Maps To The Stars is about the aspects of Hollywood that, as a film fan, I‘d rather not think about. Written by the acerbic Bruce Wagner, it is about the cynicism of the industry, about the actors who are motivated by vanity and the money-minded executives who exploit them. These people’s heads have been long removed from their shoulders, their molly-coddled lives are run by other people as they incessantly try and top up their serotonin through drink, drugs, sex and bastardised spiritualism with increasingly less success.
It wouldn’t be correct to describe this as anything other than full-on violence pornography. But it’s awesome. A martial arts instructor is jailed after accidentally killing a man.
This film has been screened at several film festivals. It may have passed by you without your notice. Let’s remedy that, shall we?
Every week Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: The Age of Adaline, Little Boy, The Water Diviner and Adult Beginners.
If you look at the films of Hong Kong before and after 1997, there is a striking difference. The action films leading up the nineties were fast-paced, tough, gritty with an edgy quality that paralleled Hollywood’s assembly line modeled studio era. The years surrounding the handover of Hong Kong to mainland China around 1997 proved to be an uncertain time for Hong Kong’s bustling film industry.
Despite the whole Scientology thing, John Travolta is a versatile actor. He has played everything from arc-angels to a greaser to that student on Welcome Back, Kotter. With that said, I present The Forger.
The occupation of boxer is not ideal for most people. We respect them as gladiators of the current era and cheer for their bloody victory in battle. But rarely are they seen as human.
The problem with award shows of any kind is that you’ll always find yourself comparing the nominees to each other, regardless of how different they may be. However, this is infinitely more true of awards with tied winners. The two victors may be different in every conceivable way, but the fact that we have been told they are not just equally good, but equally the best, leads our minds directly to compare the two.
“God created man. Man created immortality.” Such hubris in a single sentence speaks volumes about this new film, Self/less.
Independent filmmakers spend a lot of time and money applying to film festivals. With each passing year, the number of competitive film festivals seems to grow almost exponentially. And with submission platforms like Withoutabox.
Every week Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Child 44, Unfriended, Paul Blart:
Rejoice, all, for love and magic have been made real again and no longer confined to shallow movies that preach the wrong topics filled with two dimensional protagonists that do nothing but fulfill ageless and traditional characterizations. Cinderella manages to be the most refreshing new Disney movie out, by paradoxically undergoing the least transformation. Directed by Kenneth Branagh with the utilization of his perfectly suitable Shakespearean mastery, and supported by a cast of actors and actresses that look like they came straight out of the storybook, Cinderella is a delightful reiteration of the classic story that we’ve all grown to know.
Without trying to simplify the cinematic output of an entire nation, it could be argued that there are only two types of British independent films. There’s the prestige fare, that depicts the lives of the upper classes and the monarchy (notable recent examples are The King’s Speech and The Theory of Everything), that are almost always boring, a smash-hit at the international box office, and a major awards contender. The other example is the polar opposite – dark, gritty dramas about the working classes that are never boring, but also never in contention for box office or awards success.
There’s no arguing that if you have even a mild interest in film, you’ve likely heard of Stanley Kubrick. You’ve probably even seen at least one of his films, or, barring that, maybe some of the more famous clips (especially if you’re a film student). So my approach to this “Beginner’s Guide” is to recommend that you forget all that.