Everybody complained about it on Twitter yesterday: It’s already August. 2016 is absolutely flying by. July was a great month for Film Inquiry, though! We welcomed a great number of new writers to our team (welcome all!) and published around 70 articles. Moreover, we published a book – but more about that in a bit.
We published a great number of reviews; among many others, we reviewed Nerve, Observance, Equity, The Neon Demon, Ghostbusters (it’s a positive review!), and some retrospectives as well, of such films as the Senegalese Faat Kiné, Party Monster and Private Property.
We also published a number of interviews this month, among them with The Hard Stop director George Amponsah and Tickled director David Farrier. Find two more great interviews below!
We added to our resource library this month with a new Beginner’s Guide on David Fincher, and Baz Luhrmann, and reflected on the epic film Heaven’s Gate by Michael Cimino, who passed away in early July.
A special shout-out this month to Emily Wheeler, our trailer curator. She discusses about 20 trailers each month and she’s amazing!
Here are our best articles of July 2016, in no particular order!
Seniors On-Screen: 10 Films That Got It Right & Why We Need More
My grandmother loves films, and she’ll watch pretty much anything. To give you an idea, she loved Snakes On A Plane and her favourite film is Deliverance. She also rues the day I took her to see A Scanner Darkly. She’s never been too fixated on films that perfectly represent seniors on screen, but when there is one, you can be damn sure she’s going to see it. […]
Read the rest of Julia Smith’s article here.
STEVE JOBS And The Current State Of The Biopic
“Based on a true story.” “Based on true events.” “Inspired by actual events.” “Ripped from the headlines.” Here lie a series of tag-lines so overused that even mainstream audiences can spot the deception at first glance. These phrases are marketing concepts used to exhaustion by every two-bit horror film trying to garner some attention. Subconsciously everyone knows when watching a film that everything being seen is false. […]
Read the rest of Alex Lines’ article here.
Interview With Emily Best, Founder And CEO Of Seed&Spark
Last week, I had the pleasure to talk with Emily Best, who founded the company called Seed&Spark, a crowdfunded film studio. Seed&Spark helps independent filmmakers crowdfund their films, produce them and distribute them.
Read the rest of Manon de Reeper’s interview with Emily Best here.
Positive Psychology & Film: Parenting With Children’s Films
As educators and parents we want to to care for, nurture, mentor, socialize, and provide for our children to the best of our ability. One thing most educators and parents around the globe have in common is the desire to develop character strengths in their children and adolescents. Because film is such a highly accessible art form, it’s been a medium I’ve used to help my child recognize and foster his strengths and interests. […]
Read the rest of Laurie Agard’s article here.
OUR KIND OF TRAITOR: McGregor Falls Down A Rabbit Hole Of Espionage
With neo-noir ingredients, this thriller falls somewhere between slow-burn and slow-going. At times, we’re left to wonder why there isn’t more action, or twists (I felt similarly during Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit). That said, the film is something of an anomaly in the US theatrical market. […]
Read the rest of Zachary Kennedy’s review here.
GHOSTBUSTERS Backlash: A Pop-Culture Portrayal Of A Divided Society
As a society, recent events have left us more divided than ever. The people on one side of this socio-political argument are trying to undermine unrepresented voices in the culture by calling for a cry back to the “good old days” and using hateful rhetoric in order to get what they want. The other side are being labelled as mere “liberals” with a politically correct agenda that isn’t attuned to the desires of the majority of people. […]
Read the rest of Alistair Ryder’s article here.
THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER: The Film You Aren’t Ready To See (But Should)
Set primarily in an all-girls Catholic boarding school (are you terrified already?), The Blackcoat’s Daughter tells the tale of three women bound together by a series of ominous occurrences. The film begins as the school lets out for February break (cue former title) and closes their doors for the season. […]
Read the rest of Laura Birnbaum’s review here.
A Girl Escaped: Jailed Women In 21st Century Cinema
Because the Internet can take a person virtually anywhere in the world and provide potentially infinite vats of knowledge, raising children in a dictatorial environment nowadays seems more ridiculous than ever. The mechanics of detaining an adult with an existing awareness of the outside world is even more bewildering, because chances are they’ve read about the Josef Fritzl case and have at least some idea of how to escape. […]
Read the rest of Liam Ball’s article here.
Hollywood & 9/11: An Uneasy Relationship
I’d like to examine the strange phenomenon that is why, in the 15 years since September 11, 2001, arguably the most important art form of the last 100 years has seen fit only to produce two — count ‘emtwo — movies on the subject. […]
Read the rest of Jim Crilly’s article here.
An Interview With THE INVITATION Director Karyn Kusama
The Invitation is a taut, Hitchc*ckian thriller that cuts at sophisticated living in L.A. I was fortunate enough to ask Kusama about some of the thematic elements that I found to work like gangbusters in the film. We touched upon pain and suffering, the passage of time, the movie’s relevance, and how in a certain light the film winds up having a type of happy ending. […]
Read the rest of Mike Daringer’s interview with Karyn Kusama here.
Exciting news, we published a book! Film Analysis For Beginners
Earlier in July, I very proudly compiled and published the articles I wrote on Film Inquiry two years ago, in book format on Amazon. If you’ve ever wanted to delve into film analysis and film criticism and to gain a better understanding of how to watch a film, this is your go-to book. Get it on Amazon today!
What were your favorite articles on Film Inquiry this month? Let us know in the comments, and we’d also love to hear it if you have any suggestions.
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