Tag Archives: film

Why this year’s Best Picture award dooms the Oscars to irrelevance

The last film that students watch in my film and media studies course is whatever has won the Best Picture Oscar that year. I was a little nervous to see what won this year because some of the nominees were … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Higher education, Media studies, Movies and film, News, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Fifty Years of the Corleone Family Onscreen

Tonight is the Academy Awards broadcast. I saw somewhere that there’s going to be a reunion of The Godfather cast tonight, as this year is the 50th anniversary of that film’s release. Fifty years! What a masterpiece. And this movie … Continue reading

Posted in Media studies, Movies and film, Popular culture | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Birth of a Nation: Lighting and (mostly “non”) camera movement, racism, and Abraham Lincoln’s assassination reenacted a mere 50 years after

NOTE: This post is under reconstruction because a) the YouTube account that I originally took my clips from has been shut down and b) WordPress doesn’t seem to be working correctly to allow me to play clips to and from … Continue reading

Posted in History, Life, Movies and film, Political Analysis, Popular culture, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Watching the “Up” Documentary Series (Film #3, 21 Up)

Over the weekend I watched the third film in the “Up” series.  All the original seven-year-olds are back and are now age 21. I started writing this post on Saturday; today is Wednesday.  In a couple of days I’ll be … Continue reading

Posted in History, Life, Movies and film, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Watching the “Up” Series (#1, Seven Up)

Several years ago, in one of those serendipitous moments that can occur only in the physical world (i.e., not online),  I stumbled across a film in the documentary section of a Blockbuster video store, 49 Up.  I realized at once … Continue reading

Posted in Life, Movies and film | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Woody Allen on filmmaking as therapy

Great article about Woody Allen in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Magazine.  In a post I wrote on “Creativity and the importance of routine” last year, I mentioned Allen as an example of someone who shows up every day and does … Continue reading

Posted in Movies and film | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Pixar’s “The Blue Umbrella” is cinematic poetry. “Monsters University” is fun, too.

This past weekend my younger daughter and I continued our longstanding tradition of catching Pixar’s new release on its opening weekend. Monsters University was a lot of fun.  Not completely on a par with the studio’s finest hits, but really nothing … Continue reading

Posted in Movies and film | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Why “The Hunger Games” should win the Academy Award for Best Production Design

I was finally able to watch The Hunger Games about a week ago and was extremely impressed by the film’s visual design – the locations, costumes, sets, props, makeup, etc.  Immediately I began thinking about writing a post arguing that the film … Continue reading

Posted in Movies and film, Popular culture, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Westworld” (Boy, have we got a vacation for you!)

Over the weekend my older daughter and I watched Westworld.  Again 🙂 Although we always enjoy this film for the story itself, we also get a kick out of deconstructing its “high tech” symbolism and noting anachronisms and things so commonplace … Continue reading

Posted in Movies and film | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thoughts on “Blade Runner” thirty years later

I recently joined a LinkedIn group called “World Cinema Critics” to be part of a community engaged in serious film discussions.  Lately we’ve had a comment thread going on the subject of Blade Runner, a movie I hadn’t seen since its theatrical release … Continue reading

Posted in Movies and film | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment