Pixar’s Turning Red: The Antidote Against Everything That’s Wrong In Hollywood
When I began learning more about the film industry in high school, I was surprised to learn that an artistic field–something I assumed would be stereotypically associated with women–was in fact dominated by white men. I remember reading about the hurdles that female screenwriters, directors, and producers faced to be given seats at the table, and being shocked that they had to overcome so much just to have their voices heard.
Menace In The Air: The Opening of 'Once Upon A Time In The West'
The dust blows forward and the dust blows back, but menace is in the air. Three gunslingers arrive at Cattle Corner, a train station in the middle of the Old West, hours from civilization in either direction, and they mean business. Their business is killing, and business is good.
Marry Me: When Even Being a World-Famous Popstar Isn’t Enough
Glitzy and glamorous romantic comedies are nothing new; we have repeatedly discussed in lecture how urban settings and upper class characters are a mainstay of the genre. Romantic comedies that feature working women have also become increasingly common since the shift of labor that occurred in the postwar era. But how often have we seen a rom com about a female international music sensation?
Scream 2022: What’s a “Re-quel”?
Only the Scream franchise would introduce the word “re-quel” – a term so cinematically dense – into its already meta screenplay and premise. I expect nothing less from a series that has psycho-analyzed the totality of the horror genre while simultaneously creating its own expansive, trope-filled storyline. And in an age of tired reboots and sequels of once original and groundbreaking cinema, you would think that the new Scream would be equally as tired, especially with the franchise being in the state it was in prior to this installment. But 2022’s Scream proudly proclaims that this reboot is exactly what the franchise needed.
“We Screwed Every Night. The Forecast Was For Storms.” (Betty Blue)
I always forget how much I love Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1986 Betty Blue. A perennial eighties student favorite, and often a gateway drug into modern French cinema, it has all the hallmarks of a movie which stays with you long after the credits roll. In my case, this has been decades, but I only recently watched it again after a very long hiatus. I still love it. Exquisite cinematography, the tempestuous, passionate, charged voltage of its two main characters, the haunting soundtrack, and best of all, just the wonderful original Philippe Djian storyline all combine perfectly into a tale of maddening, violent, deteriorating unraveling.
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder — A Premiere for the Books!
I’ll begin my review with the major caveat that I rarely, if ever, watched the original The Proud Family on Disney Channel. I was certainly too young to watch the first run of the show (I’m a baby, I know), and if I caught any later reruns, it was simply while flipping through channels. With that said, it didn’t curb my excitement when I received an invite to the virtual premiere of the new Disney+ revival, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. After all, who wouldn’t be excited to go to the premiere of a reboot of one of the most well-loved animated shows on Disney Channel? The event promised the showing of not just one but two episodes, and additional perks beyond the episodic content.
A Magical Love in the Air: Harry Potter Returns to Hogwarts
I like to think I have a special connection with Harry Potter movies: I watched them aged 9 before reading the books, and still have vivid memories of attending the first-day shows of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2. Watching the reunion not only made me more aware of that connection but also how so many others share that same bond. In many ways, Harry Potter has a unique fandom, born out of a pure childlike love for the wonders of magic and the simple yet powerful premise.
A Glance Behind the Curtain of the Underworld: A Conversation with the Cast of Hadestown
It’s Sweeny Todd meets Romeo and Juliet. It’s a fairy-tale, but how the Grimm Brothers originally imagined: a dark and gritty reimagination of an otherwise beautiful love story. A post-apocalyptic reinterpretation of a classic Greek tragedy is what comes to mind when I think about Hadestown. This grand musical tells the tale of not just one Greek myth, but two in a modern setting. It interweaves the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, two lovers destined to be drawn apart, and the story of Hades and Persephone, another pair of lovers with a complicated relationship.
Seeing and Saw: The Best Moviegoing Moments
Of all the movies you’ve ever seen, how many of them can you specifically remember? Not just when and where you saw them, but who you were with, maybe even where you were sitting and what you chose to eat. For me there’s a lot of nostalgia tied up with doing this. I remember my life changing as a four year old being taken to see Star Wars in 1977 by my dad, as a special afternoon treat away from the hospital where I was undergoing long-term treatment for a collapsed lung.
Reclaiming Her Narrative: Monica Lewinsky and the Politics of Impeachment
Instead of giving Clinton the spotlight, the story of Impeachment follows Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein) and her emotional turmoil as she became involved in the biggest presidential scandal of all time.
Nobody Has A Future: Mike Leigh’s Naked
Bleak. Desperate. Violent. Acerbic. Mike Leigh’s Naked is as relevant in Post-Brexit Britain as it was almost thirty years ago upon release. It explores themes of misogyny, class, conspiracy and religion, and like most of Leigh’s films, refuses to resolve anything, leaving us to think about which side of history we want to be on. Filmed at the height of post-Thatcherite Conservatism, and in a particularly grim time for the country economically, culturally and with waning influence in the world, Naked could just as easily have been released this year to the same effect.
Pivoting Episode 1: The New Show to Hold You Over in What Already Seems Like an … Interesting Year
FOX’s newest comedy Pivoting, tells the story of three women in their thirties whose best friend Coleen, has just died. Awakened by the realization that life is short, they each decide to make big life changes.
For God’s Sake Come Back: The Legacy of Zulu Dawn
Even in an era of reparation, celebrations of Empire are still remarkably commonplace for the English, and there’s a wealth of movies which still regularly air on British television that glorify its unsettling colonial past. The most common of these is Zulu (1964), which introduced Michael Caine to the world and depicts the bravery of around a hundred British soldiers in the overwhelming face of three thousand eponymous Zulu warriors. Quotes from the film have passed into common language, and even today it’s routinely held up as a model of Victorian colonial heroism and conquering of native resistance.
No Way Home: The True Ending To The Spider-Man Trilogy, Or Carried By The Past?
This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. It's the final Marvel premiere of the year 2021. And most of all, it's the conclusion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man trilogy. No Way Home has become one of the greatest films that both Marvel and Sony have ever released - but I have got to admit, given the long, complicated history of Spider-Man films, it would have been very difficult for it to turn out any other way.
No Time to Die: End of an Era
No Time to Die, James Bond's latest and Daniel Craig's last movie, starts with a phantom appearing out of the cold. It's there, in the window of a snow-covered cottage, then it's gone. The scene feels too picturesque to interrupt; we almost want to believe it was just a coincidence of the swirling snow. But a masked man appears at the window of a snow-covered cottage, and it’s undeniable. With tension building, a young Madeleine Swann tries to avoid an unseen killer. The scene closes with three ringing shots, but they come from Swann. It’s a tragic fate averted and innocence stolen. A satisfying arc for a Bond opening. But it's not actually over. What we see next is another reversal: a villain who saves an innocent life.
Last Night in Soho: A Film That Lives in the Grey Area
Last Night in Soho, a film directed by British filmmaker Edgar Wright, lives in between the 1960s and modern times in London, England. Starring staples of British stardom Anya-Taylor Joy (Sandie), Matt Smith (Jack), briefly Sam Claflin (Lindsey), and Thomasin McKenzie (Eloise/Ellie), this film follows the life of Eloise Turner, a young aspiring fashion designer with an infatuation with the swinging sixties of London as she navigates her extraordinary ability to body-jump into another young woman in her dreams.
Tick, Tick... Boom! A Love Letter to Art and the Artist
I don’t need to convince you to watch tick tick… Boom!, the film adaptation of the creator of the revolutionary rock musical Rent Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical about living in the pressure cooker of eighties New York and trying to make his big break before the age of 30. “Older than Stephen Sondheim and Paul McCartney” when they achieved fame. Gasp!
