Year: 2021 Runtime: 124 minutes Writer/Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal Actors: Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal By Nicole Ackman A fair number of actors make the jump to the director’s chair and there are certainly skills they have that contribute to being a talented director, not the least of which is a strong understanding of how to work with actors. … Continue reading Review: The Lost Daughter
a story become too familiar? After almost a century of Dracula narratives, whether they are adapted directly from the Bram Stoker novel or not, the character and his arc feels as familiar as a family heirloom, passed down the generations. This is part of why F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” is the adaptation of the
story I come back to more often than any other- Murnau’s film feels like an oddity, like that weird uncle you don’t really want to talk about. And yet, it still has a place in the family, because the DNA remains constant. Continue reading Nosferatu: A Bold Vision of a Familiar Story
Barbra Streisand was born April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents, Diana and Emanuel Streisand. Her father died when she was young and she grew up in a middle class family. Streisand did well in school, attending Jewish School as a child, then moving to public school, and finally Erasmus Hall High School. She discovered her love of singing and being on stage early, and took any chance she could to perform. She knew she wanted to get out of Brooklyn and become an actress and at 16 she graduated from high school and moved out of her mother’s house to try and make it on her own. Continue reading Happy Birthday Barbra Streisand!
Year: 2020 Runtime: 93 minutes Writer/Director: Alejandro Montoya Marin Starring: Katy Erin, Michael Lovato, Micah McNeil By Morgan Roberts New Year’s tends to be the time we individually and collectively make resolutions for the start of a new year. There are trepidations about what lies ahead as we attempt to shake the trials and tribulations of the previous year. But, how do we address our … Continue reading Review: “Millennium Bugs”
The family Halloween flick “Hocus Pocus” (1993) became a cult hit due to its iconic New England aesthetics and the flamboyant performance of Hollywood veteran Bette Midler, but didn’t charm a huge audience at the time of its release. Moviegoing youths of the 1990s were more primed for darker materials, snatching up tickets to see a teenage coven of goths rock the dark arts in “The Craft” (1996). Both films have stood the test of time, and make great autumnal rewatches; But how drastically do their spellbinding stars differ in terms of feminist appeal? And have our pop culture perceptions of witchcraft changed much since the turn of the century? Continue reading Supernatural Beauty and its Cost: Cinema Witchcraft Over the Decades
Every year, for as long as I can remember, from September to November I look forward to the lighting of the Black Flame candle (by a virgin of course!) so you can return from the dead. As a child, my sister and I would sit down in front of the television to take note of the days on the calendar that “Hocus Pocus” would air (on ABC Family, of course) so we could plan our schedule accordingly. I could always count on 24-hours worth of you on a loop on Halloween day. How could I count on this you wonder? Well, that is because you are the best Halloween movie witches to ever exist. Continue reading It’s Just a Bunch of Hocus Pocus: A Love Letter to my Favorite Witches
The last time director Thomas Vinterberg and actor Mads Mikkelsen paired up, we were given the riveting feature “The Hunt” (2012). Now the two have reunited for another round (pun intended) with “Another Round” (2020), an unusual but deftly crafted look into the infallibility of masculinity. It is a film that recognises the vulnerabilities in people and explores the complications that arise from them, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of chosen coping mechanisms. Continue reading Another Round: #LFF20 Review
Films, we have been reliably and repeatedly told, give us all a uniting cultural context in which we can share our feelings and experiences. This is basic Film Class 101 and it’s not wrong, even if it has become cliché. Recently, the Pacific Northwest has experienced an eerie foreshadowing of what a nuclear winter would be like due to smoke from wildfires. If I told you I fully expected to see Viggo Mortenson trudging down my street pushing a shopping cart I’m sure you would know exactly what the sky over my head looked like for about a week. That’s the power of film. That mental image that I can share through a cinematic reference gives context to what I experienced and enables me to explain it quite vividly to others. Continue reading ITOL Anniversary: Why I Write About Film
Three unreliable people, a house lit with shades of yellow evocative of a Roger Deakins’ film, and a pulsating score. This is what “For The Sake of Vicious”, the latest film by Gabriel Carrer and Reese Evenshen offers. Debuting at this year’s Fantasia Film Fest, this picture has all the makings of a trademark midnight movie. It wastes no time setting itself up for carnage to ensue, and ensue it does…and this is before a bloodthirsty biker gang shows up! Continue reading Fantasia Festival Review: For The Sake of Vicious
In “Marygoround,” one woman undergoes a transformation that changes the course of her life. This black comedy drama was directed by Daria Woszek with a script by Woszek, Sylwester Piechura, and Aleksandra Swierk. The Polish film follows a woman named Mary who undergoes treatment for menopause and experiences some surprising side effects. It definitely is a unique and sometimes strange film, but it is an interesting look at a late sexual awakening. Continue reading Fantasia Festival Review: Marygoround
In Their Own League 