The Escapist have launched a movie podcast, and I was thrilled to join Jack Packard for the sixth episode of the year. We only have a handful of topics this week, primarily talking about the upcoming Face/Off sequel and the release of Saint Maud.
You can listen to back episodes of the podcast here, click the link below or even listen directly.
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: face/off, saint maud, the escapist movie podcast | Leave a comment »
So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with the Monday article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film channel – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.
This is a video that I’m particularly proud of, and intimidated by. Promising Young Woman was one of my favourite films of last year, so I was thrilled to get the chance to properly dig into it. I take a look at the way in which the film plays with audience expectations, and its understanding of the way in which it knows the audience will look at it.
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist, in the frame, podcast, promising young woman, the escapist, video | Leave a comment »
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. The past few months have seen a lot of attention directed at the multiverse, with a suggestion that both Warner Bros. and Disney would be embracing it as a storytelling model going forward.
This shift is interesting, given how much effort these companies have build into fashioning internally consistent shared universes, singular narratives unfolding across dozens of films building inexorably towards a climactic pay-off. However, this shift towards the multiverse feels like a logical response to any number of market forces: the shattering of the idea of the monoculture in the midst of the streaming wars, the pull of nostalgia, and the demands of the actors making these movies. It’s a new world. Actually, it’s several new worlds.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: canon, comic book movies, comic books, continuity, infinite crisis, into the spider-verse, mcu, mulitverse of madness, multiverse, shared universe, wandavision | 1 Comment »
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Stacy Grouden and Luke Dunne, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This time, a Valentine’s and Chinese New Year treat. Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love.
Sixties Hong Kong is in a state of transition. Lives overlap in the densely populated city, as the Chan and Chow families move into the same building. Over time, Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow come to suspect that their spouses are having an illicit affair. This act of betrayal draws the two strangers closer to one another, even if neither seems entirely sure where this intersection will take them.
At time of recording, it was ranked the 239th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Filed under: Movies, The 250 | Tagged: chaste, China, Hong Kong, in the mood for love, longing, love, luke dunne, pandemic, podcast, romance, sex, stacy grouden, The 250, time, wong kar-wai | 1 Comment »
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With news that Jon M. Chu will be directing Universal’s upcoming adaptation of Wicked, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the show’s impressive, if incomplete, legacy.
Although Wicked has not been directly adapted for the screen yet, it casts a long shadow. An entire generation of Disney feature films have taken their cues from Wicked, at least superficially – it is a vital part of the conversation around live action films like Oz the Great and Powerful and Maleficent, an obvious point of comparison for Frozen. However, it is interesting that despite the superficial similarities these projects all share with Wicked – a revisionist villain-centric take on a classic property – none of them have been as bold or as radical as Wicked.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: disney, disney princesses, frozen, jon m. chu, maleficent, musical, oz the great and powerful, princesses, wicked | 9 Comments »
I’m thrilled to be launching 3-Minute Reviews on Escapist Movies. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute feature film review to the channel, discussing Space Sweepers.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: blockbuster, South Korea, space, space sweepers, the escapist, three minute review | Leave a comment »
I’m thrilled to be launching 3-Minute Reviews on Escapist Movies. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute feature film review to the channel, discussing Nomadland.
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 3 minute review, escapist, francis mcdormand, nomadland, the escapist, three minute review | Leave a comment »
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. Because Promising Young Woman is garnering some awards attention, I figured it was worth a look.
Promising Young Woman is a remarkably well-constructed film. It’s a film that is very actively engaged with the idea of watching and looking – what characters choose to see, and what they choose to ignore. However, the film is also very much aware of how audiences will see the film. It is cleverly constructed in such a way as to play with the audience’s gaze, and to challenge the way that they look at the film – the way the viewer looks at its actors, its characters, and the kind of story that it is telling. It stares its audience right in the eye, and it never blinks.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: audience, awards season, GAZE, promising young woman, the escapist, video, viewer narrative | Leave a comment »
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. Because Deadpool was released five years ago this month, it seemed like a good time to take a look back at the two films in the series.
Deadpool tends to be discussed in terms of the humour and self-awareness that it brought to the superhero genre. However, that isn’t the most interesting aspect of the films. Instead, what’s so fascinating about the two films is what they use that humour and self-awareness to accomplish. Deadpool effectively smuggles an eighties action movie throwback into the superhero genre by cloaking it in irony. It is a fascinating hybrid of two schools of action movie cinema.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: action movie, Deadpool, humour, irony, ryan reynolds, self-awareness, superhero, throwback | Leave a comment »
So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with the Monday article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film channel – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.
This week, with rumours that Chris Evans might be returning to the role of Steve Rogers, I took a look at why this would be a bad thing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has the opportunity to push ahead and evolve in a way that the comics never have been.
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: captain america, chris evans, continuity, evolution, in the frame, marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, mcu, progress, steve rogers | 1 Comment »
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