12. Aaron Staton - Cole Phelps (L.A. Noire)
Team Bondi's swan song for all things pulp, L.A. Noire possessed numerous traits that made it that summer's dramatic centrepiece - not least of which its tremendous utilisation of motion-capture, amplified eloquently by actors like Keith Szarabajka and in particular Aaron Staton. Staton took on the role of the game's main protagonist, Cole Phelps, as he navigates his way through the Los Angeles Police Department in a manner extremely reminiscent to 1997's L.A. Confidential. Phelps, a former marine officer ravaged with guilt, took on multiple cases ranging from traffic violations to arson attacks as the title's story progressed, all very severe in nature. Staton's performance as the detective is rooted in the context of the 1940s and his stalwart no-nonsense attitude - though not his defining feature - is paralleled with other officers in the department to great effect. Said role is also benefited by the aforementioned facial-capture technology used in recordings, which translates every dimple and expression into the title remarkably. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a97dtTQmhY Cole may be a man of contradictions at certain points, but that just makes him evermore compelling.
Content Producer/Presenter
Ewan Paterson
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
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