lost my mom, and some other unfortunate things happen beyond my control. It’s genuinely a miracle I did not kill myself with everything that’s happened from March to now and will have to deal with later. I’ve thought about it many, many times, but I chug along all the same. Call it going with obligation. Call it a naturalistic need to keep moving forward, but I’m very tired, y’all. It’s hard to keep going sometimes, but I still keep on keeping on.  Since my mom passed, my love for life has certainly dimmed. There’s not a lot of people I can talk to about it. Especially with me certainly going, “Nooo, I’m fine!” When asked if I’m okay.  And I feel I’ve reached this period of time after a loved one passes of “Okay, keep it in. It’s been long enough. You’re bumming people out.” So I don’t talk about it. What’s to talk about? She’s gone and...

  The heavy metal world took a devastating blow with the death of Ozzy Osbourne last week. He was the frontman of Black Sabbath and went on to have a insanely successful solo career. He sang nine albums for Sabbath and thirteen for his solo career. The Prince of Darkness is gone and the world feels that emptiness left by him. But before he went, he got to play a spectacular final show in honor of the long and impactful career he’s had, including a five-song set with all the original members of Black Sabbath in their native Birmingham, England; right where it all began. Poetic, really.  With the alarming amount of deaths coming out of this year, this one is a real gut punch. Ozzy’s the kind of guy with the Keith Richards syndrome, that because they survived so many drugs and decades of rock and roll excess, that they somehow achieved immortality. “If all that couldn’t kill him, then nothing will,” we’d all say. Alas, no one gets to live forever, but sometimes you get eched into...

  From the ashes of Zack Snyder’s DC Comics Extended Universe (DCEU) comes James Gunn’s DC Comics Universe (DCU). Jame Gunn’s first film in his vision of the DC Comics universe is Superman.  Growing up, I was a huge DC guy, more so than Marvel, actually. There was just something that particular universe I liked. Sure I was then a big fan of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, but I was also really into Batman, the Flash, Teen Titans, and the Justice League as a whole. However, before there was Spider-Man (2002), Batman (1989), Batman the Animated Series, and Justice League Unlimited there had to be a catalyst to my foray into the superhero genre. That was Richard Donnor’s Superman: The Movie.  The tagline was so real to a young Cody. I truly did believe a man could fly because of  Christopher Reeve’s portrayal as Clark Kent/Superman. Then Superman was there again when I was 18 with Henry Cavill’s take on Superman with Man of Steel. Superman’s an important character to...