This post is part of the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon, hosted by Paula’s Cinema Club, Outspoken & Freckled, and Once Upon A Screen. Check out all the posts here! Women have been a part of the film industry since the very beginning, yet looking at the list of Oscar nominees throughout history can feel a little… monolithic. Women make …
Tag: blogathon
1984-a-thon: Purple Rain (1984)
By the 1980s, the movie musical was… well, far beyond the time of transition. Since their heyday in the ’30s and ’40s, musicals had become limited to just a handful of movies per year, without a lot to choose from—Disney films for kids, pop hits designed to sell soundtracks, the occasional prestigious musical dramas, and the cheesy movies that seemed to capture everything cringeworthy of their era. For the studios financing the films, musicals were, to put it mildly, anything but a sure thing. That’s partly what makes Purple Rain such an interesting moment in film history—though it’s easy to see its significance 25 years after the fact, Purple Rain is still a weird, weird movie.
MGM at 90: Gene Kelly
Few other performers can claim the title of “triple threat” so handily as Gene Kelly did with MGM in the 1940s and ’50s as an actor, a singer, and, of course, a dancer. But his career wasn’t limited to only those three titles; throughout the course of his professional life, he was also a producer, a director, a writer, a choreographer, and, all the while, an athlete. For a studio that claimed “more stars than there are in heaven,” Kelly was one of their brightest, an indelible association with the genre MGM took to new heights: the movie musical.
Snoopathon: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate is a heady, political thriller from a heady, political time. Released in 1962, the film is set a decade prior, in 1952, yet still manages to tell a tale that rings recognizable for the past, present, and future; often prophetically ahead of its time, it dealt with political anxiety, conflicting ideologies, individual free-will, assassination, and conspiracy, creating a lasting …
Underrated Detective Movies on Rupert Pupkin Speaks
Brian of the esteemed movie blog Rupert Pupkin Speaks has been hosting another of his wonderful “Underrated” series, this time focusing on the Detective and Mystery movie genre. He’s had a great line of movie folks submitting lists so far (and in fact, a bit dangerous in terms of rapidly expanding my queue of must-see movies), and today is my day!
Lucy and Desi in the Movies
When it comes to 1950s pop culture, you don’t find many pairs more iconic than Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. As stars of the beloved TV comedy I Love Lucy, which ran from 1951 to 1957, they were responsible for depicting consistent and relatable comedy about the all-American lifestyle to an audience of millions, while also juggling their real-life relationship …