Monday, February 22, 2021

Dialogic Cinephilia - February 22, 2021


Dunn, Rob. "Home Alone, with 200,000 Friends." American Scholar (February 5, 2021) ["As we in the United States approach a full year of spending even more time than usual at home, and away from friends and family, we’re all a little bit lonely. But even though it might feel as if your immediate family and your pets are the only signs of life in your house—you’re not as alone as you might think. The modern American house is a wilderness: thousands of species of insects, bacteria, fungi, and plants lurk in our floorboards, on our counters, and inside our kitchen cabinets—not to mention the microbes that flavor our food itself. The trouble with wilderness, however, is that we always want to tame it. Cleaning, bleaching, sterilizing, and killing the organisms in our houses has had unintended—and dangerous—consequences for our health and the environment. Biologist Rob Dunn, a professor in the department of applied ecology at North Carolina State University, joins us to impart some advice about how to graciously welcome these unbidden guests into our homes."]

Heeney, Alex, Lidsay Pugh and Orla Smith. "Explorations of Rape Culture in Promising Young Woman and The Assistant." The Seventh Row #73 (January 6, 2021) ["This week on the podcast we discuss two explorations of rape culture that approach the topic in very different way. We look at Emerald Fennell’s stylish revenge thriller Promising Young Woman and Kitty Green’s The Assistant, a portrait of a young woman working in a misogynistic office environment."]

Heeney, Alex, et al. "Steve McQueen's Small Axe." The Seventh Row #72 (December 30, 2020) ["To cover Steve McQueen’s ambitious Small Axe series, we have assembled one of our most ambitious episodes of the year. We discuss each film (or episode?) of McQueen’s series and how they work together to form a cohesive whole."]

Koski, Genevive, et al. "Blackkklansman/Malcolm X (Pt. 1)."  The Next Picture Show #144 (September 4, 2018) ["Spike Lee’s new BLACKKKLANSMAN is an urgent call to look to the past to understand the present, an approach it shares with many of Lee’s films, though perhaps none as strongly as his 1992 epic biopic MALCOLM X. The films revisit two different chapters in 20th-century history, and star two different members of the Washington family — Denzel and his son, John David — but both are pure Lee in both their narrative motivations and their filmmaking technique. In this half, we consider what makes MALCOLM X the rare cradle-to-grave biopic that works, how Lee finds the dynamism in near-constant speechmaking, and whether Angela Bassett elevates a thankless role, or simply channels its innate nuance. "]

---. "Blackkklansman/Malcolm X (Pt. 2)." The Next Picture #145 (September 11, 2020) ["Though BLACKKKLANSMAN is, like MALCOLM X, drawn from real life, Spike Lee’s newest film takes more liberties in telling its ostensibly true story (something that’s drawn criticism from some corners). And also like MALCOLM X, it’s a film set in the past that’s commenting, often directly, on the present. Together the two films give us a lot to talk about, from their respective uses of speechmaking and divided identities, to their perspectives on white allies."]

Lash, Dominic. "'A fair curve from a noble plan': Certain Women." Movie #9 (2021) 









THE WES ANDERSON COLLECTION CHAPTER 8: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL from RogerEbert.com on Vimeo.







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