Skip to main content

Posts

The Queen of Underground Cinema: Sarah Jacobson and The Mess of Movie-Making

It's very romantic to view the creative process as an inherently transgressive one, and making movies should be, as it's one of the most collaborative modes of making art. However, filmmakers are at the mercy of production companies funding their projects, who in turn inform the market and decide what will sell. People who have no connections within the industry, aren't rich and aren't willing to comply with a company trying to churn out another forgettable money-making sequel/revamp/remake, don't seem to have much of a chance at all. Nostalgia has been a burden on culture, and maybe it always has been, but particularly recently, we cannot escape it. I'll admit myself it's really hard to not look back at the past and think 'it seemed so much easier to get an interesting and unique film made back then'. The 90s in particular seemed plentiful, with some of my favourite directors like Gregg Araki, Cheryl Dunye and Ngozi Onwurah making formally interesti
Recent posts

Blood and Guts: Christine Chubbuck, Death and The Voyeur

I gave you blood, blood, gallons of the stuff I gave you all that you can drink, and it has never been enough - blood (end credits) by my chemical romance In the middle of 1975, Christine Chubbuck, a Florida-based television news reporter, made history in being the first person to die by suicide on live TV.  As it's become a trend which has made a lot of people money, I've become vehemently anti-'true crime', the genre of podcast/docu-series/YouTube deep dive where the audience is invited to gawk at what is usually the most gruesome and grief-riddled time in people's lives. They often focus on murders and cults, topics that are both taboo and incredibly gendered. We have become more and more obsessed with women in pain and turmoil. Earlier this year, I watched  Christine  (2016) and  Kate Plays Christine  (2016) in succession after I realised they were both about Chubbuck. I don't mean to become fixated on troubled public figures and have become wary of my attac

10 Sex Comedies To Watch If Your Summer Went As Poorly As Mine

I'm very bad at having fun. Experiencing joy is not one of my strongest traits. But I do know how to cheer myself up - watching a movie. Now, the main reason I chose to make a list of sex comedies is because it's a sub-genre that far too many people hate. And I get it. I wrote a whole post about the mess of the traditional sex comedy . But I get a lot of comfort from them, mainly because I struggle to talk about sex myself so when a piece of art is very candid about it, I get very invested. I like sex comedies in particular because they hinge on you not taking them seriously. On laughing at the messy moments of sexuality and at yourself for taking it all so seriously. I didn't have a good summer if I'm being honest, for a variety of reasons. Having depression is hard. Being queer in an increasingly antagonistic country is hard. Change, most of all, is very hard for me. So, in moments of stress, I watch movies and I make lists.  The Sessions (2012, directed by Ben Lewin

(Some Of) My Favourite Disturbing Movies

I've have had excruciating writer's block due to depression and just general exhaustion so I'm doing an easy post where I don't have to do research and just get to state my opinions. I want to talk about some films that have made me feel viscerally ill, have made me hide my head behind a pillow and have stuck with me hours after watching them, usually for a bad reason. Last year, I wanted to do a fully comprehensive piece on the appeal of disturbing cinema but it never really came together, despite my research and effort, and I was really disappointed because I do feel I have a lot to say about what I personally find disturbing and why I often like films in spite of this.   We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) No one does quiet brutality like Lynne Ramsey and her interpretation of the novel of the same name manages to unnerve me in a different way every time I watch it. On some watches, it's the deathly fear of motherhood or even worse, failing at said task and being