I Still Believe in Heroes

                           To say that slashers were on the decline before the release of Wes Craven’s Scream would be an understatement. By that point in 1996, the slasher genre had gone completely stale and left for dead. Most of what we got were rehashes of things we had already seen. It was sequel after sequel of the main slasher franchises such as Friday the 13 th and Halloween . What was once a thoughtful look at gender and a vehicle for women be heroes (because of the Final Girl trope) had become a soulless excuse to show blood and violence on the screen. Then, Scream arrived and rewrote the whole narrative on slasher films. The genre was once again alive and thriving.               Scream follows Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, a young high school girl who is approaching the one-year anniversary of her mother’s grizzly murder. As the date app...

            When Phantom Thread   ended, the very first thing that came out of my mouth was, “Wow.” I just wasn’t sure what else to say after that. I knew I absolutely loved the film, but I couldn’t think of the right words to express how I felt about it. I don't typically sit through the credits of a film unless I know there's a scene attached after them, but with Phantom Thread   I just sat there after the fact trying to take it all in. As I walked out of the theater, I found myself unable to stop smiling like an idiot because I had just witnessed a love story unlike anything I had ever seen before. “Wow” ended up being the perfect way to sum up my thoughts on the film.             Paul Thomas Anderson's  Phantom Thread  has been one of 2017’s most secretive films. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock in what he has announced will be his final role before retir...

"Oh, what's the use? Walter, you wouldn't know what it means to want to be respectable and live a halfway normal life." Hildy Johnson - His Girl Friday           When His Girl Friday  came out, way back in 1940, society was in a place where women were still not fully integrated into the work force. For the most part, women worked in clerical or sales work and they were often faced with hostility from many of the men that worked with them. Women working in journalism was a rare thing, and that is where this film takes place.           There are many things that make this a great film, but one of the things that I admire the most about it is how ahead of its time it was. It wasn't just the fact of placing Hildy (Rosalind Russell) in a male-dominated work environment, it was the fact that Hildy was a character who was respected and admired by her male peers. There are multiple comments throughout the film from the male repor...

Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple and Jim Belushi star in Woody Allen's new drama,   Wonder Wheel . The film takes place in 1950s Coney Island and centers around Ginny (Winslet), a waitress that is unhappily married to Humpty, a carousel operator (Belushi). When Ginny falls for a young lifeguard (Timberlake), she begins to find happiness again. When Humpty's estranged daughter shows up and also vies for Mickey's attention, however, Ginny's life begins to unravel. At this moment, I'd like to point out that I've never seen a Woody Allen movie that I actually liked. Movies like   Annie Hall ,   Sleepers  and   Play It Again, Sam  are, in my opinion, absolutely dreadful. Needless to say that going into   Wonder Wheel,  my expectations were about as low as they possibly could have been. For the most part, I was correct in expecting a dull film, but that's not to say that there weren't any redeemable qualities in it. The best part abo...

             Sometimes a movie comes out and it seems to speak directly to you. It might be because you relate to the characters or it has a message that you need to hear. Watching Coco , Pixar’s first story revolving around Mexican culture, I felt like I was watching something that was made specifically for me. Much like most of Pixar’s other works, Coco is the kind of animated film that can be thoroughly enjoyed by adults just as much as kids. It is a wonderfully made story that uses Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) to celebrate Mexican culture.             Coco centers around Miguel and his family, all of whom are shoemakers. Although Miguel is being raised to follow in the footsteps of all his other family members, he has a different dream. His dream is to become a musician just like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. The only problem is that music has been banned from Miguel’s family for...

            Greta Gerwig makes her solo directional debut with the coming-of-age drama, Lady Bird , starring two-time Academy award nominee Saoirse Ronan. Gerwig, who also wrote the film, has primarily been an actress that you may recognize from films such as 20 th Century Women , Jackie and No Strings Attached . 2017 has been a year that has seen many phenomenal directorial debuts including Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Andy Serkis’ Breathe . Gerwig does not disappoint and turns in an incredible film that can be enjoyed by all.             Lady Bird takes place in Sacramento and is the story of Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson as she finishes out her last year of high school and prepares for college. The film takes place in 2002, a time where the United States’ economy was rapidly shifting as a result of 9/11. Christine’s family struggles because of those economic c...