The New York Film Academy have kindly asked for Film Inquiry to discuss and respond to their new infographics. With one of their topics being on gender inequality in cinema (seen below and also found here), I was instantly drawn to writing this article because the issue is very close to my heart, alongside the fact that I would like to go into the cinematic industry when I am older. Will my gender affect my chances of having a job in this male-dominated industry?
Sesame Street is one of the most influential kids shows in the world, with good reason. They actually care to teach life lessons that your children can digest with sensitivity and creativity. This documentary focuses on Caroll Edwin Spinney, the great mind behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.
I had read Veronica Roth’s Divergent before the adaptation sauntered onto cinema screens, heralded as the next The Hunger Games, and what I discovered was that I preferred the film to the book. There was more action on show, and I felt that the film fixed many of the things I found problematic with the book’s narrative. So when I discovered that the book of Insurgent didn’t impress, I decided to bypass it and wait for the film.
Although it may not be for everyone due to its pitch-black tone, Wild Tales is a film that I imagine everybody who sees it can relate to in some way. It is a film about one of the most basic human emotions, one that is rarely the central emotion of any movie: anger.
Lately, I’ve been looking for something lacking in blood and guts to review, and this trailer meets all of my needs. It’s something sweet, a nice story of two souls finding each other without sex or romance involved. Best of all, it’s real or at least marginally real since there tends to always be fluff in this type of film in order to bait people.
Life Itself is a superlatively crafted documentary that gives a compelling, poignant insight into Roger Ebert, while also delving into the subject of film criticism and its relationships with the film industry. When I want to see a film’s critical reception, I head for Rotten Tomatoes rather than IMDB, because the latter is saturated with fan-boys and uninformed opinion. Rotten Tomatoes introduced me to many different critics who wrote for reputable sources such as The Guardian, The New York Times and The Telegraph, but time and again I was drawn to the small thumbnail image of a white haired, bespectacled man who wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Birdman was the big winner at the 87th Academy Awards, tying for most awards won and also taking home two of the biggest awards: Best Picture and Best Director. That it won Best Picture shouldn’t have been a surprise, especially given the Academy’s recent track record.
I was looking up the IMDb page for Last Knights and I found it interesting that Lionsgate is hyping Clive Owen’s and Morgan Freeman’s Oscar nominations/wins. Their latest in both cases are from 2004, which is more than 10 years ago. Relevance seems to be in the eye of the beholder.
Every week Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Furious 7, Woman In Gold, 5 To 7, Lambert & Stamp and Effie Gray.
Paper Towns is the anticipated adaptation of John Green’s novel of the same name. The film has been penned by the same screenwriting team that adapted Green’s hugely successful The Fault In Our Stars, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and is directed by Jake Schreier.
The 1980’s through the years leading up the handover in 1997 were paramount in Hong Kong’s long-running series of action films. They have yielded some of the best titles to have emerged from the crown colony as it was in this era. The very words “Hong Kong” at this point in time stirs up images of hit men wielding two handguns, flying swordsmen, and an endless array of bright neon lights.
Suite Française is an adaptation of Irène Némirovsky’s novel of the same name. Prior to seeing the film I had no knowledge of its provenance, and will withhold this particular information for now lest it misinform how you read the rest of this review. As always, I will attempt to remain objective.
From ideation to financing, distribution to production, the movie industry is just that, an industry. Let’s take a peek behind the projectors and movie screens at all facets of the films, and the people behind them, that we love. Let’s take another look at some of our favorite movies.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya tells the folklore of a Japanese princess born from a bamboo stalk in the heavens and raised as the child of an elderly agrarian couple. She lives and grows up rapidly right before our eyes, just like the bamboo from which she was bred. She was meant to live a more “normal” life, though, and is soon thrust into a lifestyle that contradicts her humble upbringings.
So tell me if you’ve heard this one before. A well-dressed English man “transports” high value “packages” through very dangerous situations. He also knows martial arts and often beats up thugs that try to mess with his car.