They’re ‘on a Mission from G-ahhd!’ Not ‘God’, let alone the high-English, biblical epic ‘GAUGHD’, but pure Chicago Ethnic-Catholic ‘G-ahhd’. The Blues Brothers follows siblings Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) and fresh-out-of-prison ‘Joliet’ Jake Blues (John Belushi) as they try to re-unite their blues combo. They do this in order to raise $5,000 to save the…
Category: Media Studies
Blade Runner (1982): Story Explained
There are period films so influential they become the reference through which we imagine the era they portray. Seminal works like Schindler’s List (1993) and Barry Lyndon (1975) define an archetypical conception for the eras they portray (the Holocaust and Georgian England respectively). The 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner was so influential in creating a…
Betty Blue (37°2 le matin) – Synopsis, Analysis
This is the film to embrace or avoid (depending on your predilection) if you have ever loved someone madly. If you have ever loved with intensity and against common sense, you will understand this film perfectly. It is one of the greatest portrayals I have ever seen of that dilemma. It is a very moving…
Barbarella: Queen Of The Galaxy – Summary & Analysis
See Barbarella do her thing! Ever wonder what it might look like if Gianni Versace had directed a Christmas pageant? Me neither, but it probably would have looked something like Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy. It’s a bizarre, futuristic take on Alice in Wonderland, full of beautiful people, quasi-surreal images and dated styles. It has…
Badlands (1973 Movie) – Summary, Analysis
In 1959 a lot of people were killing time. Kit and Holly were killing people. It seems every creatively bankrupt director has at some time or another been flying between New York and Los Angeles, and in their boredom looked out the window and noticed a country going by. ‘Eureka!’ they say into their airline…
Bad Boy Bubby: Synopsis & Analysis
All he needs is love. As a rule, Hollywood portrays the mentally disabled as quaint, likeable, quirky and entirely benign people who occasionally say the wisest things. No wait, I’m thinking of Australians. Anyway, if you want to watch both conventions refreshingly shattered, see the Australian Indy legend Bad Boy Bubby. It may seem like…
Akira (1988 Anime) – Story Summary & Analysis
Neo-Tokyo is about to E.X.P.L.O.D.E. The entire genre of Japanese Anime is a cult unto itself. I hesitate in limiting the inclusion of Anime entries to a thousand films, let alone one. Anime’s following is so passionate that no selection is going to be good enough for its devotees. So before they come home from…
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension! – Summary & Analysis
No matter where you go, there you are. Like so many cult films, this 1984 production was initially considered a box-office failure. Its cult popularity grew by word of mouth and the advocacy of American ubercritic Pauline Kael. Essentially it’s the typical story of a scientist/rock ’n’ roll musician/brain surgeon/samurai who fights evil aliens named…
Pan’s Labyrinth – Story Summary & Analysis
Summary: It is 1944. Ofelia is uprooted and sent with her mother to a Fascist military outpost run by her stepfather, Vidal. Ofelia’s mother is pregnant with Ofelia’s brother, but the pregnancy is not going smoothly and Ofelia’s mother is sick en route. In order to cope with the loneliness, isolation and fear that characterise…
Closely Watched Trains – Summary, Analysis
Summary: Miloš Hrma, the youngest in a long line of layabouts, starts his first job as a trainee signalman at Kostomlaty train station a few kilometres outside of Prague during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in the early 1940s. The isolated station is headed by an inept and frustrated stationmaster who is more interested in…