The radical notion that women like good movies
Usually movies with such mainstream blockbuster potential are not portrayed at Telluride Film Festival. Telluride opts for more artistic limited release movies. But I suspect Cuaron’s credibility, including casting a woman in the lead over Clooney, made it a Telluride film.
Patsey can be the only the source of her violent hatred; and while Mistress Epps turns her spite on her husband occasionally, she is quickly reminded by her husband of her place in a patriarchal American Southern society–if he tires of her, she is gone. McQueen handles these situations with a frankness and humanity that is not overdone and he brings the best perfomances out of all his actors. The film got a standing ovation at Telluride, several times over, which is rare to happen at the festival.
We learn in The Past that not is all as it seems, and maybe all that is left in the past isn’t really. Academy Award-winning director Asghar Farhadi (2011’s The Seperation) returns with his first movie outside of Iran. Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns from Iran to finalize his divorce with Marie-Anne (Berenice Bejo, 2011’s The Artist) and finds himself awkwardly sleeping at the house of her new boyfriend, which also contains her children.
Palo Alto is what would happen if Mean Girls had a major collision with American Beauty. The picturesque neighborhoods with the homes of the screwed up parents of the main characters was entirely reminiscent of American Beauty. The parents’ self-absorption was stunning at times. And every time April’s high school girl classmates talked, it was like nails on a chalkboard (cue: Mean Girls’ Regina George, Gretchen Weiners, Karen Smith WITHOUT the comedy).
Gender, Family and Globalization in ‘Eat Drink Man Woman’ by Emily Contois Foreign Film Week: Red, Blue, and Giallo: Dario Argento’s ‘Suspiria’ by Max Thornton Sexism in Three of Bollywood’s Most Popular Films by Katherine Filaseta BFI London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Realistic Depictions of Women and Female Friendship in ‘Muriel’s Wedding’ by … Continue reading “Foreign Film Week Roundup”
Guest post written by Atima Omara-Alwala. So if something happens somewhere in Africa, and a white person is not there, do people hear it? well, according to Hollywood at least, no. There is an obsessive need in Western films to legitimize the African story and life through the existence of a major white character in … Continue reading “Foreign Film Week: ‘War Witch’: Finally, a Movie About Africa Without the Cute White Movie Star”
Scandal, created by Shonda Rimes and starring Kerry Washington Guest post written by Atima Omara-Alwala. Like every other woman of color who enjoys film and probably many film and TV critics alike, I waited with baited breath to see what the debut of Scandal, the first major network television show in nearly 40 years with … Continue reading “Women of Color in Film and TV: Mammy, Sapphire, or Jezebel, Olivia Pope is Not: A Review of ‘Scandal’”
A Royal Affair (2012) Guest post written by Atima Omara-Alwala. Anyone reading the synopsis of A Royal Affair wonders if it will be more of the same. I mean what else can be said about a high-born woman trapped in loveless marriage to an awful unsophisticated idiot who finds love in the arms of an … Continue reading “2013 Oscar Week: More Royal Than Affair”
