It’s difficult to know where to start when describing Alan Bennett to people who haven’t grown up in the UK. Imagine, if you will, an everyday man, one with a down on his luck and pessimistic sort of look about him. He has a recognisable Northern accent, and a dreary one at that.
I’ve never wanted to complicate the old tales like Snow White. It’s difficult enough to explain to a kid why a young girl lives with seven dwarfs. Thus, we let Hollywood do it and then comes the story of the Huntsman – oddly enough.
They were at the top of their game. They had it all: the fame, the positive critics, a status amongst the greatest filmmakers of all time, and the power to make any film they wished.
November truly is the herald of winter (or summer, depending on where you are), and many of us are starting to get that serious holiday vibe, even if it’s just because you are constantly, and frankly, incessantly assaulted by Christmas music, movies and commercials. Yeah – vibes don’t always need to be positive, ha! Nonetheless, it’s a season of beautiful merriment, togetherness and familiality, and since the North Americas just celebrated Thanksgiving, I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who supports Film Inquiry.
If there is any Hollywood star that could be named among the most influential among both adults and children, it would be Robin Williams. As an actor who went from a stand-up comedian in the 1980s to arguably the most beloved star in the film industry, Williams maintained his memorable and popular status among viewers by his diverse performances and his particular choice of films. Sadly, Williams passed away in August 2014 following complications of depression that are still being investigated today.
I’m the type that just hopes people are happy and healthy. Don’t tell me on Facebook about how your cat is plotting to kill you. We all know it’s going to happen, we were hoping you didn’t.
The 2010 Chilean mining incident was an enormous event that had the rare ability to unite most of the world to help the victims. The event gained massive media coverage and resulted in books, interviews, TV specials, etc. So, of course, a movie revival was inevitable.
Despite a reputation as an open minded viewer willing to watch cinema of all genres, I have a confession to make: I struggle with Westerns, with many widely acclaimed masterpieces leaving me cold for no easily discernible reason. As much as I love Sergio Leone and many recently made “revisionist Westerns”, how the cornerstones of the genre (the majority of which are directed by John Ford) earned their classic status is unfathomable to me.
Every week Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Krampus, Chi-Raq, The Letters, Macbeth, Youth, A Royal Night Out, The World of Kanako, Life, Hitchc*ck/Truffaut, Christmas Eve and MI-5.
Comedy is a tricky thing; it’s hyper-subjective and typically draws from dark elements to create laughter. The search for one’s own comedy is thus, in a sense, the result of grappling some of the least desirable aspects of the human experience and wrangling it into something with a punchline. This is why the cliché of the “sad clown” is so prevalent and continues to be perpetuated to this day, such as with Marc Maron’s self-loathing diatribes and the tag posthumously attributed to Robin Williams.
Violence in cinema isn’t a new concept. In fact, some of the earliest films ever made were surprisingly violent, even by todays standards. But how can we determine a desensitisation to violence in modern audiences?
It’s the movie they shouldn’t have made without securing the rights to the fan favorites but here it is. Due to the fear innate in humanity, we don’t trust normal people to actually have power without using it against us. As always, that kind of freedom belongs to corporate narcissists, out-of-touch politicians, and initially charming but later vicious dictators.
In What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy two sons are brought together by a shared legacy, the legacy mentioned in the title. Both are the sons of high-ranking Nazi officers.
The old gang is back…minus Isla Fisher, but Lizzy Caplan isn’t a bad replacement. One year after their spectacular debut in outwitting the FBI and winning public adulation, The Four Horsemen resurface. Their comeback performance seeks to outsmart the tech prodigy threatening them to perform their biggest heist yet.
On a chilly night in November 1959, two desperate young drifters slaughtered a family outside Holcomb, Kansas for $40, a pair of binoculars, and a transistor radio. The macabre slayings and the manhunt, trial, and execution of the pair of “natural born killers” who committed the crimes gripped the nation. Celebrated writer Truman Capote published a bestselling book about the case called In Cold Blood that was turned into a gripping 1967 movie, which is one of the best of the later film noirs.