Thursday, October 27 2011
The Celestial Railroad: Shifting Debates on the Immigrant Experience in ‘Sin Nombre’
Illegal immigration is a hotly contested topic in American society and politics. Sin Nombre opens up important questions about migration that documentaries often ignore: there is no such monolithic category as "the immigrant", and migration is not solely an economic decision.
Monday, October 24 2011
Michael Moore vs. Jon Stewart: The Self-Destruction of the American Left
Michael Moore is a populist and Jon Stewart is an elitist. The blind liberal embrace of the superficial smugness of Stewart and detachment from the heroism of Moore is the most powerful and convincing illustration of the suicidal tendencies, moral bankruptcy, and spiritual decay of the American left.
Tuesday, October 11 2011
Foreshadowing Producer Sage Scroope’s Supernatural Success
With two festival award-winning shorts, Foreshadowed Films’ co-founder Sage Scroope (The Debt Collector) just might be headed to the Oscars.
Friday, October 7 2011
Jean-Teddy Filippe’s ‘Forbidden Files’: Found Footage Lost (and Found Again)
Oddly missing in histories of the "found footage" genre, Jean-Teddy Filippe's "Forbidden Files" offers intriguing glimpses at horror and fantasy flickering into an uneasy camcorder reality, ten years before The Blair Witch Project made it fashionable (and lame).
Wednesday, September 28 2011
Class Conflict: Hollywood’s View of the Black College Student
These eight films portray a variety of storylines, but the “black college student” movie has not come close to fulfilling its potential.
Tuesday, September 27 2011
Just Another Pretty Woman: The Who’s Who of Hookers in Film
How did playing a prostitute or stripper become de rigeur for Hollywood actresses?
Wednesday, September 21 2011
Buster Keaton the Inventor and Charlie Chaplin the Conjurer
The films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin share a fraternal vitality and invention.
Tuesday, September 20 2011
A Film’s Beauty is in the Eye of the Cinematographer
“Stories need to be told,” emphasizes cinematographer Michael Garcia. And he’s just the man to wield the camera.
Wednesday, September 14 2011
Tainted Pasts: Pornography in ‘Meet Monica Velour’ and ‘The Girl Next Door’
Meet Monica Velour and The Girl Next Door demonstrate that mainstream representations of pornography, even in a society in which sex proliferates, are still surprisingly one-sided and inconsistent with counter-narratives offered by industry insiders themselves.
Tuesday, September 13 2011
Transforming the Metamorphosis
While Atanes's film comes across as somber and unintentionally funny, and the Capaldi film is bizarre and outright amusing. Both do a brilliant job of capturing the surreal, dark mood that The Metamorphosis is cocooned in.
Friday, September 9 2011
Connect the Dots: Transgender Narratives in Pop Culture
Transgender representation in modern film, television, and literature blurs the lines of gender, class, race and sexuality, which is precisely why trans narratives are still considered dangerous.
Wednesday, August 24 2011
Alzheimer’s and Other Troubles with Memory in ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’
Rise of the Planet of the Apes blends past, present and future, bringing 1968 into 2011 into 3978. But apes cannot conquer Earth without conquering memory, first.
Friday, August 19 2011
Comedy, Technology and DVD Extras: In Defense of a Dying Format
Media formats come and go, subject to the gale-force winds of technology and the retail market. Me, I'm still clinging to my Monty Python collections on VHS.
Thursday, August 18 2011
Zoë Howerska Dresses (Films) for Success
Creating a gypsy wedding dress, designing costumes holograms for of the far future, dressing actor Robert Carlyle, and finding the perfect prop for Rutger Hauer -- it's all just part of the job for costume designer Zoë Howerska.
Wednesday, August 17 2011
Weighing In: Fitness Films and Ordinary People
When fitness celebrities turn fat folks into fitness celebrities in their own image, self-preservation and betterment are eclipsed by the value of self-promotion. Remember the subjects undergoing these life-changing metamorphoses are “real” people.
Tuesday, August 9 2011
Quentin Tarantino’s Cinematic Reality
Quentin Tarantino is reliving his childhood cinema experiences, reinterpreting fractured moments of memory. Going to the movies is about an escape from our world, a mirror world at once familiar yet different.
Thursday, July 28 2011
Robot Dreams: ‘Transformers’ and ‘Sex Kittens Go to College’
Retro Remote nominates Sex Kittens Go to College as Transformers' true precursor. The problem with Tranformers-type franchises is that the criticisms can only annoy people by reminding them of what they have chosen to ignore.
Tuesday, July 26 2011
Voluntary Amnesia in ‘Dollhouse’ and ‘Pygmalion’
Long before Dollhouse's Echo submitted herself to five years of memory loss, Eliza Doolitle of Pygmalion experimented with some personal tabula rasa.
Monday, July 25 2011
Frustrated Fantasies: Misperceptions of Fandom and ‘Gone With the Wind’
The value of fandom is often underestimated. Rather than the stereotyped burnt-out housewives or socially inept teenagers that obsessively and indiscriminately consume popular culture, fans are active agents.
Wednesday, July 13 2011
Call Me Uncontrollable: Deaf Muslim Filmmaker Sabina England
A Conversation with Deaf Muslim Filmmaker Sabina England about punk attitudes, Deaf identities, and Muslim treatment in post 9-11 America.
