Tag: film
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Disney, Pixar, And The Golden Age of Animation
Published in the North Central Chronicle in September 2009. Everyone has a favorite animated movie. I’m a Toy Story man myself. But no matter which film you prefer, it’s clear that our generation—the Millennials, born between 1983 and 2000—has been the most spoiled in history in terms of the animated films we’ve grown up watching.…
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You Should See ‘Up’ Right Now
Yeah, it’s good. Great, even. It’ll be another hit for Pixar, and deservedly so. I thought making a movie about a rat in a kitchen would be a tough sell, but alas, they made Ratatouille. Then came a largely dialogue-less movie about a robot stuck on a trash-riddled Earth in the future. Wall-E was the…
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Twilight Bites: How Dazzling Vampires Distort Masculinity
Published in the North Central Chronicle on April 24, 2009. Let’s pretend I’m a teenage girl and that you’re my best friend. I’ve just told you about this guy I started dating. He’s perfect in every way, I say. He stares at me while I sleep, he alienates me from my friends and, among other…
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Phoebe In Wonderland
Being a kid today has got to be tough. Being a kid with an insatiable creative appetite and a slight case of obsessive compulsive disorder has got to be even tougher. That’s what Phoebe (played by 11-year-old Elle Fanning, Dakota’s younger sister) has to go through in Phoebe in Wonderland, the newest film from director…
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And The Oscar Goes To…
…the most predictable Oscars ever. Every year it seems like the suspense is sucked out of the actual awards ceremony with the months of speculation and campaigning and Oscar ballots. This year, sadly, was even more predicable than previous ones because of the incessant and overrated Slumdog Millionaire cleaned house just as every one predicted…
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Oh, Oscars, How Do I Loathe Thee?
Published in the North Central Chronicle on January 30, 2009. Let me count the ways… 1. You want normal people to like you, but you fail to acknowledge what people like. In the past, you’ve been excused from this because most of the time the highest grossing film of year wasn’t worthy of awards. But…
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Stranger Than Fiction
Originally published in the North Central Chronicle on January 18, 2009, as part of a series called “Chad Picks Classic Flicks.” An artist may not set out to create something that changes the world, but he just might do it by mistake. Marc Forster’s 2006 film Stranger Than Fiction is a movie about fate—or “the…
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Slumdog Millionaire Is Bankrupt
On his blog LookingCloser.org, Christian film critic Jeffrey Overstreet lays out his reasons why Slumdog Millionaire didn’t tickle his fancy as it has for so many other people. I was pleased to see that someone shares my sentiments, however unpopular they may be.
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My Mouth’s Bleedin’!
Today is the day, the only day of the year, when I watch It’s A Wonderful Life. Watching the classic Christmas movie with a bowl of popcorn and a crackling fire on Christmas Eve has become perhaps the longest tradition with my family. Another tradition, getting up at 5 a.m. on Christmas morning and waiting…
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Happy-Go-Millionaire
Hallelujah! It’s Oscar season! I guess seeing Rachel Getting Married was technically my first dive into this year’s plethora of Oscar bait, but tonight I dove down further by seeing Happy-Go-Lucky and Slumdog Millionaire, two small films that are getting a lot of buzz and landing on some critics’ Best of 2008 lists. Naturally, I…
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The Sting
Originally published in the North Central Chronicle in October 2008 as part of a series called “Chad Picks Classic Flicks.” Welcome back to “Chad Picks Classic Flicks.” I was catching up on more recent films over the summer but I’m excited to start a new year of discovering the new in films of old. This…
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The War by Ken Burns
I’m still working my way through it, but I’ve already come to appreciate Ken Burns’ seven-part 2007 miniseries The War. Burns explains in the making-of feature that he wanted to show the war not through historians but through average citizens, men and women and children from every corner of the country who endured the front…
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No Direction Home
Just watched Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary No Direction Home about Bob Dylan and I loved it. A great, detailed history of the moment and the man. I must admit that I have not really gotten into Dylan that much until recently. I have a few of his records on vinyl—Blonde on Blonde is definitely my…
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Quantum of Solace
Not as good as Casino Royale. It was still quite enjoyable, though. I like the director Marc Forster’s style. Previously he directed Stranger Than Fiction, Finding Neverland, and Monster’s Ball. He’s got quite the range. I find that Roger Ebert’s criticism of the film is accurate, though I don’t hate it as much as he…
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1.21 Gigawatts!?
November 12, 1955. Know the date? Hill Valley, California. The Clock Tower. Struck by lightning. At 10:04 p.m. 53 years today. Oh, yeah. In honor of this historic day in the BTTF world, here is an appreciation I wrote for the school paper: If I were asked to name what I think are the greatest…
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Gosh! Idiot!
June 11, 2009. It is the first day I will be able to watch Napoleon Dynamite for the first time. When that movie first came out in 2004, it was hyped up so much by my peers. Everybody recited the lines for about six months and I got really sick of it, as did everyone…
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All Animated Films Are Not Created Equal
Originally published in the North Central Chronicle in October 2008. Are all movies created equal? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) doesn’t think so. With the creation of the Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards, animated movies that deserve to be nominated for Best Picture are unfairly pigeon-holed into this…
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The Dark Knight – Round 2
Just saw The Dark Knight for the second time. I tried to take in all the theories and analyses I read after seeing it the first time and look at the film with a discerning eye. The big thing I noticed was that Bruce’s love for Rachel fuels a lot of his decisions and affects…