Slate Films
The best movie culture writing from around the internet-o-sphere.
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“Hiding From Our Past” – Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie castigates the Nigerian censorship board for delaying Half of a Yellow Sun, the film based on her book about the country’s 1960s civil war.
“But we cannot hide from our history. Many of Nigeria’s present problems are, arguably, consequences of an ahistorical culture. As a child, I sometimes found rusted bullets in our garden, reminders of how recent the war had been. My parents are still unable to talk in detail about certain war experiences. The past is present, and we are better off acknowledging it and, hopefully, learning from it.
It is sadly easy, in light of the censors’ action, to overlook the aesthetic success of the film. Its real triumph is not in its politics but in its art.”
“If David Lynch Had Directed Return of the Jedi, It Might Look Like This” – Alison Nastasi at Movies.com profiles a 1985 interview with the filmmaker and adds some excellent visual aids.
“Paul Walker’s Digital Fast and Furious Double and the Troubling Future of Film Acting” – Sam Adams at Criticwire discusses the painting of a painting quality of a tool that could help studios play more hardball with reluctant stars.
“But we’ve been able to trust, up until this point, the idea that when we’re watching an actor, we’re watching something that happened. They cried real tears; they laughed that laugh. As long as there’s been glycerine, and editing, the boundaries have been blurry, but even so, when we looked an actor, we saw something more real than not.”
“She-Hulk is a feminist hero, not a male fantasy” – Alyssa Rosenberg at the Washington Post slaps a deserving David S. Goyer in the face.