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(02/18/19 5:56am)
Based on the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, Broadway's 2003 premiere of Wicked—a revisionist tale exploring the origin stories of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the Good Witch of the South—took the world by storm. The musical has claimed an enviable spot as the second highest grossing Broadway show of all time. Now, the beloved and wildly popular musical is finally getting the cinematic makeover it deserves. Universal Pictures recently announced its official release date for the Wicked movie adaptation as Dec. 22, 2021, and let’s just say fans are (understandably) excited.
(02/19/19 5:09am)
sFor the past decade, the age–old question that haunts blockbuster moviegoers is, “Marvel or DC?" The entertainment companies have been in staunch competition since they were both founded in the 1930s, but wasn’t until the mid–2000s that comics had a revival through the ever–changing film industry. With this, however, the artistry and creativity of the comics themselves were lost in translation. The superhero film, now solidified as a genre, has deteriorated its source material.
(02/18/19 2:00pm)
Adapting a film from an already–established bank of source material can be either a blessing or a curse. In Alita: Battle Angel’s case, it’s the latter. Alita tells the story of Alita (Rosa Salazar), a warrior cyborg found nearly demolished in a scrapyard and brought back to life by Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz). As Alita explores her new home in Iron City, she searches for answers to her forgotten past and falls in love with Hugo (Keean Johnson), a human boy.
(02/25/19 2:07am)
It’s time for an African–American film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The universally coveted award has been facing serious backlash in recent years for its homogeneity, as #OscarsSoWhite so succinctly puts it. Two extraordinarily powerful African–American films have made it to the nominations shortlist this year. BlacKkKlansman and Black Panther sent out shockwaves throughout the country upon their releases. The two are both groundbreaking films, but here’s why BlacKkKlansman should get the Oscar over Black Panther.
(02/25/19 12:45am)
February is Black History Month which means there’s no time like now to watch extraordinary film and television that honors black creatives and preserves black narratives and culture. To celebrate, Hulu just released a new collection, Black Stories. Comprised of hundreds of titles, Black Stories features unique artists, histories, and stories across all genres. I’ve rounded up a list of the collection’s best five titles you need to watch ASAP.
(02/21/19 7:01pm)
The Oscar nominations were met with excitement. Black Panther got a Best Picture nomination, Alfonso Cuarón was nominated for Best Director, and both Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone were nominated for The Favourite. Perennial industry greats were nominated, including Glenn Close for The Wife and the Coen Brothers for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. However, while the public celebrated these successes, there was a glaring omission in the list of Oscar nominations: Director Paul King’s artistic masterpiece, Paddington 2.
(03/11/19 12:48am)
I remember the first time I ever heard the phrase “manic pixie dream girl"—it was as though millions of tiny puzzle pieces clicked together in my head. It was a concept I had been aware of, something that had long frustrated me. It was the phrase that sat at the tip of my tongue for every heroine that fell flat, every female character that managed to strike just the wrong nerve. I knew something wasn’t quite right, but until that moment I was helpless when it came to articulating my grievances.
(02/17/19 10:50pm)
While most horror movies on Netflix are campy and yawn–inducing (I’m looking at you, The Babysitter), a new subset of the genre is gaining popularity: foreign–language horror. These select viewings are all highly rated by critics and audience members alike, and are guaranteed to make a chill creep down your spine.
(02/12/19 5:38am)
Despite its taboo, sex is almost impossible to avoid in media, and it's especially difficult to ignore in film. Directors love to sprinkle in some gratuitous nudity or a few intimate encounters, but can you blame them? After all, sex sells, and it’ll continue to sell a lot more than any “I love you” or romantic, prolonged eye contact ever will.
(02/12/19 5:32am)
If you obsessively watched Disney movies as a kid, you know the nostalgic hold they have over us. Even now as adults, we can still find ourselves re–watching classics like Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid more times than we probably should. It’s because they’re feel–good movies, with captivating animation, fantastical adventures, and the promise of true love around every corner—until you grow up a little and realize they’re not as feel–good as you once thought.
(02/12/19 12:59am)
To write about Netflix’s comedy television series, Grace and Frankie, through the lens of love appears counterintuitive. The show opens to the end of two marriages and the unlikely (and unwanted) partnership of the titular characters. It is clearly a recipe for a disaster—Grace (Jane Fonda) is a snobby, proper businesswoman and Frankie (Lily Tomlin) an eccentric, hippie artist. Their husbands, Robert and Sol (Martin Sheen and Sam Waterson), inform them over dinner that they’re gay and want get married to each other—the catalyst for the events of the sitcom. Grace and Frankie, forced to live together, are mismatched and miserable.
(02/12/19 5:55pm)
It’s a contradictory format: making fun of the genre that you fit perfectly within. But Isn’t It Romantic does just that. The movie, which will be released on February 13th, features Rebel Wilson satirizing the artificiality of romantic comedies with a plot that checks all of the audience’s expectations—and desires—for the genre. This movie gives us every cliché element that we secretly want, but gets away with it because it is refreshingly self–aware.
(02/12/19 2:34am)
Sweet, tender, and adorable: Mirai is a slice–of–life/fantasy tear–jerker (if you’re feeling emotional) that might make you remember being a kid again.
(02/12/19 6:29am)
A great film score elevates the best parts of a film without distracting the viewer as the story unfolds. Movies with great music can grab us with one particular song, a timeless and evocative theme or vocal performance that is forever at the hip of the film it accompanies. In any case, when movies have great music, they are all the more equipped to captivate, terrify, delight, or move us to tears. What words alone can’t do, music often can, and thus, some of the most memorable scores are the ones that accompany films about love. Whether the score gently balances the other elements of the film or directly narrates the love story, movies that move us capture the sound of love through their use of music.
(02/12/19 4:52am)
To associate a genre such as the spy film with love is, in reality, a little bit ridiculous.
(02/12/19 1:14am)
In Ex Machina, Caleb Smith falls in love with Ava, a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence (AI). In Her, Theodore Twombly falls in love with Samantha, a self–named operating system with AI. In Blade Runner 2049, K is in a domestic relationship with Joi, a projected hologram of Ana de Armas… with AI.
(02/11/19 1:25am)
It’s that time of year that some dread and others anticipate: Valentine’s Day. It’s time to pull out the romantic comedies, sappy love stories, popcorn, and Ben & Jerry’s to help it all go down.
(02/07/19 1:52am)
Stand-up comedy has reached new heights with help from Netflix. The streaming platform even has an entire Instagram, @netflixisajoke, dedicated to promoting their endless comedy series and specials. Not sure where to start? Check out the following comedians, each with a unique style to suit you. Watch to laugh, or just so you can start catching your friend's constant references to well-known comedy routines in casual conversation. Either way, there's a comedian who you'll soon find yourself Youtube–stalking, whether it's their sets from the early 2000s or their work on your favorite current comedy shows.
(02/07/19 2:28am)
When we think about the point at which movies cross over from being popular entertainment to art cinema—the artificial division between the empty genre film and the poetic, slow–moving indie flick—where exactly do we place animated movies? The proliferation of animation as a major film–making medium has been a long process primarily driven by technological innovation. The special effects of classic films like King Kong would not have been possible without the use of stop–motion animation. Early computer–generated animated films, including Pixar’s first feature film Toy Story, have held up surprisingly well despite the great leaps in CGI technologies. In 2018, Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse garnered significant acclaim for emulating the visual style of a comic book through computer animation. In short, contemporary 3D animation is nothing less than awe–inspiring. However, in addition to innovation at the artistic and technological level, the medium of animation has been a hotbed for inventive modes of storytelling. Many of the greatest animated films in recent memory have transcended the genres and the audiences that we set on such a flexible medium, using the liberties of limitless visual invention to tell the stories that children hold with them well into adulthood.
(02/05/19 10:25pm)
In Roland Barthes’ essay, “The Death of the Author,” he asserts that critics and audiences must separate literature from its author. To acknowledge the author is to unnecessarily add background context to the piece. The phrase, “death of the author,” has come up in recent criticism around artists like J.K. Rowling and the validity of her extensive addendums to Harry Potter. Now, with the current round of Oscars coming up, we face the slight alteration of Barthes’ concepts, a proposed idea for a newer medium: The death of the director.
