Thursday, October 31, 2019

The Blair Witch Project or: An Electrifying Achievement in Terror and Realism (Film Analysis)


In 1993, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez began development on what would eventually be a low-budget horror film told entirely through handheld cameras from a first-person perspective.  The concept came from how both men found documentaries on the paranormal scarier than traditional horror films.  The end result was a sixty-thousand-dollar indie film called The Blair Witch Project.  The tiny film would end up grossing over two-hundred and forty-eight million dollars at the box office, a ratio of one dollar for every ten-thousand, nine-hundred, and thirty-one made.  The Blair Witch Project would end up in the Guinness Book of World Records for "top budget box office ratio" for a mainstream feature film, becoming one of the most financially successful, well-recognized, and influential indie films from the 20th century.  It spawned a sequel, a remake, multiple video games, books, comic books, and even a real documentary on the film’s production.  The film revived the found-footage genre as well as popularizing the idea of telling stories using the first-person perspective.

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

The King's Speech or: A By-the-Book Drama that Truly Works in its Traditional Approach (Film Analysis)


In 1925, King George V reigns over a quarter of the world's people.  It is a time of relative peace, yet drastically increasing tension.  The Great War has since concluded, yet an even greater war is closing in on the horizon.  The British Crown no longer has the same authority they once had before, yet they are still the United Kingdom's figurehead—a representation of that country's power and dignity.  In the older days, all Kings had to do to represent such aspects was to look respectable in uniform and not fall off their horse.  With the advancements and increase in radio broadcasting, however, royals are expected to, as King George V (Michael Gambon) puts it himself; "invade people's homes and ingratiate ourselves with them." a duty he humorously does not think very highly of; "This family's been reduced to those lowest, basest of all creatures. We've become actors."

Trust or: The Dangers of Modern Sexual Predators & the Double Standards within American Society (Film Analysis)


My opinions have vastly changed throughout the 2010s, with film being no exception.  There was a time where I consider Trust to be my favorite film of 2011, placing it right above the likes of Take Shelter, Drive, and The Tree of Life.  Those feelings have since changed, with Trust no longer standing above these films.  There was something about Trust that profoundly affected me during the beginning of the decade that, upon rewatching, has not been replicated nearing the end.  Yet while I no longer see Trust as the masterpiece of filmmaking I once considered it,  I do see it as a powerful film that explores how sexual predators work within our modern technological society, as well as an examination of the double standards found within American society.

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