If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Female action stars are hot, but can they really save lives? Director and writer Fiona Mackenzie thinks they can. Not just in the movies, but in real life. This conviction inspired her new film, Alpha Numeric.
Alan Cumming knows a little bit about feeling like a second-class citizen. After all, aside from being a gay man in a straight-dominated world, he's also a Scot who's lived in London.
While at New York Comic-Con, I got a few minutes with DC co-publisher Dan DiDio to ask him about the motivations for this new project, and also threw in a question about the new, animated adaptation of Frank Miller's revolutionary Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
Let us not forget that art and entertainment do affect the masses and the masses affect the arts. In many ways, what is popular and successful is a barometer of where we are and where we're headed.
Those nonfiction books that purport to explain life, the universe, and everything will occasionally rocket to the top of the bestseller lists and stick there for months, like a wine stain that won't scrub from the carpet.
So why do we still insist on vetting female fantasy life through the critical and shaming lens of reality? If it doesn't pass our test of what is good for us in real life, we're not allowed to dream about it. There's nothing new about this: Women have always been viewed as the gatekeepers of morality.
Viewers of this year's Academy Awards will see the coveted gold Oscar statuette handed to a company that did the best job of gracelessly shoehorning its product into an otherwise perfectly adequate movie scene.
I'm going to make an outrageous Oscars prediction, and it has nothing to do with the winners. When the 89th annual Academy Awards air, the most coveted viewership demographic will be watching anything but the Hollywood awards show.
Women in other countries around the world, including the United States, suffer from the scourge of sexual violence, though the stories I heard in Congo are exceptional in their brutality. So why focus on Congo?
Having read all three of Stieg Larsson's novel trilogy featuring his super heroine Lisbeth Salander, and having seen all three of the Swedish movies adapted from those books as well as the American version, I have arrived at one conclusion: the Swedes win.
It's not that I don't think David Fincher is a solid director. But I don't think he's the second coming either, though some of the reviews he tends to get would have you believe otherwise.
What says Christmas Spirit more than nuclear holocaust, life-or-death chases in an automated car park, and scaling the world's tallest building? Maybe that's why Paramount scheduled the release of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol for this most festive of seasons.
Exotic locations, fast cars, beautiful women, and crazy gadgets are the excitements in today's cinematic thrillers -- whether they be spy-oriented, crime adventure, or a suspense mystery.
Lisbeth Salander is not a hero. She's not a woman we should all aspire to be, and she doesn't have superpowers -- but she is a strong character, and one worth the 158 minutes you'll spend with her if you see the highly anticipated film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
Hollywood is finally making an effort to give women and their stories the blockbuster treatment. In doing so, the film industry is hearkening back to what was once a strength of classic Hollywood: the blockbuster women's film.
Is Fincher's film better than Oplev's? Not really. It's different; it's probably as good as the Swedish version. But better? Nope, sorry.
