Bright Lights Film Journal

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Corona

Activist & Political · Medical · Pandemic

0

Surviving: A Four-Film Guide to Outlasting Quarantine and Changing the Post-Corona World

  • April 9, 2020

Amid senators dumping stock while lying to the public about the true danger of the virus, rumors of Trump seeking to profit from a potential COVID-19 vaccine, the farce of[…]

Contagion

Activist & Political · Disease and Epidemics

0

Contagion (2011) in a Time of Contagion

  • April 5, 2020

The virus, on screen and off, spreads at a rate that outpaces the economy. Marx would not be surprised that Trump is calling for a return to work since workers[…]

Doris Day

Actors & Personalities

9

Not the Girl Next Door: Doris Day Reconsidered (Happy 98th Birthday)

  • April 3, 2020

We’ve reposted this piece before because, really, can there ever be enough Doris? Her talent, humor, and joie de vivre are a tonic in a world increasingly locked down and[…]

cat killer

Commentary · Crime · Documentaries · New Media

0

The Audience of Antagonism: Mark Lewis’ Don’t F**k With Cats

  • March 30, 2020

“We are not so much a society where nobody knows anybody as we are a society where only media celebrities are considered to have actual existence.”        –[…]

Scissorhands

Drama · SF & Fantasy

1

I Won’t Hurt You: Edward Scissorhands’ Lessons in Compassion

  • March 25, 2020

Edward is never really accepted for who he is by those around him, the persecution he is subjected to the result of a communal, warped worldview and individual biases, ranging[…]

Portrait of Lady on Fire

Artists · Drama · Essays

0

Portrait without a Face: Faces and Facelessness in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire

  • March 20, 2020

With Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma offers us an unexpectedly timely commentary on our present moment of social distancing, self-quarantines, and curfews. This film about cooped-up lovers,[…]

Strangers on a Train

Celebrity Culture · Drama · Essays

0

Doubles, Anyone? Celebrity Stalking in Strangers on a Train and The King of Comedy

  • March 16, 2020

While Rupert isn’t interested in a crisscross murder, he certainly wants Jerry to spot him a segment on Jerry’s show. This is more than a favor..And he appears to go[…]

Edge of Democracy

Activist & Political · Documentaries · Essays

0

Lost Dreams of Brazil: Petra Costa’s The Edge of Democracy (2019)

  • March 11, 2020

E em cada paso dessa linha / pode se machucar. Azar! / A esperança equilibrista / sabe que o show de todo artista tem que continuar. And on each step[…]

Aeon Flux

Animation · Essays

0

“You Have Only Half the Picture”: Syzygies in Æon Flux

  • March 7, 2020

“Revolutionaries need an oppressive establishment to thrive, just as governments need hidden enemies to justify stricture.” – Peter Chung, creator of Æon Flux * * * From 1991 to 1995,[…]

Joker

Comedy · Drama · Essays

0

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Joker: Laughter Without an Echo Chamber

  • March 4, 2020

In Joker, we see a reversal of Tarantino’s aesthetic, where a patently comic character, a joker with a clown face, is, by degrees, rendered tragic, or as near tragic as[…]

Canterbury Tale

Drama · Religion & Spirituality · War

1

A Canterbury Tale: A Very British Spirituality . . . and European Too

  • March 1, 2020

Overt spirituality is often undermined in this film by bizarrely comic episodes from everyday life. Certainly the most bizarre plot element concerns the Glue Man – someone who attacks young[…]

Portrait of Jennie

Drama · Essays · Women in Film

0

The Love That Needs to Be, Needs to Be: David O. Selznick’s Portrait of Jennie

  • February 27, 2020

Show me one who loves; he knows what I mean. – St. Augustine * * * I’m sharing my favorite places with her outside my alma mater: bald, rolling fields[…]

Uncut Gems

Designers · Drama · Interviews

0

Uncut Gems: Talking with Production Designer Sam Lisenco

  • February 24, 2020

We were really careful in coming up with the look of Howard’s world to make assumptions about how old he was when he would’ve formed his taste, and what that[…]

Directors · Experimental & Underground · Interviews · LGBT & Queer

1

“How Stupid the Whole World Is!” An interview with Paul Morrissey

  • February 22, 2020

“There was no movement! I was not part of a movement, I. Made. My. Own. Films. They. Were. Not. Part. Of. Any. Movement. You’re incapable of understanding that, aren’t you? I have to be in a category. First I’m in ‘Andy Warhol films,’ then I’m an ‘independent.’ I like good films that are worth watching, OK?”

Little Women

Costume Drama · Literature and Film · Women in Film

0

Greta Gerwig’s Little Women Is Great; It’s Just Not Little Women

  • February 19, 2020

Before seeing Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, I knew I’d be in for a more avant-garde adaptation – in interviews, Gerwig has talked openly about wanting to “strip away” the story’s[…]

women directors

Directors · Festivals & Awards · Interviews

0

Women in Film: Interviews with Mati Diop, Marie Kreutzer, Haifaa al-Mansour, and Zoé Wittock at Berlinale, Toronto, and Sundance Film Festivals

  • February 16, 2020

Our globe-trotting correspondent Amir Ganjavie spoke with four emerging women directors at the 2019 Berlinale and Toronto International Film Festivals and the 2020 Sundance Festival. Collectively, they represent France (via[…]

Taxi Driver

Drama · Essays · Urban Conflict

0

Watching Taxi Driver with John Hinckley

  • February 13, 2020

Our nation has persisted in this state for so long that when we watch Taxi Driver, we always watch it with John Hinckley. It is a film that forces us[…]

Tarantino

Comedy · Counterculture · Crime · Historical & Epic · Hollywood · Movies · Westerns

0

At Spahn Ranch: The Tragic Heart of Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood

  • February 7, 2020

Who are these people? Watching Cliff try to figure it out is painful, because we know the future, but such knowledge is not power. Within its imagined boundaries, Once Upon[…]

Gorchilin

Drama · LGBT & Queer · Russia

0

Alexander Gorchilin’s Acid (2018): Putin-Friendly Arthouse

  • February 4, 2020

My point here isn’t to suggest that Gorchilin and Pecheykin are government lackeys bent on pleasing Vladimir Putin. They’re young filmmakers working in a totalitarian country and have constraints that[…]

IMDB

Movie Databases · Societal Trends · Statistics

0

Tracking Mass Ideology on IMDb’s Top 250: How Shifts in Societal Values Appear in the Popular Film Canon

  • January 27, 2020

No film on the list embodies a retreat into populist myth as totally or as troublingly as Forrest Gump (1994). Though critically and popularly lauded at its release (winning the[…]

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