Category: Articles
Marvel and DC: Comics as Cinematic R&D
There’s no avoiding comic book movies. Though they are most obvious in the big screen superhero blockbusters, comic adaptations now cross all genres. There are historical epics like 300 (2007), horror films like 30 Days of Night (2007), crime dramas like Sin City (2005) and Road to Perdition (2002), even quirky comedies like Scott Pilgrim…
Great Femme Fatales: 6 Underappreciated Film Noir Villains
We’ve been dealing with weighty issues of late and so I think it’s time for another list. After all, lists make the blogosphere fun. I know when I think of fun, the first thing that comes to mind is the femme fatale. It being NBA finals time here in the USA, this one will employ…
Separate Tables: On Differentiating Between Talent and Celebrity
I learned about the meaning of celebrity at an early age. Eons ago, after a grade-school student concert in which I sang, I was sitting alone in the cafeteria when an unassuming, blond-haired woman nearby began to speak to me. “You have a beautiful voice,” said Mia Farrow. I’m not sure if I blushed, but…
20 Great Dracula Movies: Cinema that Sucks
Ever since making his feature film debut in the 1922 masterpiece, Nosferatu (admittedly under a different name), Count Dracula has been a staple character in the horror genre. By now, there have been literally hundreds of adaptations of Bram’s Stoker powerful Victorian novel, and the titular character has also had the added impact of popularising the…
It’s True Because It Works: Historical Storytelling in Lincoln
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012) may seem at first glance a straightforward historical film, narrating how President Abraham Lincoln ensured the liberation of the slaves at the end of the American Civil War. But closer examination of the characterisation of this great president, impeccably played by Daniel Day-Lewis, reveals a script that forces us to challenge…