films

On using online petitions to harangue Hollywood

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I had a lot more sympathy for the petition against the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman in the upcoming Batty vs Supes movie than I do for the new petition against the casting announcement for the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey movie. Perhaps only because the petition against Affleck’s casting was better written, which makes me a snob, I know.

The silhouette of a man wearing a long dark billowing coat stands on a pile of wreckage and looks out over a devastated metropolis

Racebending on Star Trek Into Darkness

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Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I’m a big fan of the Cumberbatch, and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance as the villain in the latest Star Trek movie so long as I could forget his character’s name:

SPOILERS!

Kathryn Bigelow behind a move camera

Friday Hoyden Quick Hit: Women Who Direct Films

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With the Oscars mired in their annual refusal to see directing talent in anyone who doesn’t remind the Academy members of themselves, resulting in another disgraceful exclusion of any female directors from the Best Director nominations for yet one more predictable, narrow-minded year (I see no reason to hold back on this topic), here are some links to discussions, links and clips of movies made in 2012 that were directed by women.

Still from the movie showing Coraline and the black cat peering into a small, lighted doorway.

Friday Hoydens: Chihiro, Ofelia and Coraline

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Last night my family sat down together to watch Coraline, and I found myself instinctively grouping it with two other films centred on little girls navigating dark and strange fantasy lands, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.

Head-and-shoulders photo of Geena Davis, at a podium, at the Gender in the Media Symposium.

Quick Hit: Latest from the Geena Davis Institute

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The latest report from the Geena Davis Institute is the very detailed “Gender Roles & Occupations: A Look at Character Attributes and Job-Related Aspirations in Film and Television”. Most people are aware that women and girls are underrepresented as speaking characters in film and television, but you may still be shocked by how much.