Film

Cleveland’s History in the Film Industry Gives Promise for its Future

Cleveland’s place in the film industry dates back to the 19th century. Just two years after the Lumière brothers screened their short films in...
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How Cleveland Became the Butt of the Joke

In the 2015 movie “Trainwreck,” sports doctor Aaron Conners, played by Bill Hader, has a good-natured chat with NBA player LeBron James, played by, well…himself.

In the Movie Musical Renaissance, Does “The Music Man” Deserve a Second Chance?

Everyone loves a movie musical. In the last few years, it seems, to me, there’s been somewhat of a surge of movie musical adaptations. Critics praised “West Side Story” (2021) just as much as they reviled “Dear Evan Hansen” (2021). Even the Academy Award Winner for Best Picture this year, “CODA,” has at least two singing scenes integral to the movie.

“Stranger Things”: Horror in Midwestern Suburbia

It’s a familiar tale. There’s an otherwise uneventful, untroubled suburb enjoying a slice of quiet American life — until a malevolent supernatural force arrives, upsetting the community’s otherwise sturdy and well-constructed sense of comfort and security. The story’s horror (and cinematic pull factor) usually lies in the gory spectacle that follows, but also in its sense of reversal and unlikeliness — if those events could befall a seemingly “normal,” sleepy town, perhaps they could befall yours, too.

Mountain Dew and the American Dream: A Review of “Minari” (2020)

Stirring and gentle, “Minari” is an ode to director Lee Isaac Chung’s childhood. The 2020 film tells the story of a Korean-American family who...

“Every Town Has an Elm Street”: Ohio On-screen in the ‘80s

Ohio’s no stranger to acting. Ohio’s urban-rural landscapes make it an incredibly diverse place to film, and the refundable tax credit of 30 percent...

Wrestling With the Status Quo: A Review of The Peanut Butter Falcon

More often than not, challenging the status quo is seen as a threat to stability or “creating division” rather than an attempt at meaningful...

Of Sitcoms and Superheroes: A Review of WandaVision

As Marvel Cinematic Universe’s film characters’ first foray onto the small screen, the nine-part series WandaVision was a brief cultural phenomenon when it was...

Bollywood, Hollywood and the Globalization of Socially-conscious Film: A Review of 3 Idiots

Amidst ever-increasing globalization, American audiences are slowly beginning to recognize international film industries, as evidenced by South Korea’s Parasite (2019) being the first non-English-language...

The Humans Behind Labor Politics: A Review of American Factory

In Moraine, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, a former GM plant was bought by Chinese automobile glass manufacturer Fuyao in 2014, a decision that...

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