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New Escapist Column! On How “Creed III” Brings Anime to Hollywood…

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release and success of Creed III, it seemed like a good opportunity to look at what makes the film stand apart from what came before.

Actor and director Michael B. Jordan has been quite frank about the influence of anime on his approach to Creed III, and that influence shines through. However, it’s also part of a larger trend in modern Hollywood. The industry spent decades trying to directly adapt anime properties for American audiences, with minimal success. However, recent years have seen the emergence of a generation of artists who grew up with the form as a standard part of their media diet, and it’s bleeding through into works like NOPE, The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. It’s a fascinating trend.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: adaptation, anime, creed, creed 3, creed iii, hollywood, in the frame, influence, michael b. jordan, rocky, Rocky Balboa, ryan coogler, the escapist, translation | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Downhill

Posted on April 1, 2020 by Darren

Earlier this year, Parasite became the first non-English language film to win the Best Picture Oscar.

This was a landmark moment for the Academy Awards and for mainstream American cinema in general. It was significant enough in cultural terms to merit a racist dog-whistle from the President of the United States. It also suggested that it was possible for foreign films to make over the “one inch barrier of subtitles.” The film’s box office returns were impressive, and its cultural footprint quite sizable. Parasite seemed to make its own strong argument for the viability of foreign-language films in the English-language market place.

Passing each other on the down-slope of a marriage…

Downhill makes a similar argument, albeit in much less compelling terms. The indie cringe comedy is an adaptation of Ruben Östlund’s breakout foreign language sensation Force Majeure, premised on the idea that there are audience members who might be drawn to the basic premise of the original film, but alienated by the subtitles. Indeed, Östlund himself seems to have acknowledged this, moving on to more English-language-friendly pastures with The Square, a film with a lot of dialogue in English and starring actors like Dominic West and Elizabeth Moss.

Downhill makes its own argument for the necessity of Force Majeure, by demonstrating just how much can get lost in translation.