Sarah L's Film Studies Blog 2020

1.  What are some specific ideas you have about how this coronavirus pandemic might impact the film industry... in 6 months?  in a year?  in 2-5 years?  longer?    Obviously since all production is shut down, there's going to be a big delay in movies actually going through the theaters. This will hurt the theaters, especially smaller independent ones like the Tivoli, because they won't have people coming in to see the new movies released.  I think that it's going to take a long time for people to feel comfortable going back to movie theaters again. I personally love seeing movies in the theaters and always prefer it to streaming -- I probably go 10+ times per year -- and I really can't see myself going back to the theater any time soon, even once the stay-at-home order is technically lifted. I also think that movies being filmed in locations around the world are going to have trouble reopening production, since international travel is going to be s...

SYNTHESIZING THE THREE MOST HIGHLY RATED FILMS DIRECTED BY WES ANDERSON (THAT I HAVEN'T SEEN) PER ROTTEN TOMATOES Bottle Rocket (85%),  Isle of Dogs  (90%), and  The Grand Budapest Hotel  (91%) As I mentioned in my FFS introductory post, there are a few core characteristics/themes that seem to make their way into every Wes Anderson movie and, whether they are intended to or not, define both the movie and his directorial and writing style. These include themes of childhood/maturity/their tricky intersections, subtle humor, characters intensely committed to a strange obsession of theirs, an elaborate, impractical, risky plan proposed by the obsessed character and supported by the others, vibrant color palettes, careful composition of each frame, and subdivisions of the story into chapters or "parts."  It's funny, but when I sat down to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel with my dad the other night, the first scene had hardly begun before he said, "you can al...

The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson's most highly ranked movie on Rotten Tomatoes, topping off my theme of the highest ranked, Anderson-directed movies on Rotten Tomatoes that I haven't seen. This one received a 91% by the critics. I actually didn't realize this until now, but apparently it did get some relatively unfavorable reviews, including this one: I think this review hit the nail right on the head by calling it a "dollhouse dramedy," because doll-like is exactly what this movie oozes -- bright colors, sharp camera movements, methodical and angular and seriously intricate set design, and long shots to make the characters look like figurines -- and I think that is exactly what makes this movie (all of his movies, really, but this one in particular) so charming, quaint, and yes, quirky. I personally agree more with this review: I chose to watch this movie last because I wanted to see what distinguished each movie from the next in terms ...