There are so many things about the film The Santa Clause and the series as a whole that just makes no sense whatsoever. I know what you’re thinking: “Kristen, it’s a Christmas movie. Most things don’t make sense in Christmas movies.” And to that, I say, you are correct. HOWEVER, The Santa Clause has so many plot holes, that I can’t look past them any longer and they … Continue reading Something Has Been Bothering Me For Literally Years.
A man rises to power by appealing to middle America only to become corrupt by corporations and politicians, and behind closed doors, badmouths all those that support him. Sound familiar? Surprisingly, no, this is not about our current political situation here in the United States. A Face in the Crowd is a film from 1957, written by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan, and stars … Continue reading A Face in the Crowd (1957): Why This Film is Still Painfully Relevant 63 Years Later
Prior to covid, my escape from my anxiety was usually going to the movies. I’d remove myself from my reality by getting lost in the reality of a film in a dark theater. Obviously, due to Covid-19, this has not been possible for many months. And, arguably, should still not be possible. I traveled to another county to have that “movie theater experience” again. Now, … Continue reading Movie Going in the Time of Covid
I haven’t been sleeping much since my father died. That’s still a weird sentence to type and read. I’ve tried everything to help myself sleep more, but nothing seems to help. Due to this, I often find myself up at odd hours of the night, clicking through channels and streaming apps to find something to watch. Now, I usually end up just putting on House … Continue reading What Makes a Midnight Movie?
Shortly after my father passed, I received a phone call from my younger brother. He told me that he kept watching horror films and that they were, in a way, making him feel better. He asked me if that was strange. Now, to some, that may seem very strange: watching films where terrible things happen to people. But, I informed my brother, it’s not as … Continue reading Grieving Through Horror Films
Look, I see what message the Farrelly brothers were trying to send. I see it. But, they missed the mark by so goddamn much. Clearly, the message that was attempted here was “true beauty comes from within, regardless of what a person looks like on the outside”. But, due largely in part to Jason Alexander’s character Mauricio, that message is not handled well. This supporting … Continue reading Films That Have Not Aged Well: Shallow Hal (2001)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch may be the most self-aware film and also one of the biggest “screw you”‘s to a major film studio and I love it. Now, if you’ve seen Gremlins 2, you’ll know that the semi-serious tone from the original Gremlins is completely abandoned. And, there was a reason for this: director, Joe Dante, wanted nothing to do with a sequel. Gremlins was a particularly hard … Continue reading Gremlins 2: The New Batch : Money-grab or Meta-genius?
Movie theaters are in trouble, and even more so than we already thought. The Paramount Consent Decrees have been dismantled. For those unfamiliar, let me explain. With the birth of film in the United States came the birth of the studio system, where studios, under contract, had specific actors, directors, writers, and so on. That also included block booking their films, which ultimately led the … Continue reading With the Paramount Consent Decrees Ending, There’s Fear for the Future of Independent Theaters and Films
Recently, I showed my boyfriend the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a film often considered one of the first horror films from the 1920s. It’s filled with loads of German Expressionism and your girl loves German Expressionism. He really enjoyed the film (thank goodness), and we got to talking about remakes. We started discussing who we would cast in a remake of this film. … Continue reading A Recasting of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The “white savior” film narrative is, by far, the laziest way filmmakers tell stories about race and race relations. What is a “white savior film”, you ask? Well, it’s a film, almost always written by a white person, and the plot is, simply, a racist white person, throughout the course of the film, befriends a person of color (whether they be underprivileged or not) and … Continue reading White Savior Films Are Utter Bullshit.
