We compiled this rec list on December 20th with the that hope the shutdown wouldn’t actually happen… It’s still up.
We compiled this rec list on December 20th with the that hope the shutdown wouldn’t actually happen… It’s still up.
Today is the last day of the Obama presidency, so we have a special recommendation from our latest batch of new titles. Southside with You is a pretty risky concept – a romantic drama based on Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date in Chicago. Casting the young Obamas while they’re still in the public eye … Continue reading “See off the Obama presidency with Southside with You”
Today is the last day of the Obama presidency, so we have a special recommendation from our latest batch of new titles.
Southside with You is a pretty risky concept – a romantic drama based on Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date in Chicago. Casting the young Obamas while they’re still in the public eye must have been extremely intimidating, but by all accounts, the film pulls it off pretty well. Critical reviews suggest that it’s a great romance movie, even ignoring the fact that it happens to be about the current president.
If you want to get wistful, now is the chance. Southside with You is now available for checkout (HU DVD 13639). Grab it now, because the AU Library will be closed tomorrow in observance of Inauguration Day. If you’re looking for something more timely for post-inauguration, consider Paul Verhoeven’s movies about violence, capitalism, and mass media instead.
Today is the increasingly dated-sounding Cyber Monday, an online sales day commemorated when people still had to use their workplace computers to get online. For an event with a name as silly as Cyber Monday, the only appropriate film genre to watch today is cyberpunk. If you haven’t seen any such movies before, cyberpunk is … Continue reading “Watch some cyberpunk movies for Cyber Monday”
Today is the increasingly dated-sounding Cyber Monday, an online sales day commemorated when people still had to use their workplace computers to get online. For an event with a name as silly as Cyber Monday, the only appropriate film genre to watch today is cyberpunk.
If you haven’t seen any such movies before, cyberpunk is a loose subgenre of science fiction and crime set in near-future dystopias; films in the genre use overwhelming technology and huge corporations as a sounding board for social issues and exploring the idea of consciousness. That sounds vague – and elements have seeped into almost all modern blockbusters – but as consumer electronics exploded in the 80s through the early 2000s, it was a dominant genre.
We come not to taunt Cyber Monday’s name but to praise it: like cyberpunk, it reflects a time of uncertainty and expectation about the future of technology. And decades later, they both sound pretty ridiculous.
A few recommendations:
Akira – HU DVD 433
Blade Runner – HU DVD 1064
Dark City – HU DVD 1992
Ghost in the Shell – HU DVD 5155
The Matrix – HU DVD 10154
RoboCop – DVD 8164
Strange Days – HU DVD 584
Total Recall – HU DVD 2040
via Yahoo Last night’s Emmy Awards highlighted the diversity of the nominees and winners, especially in contrast to this year’s widely derided Oscars. The 2016 Emmys featured shows, stories, and artists from a wide spectrum of race, gender identity, and disability. Plus, we’re happy any time Key & Peele wins an award. Nooice! The Chicago … Continue reading “What last night’s Emmys mean for diversity on screen”
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| via Yahoo |
Last night’s Emmy Awards highlighted the diversity of the nominees and winners, especially in contrast to this year’s widely derided Oscars. The 2016 Emmys featured shows, stories, and artists from a wide spectrum of race, gender identity, and disability. Plus, we’re happy any time Key & Peele wins an award. Nooice!
The Chicago Tribune published a great summary of why this year’s ceremonies were different and how that different mattered creatively. Featuring an increasingly higher numbers of non-white nominees doesn’t just capture the country more accurately; it also leads to greater diversity in subject matter, and the huge range of shows at the Emmys – including Master of None, Mr. Robot, and Orphan Black – reflects how media changes when you bring in new perspectives and voices. (There’s also the added benefit that diverse representation may help ratings.)
If the Emmys are a sign of the general direction television is heading, diversity in perspective, representation, and talent are intertwined and growing. Take note, film!
The Emmys are tonight! We love a celebration of the best of television as much as anyone, but as with any award show, remember that the nomination process is highly political and probably reflects the tastes and temperament of the voting body more than an objective measure of quality. It’s interesting to see what Emmy … Continue reading “If you want to understand the Emmys, start with Mad Men”
The Emmys are tonight! We love a celebration of the best of television as much as anyone, but as with any award show, remember that the nomination process is highly political and probably reflects the tastes and temperament of the voting body more than an objective measure of quality.
It’s interesting to see what Emmy voters broadly consider to be the most prestigious shows. The number-crunching wizards at FiveThirtyEight took a shot at quantifying the types of programs the Emmys love to nominate.
Generally speaking, sci-fi, fantasy and period dramas get nods for the technical awards. Late night comedy mops up for writing. Guest appearances on Law & Order will get you a nomination for acting. And right in the middle of all this is Mad Men, a show with a nomination pattern that matches the average Emmy show almost exactly. Unsurprisingly, that’s one of the most award-friendly shows in the last decade.
That article is super stats-wonky, but the point is that the Emmys have their own predictable tastes and politics. A show like The Americans is more likely to appeal to Emmy voters than Bob’s Burgers, even if Bob’s Burgers is wonderful and terrific.
from Rio de Janeiro: Urban Future The 2016 Rio Olympics start tomorrow, and this year seems particularly fraught. Every Olympic event has some enormous, costly, potentially negative impact on its host – remember the broken hotels in Sochi and the wasted construction in Athens? – but Rio has it worst in recent memory. The Zika … Continue reading “Alternative programming: Getting real about Rio”
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| from Rio de Janeiro: Urban Future |
The 2016 Rio Olympics start tomorrow, and this year seems particularly fraught. Every Olympic event has some enormous, costly, potentially negative impact on its host – remember the broken hotels in Sochi and the wasted construction in Athens? – but Rio has it worst in recent memory. The Zika virus outbreak and hazardous water conditions are enough cause for alarm, but the government’s ongoing anti-crime and urban renewal efforts have revealed the dangerous state of the city.
To learn more about the challenges facing Rio as it heads into the global spotlight, consider watching one of these three streaming documentaries. (You will need to log in with your AU username/password to access these.)
In a choice that shocked many critics, director Ken Loach won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for I, Daniel Blake, a drama about a carpenter fighting for disability benefits. This is Loach’s second Palme d’Or (a rare feat) after his 2006 Irish War of Independence film The Wind That Shakes the … Continue reading “An intro to double Palme d’Or winner Ken Loach”
In a choice that shocked many critics, director Ken Loach won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for I, Daniel Blake, a drama about a carpenter fighting for disability benefits. This is Loach’s second Palme d’Or (a rare feat) after his 2006 Irish War of Independence film The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Already, film critics are debating whether his newest work is too “aggressively Loachian.”
…but what does that mean? If you aren’t familiar with social advocacy British cinema, you may not have encountered the director before. Ken Loach’s films tend to address issues like welfare and labor with a focus on the realistic living conditions of the individuals affected. His 1969 film Kes, about a delinquent child with minimal family support who befriends a falcon, has often been considered one of the greatest British films of all time.
By all descriptions, I, Daniel Blake fits that mold for good or for ill; the filmmaker’s work has been criticized as maudlin and unsubtle at its worst. We have a bunch of Loach’s films in our collection – he’s been active for six decades after all – so you can judge for yourself.
Sweet Sixteen – HU DVD 1133
Bread & Roses – HU DVD 2619
The Navigators – HU DVD 2653
The Wind That Shakes the Barley – HU DVD 3374
The Spirit of ’45 – HU DVD 7594
Kes – HU DVD 8370
Ae Fond Kiss… – HU DVD 8803
Raining Stones – HU DVD 10683
Great Directors (interview with Loach) – Streaming video
The People v. O. J. Simpson, the first season of FX’s American Crime Story, ended last night to thunderous reviews. For a generation that didn’t live through the Simpson murder trial and never had to endure a year of Jay Leno monologue jokes, American Crime Story was a sensationalist look at a period of history … Continue reading “After People v. O. J., a closer look at the Trial of the Century”
The People v. O. J. Simpson, the first season of FX’s American Crime Story, ended last night to thunderous reviews. For a generation that didn’t live through the Simpson murder trial and never had to endure a year of Jay Leno monologue jokes, American Crime Story was a sensationalist look at a period of history that continues to explain so much about the current state of celebrity culture and race relations in America. Intrigue about O. J. and the trial are at their highest since 1995.
Viewers gripped to the show probably want to learn more; the obvious starting place is in the books written by the trial’s participants. We’d also like to offer up two documentaries in our collection, one about the trial itself and one that shows the effect of the verdict.
First, watch American Justice: Why O. J. Simpson Won (HU DVD 11111), an A&E documentary hosted by Bill Kurtis about the legal and cultural significance of the case. The hour-long documentary includes interviews with Johnnie Cochran and Fred Goldman. A&E claims this is “the definitive wrap-up” of the trial, and it may be able to solidify the themes – however exaggerated – that the show introduced.
If you want to see a first-hand example of how Cochran’s symbolic victory opened up discussions about police and race – if only on a cursory level – you can watch a streaming version of Racial Profiling and Law Enforcement: America in Black and White, ABC News’s special report on racially motivated police practices produced three years after the trial ended. Its messages should come as no surprise to anyone following police violence in the past few years, but the special is clear evidence of these issues’ heightened profile after the trial. The participation of prosecutor Christopher Darden is also telling evidence of trial’s long shadow.
Again, sadly, you don’t have to look far to see the same sort of racial discord. But if you want something more factual than the show, these two documentaries are a closer look at what happened in the trial, why it happened, and what it meant.
This Friday’s release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice marks the start of Ben Affleck’s new take on Gotham’s caped crusader. Batman’s nearly eighty-year history has allowed for adaptations of his stories with a wide thematic range. For every dark Batman story about justice, there’s another where Calendar Man appears (yes, that’s a real … Continue reading “Almost fifty years later, you can finally watch the original Batman”
This Friday’s release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice marks the start of Ben Affleck’s new take on Gotham’s caped crusader. Batman’s nearly eighty-year history has allowed for adaptations of his stories with a wide thematic range. For every dark Batman story about justice, there’s another where Calendar Man appears (yes, that’s a real Batman villain).
BvS certainly looks like it will fall on the dark end of the spectrum, and we can’t think of a better contrast than the original 1966 Batman television series starring Adam West. You probably know this version’s for its campy, colorful take on the Dark Knight… but you may not have ever actually seen it. The series was the subject of a decades-long dispute that prevented arguably the most fun and famous version of Batman from ever being seen again.
Adam West’s Batman was produced years before anyone expected to worry about rights for television, and it shows. Warner Bros., ABC, 20th Century Fox, and the production company all had some stake in the series, and that knot took years to untie. Beyond that, some costumes, props, music cues, and background actors were not cleared for re-distribution. The series never saw the light of the day from when it ended in 1968 to the DVD release in 2014, apart from the occasional re-run on television.
For your viewing pleasure, we have the entire original series available to check out in the library. We’re stunned that it took this long for such an iconic show to become available, but after endless legal wrangling, you can finally watch the show where the annoyingly catchy “Batman!” theme song came from. That one probably won’t be in the new movie.
Batman, Season 1 – HU DVD 14261
Batman, Season 2 – HU DVD 14262
Batman, Season 3 – HU DVD 14263
Still from Whom the Gods Destroy via “Unsung Divas of the Silent Screen” While St. Patrick’s Day is now a generally beloved holiday (we’re going to grab Shamrock Shakes in a moment), it’s easy to forget that much of the world was inhospitable to the Irish a century ago. The hostile attitudes toward the Irish … Continue reading “A rough early road for the Irish in film”
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| Still from Whom the Gods Destroy via “Unsung Divas of the Silent Screen” |
While St. Patrick’s Day is now a generally beloved holiday (we’re going to grab Shamrock Shakes in a moment), it’s easy to forget that much of the world was inhospitable to the Irish a century ago. The hostile attitudes toward the Irish continued through the early 20th century in the lead-up to the uprising in Ireland in 1916. In an interesting bit of timing, that coincides with the early days of film.
We found this lengthy but extremely in-depth article by Kevin Rockett from Trinity College Dublin about the representation of the Irish in pre-1916 films. To summarize, Ireland didn’t have much of a film industry until World War I, so a majority of Irish representation on-screen was left to American producers. Only a few of these films depicted the Irish was menacing stereotypes; most of these films depicted Irish history just because of the interesting content. But more controversially, they scrubbed these stories of their more radical, political elements, possibly as an appeal for cultural assimilation and an attempt to quell the rising anger.
European audiences imported and generally enjoyed these films, but it wasn’t until the rise of Ireland’s nationalist cinema a few years later that the Irish found their cause represented on-screen. Rockett notes that those nationalist films depicting Irish rebellion sparked such a strong, violent reaction that the film was banned in multiple countries.
Even as critics and producers at the time tried to downplay film as only an entertainment medium and not a political one, the depictions in and outside of Ireland – discouraging versus embracing Irish identity – had a message associated with them. You can read that same thread into modern depictions of race on film too: you can’t depict history without at least an implicit message.
This might be a little academic-y for St. Patrick’s Day, but we were greatly interested in Rockett’s take on this unexamined slice of film.
