Claire Oakley’s Make Up tells the story of a young woman named Ruth (Molly Windsor) who goes to a trailer park in Cornwall to be with her boyfriend, where she learns that he may be cheating on her. As she attempts to come to terms with this realization, she begins to come to terms with the fact that she may be gay, as she finds herself obsessed with another woman. This is a story that…
The police have always been fertile territory for mockery; from the bumbling cop who always misses the crime to the surly “good cop” who gets shot two days before retirement. In the last decade, however, that mockery has become problematized in and of itself, whether by people who think that the police should be above reproach or people who think that making light of the police normalizes their brutality. As such, police satire needs to walk a…
“If Jim Jones could convince nine hundred people to kill themselves, we could convince nine hundred people to send us a dollar.” This line alone describes the Church of the SubGenius to a T.
Money is power, but it is also the root of evil. As inhabitants of a Judeo-Christian capitalist society, this is a paradox that we all often find ourselves wrestling with: the idea that money is a malevolent force that we must seek out at the same time if we wish to coexist with others. Sometimes, this paradox stops existing in the background and slaps us in the face. Money Machine is an attempt at just…
“The death of the author” is a concept that has become more and more relevant with the advancement of the internet as a platform for artistic expression. In a world where a piece frequently finds itself separated from its creator and spread far and wide without context, there is very little recourse to reconnect one’s name to their creation, let alone decide its direction. Arthur Jones’ documentary Feels Good Man details an extreme example of…
Short films do not get a fair shake in the modern cinematic world. Not only do they not get equal screening time in theatres, but they are also often ignored by critics; unless they are being reviewed as part of a bigger body of shorts. This is certainly disheartening, because these shorts often come from those who will compromise the future of film, and because you will occasionally come across something notable – something which…
One of the best things to happen to 21st century genre cinema is the transgression that comes with newer understandings of social norms. After about one hundred years of cinema, the tropes of classic Hollywood became less of a necessity and more of a suggestion, allowing filmmakers to tell stories that go against the grain when it comes to the necessities of living.
If you like filmmaker Elia Suleiman, you will like It Must Be Heaven. This may well be an unusual start to a review, but this is not meant for the fans, because they already know what they are getting into. For the rest of you, how would one go about describing a Suleiman film? Well, Suleiman is a rare filmmaker: he is a Palestinian who is less concerned with doom and gloom, preferring to speak…
