|
My review of Black Adam (2022) was published by Women Making Films earlier this week (read it here). This review is the fifth of a series of feminist analyses I have written for WMF about superhero films. Previously, I analysed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Venom (2018), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and The Batman (2022). Copyright © 2023 Alline Cormier 
0 Comments
Happy New Year! I am happily back in my tree house on the island and ready to get back to work shining a spotlight on women in film. My first article of 2023 is a film review of Call Jane, starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver, in Feminist Current (read it here). If you haven't seen Call Jane yet, I recommend it. Here's to hoping 2023's movies will include far less sexualization of women and normalization of violence against women! Copyright © 2023 Alline Cormier  Jennifer Bilek asked me to review Surrogates (2009), starring Bruce Willis, for The 11th Hour. You can read my review here. Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier  Yesterday 4W published my review of She Said (2022), starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver (read it here). This is without a doubt one of the most significant movies of the year. Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier  Yesterday 4W published my review of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022), starring the talented Emma Thompson (read it here). This is my 22nd published article this year. It's looking like the next review will be of a sci-fi. Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier  Yesterday the Royal City Literary Arts Society (RCLAS) published two of my pieces in its online magazine, Wordplay at Work (read them here). The first piece is called More Regard for Dogs (page 18). The RCLAS awarded me an honourable mention in the non-fiction category of their Write On! Contest 2022 for this piece, which discusses violence against women in film. The second piece, entitled The Columbia Witches, is a Halloween story set in Revelstoke, BC, and can be found on page 44. Happy Halloween! Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier  My new article in Feminist Current shines a spotlight on the Halloween franchise and Universal Studios' Halloween-themed haunted houses in Orlando and Hollywood (read it here). I decided to write this article back in February, when I discovered that a 13th installment was in the works. The fact that this franchise, that revolves around a male serial killer who targets girls and women in particular, is so huge speaks volumes about the pervasive misogyny in North America. Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier  Yesterday Women Making Films published my article on Halloween horror classics, a roadmap of sorts for female viewers (read it here). In this article I discuss Psycho (1960), The Exorcist (1973), Carrie (1976), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980) and Friday the 13th (1980), shining a spotlight on some of the ways they fail female viewers. Happy Thanksgiving! Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier  I belong to a women’s film club, and this evening half a dozen of us were available to watch Blonde together in a theatre. This is the newly released NC-17 rated film about Marilyn Monroe based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It runs two hours and 45 minutes, and you should plan on a delicious treat for afterwards—we went out for supper—because it is a hard, depressing watch. Blonde’s screenplay was written and directed by 55-year-old New Zealander Andrew Dominik and I suspect Dominik has been exposed to more pornography than I have because 34-year-old Ana de Armas, who plays Norma Jeane/Marilyn Monroe, not only appears nearly naked too often but there are also very uncomfortable close-ups of her fellating a man (John F. Kennedy, played by Caspar Phillipson). This is not the only scene female viewers may find difficult to watch. Others include an early scene in which a woman tries to drown her little girl (Norma Jeane), the president of a film company rapes Monroe during an audition, Monroe’s traumatic abortions and her lover (JFK) treats her like a prostitute. The domestic violence is handled more adroitly (i.e. mostly suggested rather than shown). Creepiness abounds in Blonde. For instance, Monroe calls her husbands (Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller) “daddy.” Moreover, she is repeatedly debased. She is called a dirty slut, a whore, etc.—but also a prude. If Joyce Carol Oates’ aim, with her novel—I haven’t read it—was to shine a spotlight on how terribly the men in Marilyn Monroe’s life treated her, then it is a success. Monroe is portrayed as damaged, fragile and vulnerable and men’s blameworthy behaviour is portrayed disapprovingly. Ana de Armas’ accent is somewhat distracting (she’s Cuban). Monroe’s first husband is left out, as is her trip to England to film The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier. Still, the cinematography is remarkable and all in all, I found it worth a viewing. Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier  Yesterday was an eventful day for me. Between meeting up with a lovely feminist visiting from out of town and catching a Fringe festival performance my analysis of Blade Runner 2049 was published in The 11th Hour. You can read my article, entitled Blade Runner 2049 (2017) Normalizes Artificial Women, here. This was my third film analysis for the brilliant Jennifer Bilek, publisher of The 11th Hour. Earlier this year I wrote about Her, released in 2013 (read my article here), and Lars and the Real Girl, released in 2007 (read my article here). Copyright © 2022 Alline Cormier  |
Categories |
RSS Feed