Tag: Drama
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The Time of Their Lives: Old and white
Goddamn old people and their shitty movies. The Time of Their Lives is a wastebag of a film, as poor as the photoshopping on that dreadful poster. Perhaps it’s not their fault they are no longer able to have orginal ideas, that they are so inured to the way things used to be that the furthest […]
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Elle: A rape comedy
I’m not sure why Cyanide Games was up for this. I mean, they’re a French studio, the film’s a French, Danish, German, British coproduction, I guess Paul Verhoeven has some nerd credit given his sci-fi work throughout the nineties. They ain’t a very big developer, perhaps they thought it might be some good publicity. Someone […]
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Personal Shopper: Do you fear ghosts, or the void?
I recall this anecdote about the making of The Shining. Kubrick was in conversation with King about ghost stories, trying to get a sense his beliefs to aid in the adaptation process. When King pressed back Kubrick stated he was not afraid of ghosts, even fictional ones, to be afraid of ghosts you have to […]
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Beauty and the Beast: Classic remake, or remade classic?
This gotta be the shortest delay for a Disney live action remake right? I mean we had Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty by any other name) followed by Branagh’s Cinderella, then Favreau’s The Jungle Book and David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon; but Pete’s Dragon came out in ’77 and never really hung about in the public consciousness. Beauty […]
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The Student: An uncomfortable film
Seems like there was some internal disagreement on how to translate the title of The Student. The poster in the cinema’s foyer read student, the film’s subtitles meanwhile chose to interpret it as The Disciple. Reading online the transliterated original would have been (M)Uchenik which also adds a pun in there involving the word Martyr. […]
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Certain Women: A film with resolve
If Certain Women feels empty it is almost certainly by design. What better way to ring in Women’s History month than with this collection of stories regarding the diminishing effect the patriarchy has in the modern age? Kelly Reichardt is one of modern cinema’s leading formalists, exploring the place of women in society within her […]
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Viceroy’s House: A paean to colonialism
If there’s one subject a British filmmaker needs to approach with caution nowadays its colonialism. I mean, sure, our history, and indeed our present, is full of shit that needs approaching with caution, but following Brexit, the subsequent rise in nationalist sentiment, and the belief among many of our elderly that a rapacious, destructive, grasping […]
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The Fits: What’s a haunted house without the ghost
I’m not sure what to make of The Fits. I think that’s okay, it’s the first feature film by Anna Rose Holmer, and it’s clearly trying to cover a lot of ground. It’s exploring belonging and gender presentation and coming of age as a black girl. It’s a delicate balancing act for the most part […]
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It’s Only the End of the World: Family Matters
Family be hard. I imagine that ain’t the way for everyone, but when Bush Senior talked about wanting families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons, one guesses it weren’t a simple minority he was talking about. There’s one respite for everyone, eventually you get to grow up and […]
A Grand Quiet 