Tag Archives: Film
Column: Film and TV
The rom-com isn’t dead — it’s just a bit unstable
Several years ago, the romantic comedy was pronounced dead. In an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times, Sam Wasson pointed the finger squarely at Hollywood. Big studios were allowing the genre to drown in a sea of humourless mediocrity. On the surface, Wasson had a point: … Read more
Column: Film and TV
Award season: Oh, the horror
Everybody loves the Hollywood awards season. It’s a magical time of year when all your favourite stars get dressed up to the nines to receive awards honouring them for all their hard work – and I’m sorry, it’s only the second sentence and already I want to … Read more
Column: Film and TV, Film
The Acting Talents of Kristen Stewart
The form of the meme goes like this: Random Internet jokester inserts random image along with superimposed text that reads: ‘Still more facial expressions than Kristen Stewart’. Add extra humour points if the image is an inanimate object or an entity without a face, say, an octopus. … Read more
Column: Film and TV
Thinking objects with Moonrise Kingdom
In the inaugural issue of Screen Machine, Huw Walmsley-Evans succinctly identifies the clichéd critical move vis-à-vis the films of Wes Anderson: almost without fail, the complaint is that ‘there are some real, valuable characters and emotions to be found in this film, but they are obscured by … Read more
Column: Film and TV
Reigning men? Masculinity in Magic Mike
You’re not just stripping. You are fulfilling every woman’s wildest fantasies. You are the husband that they never had. You are that dreamboat guy that never came along. You are the one-night stand: that free fling of a fuck that they get to have tonight, with you … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
Speculative fictions: Edgar Allen Poe and The Raven
To borrow a line from the British artist Richard Hamilton, ‘just what is it that makes authors so different, so appealing?’ I asked myself this question quite a bit last week. I had time to kill; twelve hours on a plane is a long time. It can … Read more
Column: Film and TV
Polisse: empathy or exploitation?
At what point does representation become exploitation? Classifying the inherent ethical value of art is a perilous pursuit. As the response to Bill Henson’s photography or the calls to ban Adrian Lyne’s Lolita, Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin and Srđan Spasojević’s A Serbian Film reveal, this is particularly … Read more
Column: Film and TV
Neuralysing history: race, time and fatherhood in Men in Black 3
Please note: This piece contains major plot spoilers after the jump. As far as blockbusters go, the recently released Men in Black 3 (dir. Barry Sonnenfeld) might seem to be a fairly unremarkable film. However, the narrative, which continues the story of extraterrestrial law enforcers Agent J … Read more
Column: Film and TV
Two adults and a movie: admission prices in Australia, France and the US
In the spirit of hard-hitting investigative journalism, my partner and I recently set off to Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs in search of a Golden Beast I’d heard spoken of in furtive whispers, but had never experienced in the flesh: the massive suburban multiplex cinema. I’d always … Read more
Column: Film and TV
Food fantasies: virtuosity and curiosity in film
I have to admit that I’m an epicurean chump of the first order – I can spend money on quinoa and obscure spices like asafoetida more quickly than I can pronounce them: is it ‘aso-fo-ti-da’? I can watch, and genuinely enjoy, almost anything to do with cooking. … Read more
