8 years ago
All posts by Andy Crump
Falling Stars: The Peril of Fame in Film
Looking from the outside in, the lives of the rich and the famous look pretty spiffy. They live in awesome houses, they wear awesome clothes, they have awesome accoutrements, and they get to do awesome stuff pretty much all day, every day. But if David Bowie a...
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“Everly”
Based on her recent credits, Salma Hayek may be the last person anyone would expect to go out guns blazing. In the last few years, she’s starred in disposable junk ranging from both Grown-Ups films to Here Comes the Boom, provided vocals for Puss in Boots, and...
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Masc on Tape: The Crisis of Masculinity in 5 Films
“Be a man.” Three simple words, but oh so damning; they’re a regressive callback to masculinity’s days of yore, as harmful to men themselves as to their loved ones. “Be a man”; it’s a box that guys should be encouraged to break out of, and in 2015, that appear...
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“Wyrmwood”
Here’s some sound advice for when the zombie apocalypse arrives: surround yourself with Australians. Assuming you’re not one of the first to turn in the world-ending plague of undeath, being in the company of folks from the land Down Under is a surefire way to...
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“The Voices”
There’s nothing wrong with talking to your pets. But if they start talking back, well, that’s a cause for concern. Such is the magical realist scenario director Marjane Satrapi explores in The Voices. Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is an upbeat and peculiar factory wor...
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Black and/or White: Race Relations on Film
Why can’t we all just get along? It should be easier than easy to vibe with people from other backgrounds than our own; there should be no obstacles or roadblocks segregating us or just plain old keeping us divided. But it’s 2015, and racial harmony is still a...
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The Man with the Golden Gun: Chekhov’s Guns in Film
Anton Chekhov was a real triple threat: while we all know him best for his accomplishments as a dramaturge and an author, he also practiced medicine while making his numerous artistic achievements on the side. “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my ...
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“R100”
In R100, Takafumi Katayama (Nao Ōmori), a workaholic father burdened by loneliness over his wife’s catatonic state, decides to sign up for a one-year contract with a gentleman’s bondage club. Membership comes with a few decidedly inconvenient stipulations; mos...
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“Song One”
At 86 minutes in length, Song One feels long. Occasionally, a warped sense of time and duration can be of benefit to a film - last year’s Ida doesn’t breeze by, and it’s all the better for it - but in the case of Kate Barker-Froyland’s debut as director, the e...
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Alive and Amplified: The Best of Scarlett Johansson
Call her Lucy, Janet Leigh, Mary Boleyn, Barbara Sugarman, Silken Floss, or Nola Rice; just don’t call her ScarJo. Scarlett Johansson has been acting since 1994, when she made her debut in Rob Reiner’s North at ten years old, but in the 2010s she has made hers...
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