Matthew Sorrento

ALL THE ACCUSED

He finally had his chance.
For just an hour, he’d get
the luxury treatment: a comfy ride
to a press conference,
from the steel
of his cell.

He'll address the charges,
why he showed up that night,
leaving two dead, and "being brazen
enough” to try it
right across from the station.

"Your social media presence is
too much,"
his attorney told him,
a fitted-suit woman, desperate
beneath her makeup,
“with everyone following your story.
It’s why all the accused
now get 15 minutes
of prime-time.
The networks want it back
from the virals
on the phones.
And here's your chance:
Describe what happened.
And don't even think
of getting your glory
here. Show how you were pushed
into it, as we planned last night."

The ride whizzed by
as they moved him
toward the Media,
the logo of
“Fresh Copy: Criminals Speak”
above his chair.
The lawyer watched from the side,
but not close at all,
with the cameras rolling in
and an interviewer
behind bulletproof glass.

He'd have his voice,
reaching out
to put everyone
in his grip.


Terri Lynne Hudson's YouTube reading of "All The Accused"


Matthew confesses: " I was thinking of how social media largely controls communication with immediate updates, and how corporations control this flow of info with algorithms. Meanwhile, influencers -- even dangerous ones -- can exploit these networks. What if a media corporation would promote an older form of media, primetime television, to combat the power for social media, only to Make Criminals Celebrities Again there, too...?"


MATTHEW SORRENTO is editor of Film International Online and Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon. He has published widely on genre cinema/television, documentary film, crime fiction, and genre poetry. His work has appeared in Noir City Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and as accompanying essays for Stark House Press and Arrow Video. His poetry and fiction have also appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, and Chamber Magazine. Sorrento teaches film and media studies at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. HIs forthcoming collection is Becoming Nosferatu: Stories Inspired by Silent German Horror (co-edited by Gary D. Rhodes, BearManor Media).

Matthew Sorrento

MAZE

When I take a break
from filing reports,
mostly surveillance,
to lean back in my chair
is when I see him

usually in a diner,
or sometimes
a trendy coffee shop
where he fits in
with a keyboard, headphones,
thinking about his next strike.

If someone approaches
he may give it all up,
each location, body—
or transform into
the person they want.
The sight of him
comes to me so easily,
without even closing
my eyes.

I want to reach into
his dreamscape, for
just a bit of the non-stop
reel in his mind.

Once I think I'm there,
he’s gone.


Matt's YouTube video reading of "Maze":



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Matt confesses: "In my research on serial killers in media, I've come across the common duality that we have about them, a fascination and revulsion. Our fascination makes the task of finding and apprehending them more complicated and difficult for officials. Their job, I'd imagine, also becomes something of an obsession and even a source of anxiety, in spite of their professionalism, which gave me a reference point for my poem."


MATTHEW SORRENTO s Editor-in-chief of Retreats from Oblivion (a journal of noir, crime, and mystery fiction and culture, where he contributes poetry) and Co-editor of Film International. He writes about and teaches film history and genre cinema at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. The author of The New American Crime Film (McFarland, 2012), his most recent book is David Fincher's Zodiac (co-edited with David Ryan, FDU Press, 2022).

Matthew Sorrento

EDWARD G. ROBINSON IN PUBLIC DOMAIN

Somewhere the man
would trap one like Welles' Franz Kindler,
now hidden, having killed again.

Tracing the Nazi terrors
on a movie screen,
he walks into the death projection:
his own dream fabric
where waking would take him.

His prey now dead,
the townsfolk regard him
as another Stranger.


Matthew reads "Edward G. Robinson in Public Domain":



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Matthew confesses: "While viewing The Stranger (1946) recently, I was moved by Robinson’s personal stake in the film, as a Jewish actor playing a Nazi hunter. Writing an exphrastic poem seemed to be the best way to comment on the crime against him: while celebrating Robinson's stance against fascism, the industry still regarded him as a racial outsider, which the HUAC would soon continue. My thanks to fellow film noir researcher Dean Goldberg."


MATTHEW SORRENTO is Editor-in-Chief of Retreats from Oblivion, a journal of noir, crime, and mystery fiction and culture, and Co-editor of Film International. I write about and teach genre cinema at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. The author of The New American Crime Film (McFarland, 2012), I have two books forthcoming, on David Fincher's Zodiac and Film Noir and the Blacklist (both with FDU Press).