Cet Obscur Objet du Désir (That Obscure Object of Desire) (1977)
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Obscure Re-Launch! (?)
Read MoreThe Fate of the Furious (2017)
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If you go all the way on everything, why not embrace the silliness on every level and call it F8 of the Furious?
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The Raven (2012)
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If you want to know how to portray women as inferior, The Raven is a very instructive movie.
Read MoreJohn Carter (2012)
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(spoilers!)
John Carter is a decent, messy movie that throws too many things at the audience while offering too few really appealing aspects to make it worthwhile. It wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be but it certainly wasn’t really anything special either. The effects move from interesting to obvious, the acting is okay at best as no one really stands out, the plot is convoluted and the movie’s mood also alternates between pathos, comedy, action brawl and sci-fi standard. It is amazing yet again how a movie can be made for hundreds of millions of dollars, developed over decades and still leave such a little mark, not only in film history (besides being seen as a disastrous flop), but also for the audience. I can hardly imagine remembering much of this movie in a year or two.
Read MoreYou Belong on the Radio - UK Music Charts (2)
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I haven’t discussed new music since November and I’ve only looked at the British music charts once, all the way back in August 2014, so it’s time to do both again as these songs seem ripe to be analyzed. Let’s listen to some fresh tunes then, shall we?
Read MoreTrailing Tropes: When Angela Bassett Cries
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I’ve been wanting to write about trailers a while now, but when I was sitting in the cinema recently, it again occurred to me how strongly trailers rely on certain tropes. It doesn’t mean that the movies they are advertising do things wrong because a trailer is never really as representative as we are supposed to believe. But what fascinates me is how trailers use certain images to promote their movies, how the reduction to a couple of images leads to images that have clear connotations audiences should respond to. I don’t know if this will become a recurring feature, but for now, let’s take a look at some trailers and the tropes they market besides their actual product.
Read MoreDivergent (2014)
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(spoilers!)
Divergent is exactly what you think it is: a second-rate Hunger Games with a similar story that’s less appealing and actors that are less interesting. It’s an incredibly silly movie that is still somewhat entertaining but filmed with a great lack of skill (other than its sequel Insurgent which is still silly, less entertaining but better filmed), especially in the last third where action sequences almost seem amateurish as the editing mostly renders them incoherent (can this movie really be edited by Se7en's Richard Francis-Bruce?). Only Kate Winslet somewhat elevates the material, if maybe only because it is refreshing to see her as a (spoiler!) villain. Still, it’s mostly a forgettable film where it is hard to believe that is stretched to another four movie series.
Read MoreHonig im Kopf (2014)
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Honig im Kopf, the most successful German movie of 2014, is a bit of a mess, trying to mix the trademarks of Til Schweiger’s other successes with a “serious” topic like dementia. One of the many problems of this movie is that few of these trademarks really work outside a pure comedy, neither the over-the-top slapstick nor the exaggerated characters nor his daughter’s weak acting nor the misogyny. Sure, Dieter Hallervorden’s acting is a pleasant surprise but the movie is working against him wherever it can. From the toilet jokes to the showcasing of guest actors to the insistence on songs with charts potential. But there is nothing that compares with the editing. The movie is easily one of the worst edited movies I have ever seen, coming close to real trash like Birdemic. How this happened is a total mystery to me. How anyone could have approved that and what the purpose was supposed to be, to have conversations with 1-second-takes, is totally baffling. It is a movie that annoys me the more I think about it.
Read MoreA Series of Series: Jessica Jones, Episode 4-6
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Episodes 4 to 6 of Jessica Jones don’t disappoint and continue what the first three episodes started so excellently already. The themes are followed through but by showing more of Kilgrave, the show attempts a little of what Daredevil did with Wilson Fisk, although up to now, he has not really been humanized much more. But he’s not that mystery figure anymore. I also like how all the other characters, especially Malcolm and Will, become more layered and really develop, which is something, just like in Daredevil, these shows seem to do extremely well. I don’t know if Marvel gets enough credit for both shows, not just as good entertainment, like their movies, but really deep, well-made, thought-provoking shows that rarely fall into clichés or stereotypes. This is not just another comic book TV show (but then again, this is not based on just another comic). I’m going to focus on some highlights from the next three episodes (again, spoilers, obviously).
Read MoreBehind These Castle Walls, Part I: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
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Ever since I read J. Zornado’s revolutionary important book Inventing the Child, in which he examines children’s fiction and its underlying messages, I looked at books and movies in a different way. Among all the brilliant things this book achieves, what spoke to me in a special way was how he dissected Disney movies, specifically The Young Mermaid and The Lion King. Uncovering their themes of parent authority, gender politics and identity manipulation was a big revelation to me. And ever since then I wanted to look at Disney movies, which are so beloved and popular until today, and see if I could figure out which ideas they sell to kids. So, today I’m starting a new series in which I’ll chronologically go through every major animated Disney movie and try to analyze it closely. I’m not the first one to do this, but I hope I have something new to say anyway. I have seen most of them already in the past, but I will watch them again with different eyes now.
Read MoreYou Belong on the Radio - 2004 Edition [2004 Week]
/![You Belong on the Radio - 2004 Edition [2004 Week]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54206d12e4b0e2c159748fd6/1435652464802-QQGWCD4O2ECNR22KM23L/image-asset.jpeg)
What will the top songs of 2004 tell us? Let’s find out!
Read MoreInventing the Child - Fishtails, Supermen and Pilates
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It’s finally time for another look at children’s books. I thought I had too many examples to use but because of having so many library books going through our home, I missed some opportunities of capturing some of the more interesting pages. But I still got enough as it is, so here we go.
Read MoreOur Life Is a Movie: Se7en (1995)
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(spoilers)
When I saw Se7en for the first time in a theatre in the fall of 1995, it was a revelation for me. The opening credits, the atmosphere, the structure, the acting, David Fincher’s brilliant direction and above all the twist ending took me by surprise and somehow showed me what movies can do. I watched it again in the theatre just a week later, because I had to experience it again as soon as possible. It was also responsible for me going regularly to the theatre after that, starting a long stretch of cinema visits that cemented my initial childhood love for movies far into adulthood. In that aspect, Se7en is of great importance to me personally, a huge influence for my movie-watching capabilities. I have seen it so many times over the years (I once watched each of its seven days on separate days) and when I watched it with a class for the first time this January, I loved it just as much and saw also clearly what it means for my world view and why I still consider it an important movie when talking about our culture. I won’t explain any plot details, I’ll just assume that you know the movie and if you don’t, go and watch it.
Read MoreThis 40s Movie: Out of the Past (1947)
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Out of the Past is considered to be a classic film noir, which doesn’t mean that much to me since I’m not a particular fan of this genre. It has been used for so long that it is hard to do anything new with it, but you can’t expect that from a movie from 1947 of course. You can expect the basic tropes of this genre, stereotypes and sometimes a surprise, if you’re lucky. Out of the Past doesn’t have that many surprises, but it’s a nice enough movie anyway. While the plot becomes rather convoluted in the second half, the movie is never really boring, well acted and has some nice directorial touches by Jacques Tourneur. But it’s also nothing special, really, one of those old movies that are fine to watch, but probably not too memorable in the long run.
Read MoreWaterloo Bridge (1940) [1940 Week]
/![Waterloo Bridge (1940) [1940 Week]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54206d12e4b0e2c159748fd6/1425988346126-75M5SBE2L99FZDMXUJMW/image-asset.jpeg)
(spoilers ahead, but you don't care, right, it's a 1940 movie)
Waterloo Bridge is an odd film to judge. On the surface I liked it. The acting was quite good, the dialogue is well written and the direction by Mervyn LeRoy is good. It is an entertaining movie, apart from its plot development and moral, especially concerning women. I have rarely seen such a strange mixture of serviceable filmmaking and questionable ethics. Interestingly, for a movie made in 1940, it is set mostly during World War I but also includes Britain declaring war on Germany in World War II, clearly appealing to audience’s emotions at the time. Anyway, there are worse old movies you could watch and this one at least offers the opportunity for interesting post-watching discussions.
Read MoreThis 50s Movie: Gun the Man Down (1956)
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Gun the Man Down is an obscure 50s Western, which I only watched because I became fascinated by the idea of watching the debut movie of director Andrew V. McLaglen, from whom I haven’t really seen any other movie. Somehow it intrigued me to watch this “first movie” (although it might have actually been his second) and to watch a western. I didn’t expect to like it and it certainly nothing special, but it’s also not really bad. It has some interesting ideas for your run-of-the-mill western, even if the story is short on surprises. It’s a revenge story, bank robber left behind by his accomplices, seeking revenge. I thought when writing about my first western, I could about Native American clichés, but it seems this movie couldn’t afford more actors and locations than necessary. But it still has an interesting female character to talk about.
Read MoreWas bleibt (2012)
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(no real spoilers)
Was bleibt (Home for the Weekend is the English title) is another good movie by Hans-Christian Schmid who, in my opinion, has not even made an average movie yet. It’s a family drama about a son coming back home to his family and his mother who announces she has decided to live without her medication, which upsets her husband and her other son. It is really fascinating how the drama unfolds, how the family constellation is shifting and how Marko, the homecoming son, tries to remain as a good a man as possible throughout. And even he is not perfect, which makes him all the more relatable. The film challenges us to work through all the family problems and does so very effectively by making all the relationships authentic and not painting anyone as particularly good or bad. The last ten minutes or so didn’t really work for me because the movie sets us up for a more satisfying conclusion we don’t get and the last line is too much on the nose. Apart from that, this is a really intriguing and well-made movie.
Read MoreHow to Train Your Dragon (2010)
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How to Train Your Dragon is a good animated movie but saying that seems like a backhanded compliment. And it is because it is hard not to say: “That was good… for an animated movie!” The problem, I think, is that most mainstream animated movies are so similar in their structure and their characters. Of course there are great animated movies, like really good movies, but there are hardly any coming out of Hollywood, I think. And I’m still on the fence for Pixar, personally, but that’s another story. Anyway, this one is good, it’s funny and entertaining and exciting. I saw Wreck-It-Ralph not so long ago and liked it, too, but when I looked at both of them I thought, wow, they’re really always the same thing: underdog becomes hero or some variant of it. And sure, you could say that about any genre probably, but there’s so much work and thought put into animation that it baffles me that there is not more variety, but always the same mix of kids-friendly adventure and adult-friendly humor. Anyway, How to Train Your Dragon is certainly one of the better examples of those movies.
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