Slim recognition: on the presence of women in film
On July 30, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences appointed a new president; Cheryl Boone Isaacs will be the thirty-third head of the Academy, but only the third woman to hold the position....
View ArticleMasterpiece or Misfire?: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives
In Nicolas Winding Refn’s provocative new film, Only God Forgives, boxing club manager-drug smuggler Julian (Ryan Gosling) finds himself hopelessly trapped in the realm between heaven and hell, a...
View ArticleThey’re all gonna laugh at you: the rise and rise of Adam Sandler
Excited for Adam Sandler’s new movie, Grown Ups 2? You should be: he’s the biggest movie star in the English-speaking world. Lets just let that sink in for a moment. The former Saturday Night Live...
View ArticleGoing with the flow: new ways of watching films
I was in New York recently, where my time was mostly spent seeing films in the Allan Dwan retrospective series at MoMA. During my month long visit, I was most excited about seeing Escape To Burma...
View ArticleSpace terror and dystopian realities: Hollywood’s sci-fi resurgence
In her seminal essay, ‘The Imagination of Disaster’, Susan Sontag declares that science-fiction films are not about science–they are about disaster, ‘the aesthetics of destruction, with peculiar...
View ArticleFools rush in: why fast-tracking TV doesn’t slow downloading
Image credit: Jonathan Hoke Commercial television sure does love talking up the wonders of fast-tracking. That’s the process whereby instead of sitting on a television show until an airdate that suits...
View ArticleAll Hallows’ magic: supernatural films through the ages
All Hallows’ Eve is traditionally a time for honouring the dead, and also a time for feasting, so why not feast on some of the more spellbinding supernatural films this Halloween. Häxan (1922,...
View ArticleNot so ‘quiche': Chris Lilley’s Ja’mie: Private School Girl
If we’ve learnt anything from Chris Lilley’s latest series Ja’mie: Private School Girl, it’s that no one in their right mind wants to see Ja’mie topless. Once you look past Ja’mie’s bizarre and...
View ArticleIs the ‘Director’s Cut’ better?
As we reach the business end in another prolific year of film, where critics squabble over their ‘top ten’ lists with excessive pedantry and award-politicking reigns supreme, the case of the...
View ArticleHow much sin can viewers take?: HBO’s Boardwalk Empire
Boardwalk Empire has achieved a similar status to the gangster films of the 1950s, bringing the state of television’s serial narrative — to borrow a phrase from Roland Barthes — to a more than...
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