There are some movies that just become an instant hit. Everyone seems to love them – they’re all over the TV, a sequel is confirmed within 10 minutes of the movie being released, and everyone seems to be raving about this amazing and miraculous new film. This is what happened with The Greatest Showman (TGS). What makes it worse, is that it was a musical: even the radio wasn’t safe.
Now, I’m not denying the appeal of TGS, nor am I saying that it is badly made. However, the entire movie didn’t strike me as something to be ridiculously excited about, and the hype that has surrounded it ever since has slowly chipped away at my tolerance of the movie, as well as my will to live. Continue reading
I must start this out with a confession: I am someone who is prone to hyperbole. It will worm its way into my everyday interactions. In fact, one might say that I am liberal with my hyperbolicity— non-literal exaggerations can be found in the way I discuss, describe, act, and recount; in the way I exist.
On January 22nd, 2019, the nominations for the 91st Academy Awards were announced, and… I am pretty shocked by them. Roma leading the pack with 10 nominations, including two acting nods, Timothee Chalamet left out, and Bradley Cooper snubbed in the Director category in favor of a foreign language film, one of two on the list! However, even after all the buzz and promotion, the one that shocked me the most was the fact that even with just 8 nominees for Best Picture this year, Black Panther was on the list.
There’s a scene early in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange where Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) and his gang of “droogs” run into a rival gang midway through engaging in an evening of “ultra-violence”. Alex and the droogs stop what they’re doing (raping a group of women) and fight the rival gang. While the scene unfolded, I couldn’t help but think of a of a quote from the seminal Australia young-adult novel, Tomorrow When the War Began. It reads:
The 80s. An era of big hair, big shoulders, and big movies. This decade produced many of the classics we know and love today: The Goonies, Footloose and Die Hard, just to name a few. However, one of the most famous movies of the time is also my bête noire.