Parsing out the politics of a Hollywood film can be tricky. What makes for a conservative film? Or a progressive one? Unless the film is about a politician or political issue, you have to analyze the values embedded in its themes, plot, and characters, and the conclusions are always debatable. It has gotten easier, however,…
It’s that silly time of year again. I’m not talking about the holidays; no, it’s the season of Top 10 lists that gets me down. All across the country, film critics are toiling in front of warm laptops trying to decide which movies were the best of the year. I understand why these lists are…
For viewers inclined toward anti-corporate sentiment – which is probably more than a few of you these days – Saving Mr. Banks will be an uphill climb from the start. The story itself doesn’t set off too many red flags: P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the author of the novel on which Mary Poppins was based,…
2013 was not the year you thought it was. The prevailing storyline of the first eight months of the year was that Hollywood was broken, as evidence by a high number of big-budget flops: Jack the Giant Slayer, The Lone Ranger, White House Down, After Earth, R.I.P.D., etc. But underneath the studio failures burned the…
“Philomena,” a winning new dramedy from director Stephen Frears, is a prime example of a storytelling technique known as the Trojan Horse. Like the Greeks at the gates of Troy, the film uses a genial, familiar tone and a well-worn genre to sneak in an edgy political message to an audience that might otherwise be…
When The Hunger Games was released into theaters in 2012, critics spent as much time debating its politics as they did reviewing the film. Almost everyone felt that the film had a partisan message, but few agreed as to which side it was actually on. Writers from Forbes and Fox News saw the film, with…
A lot of new followers this week, so I thought I would take this opportunity to welcome you all and share some of my latest work. Most of my work is now published elsewhere – this blog has become a place for the occasional post that doesn’t quite fit on other sites – but I…
This new report on gun violence in film has been getting a lot of play the last few days. Analyzing the incidents of gun violence in the top-grossing American films, the authors concluded that the incidents of gun violence in movies rated PG-13 have nearly tripled since 1985. Last year – for the first time…
Reel Change 
You must be logged in to post a comment.