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Life at the Movies

A monster in fiction is a deadly creature, a threat to the hero’s life, and a threat to society. They come in various forms. One is the tall, slimy, growling Rancor in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi who wants to overpower the hero and have him for lunch. These monsters are personified…

“I’ll be seeing you”, says Dr. Peter Venkman, played by Bill Murray, to a concerned environmentalist, in the 1984 original Ghostbusters. Venkman is being tongue-in-cheek. But it’s really: we’ll be seeing you Dr. Venkman. The concerned environmentalist only saw the toxic residue that comes from storing, wait for it, ghosts. But who are you going…

I don’t tolerate family feuds well. Family feuds seem to be the stock material of soap operas from Dallas to Days of Our Lives. They were never my kind of thing. Perhaps the most smoldering family feud on screen is in Ordinary People, where feelings had been buried to be expressed on another day. Ending…

If it was the end of the world, a good way to spend it is with John Goodman. The burly actor with a lot of presence seems trustworthy on screen, so if the end of the world came, it would be good to have him by your side as any or some of the characters…

Zoo ‘s as they go can be fun. This was a fascinating visit to the zoo. There are no humans in Zootopia (2016, USA), only animated talking animals that live as people do, in the city, or in the country, in a place called Zootopia. Some zoo, eh? At a story level, this Disney animation…

The Elephant Man: This choice of film for director David Lynch was something of a departure from his debut Eraserhead two years earlier. Eraserhead was truly independent film-making, but The Elephant Man (1980), set in Victorian England, was a mainstream drama. After The Elephant Man, Lynch then directed Dune, a science fiction blockbuster that turned…

Sally Field is back—sort of. Though the Oscar winning actress Sally Field has featured in some popular feature films over the last twenty years, Hello, My Name is Doris is her first feature film leading role since Eye for an Eye in 1996. Her list of supporting roles is still impressive, from historical bio-pic Lincoln…

Too cynical. Satirizing classical Hollywood was always going to be interesting, but Hail Caesar! (2016, USA) does not quite hit the mark. It lacks imagination. Hail, Caesar! will still divide audiences: some will find it hilarious, but others will be put-off by its incessant cynicism and ultimate hollow feeling. Filming a crucifixion scene in a biblical…

Brexit has caused a sense of anxiety around the globe since Friday, on the same day of the release of the sequel to Independence Day. It makes for uncanny timing. People are uncertain about the future, again, like the characters were in Independence Day (1996, USA). A culture of uncertainty in Independence Day The U.S.…

This week I’ve been to China–sort of. In The Assassin (2015, Taiwan) it’s China around the seventh century. In this story, the Chinese dynasty wants to maintain power over rebellious provinces. Nie Yinniang is an assassin for the dynasty. A bird often symbolizes freedom, but Nie Yinniang is torn between assassin’s duties and personal connections…
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