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(02/20/18 6:22am)
Black Panther was everything I ever needed. Aside from simply being a beautiful movie with dynamic characters, a perfect soundtrack, and an accompanying Kendrick album, it’s a cultural watershed for the black community. Even now, as I embark on writing this piece, I’m struggling to calm the flood of emotion rising up in my chest. Thinking about it and how it was such a monumental achievement for black people, especially black people in America, is a wave of awareness I’m unfamiliar with. I worry I may never be able to fully express the experience of being black while watching Black Panther. This movie felt like it was for me. The people on the screen looked like me, and they each represented the strength and beauty of blackness in ways I’ve never seen portrayed on the big screen.
(02/21/18 2:00pm)
The ease of online communication in our increasingly digital world is generally presented as a curse just as often as it is as a blessing. There is a sense that diving too deep into an online presence detaches us from reality and dulls our ability to communicate face to face. This is certainly a product of the convenience of expression that the internet offers, where the screen serves as a buffer between an individual and the world. On the other hand, social media has proven to be a platform for a kind of emotional honesty, serving to communicate condensed, snappy versions of everyday struggles for the world to like and retweet. Empathizing with these bite–sized pieces of the human condition is comforting—it’s nice to know that you are understood. However, the effect of these glimmers of connection are short lived, and their content is often shallow. There are far more meaningful ways of connecting to universal emotional experiences—and one of those is film.
(02/21/18 2:51am)
In Netflix’s reboot of Queer Eye, Tan France, the new fashion expert, announces the revival’s mission at the very beginning: “The original show was fighting for tolerance. Our fight is for acceptance.” I have to confess I was initially a little suspicious of this claim. I didn’t believe a formulaic makeover show could do anything to make a meaningful statement on LGBTQ or American culture in 2018. The good news is, I was wrong.
(02/22/18 2:00pm)
For many Penn students, Reading is just the name of the farmers’ market on the opposite side of the Schuylkill. (Note: It’s pronounced Redding. It’s the fifth–largest city in Pennsylvania. The more you know). But one Penn alum holds Reading dear to his heart, so much so that he’s making a TV pilot based around the city.
(02/19/18 1:48pm)
With two feet planted firmly in 2018 and awards season nearing its mythic end, it’s already been a great year for cinema sound. Though there arguably isn’t enough buzz swirling around the looming Oscar categories for Best Original Song and Film Score, I have a feeling that’s about to change. With the advance release of the soundtrack to Marvel’s highly anticipated Black Panther drumming up unbridled excitement and redirecting public attention to movie sound, I am struck by the truth of a common thought: for movies, what looks like a masterpiece often sounds like a hit. Before the Oscar envelopes are opened, take a look at movie moments where the music stole the show.
(02/22/18 2:00pm)
Musicals are having a moment right now at the box office. La La Land was a hit in 2016, and this year The Greatest Showman is popular not only in theaters, but also on streaming charts (with its original song “This is Me” racking up millions of plays on airwaves and services like Spotify). The success of these movie musicals is not unprecedented. Once upon a time, original movie musicals were popular and commonplace. After a dry spell that lasted decades, the industry is finally back at it—and if you’re loving it like we are, it’s worth going back to some of the old standards that inspired these films and came before them.
(02/21/18 2:47am)
It’s not uncommon to feel a small pang of anxiety upon hearing that one of your favorite novels is soon to be adapted for the big screen. On one hand, the immortalization of your favorite stories is obviously very exciting. On the other, the movie could be a total flop, or worse, it could deconstruct and reinterpret the book in a way that strips it of its most effecting literary devices. Some books just aren’t meant for film adaptation, no matter how good they are; others have potential, but aren’t translated with the proper care and artistry, and then, on occasion, a movie will transcend the book from which it was inspired, using the medium of film to enhance the book’s best qualities.
(02/14/18 5:09am)
Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and whether you’re cuffed, alone, or counter–celebrating with Galentine’s Day, Street has compiled a list of movies showing on the 14th, pertaining to your specific V–Day needs.
(02/14/18 2:00pm)
This week, Netflix is coming out with a documentary about longtime women’s rights attorney and Penn alum Gloria Allred.
(02/14/18 3:16am)
I love that wistful light we get in our eyes at the start of the new year. Something about a fresh January gives us the undue confidence to walk around like the whole world is up for the taking; and with the help of eighty–three new resolutions, we just might take it all. Then, a month and a half later, we throw all reason to wind, and go from making unreasonable demands of ourselves to making them of the people who love us. Logically, these perennial rituals never pan out as well as in the movies. But don’t swipe left just yet, because this Street re–watched every classic tear–jerking scene to see why you keep blowing it! Here are some valuable lessons on how to avoid a V–Day faux pas this week, as gleaned from our favorite, classic romance flicks.
(02/13/18 6:39am)
February 14 is not only Valentine’s Day, but also the very heart of midterm season. As our minds are busy concocting ways to fit as much information as possible into a cheat sheet, it might be hard—and time–consuming—to come up with romantic plans. I think we all agree that movie theaters are the go–to option for uninspired dates, and watching Netflix with your Valentine is, honestly, just sad. If, however, you still want to incorporate films into your tryst, here are five quicker but equally charming options:
(02/13/18 6:18am)
With Valentine’s Day comes a new crop of romantic blockbusters like Fifty Shades Freed, but these films, featuring starry–eyed actors in perfect, straight relationships leave little space for anyone who’s not the Hollywood–styled picture of romance. Mainstream media is infamously bad at including LGBTQ characters, but when it comes to romantic relationships, there are even fewer options. Hollywood’s insistence on cisgender, straight couples as romantic leads begs the question: what about the rest of us?
(02/15/18 1:24pm)
Few moments in television are bigger than the Super Bowl. Even though this year’s ratings were a slight dip from last year, an estimated 103 million tuned in to watch the Eagles beat the Patriots. Networks tried to capitalize on this boost—NBC’s This Is Us Super Bowl special aired after the game. But the competition for viewers was higher this year. Netflix aired an ad for The Cloverfield Paradox during the Super Bowl—and then announced it would be available for streaming as soon as the game ended.
(02/14/18 2:00pm)
It's that time again. Love is in the air—and if you’re lucky, so is the smell of burnt wreckage as you imagine yourself standing over the ruins of all the relationships that you're not part of. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, it’s becoming increasingly difficult not to slap the satisfied smiles from the faces of your peers that come in twos. Thankfully, a killer movie soundtrack and the sounds of seventeen (necessary) onscreen explosions are almost loud enough to drown out your piteous, alone–person tears. Get your laptop, get into the fetal position and let’s get started.
(02/09/18 12:53pm)
Tom Hanks and Martin Scorsese are more than just American sweethearts. Within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, they’re household names—and in the snake pit that is the movie industry, they’re the coveted golden ticket to a plethora of awards, instant international recognition, and—of course—money. Reducing incredibly gifted artists to the status of Oscar–bait might seem ignorant: most modern–day cinema purists are reluctant to accept that mainstream, profit–making awards and evident talent are not mutually exclusive. But the practice is neither uncommon, nor unjustified: looking back at what gets the Academy excited, some obvious patterns emerge.
(02/13/18 6:46am)
With new awards shows every other day, The Oscars looming closer, and big studios like Marvel and DC still churning out their profitable sludge, it’s understandable to be a little sick of Hollywood movies. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here are some non–Hollywood films about love and relationships. But none of these films are conventional love stories, either—that would still be too mainstream. There are no conventionally happy endings (really, no happy endings at all), and no guarantee that the love interests will end up together. They’re moving, heartbreaking works that serve as a refreshing break from saccharine Hollywood fare.
(02/09/18 1:26pm)
If you’re fed–up with the blockbuster selection of Rave Cinemas and bored of the indie rosters of the Ritz theater, you might want to head to Exhumed Films to catch a screening of a cult horror classic.
(02/14/18 5:34am)
Rhett Butler dragging a screaming Scarlett up the staircase to the bedroom. Olivia Newton–John prancing around in a leather suit to win John Travolta’s heart. These are just examples of scenes from classic and romantic movies that we love—but that nevertheless make us think “what the hell?” when we watch them now. Over the years, more and more people have picked up on sexism and misogyny in movies, and both cultural critics and social activists have created a way to analyze and tackle it: feminist film theory.
(02/14/18 3:45am)
While most in the West view the pinnacle of romance and comedy through the works of John Hughes, Rob Reiner, or Nora Ephron, the world of Bollywood cinema offers its own unique style of filmmaking that shouldn’t be overlooked. Whether looking to Golden Age following the decades after Indian independence or the Classic Bollywood of the 70s and 80s, Bollywood films offer romantic narratives that are perfecting for a Valentine’s Day viewing.
(02/15/18 1:12pm)
The teen drama is a staple of American television, and perhaps it is the universality of our experiences as adolescents that makes this genre so enduringly popular. Being a teenager is inherently melodramatic—it’s a time in our lives characterized by anxiety, misunderstanding, identity crises, and every manner of internal and external turmoil necessary to build a captivating world filled with interesting characters. Why, then, does it seem that so many popular American teen shows are entirely implausible, pumped up with every manner of dramatic—and sometimes life threatening—entanglements we could never imagine finding ourselves in?
