At its surface, Bring It On is a fun teen rom-com about cheerleading that perfectly sets up its tongue-in-cheek tone with its opening dream sequence. Featuring the “I’m sexy, I’m cute, I’m popular to boot” cheer, it pokes fun at how people typically view cheerleading as nothing more than a bitchy popularity contest, but the film also shines…
Review: Yes, God, Yes
Most teenage sexual awakenings explored in cinema are told through the male lens, but Yes, God, Yes not only explores this through the female lens, but through a religious one as well. Loosely based on writer-director Karen Maine’s experience growing up Catholic in the Midwest, the film follows 16-year-old Alice (Natalie Dyer) as she begins to explore…
I Am Legend: Becoming the Villain in a Vampiric Dystopia
Across the world, life as we know it has changed: we’re living in a real-life dystopia due to a novel strain of the coronavirus. With so many people in lockdown around the globe, people have been influenced to seek out films that explore similar circumstances. Unsurprisingly, the most popular is Contagion, a film about an airborne…
Review: Eilsabeth Moss’ Shirley Jackson Walks a Tightrope Between Chaos and Control in ‘Shirley’
This review was adapted into an essay for HorrorWood and published with them on September 18, 2020. Josephine Decker, director of experimental drama Madeline’s Madeleine, explores the life of American horror writer Shirley Jackson in her newest film, Shirley. Jackson, who has written six novels, two memoirs and over 200 short stories, is perhaps best known for ‘We…
Film Review: The Grudge (2020)
J-horror had a huge impact on Western cinema in the late 90s, thanks to Ringu (1998), which led to a lot of American remakes. Takashi Shimizu remade his own film, Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), for an American audience in 2004 starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. There have been two sequels to this so far, but producer Sam Rami and director…
‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ Explores Lesbian Romance Using the Female Gaze
At the end of the 18th century, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is teaching portraiture to a group of young women when one of them asks her about a painting they discovered at the back of the class — the titular ‘portrait of a lady on fire.’ We then jump to a flashback, which takes precedence for…
Book Review: You, Me and the Movies
You, Me and the Movies tells the story of a chance meeting at a hospital which reunites Arden with Mac, a university film lecturer she had an affair with thirty years ago. I appreciated reading a book with an older protagonist. The flashbacks to her young adult self at university worked really well. I enjoyed the…
‘Starfish’ Review: A Visually Stunning Debut Exploring Grief
“For the end of the world, press play.” A.T. White’s debut feature Starfish follows Aubrey (Virginia Gardner), whose reality begins fraying at the edges as she struggles with the death of her best friend, Grace (Christina Masterson). The film opens at Grace’s funeral and her gravestone reads ‘Always Right,‘ which is the first insight we get into…
‘Unicorn Store’ Review: Being Yourself Isn’t Something You Have to Give Up
Brie Larson’s feature-length directorial debut has been long anticipated. First premiering at Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017, Netflix only picked up the distribution rights to Unicorn Store in January 2019. The film follows Kit (Larson), a failed artist who moves back in with her parents (Joan Cusack and Bradley Whitford), and gets a job at…
Top 10 Modern Scream Queens
The term ‘Scream Queen’ refers to actresses who are associated with the horror genre, either through recurring roles or one significant performance. Jamie Lee Curtis is regularly regarded as the ultimate Scream Queen and is usually who people first think of when they hear the term. Known mostly for her role as Laurie Strode in…