Visions of Oxford: Film Swatches
Top Image Credit: The Radcliffe Camera, Alex Haveron-Jones Main Image Credit: Page 25, The Oxford Student
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Tag: Screen
Love Actually Review: London Actually
Love Actually is my favourite Christmas film. When Santa’s sack of vac scheme deadlines pushes me to the edge, I like to kick back and relax to some wholesome content. This is my escapism of choice. Love Actually is not only touching and profound but offers a vision of a better Britain. Fans of ‘multikulti’ […]
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In Defence of ‘Cats’
Tom Hooper’s cinematic production of Cats has been a complete failure in the eyes of critics, being so scathingly criticised that there has been talk of a remake, an attempt at redeeming at least an ounce of dignity for T.S. Eliot’s book of poems. While I recognise and agree with many points of criticism, I cannot […]
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The Matter of Perspective: Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story
Having moved to new York from Indiana, Charlie Barber (Adam Driver) – in his now ex-wife’s words – has become “more New Yorker than any New Yorker”. He is a recently established theatre director. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), born and bred in Los Angeles, became locally famous for a film about college life and was engaged […]
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Review: Handsome Devil
Picking your favourite film is a very difficult task indeed. When getting to know somebody, presenting an elaborate list of every film you’ve ever considered interesting or meaningful isn’t the best way for them to understand you better. So, if I had to pick a favourite film, it just might be Handsome Devil. Released in […]
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F.W. Murnau’s Faust: A testament to the transcendent power of cinema
Silent films have always intimidated me. At first glance they seem outdated and inaccessible, only useful for studying a bygone era of cinema. Most people who aren’t film critics or academics struggle with the idea of watching a film which lacks one of the key elements of any modern production. For my part, I assumed […]
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Ready or Not: ‘One of the best horror films of 2019’
“It’s true what they say. Rich people really are different.” This is the message of Ready or Not, the second film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett who’s previous credits include the horror anthology V/H/S (2012). Samara Weavings stars as Grace, a young woman marrying into the uber-wealthy “Le Domas” family. Instead of being […]
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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Entertaining, yet uneven
Quentin Tarantino’s passion for cinema has always been a dominant presence in his work. It’s there in his use of pastiche, in his references to other films and in his gleeful engagement with genre tropes. In his latest effort, it’s more evident than it ever has been. His ninth film, Once Upon a Time in […]
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Rendering itself obsolete: Hollywood’s misuse of CGI
Image description: The cast of the Cats musical on Broadway Hollywood’s recent obsession with CGI felines has me concerned. What with Disney’s entirely CGI realised remake of The Lion King, and Universal‘s first look at the rather disturbingly rendered humanoid cats of Cats (2019), they’re everywhere and they’re causing consternation amongst film fans, especially myself. […]
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How to survive inflight entertainment
Ahhh, the long vacation. At last, examinations and coursework assessments are behind us and we are finally permitted to relax. Well, with the slight aside of vacation reading that is. In order to fully escape from the clutches of such texts and memories of those ever more muggy libraries, many of us may be tempted […]
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Star Trek Discovery’s 2nd season renders resistance futile
Warning: Spoilers ahead. Big budgets aren’t unusual with Netflix; millions of dollars can be invested in a single episode. Reports from Variety suggested that each episode in Star Trek Discovery’s first season cost over $8 million. If the visual spectacle of the show’s sophomore season is anything to go by, the budget will have received […]
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Game of Thrones Season 8: a Song of Malice and Ire
Warning: Major spoilers ahead. The online petition to remake the final season of the most expensive, illegally downloaded television series of all time has currently received over 1.5 million signatures. Its creator, Dylan D, implores viewers to remedy the ‘woefully incompetent’ writing of David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. But is all of this backlash deserved? […]
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Response Article – The Art of Trailers, continued
I never thought I would be one to write on the Oxford Student, but as an avid consumer of the film industry and one that truly enjoys trailers themselves as bite-sized entertainment, a shot of adrenaline, or a chance to yell excitedly in my kitchen, I also realized trailers are much more. There are many […]
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Summer safety according to film
Summer is here and the sun is (hopefully) gracing the British Isles. You know what that means. It’s time to get out there and soak in those rays at the beach before the inevitable winter cold returns to plunge us back into desolation and despair. But remember to be safe out there, or disaster could […]
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Us, Pet Sematary, and the horror of the uncanny
This article discusses Pet Sematary and Us with spoilers The uncanny is the frightening knife-edge between the familiar and the unfamiliar. The idea of the uncanny used to concern psychologists; Ernst Jentsch and Sigmund Freud wrote about it. The idea of the uncanny still concerns roboticists; the uncanny valley hypothesis states that robots become more […]
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Brain tumors: the pervasive cancer of the screenplay
If you happened to watch the somewhat divisive Venom last year, you might have enjoyed Tom Hardy’s performance. You might not have enjoyed its feeble screenplay. Either way, one thing you may not have remembered is when Hardy’s Eddie Brock, shortly after hearing the voice of the parasite, is told in his own voice that […]
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The joy of watching Oxford film sets
Growing up in Cardiff, I became quite used to the sight of a television crew set up ready to film one of BBC Wales’s successful shows. I remember how natural it felt when one day after primary school my friends and I took a detour with our parents to see Doctor Who and his Tardis […]
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Nancy Epton on the art of the trailer: spoilers or the best bit?
You can’t just go to the cinema to watch a film. You need to sample the upcoming releases that play before the big event. Whether that be the trailer for the next Marvel movie or a long-awaited sequel, you’ve got to let the flavours dance on your palate before consuming the main meal. Although we’ve […]
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How Fleabag and Game of Thrones prove we should avoid happy endings
Earlier this month, two and a half million of us tuned in to watch the finale of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s highly acclaimed comedy Fleabag. The series, which followed the misadventures of its damaged but lovable antiheroine, played wonderfully by Waller-Bridge herself, had finally come to an end, and needless to say, many were sad to see […]
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