Vaping is changing how smoking is depicted on our television and cinema screens. Where once cigarettes were portrayed as glamorous, vaping is linked with stress and struggle.
Soo Yong’s career, particularly when contrasted with Anna May Wong’s, shows how Hollywood and Chinese popular culture aimed to depict Chinese women amid shifting Chinese-American relationships.
There are signs that home movie viewing could meet a resurgence of local movie-going that draws on entertainment conventions that preceded Hollywood’s rise.
Paolo Sigismondi, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
An Italian media scholar raised on American TV assesses Netflix’s ambitious strategy to create original productions in Italy, Japan, Brazil and beyond – and distribute them globally.
Hollywood movies have long leaned into colonial representations of the tropics: imagined as romantic palm-fringed coasts full of abundance, but also scary places full of pestilence and primitiveness.
Kiersten Formoso, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Hollywood loves a good monster battle, and where better to turn for inspiration than the animal kingdom? Traits from real animals can provide clues about the fighting prowess of Kong and Godzilla.
Two female filmmakers have been nominated for Best Director in the Oscars’ 93rd year. Both their films are about the dashing of dreams, with female protagonists and flashes of cinematic innovation.
Canadians won’t be able to stream ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ when it launches Christmas Day. Surfing streaming menus and reviews for what to watch and where may become a new Christmas movie tradition.
Despite recent social movements that have garnered greater inclusivity in the arts, disabled actors are still waiting for their moment in the spotlight.
Unlike the Hollywood hero he portrayed, Boseman created space for a kaleidoscope of Black masculinities and challenged the narrative that urban Black men are in need of saving.
For a film that was destined to do so much wrong, this does a surprising amount right. And in an era of relentlessly ‘clever’ films and knowing reboots, Face the Music has a refreshingly light touch.
Some comic fans have found a bright spot in virtual conventions in an otherwise bleak pandemic year. The sense of community matters more than a simplistic analysis about metrics or interactivity.
In a pivotal scene from Brad Pitt zombie movie World War Z, we see the frame shift from the individual to the undead mass. In doing so, it taps into deep fears.