The radical notion that women like good movies
Mermaids film poster. Written by Janyce Denise Glasper June Roberts’ screenplay of 1990’s Mermaids is adapted from Patty Dann’s novel and happens to be one of my all time favorite films. As infectious retro soundtrack flares and mod dresses make scenes pop, I connect in certain respects to each Flax woman–Cher’s big-haired, mother hen, Mrs. … Continue reading “Revisiting ‘Mermaids’: Identifying Connections With The Flax Women”
Nyctophobia, a film by Emily Bennett This is a guest post by Emily Bennett. If you asked me a year ago if I liked scary movies, I would have responded with the immortal words of Sydney Prescott in Scream: “What’s the point? They’re all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t … Continue reading “Up the Stairs, Out the Front Door: ‘Nyctophobia’”
Frances Ha movie poster. Written by Leigh Kolb Spoilers ahead! “27 is old.” Frances Ha is a love letter to that idea–that 27 is old, but is, at the same time, the beginning of everything. For this generation, 27 is at that cusp between youth and adulthood and it is painful, terrifying and full of misery and joy. … Continue reading “The Lifelike, Feminist Choreography of ‘Frances Ha’”
Written by Robin Hitchcock Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and Bob (Bill Murray) in Lost in Translation Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation is remembered mostly for the genuinely affecting romance between its leads Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, but it also offers a singular depiction of culture shock. Unfortunately, in representing the “strangeness” of Japan through the eyes … Continue reading “Travel Films Week: Othering and Alienation in ‘Lost in Translation’”
Movie poster for Little Miss Sunshine This is a guest review by Melissa Richard. Look around… this place is fucked! I don’t want these people judging Olive—fuck them! You’re the mom—you’re supposed to protect her! Everyone is gonna laugh at her, Mom… please don’t let her do this. Look, she’s not a beauty queen. She’s … Continue reading “Travel Films Week: Protecting Olive in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’”
Easy Rider poster: “A man went looking for America. And couldn’t find it anywhere…” “Although the masters make the rules / For the wise men and the fools / I got nothing, Ma, to live up to… For them that must obey authority / That they do not respect in any degree… My eyes collide … Continue reading “Travel Films Week: ‘Easy Rider’: Searching for a Free America That Doesn’t Exist”
Filmmaker Violeta Barca-Fontana This is a guest post written by Violeta Barca-Fontana. INT. FILM SCHOOL, CLASSROOM – DAY First day of class at a film school in Madrid. Twenty impatient students are waiting for the teacher, PACO, a very well known film director. Also in the classroom is VIOLETA (20). The professor enters the classroom … Continue reading “Picture This: A Woman Goes to Film School and Becomes a Filmmaker”
The Great Gatsby (2013) Written by Leigh Kolb Critic Kathryn Schulz, in “Why I Despise The Great Gatsby,” bemoans the acclaim that the novel receives in literary circles. She says, “It is the only book I have read so often despite failing—in the face of real effort and sincere intentions—to derive almost any pleasure at all … Continue reading “Conspicuous Consumption and ‘The Great Gatsby’: Missing the Point in Style”
Written by Myrna Waldron. Haku and Chihiro walk through a floral maze Spirited Away has a deserved reputation as Hayao Miyazaki’s Magnum Opus, and even managed to outgross Princess Mononoke at the Japanese box office. It’s also, to this date, the only traditionally animated non-Western animated feature to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Which … Continue reading “Miyazaki Month: Spirited Away”
Written by Rachel Redfern Tom Cruise’s latest movie, Oblivion, is exactly that, a movie about Tom Cruise; upon watching, it felt as though any other character had been thrown in as an after-thought, which obviously denied them of any personality or importance to the plot. This of course leaves one with the odd idea that … Continue reading “Oblivious Hollywood and Its New Movie ‘Oblivion’”
Written by Erin Fenner French filmmaker, Celine Sciamma, brings you uncomfortably close to the lives of adolescents. She does this intentionally, but not in a voyeuristic way that so often comes along with any Hollywood film. Instead, her proximity to her characters creates a level of intense intimacy. Even when her characters are dealing with … Continue reading “Movie Makers from the Margins: Celine Sciamma”
Written by Myrna Waldron. You will find few well-known directors as overtly feminist as Hayao Miyazaki. Of the 10 films he has directed, only two, The Castle of Cagliostro & Porco Rosso, have male protagonists. The others have dual male and female protagonists (Castle In The Sky, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo) or … Continue reading “Miyazaki Month: Princess Mononoke”
