It’s been ten years since Quentin Tarantino’s first western film, Django: Unchained. The film is the second “reboot” in name only that he’s done, the first being Inglourious Basterds. The original Django, released in 1966, is a shining example of the Spaghetti Western that became iconic in the Dollars trilogy by Sergio Leone. Continue reading Flashback Flicks – Django: Unchained 10 Years Later
Miami Film Festival’s GEMS 2022 has just wrapped at Miami’s Tower Theater. The fall mini-festival is a one-week precursor to the Miami Film Festival (MIFF) that takes place in March. The festival started in 2014 as MIFFecito, but rebranded the following year as GEMS Film Festival. GEMS is advertised as presenting “the jewels of the fall season” with the “biggest awards contenders of the year” according to the director of programming at GEMS, Lauren Cohen. This year, the Tower Theater’s contract with the city has been terminated so although the festival’s future is uncertain the people there seem hopeful that it will not be the last. FIU Film Studies interns Kevin de los Cuetos and Tatiana Nunez were lucky enough to watch a few of the films played at GEMS this past week. Here are the highlights of what they saw: Continue reading GEMS 2022 Mini-Festival Dispatch
It’s not often you see a director hit three home runs (maybe soon to be four) in a row when making films. Martin McDonagh is acclaimed in his ability to combine humor with serious content similarly to the Coen Brothers, but McDonagh movies have a different flavor to them. In preparation for his newest film Banshees of Inisherin, here are all three of Martin McDonagh’s films ranked. Continue reading All 3 Martin McDonagh Movies Ranked
Horror and comedy are two of the most popular movie genres, one is on the up-and-up (especially this time of year) and the other has been relegated straight to streaming for years now. Horror and comedy, like primary color, create new colors when you mix them. The duo creates a subgenre that on paper should not work: how can you freak someone out and make them laugh simultaneously? Well, dozens of filmmakers at this point have cracked that code and now we have dozens of great movies from them. Here is how it started. Continue reading Bloody Funny: Horror-Comedy
The Fall 2022 Film Studies Crew presents our top picks for the fall season. Throw on a knitted sweater, grab a warm mug of coffee, and enjoy!
October 11th is the 20-year anniversary of Punch-Drunk Love, a movie directed by the renowned Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. It revolves around a strange emotionally volcanic man and his quest for companionship. Continue reading Punch-Drunk Love 20th Anniversary: Gut-Punch Cry-a-Bunch Love it so Much
You know a movie has got to be bold when the title is just a one word synonym for ghost. Released in 1982, Poltergeist is known as one of the scariest movies ever made due to its top-of-the-line special effects, clown dolls, and creepy little girls. When this movie came out, the American audience was weaning off the Amityville haunted house type of movie, and instead moving towards slasher flicks with Friday the 13th and Halloween. Poltergeist was an example of a subgenre going out with a blast (much like the implosion of the house at the end of the movie). Continue reading Poltergeist at 40: It’s Heeeeeeere!