Meet Serena: she regularly gets kicked out of movie theatres, snaps at coworkers in her microbiology lab and corrects the grammar of her date mid-hookup. In her opinion, the fewer people she has to fake kindness towards, the better. But after taking a critique of a colleague too far, she must undergo sensitivity training if she wants to keep her job.
Posts published in “Movies”
The beginning of “mid90s” is comprised of sudden images cut together. Skateboards, still on the ground, are scattered with a force. A hallway where an older brother pounces on the younger one, pelting him with his fists. And the younger brother — the thirteen year-old boy we will come to know as Stevie — looks in the mirror and pokes at his bruised chest, then punches it, groaning with the pain.
Jacqueline Richardson ’21 | Assistant Arts Editor
Oh, the lesbian movie! If there exists a genre more fraught and loved to the people it tries to portray, I haven’t heard of it. Dead lovers, sex scenes so obviously shot with a man panting behind the camera and straight actresses fumbling through flat performances fill the film’s minutes, and yet we continue to watch. Of course some successes exist. But these are few.
Phoebe Lease ’21 | Arts Editor
Like many in my generation, middle school is a memory I would like to keep far, far away from any part of my conscious mind. Yet, when I saw the trailer for “Eighth Grade,” an indie film quickly gaining an enthusiastic audience, I was drawn to the honesty with which director Bo Burnham deals with his young characters.
Battle of the Sexes, released last September, is a biographical, sports comedy-drama film set in the 1970’s. The plot is loosely based on the famous 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. The film stars Emma Stone as King and Steve Carell as Riggs, with Andrea Riseborough, Elisabeth Shue, Austin Stowell, Bill Pullman and Sarah Silverman in supporting roles.
The project and its two leads were announced in 2015. Principal photography on the film began in Los Angeles in 2016, with a budget of more than $25 million. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last September.
“Rang De Basanti,” or in English, “Colour it Saffron,” is a 2006 Indian, drama film written, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The title can be literally translated as “Paint me with the colours of spring.”
Released in February, “Get Out” blends racial tensions with satire and horror resulting in an especially potent film. This bombshell social critique from first-time director Jordan Peele offers a thought-provoking look at race in America.
Asghar Farhadi’s 2016 film “Salesman” tells a thought provoking story about a young married couple living in Tehran, which was shown last weekend by the Student Events Committee. Rana (Taraneh Alidootsi) and Emad (Shabaab Hosseini) are forced to evacuate their home once a construction mishap causes their apartment to become unlivable.
“Queen” is a bittersweet Bollywood comedy about self-discovery. Directed by Vikas Bahl in 2014, “Queen” was made for just under $2 million; yet, the film earned the equivalent of $8 million in its first two weeks. From day two onward, it was the No. 1 film in India.
Directed by Jean-Paul Lilienfeld, the 2008 French drama “La journée de la jupe” is loosely based on true events. A key aspect of the plot happened in real life: a request was sent to the French Secretary of Education to propose a National Skirt Day.