Category: Articles
Hollywood’s Role in Lifting the Stigma of Mental Illness
Through the years, mentally ill individuals have often been portrayed in cinema in ways that are either reductionist or offensive. In some of the worst instances, the mentally ill are characterised as crazy, psychotic serial killers, strapped into straitjackets or hiding behind terrifying masks. Friday The 13th, Psycho, The Silence of The Lambs, and The…
American Film Institute: The 2018 European Union Film Showcase
The 31st edition of the American Film Institute’s European Union Film Showcase kicked off on Friday November 30. 49 new movies from 25 EU nations. Eleven of them are representing their countries in the Oscar Foreign Language Film category. Many more have won awards at international festivals. It is a yearly highlight for film fans…
Child Cinemacology: ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,’ ‘Kingergarten Cop’ and Real Life Lessons
For what it’s worth, I’ve come to the conclusion that America’s historical record vis-à-vis the depiction of children in movies gets a dismaying, Hollywood-sign-size “F.” The uninvolving, horribly scripted Spy Kids (2001) is a dreadful mess that aims to bring to life youth’s heroic fantasies yet ends up feeling cheap in the maudlin, simplistic sentiments…
Horror of Dracula: Celebrating 60 Years of Hammer’s Iconic Masterpiece
At age 15, when I heard that Christopher Lee was playing good-wizard-turned-bad Saruman in Peter Jackson’s upcoming Lord of the Rings trilogy, I was thrilled beyond my wildest dreams. I had grown up watching him in Hammer horror films playing Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, and of course, Count Dracula. I was finally going to get a…
Women in Film: Are things looking up in 2018?
In the final two months of 2018, here in the States, several intriguing movies centered on women will be released. Diverse genres will be represented, including the star vehicle (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which is already generating Oscar buzz for Melissa McCarthy), period ensembles (The Favourite, which has already won awards at the Venice…