Category: Culture watch
Chappie: Of Droids and Souls
by Ted Giese Building on the aesthetic and thematic groundwork of his previous feature films District 9 and Elysium, director Neill Blumkomp’s dystopian sci-fi action film Chappie wrestles again with what it means to be a human in a world that increasingly devalues life. Its…
Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
by Ted Giese Ego front and centre Set against a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is the story of a fading Hollywood actor, Riggan Thomson, fighting to remain (or…
American Sniper: Of Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs
by Ted Giese “There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs.” In Clint Eastwood’s film American Sniper the central character, Chris Kyle, is a Texan who grew up wanting to live the life of a “cowboy,” content to chase the…
Be careful in the woods
by Ted Giese Rob Marshal’s new adaptation of the Tony award winning musical Into The Woods is Disney’s most recent foray into live-action film musicals. As in the original, Marshal’s Into the Woods finds its story centred on folk tale characters made popular by the…
The Hobbit: Prepare for battle before viewing
by Ted Giese Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies concludes his film adaption of J.R.R Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit—or at least begins its conclusion, since an extended edition will come out in about a year. These releases contain scenes with new…
Exodus: Wrestling with God and Scripture
by Ted Giese Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2013) was an opinionated film chock full of dark cryptic extra-biblical mysticism and environmentalist concerns often feeling like propaganda for something. Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings, on the whole, is a much different film. His “sword and sandal”…
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