When I browse social media I find a very common practice, which is also very curious. People ask about certain kind of movies to watch to suit a particular mood. Sometimes they want to cry themselves to sleep. Other times they want to be scared out of their wits. But if there’s a request that’s…
Familiar elements can be clichéd but also useful. Emphasize a particular trope too much and it becomes tired and tedious. Use a trope carefully, especially when connected to other tropes within a wider framework, and the various pieces can add up to a satisfying whole. The key aspect here is judicious treatment, ensuring that the…
The horror genre relies, to an extent, on the utilization of familiar tropes. The use of these tropes can reward and subvert expectations, and how these tropes are used contributes to the film’s effectiveness. Audience familiarity is both an opportunity and a difficulty for filmmakers: Give the audience what they want and they welcome it,…
With a title like The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot, there are only so many paths a movie can take. At some point, the titular man is going to have to kill Hitler and then he’s going to have to kill the Bigfoot. There’ll be some blanks to fill, but that’s going…
Directed by Shaul Schwarz (“Aida’s Secrets”) and Christina Clusiau, Trophy is a riveting but often difficult to watch documentary which examines the issue of trophy hunting and species preservation from the point of view of hunters, breeders, farmers, and wildlife conservationists. The subject became a leading news story in June 2015 when Minnesota dentist Walter…
A few weeks ago, a friend returned from her annual trip to her family’s farm, about two hours outside of Sydney. When she returned home, I was shocked to hear how common it was for people to hunt and shoot kangaroos, supported by photos of them proudly holding the slain marsupials by their feet. Confused…
