Every Tuesday Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: X-Men:
This year saw the very first Wales International Documentary Festival, which ran from 12th-14th May in the valleys of South Wales. Blackwood, to be more specific, north of Cardiff, and the home of the band Manic Street Preachers, the boxer Joe Calzaghe and the Dream Alliance race horse syndicate. They are, in fact, the very reason why the WIDF has found its home here.
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 Great Australian Genre Films.
Jaws really screwed up humanity. I mean, we’ve always had monster stories, but Jaws gave sharks a terrifying reputation, one that’s so universal that even landlocked kids like me would jump in a pool and immediately hear the John Williams score in our heads. We knew to fear sharks as if it were instinct, and it was a captivating thrill.
In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, a treatise about the human condition, he wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” For many people the work they do is pointless, only going far enough to provide limited sustenance while killing the spirit inside which yearns to be free. Naturally, this is nothing new.
Watching movies is a favorite pastime for people around the globe, and they engage in it for various reasons. You could say pictures are the ideal form of escapism, but I would argue that they are also much more than that. The movie is a portal to another world where we immerse in fantasy, drama, suspense, laughter, but also art and design.
It’s very easy for the media to get overexcited about a new Meryl Streep film, and one costarring Hugh Grant and directed by Stephen Frears at that, but this time there’s something different. I think maybe, what with the recent success of The Iron Lady and the confusion over Suffragette (where she was on screen for only a few moments), the media and filmgoers are suffering from a little overindulgence when it comes to one of the world’s greatest actresses. So although Florence Foster Jenkins has been promoted widely, it hasn’t been the film on everyone’s lips.
The comedy trio The Lonely Island made their name in the shorts scene, contributing 5-minute pieces to the monthly festival Channel 101 before becoming synonymous with the Saturday Night Live segment Digital Short. Since then, they’ve only become more popular, making the feature film Hot Rod and performing their hit song Everything is Awesome at the Oscars, while member Andy Samberg has become a household name. You may not recognize the other two members, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, but I guarantee that you’ve seen bits that they either wrote, directed, or featured in.
Every year, we get countless reports that there isn’t enough diversity in Hollywood storytelling. In the past couple of weeks alone, GLAAD’s annual media report has shown that LGBT diversity is only visible in TV, whilst Asian-American actors have begun a protest website called “Starring John Cho”, to highlight the lack of leading roles given to people of their ethnicity. A story that needs to be told There was a line in GLAAD’s celebration of diversity in independent cinema that rung alarmingly true, as they highlighted that diverse audiences shouldn’t have to look to the arthouses for films that relate to them.
On the surface, what the medical industry should be doing is simple: saving and improving lives. All possibilities should be explored and tested, with the breakthroughs made readily available to anyone who needs it.
Those who argue that there’s never been a good movie based on a video game may have to change their tune come December, because that’s when the much talked about Assassin’s Creed finally hits theaters. Sure, there’s some optimism about this summer’s Warcraft with Duncan Jones at the helm, but that project pales in comparison to the deep pedigree behind Assassin’s Creed. Producer and star Michael Fassbender (who does so many movies that I’m skeptical he actually sleeps) has been attached to the project since 2012.
“Human beings are starved for love.” – Erich Fromm This article is part of a series. Find the first part here.
So many of life’s lessons can be attributed to children’s literature. Authors from Dr. Seuss to Shel Silverstein shaped the way young minds perceived the world and prepared them for what lie ahead.
Every week Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Angry Birds, Neighbors 2:
Whether we like it or not, technology is becoming a larger part of our everyday lives, from the cell phones we carry to the laptops we work on. However, this trend has been ever-present in film, as long as science fiction has been on screen. Technological advances generally start as a method to improve human life but as soon as we design technology with a consciousness, that is when all hell breaks loose.
