Demented Department Stores, Decadent Dresses and Devilish Dummies: MANNEQUIN and IN FABRIC
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
Department stores mean much more to people than just being temples of retail and have more soul than anonymous malls.
A Tour Through 10 David Bowie Movies
by Fiona Underhill, Staff Writer
The upcoming release of David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream may prompt those who aren’t that familiar with David Bowie – The Actor – to want to explore some of his film roles. Fear not, for we at MovieJawn have all you pretty things covered.
The British New Wave: The Loneliness of the Angry Young Man
by Fiona Underhill, Staff Writer
The British New Wave of the early 60s has never had the same cachet as its French namesake but, for me, it is much more significant
SUMMER OF STARS #5: Paul Newman
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
Newman on Heat – The Long, Hot Summer (Ritt, 1958) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Brooks, 1958)
80s nostalgia and how the 80s looked back in three films shown at TCMFF 2022: Somewhere in Time (1980), Diner (1982) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
The past can be a dangerous place – you can get lost there.
THE DUKE is a rare working-class British period drama
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
While British period films and television shows are dime-a-dozen, international audiences are more used to experiencing the upper crust in things like The Crown and Downton Abbey.
MOTHERING SUNDAY leans into its period nature to show the fallout from WWI
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
A film that is very much about the past and about memory.
Their "hour upon the stage" – the best and worst of 5 versions of MACBETH on screen
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
With Joel Coen’s new adaptation of Macbeth coming to theaters on Christmas Day (and Apple TV+ on January 14), I’ve taken a look at some previous adaptations (and taken a look at the new one too) and I’m here to take you through their strengths and weaknesses.
The Colors of Henry James on Film
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
We are lucky to have these interpretations of James’s words on the cinema screen.
THE OTHER LAMB is a paragon entry in the folk horror genre
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
One of the best, but unfortunately underseen horror films about a cult, is Malgorzata Szumowska’s The Other Lamb (2019) starring Raffey Cassidy, Michiel Huisman and Denise Gough.
BODY HEAT at 40: a stark reminder that movies used to be for adults
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
The 80s were the golden-age of the neo-noir, when they collided with the erotic thriller to combust into hot, steamy, passionate movies full of sex, sweat, sharp clothes, cigarette smoke, saxophone-soaked soundtracks and sultry femme fatales.
JURASSIC PARK has a secret weapon, and it's not dinosaurs
by Fiona Underhill, Staff Writer
Even more than the sense of spectacle and the warmth of the nostalgic glow - it’s the sharply funny and endlessly quotable dialogue.
McCabe & Mrs Miller at 50 (and why Robert Altman is the best director of the 1970s)
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
Robert Altman is my director of the 70s and now that I’ve seen ten of his films from that decade, there really is no contest for me.
THE NEON DEMON as neon noir turns five
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
2016 saw the release of two divisive and controversial LA neo-noirs which would provoke extreme love-hate reactions from audiences.
PEARL HARBOR at 20: Still not your dad's World War 2 movie
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
There are two main reasons I love this film – the romance (and the fact that I was a university student with a HUGE crush on the film’s two male leads at the time Pearl Harbor was released) and because I love disaster movies.
Split Decision: A Dance With Dragons
In honor of Raya and the Last Dragon, who/what is your favorite on screen dragon?
Read MoreSpotlight on: 22 Black Directors to Watch
by Fiona Underhill, Contributor
Here are 22 Black directors to watch out for, and where to start.
MJ's Top Ten of 2020
by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy
A couple weeks before the end of the year (and what a year it’s been), I asked everybody to list their top five movies that they’d seen so far. This is always a tough chore because people are trying to cram in the films they’d heard about but missed throughout the year and then there’s the Christmas Day releases that only a few people have seen by that point. This means that people will always look back at their list in a year or two and find things that they wish they would've included, but just hadn’t seen yet. I feel like this year has exacerbated that situation because everyone has had to settle into finding films through different avenues.
Here, I’ve compiled everyone’s rankings and responses to give the MovieJawn Top Ten for 2020.
Read MoreRunning Away to Join The Circus
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and Circus of Horrors (1960)
by Fiona Underhill
“The circus is a massive machine whose very life depends on discipline, motion and speed
— that meets calamity again and again, but always comes up smiling
— a place where disaster and tragedy stalk the Big Top and ride the circus train
— where Death is constantly watching for one frayed rope, one weak link, or one trace of fear.”
-from the start of Greatest Show on Earth
The notion of ‘running away to join the circus’ has been around for as long as circuses have. Leaving your troubles behind, perhaps assuming a new identity and starting with a fresh life certainly has its appeal. Especially in the 1950s, when the societal pressure to have the perfect job, house, family and consumer goods was high. Two films of this era feature medical doctors who make ‘mistakes’ – driven by either compassion or hubris – and assume new identities in traveling circuses. Doctors have one of the most respected positions in society and obviously one of enormous faith and trust, especially at this time, when it was much more common for doctors to make house calls. The idea of doctors betraying that trust would have been shocking, leading to shame and being ostracized from society. And who are a group of people already living on the fringes, as outcasts? Traveling groups of entertainers – theatrical troupes, circuses or those working for carnivals and fairs.
Read MoreWomen Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (TCM Documentary)
Written and directed by Mark Cousins (in case there were any doubt)
Featuring Tilda Swinton, Adjoa Andoh, Jane Fonda and many others
Running time: nearly 7 hours for this first half and about 14 hours in total
Recap of Episodes 1-7
by Fiona Underhill
So - Mark Cousins’s 2011 15-part documentary The Story of Film (shown on TCM in 2013) took us through the entire history of cinema … and barely mentioned women directors… unless they were Leni Riefenstahl. Now he’s back again, to rectify that with a 14-part documentary with the unwieldy title of Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema, in which Cousins has the nerve to start by saying “film history has been sexist by omission.” Surely the little ladies can’t possibly complain this time? Well.
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