Film Analysis For Beginners Now On Amazon
Now Available On Amazon: Film Analysis For Beginners

You may have already spotted our announcement on Twitter, or in the widget on the sidebar here on the Film Inquiry website, but let’s also officially announce it: My book, Film Analysis for Beginners: How to Analyse Movies is now available on Amazon!

EQUITY: Meera Menon Crafts A Compelling Morality Play
EQUITY: Meera Menon Crafts A Compelling Morality Play

Meera Menon’s film Equity manages to tick a lot of boxes off in terms of the kind of characters it depicts and focuses on, from having a female lead (an incomparably skillful Anna Gunn, best-known for Breaking Bad), to a female ensemble, to numerous women behind the camera (led by director Menon, helming her second feature). One of many truly impressive feats the film manages to pull off is that it not once feels like it’s ticking any boxes – that the film is inclusionary of layered, dimensional female characters is of course, noteworthy, but it is one of its many strengths. Chief among these strengths is the compelling narrative, which starts from the screenplay (credited to Amy Fox, story by Sarah Megan Thomas, also onboard as a producer and co-star, with producer and co-star Alysia Reiner), and is bolstered by Menon’s capable direction, Gunn and the ensembles’ applause-worthy performances.

IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE Trailer
IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE Trailer

A man and his dog come to the wrong town in writer/director Ti West’s In a Valley of Violence, but not because there’s ghosts or goblins running amok. The low-budget horror darling is leaving all the scary stuff behind for his western, providing him with brand new genre conventions to play with. The most obvious twist here is that the valley has some weird humor mixed in with its deadly reputation, which just might slow down the adversaries played by Ethan Hawke and John Travolta.

Film Inquiry's Best Articles Of July 2016
GHOSTBUSTERS: Answer The Awesome Call!

It would be to put it lightly that this film’s reputation preceeded it. After years of people theorising about another sequel to Ghostbusters (1984), naively deciding to overlook the fact that Bill Murray didn’t want to work with Harold Ramis again, and Ramis’ recent death, a new film was announced. The only problem was that noted comedy director Paul Feig was put in charge.

A Girl Escaped: Jailed Women In 21st Century Cinema
A Girl Escaped: Jailed Women In 21st Century Cinema

Because the Internet can take a person virtually anywhere in the world and provide potentially infinite vats of knowledge, raising children in a dictatorial environment nowadays seems more ridiculous than ever. The mechanics of detaining an adult with an existing awareness of the outside world is even more bewildering, because chances are they’ve read about the Josef Fritzl case and have at least some idea of how to escape. Alas, cinema, ever the portrayer of such cultural terrors, has provided startling means with which to explore such a phenomenon.

PRIVATE PROPERTY: Old School Voyeurism
PRIVATE PROPERTY: Old School Voyeurism

When it comes to cinema, it is truly the best and the worst of times. An unstable economy and the rampant rise of piracy have forced studios to rehash old films and hammer original ideas into the ground just to try and make money, with many mainstream movies now catering towards the profitable Chinese market to make those big bucks that the US haven’t been producing lately. Whilst it’s a dire situation, this new social media age has been a huge step forward in retaining and reviving film history.

Snowden Trailer
SNOWDEN Trailer

When a man exposes government programs that sound more like conspiracy theories than reality, you can bet that someone will make a movie about it. It only took three years for the story of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to hit theaters, but that doesn’t mean that it was easy to do. Co-writer and director Oliver Stone has spoken very publicly about the struggle to get financing for Snowden, which he claims was turned down by every major studio in Hollywood.

PARTY MONSTER Retrospective: Club Kids Counterculture Of The 1990s
PARTY MONSTER Retrospective: Club Kids Counterculture Of The 1990s

I first watched Party Monster a couple of years ago, when once-infamous club promoter Michael Alig was released from prison, where he served 17 years for brutally murdering his drug dealer. The 2003 biopic, based on James St James’ memoir, “Disco Bloodbath”, flew under the radar during its initial release. But the film’s subject, “Club Kids” of ’90s Manhattan, once commanded TV screens across the country.

NOW YOU SEE ME 2: The Magic Lives On
NOW YOU SEE ME 2: The Magic Lives On

2016 is already shaping up to become the year of reboots and sequels; whether or not they are deemed acceptable is a different matter. Now You See Me indeed worked as a solo endeavour back when the magic was introduced three years previous. The existence of the sequel may come as a surprise to some, due to the mixed responses circling the first instalment.

The Space Between Us Trailer
THE SPACE BETWEEN US Trailer

The Space Between Us is the classic boy meets girl story, except the boy and girl are on different planets and the boy doesn’t know who his father is. It’s science fiction, romance, mystery, and medical drama all rolled up into one hopefully neat package. Admit it, if the film can pull off all these threads, it’ll be a pretty great movie.

Film Analysis Of THE FUGITIVE: Layers Of Meaning
Film Analysis Of THE FUGITIVE: Layers Of Meaning

In Andrew Davis’ brilliant 1993 thriller The Fugitive, the filmmakers use a variety of techniques to lead the viewer through the story. They drop hints with color and lighting that viewers are not necessarily trained to consciously notice while they’re watching, and employ a gripping editing style that effectively supports the cat-and-mouse game that embroils the film’s two main characters. Every movie has content, which is what is seen and heard on screen, and what is referred to as form, which is the way in which the film’s creators manipulate that content to their own ends and present it to the viewer.

LOVE & OTHER LIES: A Pursuit Of Happiness
LOVE & OTHER LIES: A Pursuit Of Happiness

We are often faced with circumstances that challenge us in ways we feel unprepared to face. Sometimes, these challenges come in the form of an option: to accept or deny, to speak or to be silent, to stay or to go.

A Monster Calls Trailer
A MONSTER CALLS Trailer

I suppose the title A Monster Calls has a double meaning. It certainly refers to the tree-like monster that appears to young Connor, but it could also refer to the monstrous situation before him: the impending death of his mother.

Hollywood & 9/11: An Uneasy Relationship
Hollywood & 9/11: An Uneasy Relationship

Recently, I had the chance to tour the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, which, as you can imagine, is quite a somber experience. Amid the thoughtfully presented exhibits, I started wondering about 9/11 as portrayed in film. Now, when I say “portrayed” I’m not talking tangentially, as when 9/11 is used to jumpstart plot (e.

ADULT LIFE SKILLS: A Bittersweet, Stealth Tearjerker
ADULT LIFE SKILLS: A Bittersweet, Stealth Tearjerker

This little gem of a film won the Nora Ephron Prize at this year’s Tribeca film festival, which is awarded to recognise the work of female writers or directors whose film is making its North American premiere at the festival, and it’s easy to see why. Adult Life Skills is based on writer/director Rachel Tunnard’s short film Emotional Fuse Box and centres on the character of Anna (Jodie Whittaker). Anna is approaching her 30th birthday and struggling to cope with recent life events, which are gently revealed to us throughout the film via flashbacks and Anna’s visual manifestations of the past as she attempts to live in the here and now.