Brave: Not Yer Average Fairy Tale. Reviewed by Daniela Mejia

Merida from BRAVE. ©2012 Disney/Pixar

“I’ll be shooting fer my own hand,” proclaims Merida in a TV spot for Disney and Pixar’s last animated movie, Brave (2012). This and other promotional advertisements for the film pitched it as a novel adaptation of a classic fairy tale, updated for 21st century sensibilities and technologies. Brave follows a recent string of successful fairy tale animations released in the past decade—such as The Princess and the Frog in 2009 and Tangled in 2010. These three features all utilize the recognizable princess-centered plots that continue to bring success and popularity to Disney with each new generation of youth.

Continue reading
Posted in Reviews | Comments Off on Brave: Not Yer Average Fairy Tale. Reviewed by Daniela Mejia

The Five-Year Engagement (2012). Reviewed by Matt Cazwell

JASON SEGEL and EMILY BLUNT keep getting tripped up on the long walk down the aisle. Photo Credit: Glen Wilson. Copyright: 2012 Universal Studios

Finding a decent enough film about love these days will always be an endeavour, and finding a genuinely funny rom-com that doesn’t make you feel woozy with the diabetes it gives you from being so overly sugary is a very difficult task. While The Five-Year Engagement (2012) remains grounded and self-aware enough to not seem treacly, it doesn’t quite leave enough of a mark with its audience as it could do.

The Five-Year Engagement is a romantic comedy about a couple that are deeply in love, but can’t seem to find time to actually tie the knot, as they are inadvertently blockaded at every opportunity by work and family affairs.

Continue reading
Posted in Reviews | Comments Off on The Five-Year Engagement (2012). Reviewed by Matt Cazwell

The Raid (Serbuan Maut, 2011). Reviewed by Matt Cazwell

Ray Sahetapy as Tama. Photo by Akhirwan Nurhaidir. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

The Raid is an Indonesian martial arts/action movie about a S.W.A.T Team who raid an apartment complex, taking on a crime lord’s henchmen, and there are a couple of fight scenes hidden away too.

I am always wary of action movies because they are generally, reliably tedious, but that’s why I love film because there are always exceptions that just blow your mind, The Raid finds itself up there with Taken (2008) to be one of the most beautifully crafted action films in existence. (Don’t argue with me: Snatch, 2000, was boring.)

Continue reading
Posted in Reviews | Comments Off on The Raid (Serbuan Maut, 2011). Reviewed by Matt Cazwell

Reviewers wanted!

While we are always on the lookout at Film Matters for book and DVD/film reviews for our print issues, we are currently and actively soliciting similar pieces for our website.

So if you are interested in getting publishing and reviewing experience — online or otherwise — please get in touch with us today!  You can either comment on this post or email us at:  futurefilmscholars AT gmail.com

We look forward to working with you — thanks!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Reviewers wanted!

Call 4.1’s deadline is September 1st!

Just as a reminder, call 4.1 (2013) for Film Matters is still open — the deadline is September 1, 2012.  So submit your end-of-semester papers for consideration today!  More details about the call are in this document (Word):

And we still want those Daughters of the Dust comments, too!  Deadline is June 19th.  A quick and easy way to get published!  Follow the link for more details about this opportunity:  Daughters of the Dust “Film Bytes” call extended!

Thanks!

Posted in Calls | Comments Off on Call 4.1’s deadline is September 1st!

Daughters of the Dust “Film Bytes” call extended!

We are actively seeking well-crafted comments (anywhere from one sentence onwards) on Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991) for our “Film Bytes” column in issue 3.2 (2012).  This is a quick and easy way to get published!

Better still, the film is available streaming through the website Fandor, which offers a free two-week trial for new customers.  If you haven’t seen Daughters of the Dust, you really should!  The direct link to the film is here:

Please share your thoughts on Daughters by June 19th.  Comments can be posted here on our website or on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/filmmattersmagazine), or you can email them to us at:  futurefilmscholars AT gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Daughters of the Dust “Film Bytes” call extended!

Announcing our newest guest editors!

Working with Theresa L. Geller and her students at Grinnell College on their issue of Film Matters (2.4) on the theme of genre was such a positive experience, that we are looking forward to doing it again (three more times)!

John C. Tibbetts and his students at the University of Kansas will be producing issue 3.4 — due out later this year.  Their theme is fan culture.

Donna Peberdy and her students from Southampton Solent University will be our first guest editors for volume year 4 (2013), with their issue 4.2 on the theme of stars and performance.

Finally, Christopher Sieving and his University of Georgia students will be working on issue 4.4 — our last of 2013 — for us, along the theme of film in the sixties.  Sieving has mentored several of our past Film Matters authors (“Globalization and the Modern Vampire” by Lauren Berg; and “Ritual of the Sadists: The Subversive Horror Cinema of José Mojica Marins” by Will Stephenson) so we are pleased to be working with the University of Georgia again!

Ultimately, we are very excited to be able to share this unique publishing experience with undergraduate students and their instructors worldwide, and believe it results in a more diverse and vibrant Film Matters.  Thanks, as ever, for your support and interest — and we hope to work with you soon.

For more information about Grinnell College’s issue, please visit this link:  http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-issue,id=2216/

And if you are an instructor who would be interested in guest editing an issue of Film Matters with your undergraduate students, please get in touch with Liza (palmerl AT uncw.edu).

Posted in News | Comments Off on Announcing our newest guest editors!

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Simple but Charming. Reviewed by John Debono

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL image
Tena Desae as Sunaina and Dev Patel as Sonny star in THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL. Photo by Ishika Mohan

One of the biggest problems in amateur film criticism is that people have a difficult time separating their personal taste and quality filmmaking. In order to write a fair article, the critic should consider the intentions of the film and whether it accomplishes its goal in a compelling and honest way. For example, a film like John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) is not necessarily intended for someone at my stage in life, but I can acknowledge the film’s success as a heartfelt comedy for an older generation.

Continue reading
Posted in Reviews | Comments Off on The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Simple but Charming. Reviewed by John Debono

Our first guest-edited issue — FM 2.4 — is now out!

Film Matters is pleased to announce the release of FM 2.4, guest edited by Grinnell College.  In this issue, you will find:

  • The “Eastern Western”: Cross-Cultural Hybridity and Violent Coexistence by Paul Dampier 
  • The Underside of Desire: Cannibalizing Genre in Claire Denis’s Trouble Every Day by Stephanie Wong
  • Queer Horror: Unearthing Sexual Difference in Les Diaboliques by Stephanie Bastek, Isabel Lockhart Smith, and Kerstin Rosero
  • Nobody’s Perfect: Queer Gender Performance in Some Like It Hot and Miss Congeniality by Shirley Welton 
  • “The Scream Instead of the Statement?” Two Landmark Films in Science Fiction’s Meandering Path to Critical Relevance by Kramer McLuckie
  • Sam Green’s Lost Utopias and Documentary Dreams by Phillip Brogdon, Christian Caminiti, and Mike Kleine
  • “Bigger than the Rights”: Nina Paley Sings the Blues: Interview with Nina Paley by Laura StammWinsome Eustace, and Paul Dampier

As well as some quality DVD reviews.  For more information about this issue, visit the following site:  http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-issue,id=2216/

Congratulations to Grinnell College, our first guest editors!  And should you wish to guest edit an issue with your undergraduate students, please get in touch with us today!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Our first guest-edited issue — FM 2.4 — is now out!

The Avengers: Flawed but Intelligent Entertainment. Reviewed by John Debono

Samuel L. Jackson stars as Nick Fury in Walt Disney Pictures’ The Avengers

I should begin my review by admitting some concerns. While I love the graphic novel fan community that I am a part of, it is admittedly very black and white in terms critical discussion. There is absolutely no middle ground between the best and worst film ever. So when reviewing Josh Whedon’s The Avengers, I am going to make my point as clear as possible. While it is an entertaining film with some great dialogue and action, the sheer structure of the narrative’s progression rushes the smaller details to make a truly great movie.

Continue reading
Posted in Reviews | Comments Off on The Avengers: Flawed but Intelligent Entertainment. Reviewed by John Debono