Pop Rhetoric

Pop Dialectic: ‘Cats’ divides theatre aficionados

Every generation has its signature so-bad-it’s-good movie: Before there was The Room, there was Showgirls, then Plan 9 From Outer Space. This week, The McGill Tribune decided to investigate Cats, the newest addition to this canon.  A real cat-astrophe Gabe Nisker  One cat takes a couple of attempts to launch Bustopher Jones, performed[Read More…]

Aladdin remake returns to disappointing tropes

In the wake of widespread excitement for a live-action version of Lion King, Disney has been teasing the release of Guy Ritchie’s remake of Aladdin throughout the fall. Set to be released in May 2019, the film will bring to life the world of Agrabah, a faraway land of childhood dreams. As a child, the animated version of Aladdin (1992) was my first glimpse at cartoon characters that looked something like me and my family. At the time, I was overwhelmed to see a movie that depicted an Arab story, not yet aware of the movie’s many historical and cultural inaccuracies.

Where does ‘Roma’ belong?

With new streaming platforms appearing left and right, the battle for viewers’ attention has become increasingly diffuse. And with more and more content to sift through on a daily basis right from the comfort of one’s couch, the movie theatre’s centrality in the cultural zeitgeist has taken a major hit. It has become a major source of debate: As movies assimilate further into the household, studios will cater their projects to that kind of viewing experience.

Pop Dialectic: Is Mother! An inscrutable masterpiece? or regurgitated sexist hobgob?

mother! (2017) is a slamming punch to the face—a descent from taut, domestic psychodrama to full-throttle hermeneutic madness. In director Darren Aronofsky’s words, it is “a fever dream,” dabbling in feminism, filmmaking, and biblical allegory. While all of this could make for a truly impactful film, mother! instead flounders in a sea of[Read More…]

Pop Rhetoric: Selling horror

Three weekends into its theatre run, Andrés Muschietti’s It continued to lead the box-office with an impressive $29.8 million three-day total. Simultaneously, Darren Aronofsky’s mother! kept collecting dust with a meek $3.3 million in its second weekend despite strong TIFF word-of-mouth and Jennifer Lawrence’s star power. Both films are critically-acclaimed,[Read More…]

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