By Valerie Kalfrin A Polaroid tends to fade over time. The one that Thelma and Louise took before their fateful road trip certainly didn’t survive, blown away in the wind. Yet that Polaroid selfie — indeed, their whole adventure — only grows richer and sharper after 30 years. It’s a snapshot in time that captures not just the way things are but how we’d like … Continue reading “Thelma & Louise” and the long road still ahead
Year: 1987Duration: 118 minutesDirector: George MillerWriter: Michael CristoferStarring: Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jack Nicholson By Juli Horsford “The Witches of Eastwick” is not necessarily a Halloween movie, but it’s zany enough that it might help you get into the spirit. Despite the title containing the word “witches,” that word is never actually mentioned in the movie. We’re left with the opportunity to interpret the … Continue reading Retrospective Review: Witches of Eastwick
Being a kid in the ’90s there really wasn’t a lot of female-led action films like there are today. In a lot of ways I’m kind of jealous that girls (and boys) growing up today have the opportunity to watch female-led action films such as “Wonder Woman”, “Captain Marvel”, “Black Widow” and the new Star Wars trilogy. As a kid, the female action characters were very few and far between, which is probably why I favoured watching action films that weren’t aimed at children such as “The Terminator” and “Alien”. To see characters like Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley not only be the main characters but also kick-ass and drive the action and narrative forward just blew my mind. Continue reading #WomenInAction Month: The 10 Action Heroines Who Shaped My Childhood
Watching “Little Women” (1994) is sort of like coming home. Regardless of the period (1868 I believe) or place, the film reinstates a level of comfort felt when I saw the movie as a child. How I perceived the movie changed as I grew older, but watching it was a yearly viewing for me. Another tether? I felt innately like Jo (Winona Ryder), trying to find my own truth, regardless of societal or gender constraints, and just wanting to write.
Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 film that adapts Louisa May Alcott’s novel, portrays the March family, especially the four March girls, in a way that’s maintained credibility and resonance over the years. The adaptation is loyal in the sense that these characters are portrayed with the same warmth as they are read. Continue reading Retrospective Review: Little Women
“Cloud Atlas” (2012) is not an easy film to understand. In this sense, it owes a debt to another film about time, space and mankind’s cyclical movement through both, Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968). Whereas Kubrick asked where mankind was going, directors Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, and Lilly Wachowski seem to answer that wherever we’re going, we’ve been there before.
“Cloud Atlas” defies a simple plot summary. It is essentially a series of interconnecting stories of people who live and die in different eras of time but who might be the same people reincarnated to face similar challenges repeatedly in an attempt to change the course of mankind’s fate. The truth at the heart of the film is that all of humankind are metaphorically like the multitude of drops that make up an ocean. Continue reading ITOL Top 50 Films of the Decade, Entry No. 47: Cloud Atlas
What does “Suspiria”, “Carrie”, “The Witch” and “The Hunger” have in common? Well, these horror films are not only directed by a male director and are terrifying to watch, but they also pass the Bechdel Test. If you have managed to make it through our 31 Days of Horror countdown and you’re still looking to be well and truly creeped out, then ITOL recommends these horror films which see women at the centre of their plot. The films included on this list aren’t necessarily directed by a female filmmaker, but they are unique because they all pass the Bechdel Test.
The films below all meet the criteria set out by the test: (1) it [the film] has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. So, without any further ado, here are some must-see horror films this Halloween. Enjoy! Continue reading ITOL’s Top 10 Female Focused Horror Films
In Their Own League 