8 years ago
All posts by Jake Pitre
On “Diabolique” at 60
On the 60th anniversary of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s legendary Diabolique (1955), we’re reminded of what can happen when we fail to accept our fear. Poor school owner Christina (Véra Clouzot, the director’s wife) ultimately has her fear betray her. The final tit...
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The Cult of Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise imbues every performance with an exciting amount of personality and charisma. There is no one more fun to watch onscreen on a consistent basis. Yet the world remembers: He still jumped on Oprah’s couch.
Despite a prolific career, years of apologizi...
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Going Back: On Taking Nostalgia Seriously
Over 30 years, it can either seem like not much time has passed, or the opposite. On July 10, 1985, the number one Billboard single was “Sussudio” by Phil Collins, one of the most ’80s songs ever recorded. Though music has moved far beyond where it was back th...
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The Value of Being “Lynchian” Instead of Being Unique
Recently, someone asked me to describe It Follows, David Robert Mitchell’s horror film currently in theaters. Having just seen it and unable to come up with the right words, I immediately settled on “Lynchian” without really knowing why. Afterward, I stitched ...
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Sex and Death on Film 101
Sexual education in North American schools is lacklustre to say the least, slowly progressing and occasionally spouting misinformation (it’s supposed to be HOW big?). As a result, many young people first learn about sex and related issues from movies and telev...
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“The Breakfast Club” at 30
The jock. The princess. The nerd. The rebel. The loner.
Brought together by circumstance, in detention for a full Saturday in Chicago, these five high schoolers are not strangers, but they do represent wholly different worlds. They come from different place...
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Sight/Sound: 6 Films Whose Titles Come from Songs
Naming can be difficult, whether it’s a newborn or a startup company. You have to weigh certain qualities: originality, specificity, impact. “Google” doesn’t mean anything, but it worked regardless. Naming a film can be just as cumbersome, and in unique ways. ...
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High and Low Art: 6 Trashterpieces
“Trash entertainment” is a phrase that has meant different things at different times and to different people. Most think of the term in relation to high and low culture, and how low culture (the trash) imitates high. It’s also usually what people mean when the...
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(Death) Scenes from a Marriage: 7 Films to Watch After “Gone Girl”
David Fincher and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl provided countless thinkpieces with their adaptation of Flynn’s bestselling thriller, and much of it wrangled with what exactly the film was trying to say about marriage and about gender. Some called it the most femi...
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Mama Who Bore Me: On Motherhood, Horror, and Jennifer Kent’s “The Babadook”
In some way, Sigmund Freud was right: Many of us are haunted by our mothers, and they can be scary as hell. Perceived as caring nurturers, our mothers hold a singular power over us, and when that power is used for evil, the deliciousness of the reversal is too...
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