Bright Lights Film Journal

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Lighthouse

Essays · Horror

2

To the Lighthouse: Cinematic Lighthouses in Shutter Island, Annihilation, and The Lighthouse

  • January 19, 2020

Through their own fragmentary narratives, which resemble Poe’s stream-of-consciousness diary, Shutter Island, Annihilation, and The Lighthouse mount challenges to our own perceptual abilities as viewers. They locate us in the[…]

Irishman

Crime · Family

0

“An Act of the Will”: A Review of The Irishman

  • January 14, 2020

The Irishman is delicate and full of restraint — ironic for a gangster flick. The heart of the film is sorrowful, in mourning for the spiritual emptiness of a materialist[…]

Star Wars

Franchises & Series · Myth and Archetype · SF & Fantasy

0

“One Last Look at My Friends”: An Archetypal Review of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

  • January 8, 2020

Now, there is no reason or way to lay blame for this clash of styles, since Abrams devotees can fairly claim that Johnson started the revisionary process, and the Johnsonians[…]

Alice

Drama · Women in Film

1

Monterey Dreamin’: 45 Years of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

  • January 2, 2020

In striving toward “that level of being real,” Burstyn handpicked much of the film’s eventual cast from her Actors Studio cohort – a decision that meshed well with both Scorsese’s[…]

Welles

Directors · Literature and Film · Production History · Writers & Critics

1

At Sea, In Port, Up the River: Orson Welles’s Conrad Adaptations

  • December 27, 2019

Conrad was more than a mere influence. He was also a direct source of story material. Welles considered himself “made for Conrad” and frequently returned to Conrad’s original stories. Adaptation[…]

Birdman

Absurdism · Essays

0

A Human Noise: On Rebirth and Birdman (2014), Five Years After

  • December 23, 2019

“They had no song. Their calls were harsh and ugly. But their soaring was like an endless silent singing. What else had they to do? They were sea falcons now;[…]

Day the Earth Stood Still

Activist & Political · Essays · SF & Fantasy

1

Klaatu’s Police Action: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Remembered

  • December 16, 2019

Suddenly, Gort doesn’t seem so powerful. We’re told of his strength and given a few meager examples. We have to take Klaatu’s word for it. The universe/world policeman is a[…]

Kirlian Witness

Essays · Mystery · SF & Fantasy

0

Talkin’ ’bout My Gentrification: The Secret Life of The Kirlian Witness (1979)

  • December 11, 2019

“The city was dirty. And dirt is fertile.” – Jeremiah Moss * * * New York City ca. 1976 was dying on the vine. With over a million citizens on[…]

Favourite

Comedy · Costume Drama · Historical & Epic

0

The Favourite (2018): A Comedy of Pity

  • December 5, 2019

This gets at the heart of The Favourite, which is one of the most evident trends in anti-sexist filmmaking lately: to be willing to portray women as unadulteratedly evil, as[…]

Parasite

Asian · Drama

0

Of Parasites and Their Hosts: Bong Joon-ho’s Gisaengchung (2019)

  • November 27, 2019

One of the ways in which Parasite differs from many more naturalistic movies about urban poverty is that access to mediated experience is shown to be a function of opportunity[…]

Tarantino

Activist & Political · Essays · Philosophy

1

Once Upon a Time – Shots in the Hyperreal (on Tarantino’s New Film)

  • November 23, 2019

“Hey, you’re Rick fucking Dalton. Don’t you forget it.” – Once Upon a Time – in Hollywood “And so art is everywhere, since artifice is at the very heart of reality.”[…]

Joker

Franchises & Series · Superheroes

0

Joker: Sympathy Epic

  • November 20, 2019

“It’s there all the time, driving me out to wander the streets, following me, silently, but I can feel it there. It’s me, pursuing myself. . . . But who[…]

Documentary

Documentaries

0

Dispatches #2 and #3 from Doc NYC: Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man and We Believe in Dinosaurs

  • November 17, 2019

This is the second (and third) in a series of reviews by our New York correspondent Claire Baiz of entries in this year’s Doc NYC, the Big Apple’s – and one[…]

Joker

Franchises & Series · Superheroes

0

Lesser Expectations: Joker and Classical Hollywood Cinema

  • November 13, 2019

Phoenix’s body is mostly skin and bones, which is ironic since the film attempts to flesh out the Joker. In fact, this Joker’s ribs and shoulder blades seem to be[…]

Barbara Kopple

Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · War

0

Dispatch #1 from 2019 Doc NYC: Barbara Kopple’s Desert One

  • November 11, 2019

This is the first in a series of reviews by our New York correspondent Claire Baiz of entries in this year’s Doc NYC, the Big Apple’s – and one of[…]

Baltic cinema

Eastern European · Festivals & Awards

0

Ready for the Close-up: Filmmaking Then and Now in the Baltic States

  • November 6, 2019

Note: We’re publishing this to coincide with New York’s Scandinavia House’s important second festival devoted to Baltic cinema.  * * * Introduction The second New York Baltic Film Festival will[…]

Bob Ted Carol Alice

Comedy · Counterculture · Drama · Sex & Relationships

0

Who Carries the Banner? Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice 50 Years Later

  • November 3, 2019

Concepts of sex and marriage have changed monumentally in the last few decades and still today prove endlessly malleable and undefinable. We spend our whole lives attempting to shape our[…]

Shyamalan

Drama · New Media · Philosophy

0

Videograms of a Revolution: Surveillance, Self-Regulation, and Techno-Progressivism in M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass (2019)

  • October 30, 2019

[This review contains spoilers for the films Glass and The Village.]   “There are unknown forces that don’t want us to realise what we are truly capable of. They don’t[…]

Dear Ex

Asian · Drama · LGBT & Queer

0

“This Film Is Blessed by the Gods”: Talking with Mag Hsu, Director of Dear Ex (Netflix, 2018)

  • October 25, 2019

Hsu Chih-Yen and I immediately agreed that we wanted to represent a Taipei in July, especially the sun in Taipei. Under this July sun, everything is steaming, all the colours[…]

Wizard of Oz

Essays · Historical & Epic · Memoir · SF & Fantasy

1

The Wizard of Oz at 80: Archive of a Rust Belt Girl

  • October 20, 2019

The Wizard of Oz, the film, turns 80 this year, 2019. To celebrate, we present Amy Kenyon’s striking analysis/memoir, which explores growing up a “rust belt girl” in postwar Detroit[…]

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