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Artistic, musical, creative, and entertaining topics of art about all things geek.
Is Melancholia the greatest film about depression ever made?
In cinema, the bar for what passes as mental-health representation has always been low. Whether depression or something more serious, mental illness has typically been portrayed in a way that is either exploitative, stigmatising or both: most reprehensibly, perhaps, it is still often used as a catalyst for violence, such as in Todd Phillips' recent Joker (2019). But, amid all these problematic portrayals, arguably no film has been more profoundly compassionate in its depiction of a mental crisis than Lars von Trier's 2011 film Melancholia.
By Alessandro Algardi3 years ago in Geeks
The Woman in the Window and film's most cursed productions
Amy Adams' new mystery thriller, The Woman In The Window, may be adapted from a Gone Girl / The Girl On The Train-type thriller novel, but it's not always easy to lose yourself in its twisty-turny plot. Partly, that's because the revelations are so silly that you're more likely to laugh at them than be engrossed. And partly, it's because the acting, editing and camerawork are so hectic that it feels as if you're reading a book in the middle of a rugby scrum. But another factor is that the story on screen is less compelling than the story of what went on behind the scenes. In the three years since the film was announced, it has suffered so many delays, reshoots and scandals that it now has the unfortunate reputation of being a "troubled production". And, as so many notorious examples have shown, it's difficult for any film to shake that reputation off.
By Alessandro Algardi3 years ago in Geeks
Cruella: 'There's something hollow at the film's centre'
There's a lot of Cruella-splaining, much of it from her own mouth, in Disney's origin story about the puppy-napper we think we know. As a young woman, the pre-Cruella is a talented, aspiring fashion designer named Estella, who lives in a 1970s London full of punk style and pop music. Emma Stone brings a winning charm to Estella and a languorous glamour to the unscrupulous Cruella she morphs into, who tries to take over the fashion world while avenging her mother's death. Revenge has rarely looked so stylish.
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Geeks
False Positive and the chilling dramas exploring infertility
If birth is the most elemental aspect of life, what happens when fertility and motherhood are threatened? In the new psychological horror film False Positive, Lucy, a woman who has struggled to become pregnant, suspects she is being gaslit by her controlling husband and their charming fertility doctor. Ilana Glazer, its star and co-writer, described it in a perfectly distilled phrase. "It's about the patriarchy as expressed through medicine," she said.
By Mao Jiao Li3 years ago in Geeks
Film review: Five stars for the 'timely' Summer of Soul
n one astonishing performance after another, Stevie Wonder does a ferocious drum solo, Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples sing gospel together, Gladys Knight and the Pips do Motown, and BB King plays the Blues. All the while, thousands of people dance in the park, a few spectators sit in trees and the Black Panthers provide security. It was 1969 – the same summer as Woodstock – and for six consecutive Sundays, an outdoor celebration of black music and culture took place in the New York City neighbourhood of Harlem. More than 40 hours of performances from dozens of artists were recorded, then languished in a basement for nearly 50 years.
By Many A-Sun3 years ago in Geeks
Annette review: Adam Driver shines in a bizarre rock opera
The opening-night film at this year's Cannes Festival is an embarrassing folly that is almost impossible to sit through. It's also a daring, unique passion project that has you gasping with delight. I tipped back and forth between these two assessments so often during the 140 minutes of Annette that I gave myself a dose of seasickness.
By Cindy Dory3 years ago in Geeks
Dwayne Johnson and why wrestlers make ideal Hollywood stars
he movie star is dead. That's at least what box-office trends would have you believe. In a shift from the star-driven days of old, the past decade has seen the Hollywood movie studios instead defer to the power of brand-name recognition as their films' main selling point.
By Sue Torres3 years ago in Geeks
11 of the best films to watch this October
1. All That Breathes A prize-winner at this year's Cannes and Sundance festivals, Shaunak Sen's poetic eco-documentary, All That Breathes, focusses on two brothers, Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammed Saud, who live and work in New Delhi. The smog in the city is so bad that dozens of kites (the birds of prey, not the toys) fall from the sky every day, but the brothers rescue as many of the birds as they can, nursing them back to health in their cramped, over-heated basement. "Shaunak weaves the many threads together with meditative rhythms, restraint and deep compassion," says Anupama Chopra at Film Companion. "At the end of the film… I cried for the incredible grace of these brothers and for the myopic cruelty of the world they live in. And for ourselves, because each one of us has contributed to making it."
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Geeks
