Features
Hey, it’s Space Jam Week! Among totems of ’90s nostalgia, few remain as prominent and present in 2016 as Space Jam. The film was Warner Brother’s attempt to turn Michael Jordan’s cultural capital cinematic, as well as the first use of their iconic stable of cartoon characters in a feature since the compilation films of the ’80s.
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is Silent Films from the 1920’s that are worth seeking out.
One annoying trend nowadays is for people to mix their genuine reactions to a film with the hype and varied opinions of others, judging it not on its content, but what you thought it was going to be. Quentin Tarantino flipped heads last year with The Hateful Eight, a considerably slower but angrier entry into his filmography, which caused anger amongst many filmgoers who were expecting another Spaghetti Western tribute that mixed modern music and quick-paced action. This highlights the problem with auteur theory and the reliance of marketing in the current movie climate, where many movie marketeers either must spoil an entire film within the trailer to gain the audience’s confidence to go see it or mismarket a film because they’re unsure on how to sell a unique/niche product to a broad audience.
As a wise man once said “time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin’ / into the future.” It’s pretty gross to think about, but the seminal event in all of our lives, Space Jam, turns 20 this year. Seems like just yesterday that Michael Jordan rescued Bugs, Daffy and the gang from a lifetime of cosmic-slavery, but here we are.
The subject of mental illness and disorders are interesting, educational, and sometimes sensitive topics in film. From watching movies like Girl, Interrupted, The Road Within and The Machinist, audiences learn a great deal about very real and problematic issues surrounding sufferers, however, can it be said that these representations are portrayed correctly? The film industry is guilty of depicting disorders such as hysteria as an illness that only women suffer from, and autism is far too often painted as a superpower, not to mention the unclear representation of schizophrenia, which causes audiences to confuse the illness with dissociative identity disorder.
A common stereotype in film is that women don’t work and have no career. What can we learn from the films in which women’s careers are at the forefront?
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is Great Australian Genre Films.
Watching movies is a favorite pastime for people around the globe, and they engage in it for various reasons. You could say pictures are the ideal form of escapism, but I would argue that they are also much more than that. The movie is a portal to another world where we immerse in fantasy, drama, suspense, laughter, but also art and design.
“Human beings are starved for love.” – Erich Fromm This article is part of a series. Find the first part here.
Whether we like it or not, technology is becoming a larger part of our everyday lives, from the cell phones we carry to the laptops we work on. However, this trend has been ever-present in film, as long as science fiction has been on screen. Technological advances generally start as a method to improve human life but as soon as we design technology with a consciousness, that is when all hell breaks loose.
In this third episode of The Power of Film, I spoke with the lovely Samantha Shada. She is a director, hosts the screening series Seeking Our Story, and she works at one of the big studios – a busy lady who has a lot of unique insights into the world of film! We spoke about a lot, from film in general and symbolism in film, the status quo of the studio system (and, very interesting, the current state of film marketing) to film preservation.
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is the cinema of Paul Schrader, highlighting both his writing and directing talents.
Filmgoers have always been captivated with man’s primal nature. From the silver screen adaptations of The Wolf Man to the mysterious Creature from the Black Lagoon, the primitive side of these movie monsters has contributed to horror genre’s A-team roster. Upon viewing their animalistic nature, our minds are suddenly given a glimpse into the missing link between man and beast.
They say if two’s company, then three’s a crowd, but I like crowds, especially when they’re crowds of gangster movies from countries around the world. So this is our third outing (first here, second here), and if my editor doesn’t kill me, there might be a fourth. Yes, there’s crime in every country, and where there’s crime there are criminals, and when they get organized they become gangsters, and if said country has a film business chances are they will make gangster movies.
PJ Woodside and her partner, Steve Hudgins at Big Biting Pig Productions in Madisonville, KY are creating quite a stir in the independent horror scene. They’ve put out a film a year for the last decade. Their most recent film, Frances Stein, was recently released on Amazon Prime and has been getting a steady stream of five star reviews.