The Anti-Rom-Com in Postmodern Cinema: How the Portrayal of Fleeting Love Can Empower a Generation of Young Women. My Film Festival by Katharine Chapin

Posted on February 7, 2022 by admin

“People change, feelings change, but that doesn’t mean that the love once shared wasn’t true and real. It simply means that sometimes when people grow, they grow apart” (We Broke Up).

A visualization of Sternberg's theory of consummate love
Figure 1: “A Triangular Theory of Love” by R. J. Sternberg.

For the past twenty-thirty years, girls all over the world have fallen under the idealization of romantic comedies, commonly referred to as “rom-coms.” These films usually follow a fairly predictable plotline: guy meets girl, guy becomes attracted to girl, an obstacle stands in the way of their love, and finally, all barriers are broken for them to be together forever. In all of these films, the viewer takes away a universal message: love prevails. Love can (and will) defy all odds for the two main characters (usually a heterosexual couple) to live happily ever after no matter the outside circumstances. But I’d like to present a bit of a different storyline that exists right on the line of the rom-com genre, one that recognizes the value in a fleeting love, a love that you cannot realistically hold onto forever—a genre I have labeled the anti-rom-com.

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Shredded Nerves: A Festival of Stressful Cinema. My Film Festival by Yaakov “Jacob” Smith

Posted on January 31, 2022 by admin
In the midst of a dying dream, Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) breaks out into a grand performance of “Bye Bye Love.” All That Jazz
In the midst of a dying dream, Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) breaks out into a grand performance of “Bye Bye Love.” All That Jazz (20th Century Fox, 1979).

Stress is a universal thing. Everyone’s been overwhelmed by something at some point in their life, and the anxiety it produces can make it feel like the universe is conspiring against you. This is an unpleasant experience in everyday life, yet there are many stories out there dedicated to inducing this sensation of dread and panic in the viewer. Perhaps audiences crave catharsis in their storytelling, since most of these films feature a climax dedicated to giving viewers quite the cathartic experience.

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Maria Mutka, Author of FM 12.1 (2021) Article “’To Begin on Again’: A Study of Early Cinema’s Unique Influence on Modernist Literature”

Posted on December 13, 2021 by admin
A small memorial plaque on the location of James Joyce’s Volta Cinematograph theater. MKSeery on Wikitour (protected by Creative Commons license).

Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.

Maria Mutka: My article is a brief study and overview of an emerging field of cinema-literature cross sectional studies. The article argues that famous modernist writers of the early twentieth century, like James Joyce, were influenced partially both by cinema and the horrors of the First World War. These events affected how they approached their literary masterpieces, principally how they played with new notions of time and space conceptualization through the use of cinematic-like methods in their writing styles.

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FM 12.1 (2021) Now Out!

Posted on November 29, 2021 by admin

Film Matters is pleased to announce the release of FM 12.1, the first issue of 2021.

In this issue, you will find the following peer-reviewed feature articles:

These featurettes:

These book reviews:

These film reviews:

And these DVD/Blu-ray reviews:

Contributor copies should be mailed soon! In the meantime, for more about this issue, please visit: 

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/fm/2021/00000012/00000001

Are you an undergraduate author who wants to be published in Film Matters? Then we want to work with you! Please check out all the different ways you can publish with us.

Happy holidays!

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Introducing Our 2021 Masoud Yazdani Award Judges

Posted on November 15, 2021 by admin

Judging has begun for the 2021 Masoud Yazdani Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Film Scholarship. Articles under consideration are from the following fine institutions:

  • North Carolina State University
  • Queen Mary University of London
  • Rhode Island College
  • Stanford University
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of Exeter
  • University of Kent
  • University of North Carolina Wilmington
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Southern California (3)
  • University of Toronto (2)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (4)
  • Wilfrid Laurier University (2)
  • Yale University

This award wouldn’t be possible if not for the service work of our judges:

Eleanor Gratz is a graduate student in the Film Studies Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Stephen Lambros is a graduate student born and raised in Wilmington, NC. He double majored in creative writing and film studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the university’s film studies program. Beyond his studies, he enjoys writing books and screenplays.

Saifey Maynor is a graduate student in the Film Studies Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Rachel Pittman is a graduate student in the Film Studies Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Kate Wise Kate Wise is an MA student in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her current thesis explores the popularity of the K-pop group BTS and the importance of heightened parasocial relationships for fans during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to her research, Kate served as co-editor-in-chief for UBC’s film journal Cinephile and was recently published in the Vancouver-based arts magazine SAD Mag.

We look forward to announcing the results late 2021/early 2022.

In the meantime, happy holidays! And, as always, stay healthy!

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Sam Lawson, Author of FM 11.3 (2020) Article “‘Deviant’ Psychosis: An Exploration of the Production and Consumption of Queer and Transgender Women in the Films of Brian De Palma”

Posted on October 18, 2021 by admin
The Black Dahlia (Universal Pictures, 2006).

Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.

Sam Lawson: I have consistently found myself drawn to the analysis of LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream media; as such, my article was a result of my frequent consumption of films geared toward heterosexual audiences which feature queer characters and themes. My focus on De Palma was somewhat coincidental; I had compiled several neo-noir films which dealt thematically with LGBTQ+ topics and realized, based on the sheer number of his films which “fit the bill,” it would be in my best interest to focus on De Palma as an auteur.

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Stephen King – Dollar Baby: The Book (BearManor Media). Reviewed by Constantine Frangos

Posted on October 11, 2021 by admin
Book cover

One evening after a full day of work, with four tables pushed together at a café in 2013, I first heard of the Stephen King Dollar Babies program during a precursory meeting which would lead to a film festival that friends and I would put together. One of the local filmmakers in the group simply asked if we had heard of Dollar Babies. They would go on to become my favorite programming block for our short-lived festival. At the same time, over a thousand miles away at the Crypticon Horror Con in Minnesota, Anthony Northrup was hosting his First Annual Stephen King Dollar Baby Film Fest (15). For the uninitiated, “Dollar Babies” are short films where King officially grants adaptation rights to student and promising young filmmakers for a single dollar. 

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Ron Ma, Author of FM 11.3 (2020) Article “In Defense of What? The Battle Between Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival”

Posted on October 11, 2021 by admin
Roma (Netflix, 2018) won the Golden Lion at Venice and is distributed on Netflix, but are people watching the film due to ease of access or due to something else?

Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.

RM: My article examines the controversy between Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival. In 2017, Cannes announced that it would ban films not released in French theaters, such as Netflix films, from competing at the festival. My article situates Cannes’s decision in the context of French politics, the death of cinema, and film festival studies. Ultimately, I try to understand what compelled Cannes to make this decision and what its implications are.

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Red Balloon Motif Analysis. By Logan Wells

Posted on October 4, 2021 by admin
Tag (Broken Road Production/New Line Cinema, 2018).

The red balloon has found its way into films of different styles, genres, and eras. It is an image that evokes feelings of hope, imagination, and childlike wonder. Innocent and free from concern, it has been notably present ever since Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon (1956), in which a young Parisian boy finds and befriends a sentient balloon. Royce Marcus addresses the symbolism in the film: “The balloon as well as the children embody all that is pure and free; while the suburbs and the adults represent the harshness of reality, the prison and authority of the everyday – that which limits freedom and creativity” (15). The balloon is a fantastical yet simple symbol that is inevitably opposed by the realism of the world around it. The image has reappeared several times in varying degrees of relevance. It appears in major roles, such as in It (2017), or simple moments that pass by in a moment’s notice, such as Tag (2018) or Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). Despite the obvious differences between these films, the balloon’s role remains the same: to remind the characters and the audience of the profound impact that hope, wonder, and imagination has had on all children.

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The Rock (1996). Reviewed by Yaakov “Jacob” Smith

Posted on September 27, 2021 by admin
The Rock (Buena Vista Pictures, 1996).

It would be an understatement to call Michael Bay a punching bag for film critics around the world. Mention of his name has become code, even among the casual moviegoing public, for “bad movie.” This reputation, however, is unfounded. In point of fact, Michael Bay is one of the most visually interesting directors working in the industry, and constantly creates incredible sequences no other filmmaker can replicate. For the best example of his gleefully manic, beautifully destructive style one needs only to see the director’s second film, The Rock (Bay, 1996).

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