Where Are the Women? The Dressmaker
The female protagonist’s story is all about beauty as a metaphor for women’s power and confidence, without ever reducing her to a decorative object.
Month: November 2015
The Dressmaker movie review: haute couture as a tragicomic weapon
So entertaining, so unexpected, so wonderfully oddball, so damn good. Witty genre-busting simmering with pathos, humor, and calamity.
London photo: taxis all in a row
A familiar site in late-night London.
Where Are the Women? Trumbo
Helen Mirren makes a very fine villain indeed. But all the other woman in the story are nothing more than supportive adjuncts to the male protagonist.
Trumbo movie review: liberal Hollywood? ha!
Marvelously balances the silly and the solemn. There’s almost a whiff of the Coen-esque in its slick sharpness, in its whistling past the graveyard.
High-Rise movie review: afterscape in the sky (LFF 2015)
Ben Wheatley takes on J.G. Ballard, and it’s a frustrating experience: visually striking but far too literal while aiming for the allegorical.
London photo: I like the cut of your crumble
I don’t know why, but something about this derelict parking garage fascinates me.
Where Are the Women? The Perfect Guy
Hooray for a black female protagonist. Boo that she is all about romance, and that the film blames her for the dangerous situation she finds herself in.
The Perfect Guy movie review: dating blame
An enragingly stupid and obvious “thriller” jammed with dull genre clichés, wild hypocrisy, and just a hint of victim blaming.
London photo: old ad, and a new one
The advertising sign on the left is unlikely to endure as long as the one on the right has.
