What inspired me to begin this series was actually the knowledge that Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, was going to be releasing a new novel called Go Set a Watchmen. As I had remembered being fond of Lee’s writing, I was planning to read it. (I still have not, but am hoping to get to it after this).
Over at our official Facebook page , we are currently posting daily Film Recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is Portmanteau Films (otherwise known as Anthology Films), films usually compiled of different shorts/segments normally linked up by a connecting narrative.
If you don’t know who William Shakespeare is, we have failed you as a society. Hollywood has decided to make up for that shortcoming with the story of Macbeth. This interpretation comes as a war drama that has way more colors and wide shots than my middle school English class informed me about.
Near the conclusion of The Bourne Identity (2002), we find our hero, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), taking refuge in a country farmhouse belonging to Eamon, the ex-boyfriend of Bourne’s hostage/lover/sexy barber Marie (Franke Potente). Bourne’s shadowy employers have dispatched a rival Treadstone assassin – known only as The Professor (Clive Owen) – to eliminate the threat posed by their malfunctioning asset. When Eamon’s son notices the family dog has gone missing, Bourne (preternaturally perceptive, as always) recognizes the portent.
Though documentaries have been around as long as cinema itself, it is only within the past decade or so that they have started to really gain widespread acceptance. Traditionally marginalized as “academic” or “high-brow” filmmaking, the humble documentary has found a home in an age where authenticity and accessibility have grown to be core cultural values. Also, a core cultural value in this modern age are lists:
Ville-Marie is a Canadian, French-spoken film about a French actress who takes on a project to get closer to her son, who is in Montreal, Canada, in the hope to reconnect with him. For the first half, the trailer promises a fairly typical family drama, but then it starts to hint at a much darker undertone. As always, Monica Bellucci is mesmerising.
When you think of horror movies, one name should spring to mind: Wes Craven. He reinvented the teen horror genre and made it his own, alongside creating the most feared character in the horror genre:
Ted 2 is exactly what you think it is. Seth MacFarlane is an entertainer who infuses all of his work with the same pop-culture heavy and juvenile abundant humour, from his roots in Family Guy to this, his third cinematic effort. The first Ted was a cinematic surprise, over-performing at the box office to become (at the time) the highest grossing R-Rated comedy of all time.
Breaking the boarders with transnational themes and making people cry and laugh in the same way? Genre as a global system? Why not!
Interesting. Yun-Fat Chow doesn’t seem to age while Li Gong does. Alright, due to the fact that my favorite Hong Kong actors are getting old, I’m really adamant about doing this trailer discussion.
Having recovered from the shock upon discovering that summer 1990 was a quarter of a century ago, I recently reacquainted myself with one or two of the cinematic treats that I first enjoyed at the tender age of 15. Darkman got a repeat viewing, as did the sorely underappreciated Quick Change with Bill Murray. I was especially pleased to find that my personal favourite alumni from the class of ’90 had aged so well:
Here comes every new parents’ nightmare, an unattended child. T.S.
Reviews of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Inherent Vice and The Diary of a Teenage Girl, an essay on music in film, and a list of Youtube channels everyone passionate about film should follow: just a small collection of the great articles that we published last month!
“Comrades! People of the world. The revolution is on the march.
Every week Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: The Transporter Refueled, A Walk in the Woods and Before We Go.