Dom's Film Blog

 I don't want to make this blog into a pretentious encyclopedia of Wes Anderson's films, but after or discussion in class about the 1968 protests in France, I had to go into how his latest film, 'The French Dispatch', explores the topic. We learned some of the history about these youth protests, and videos on the blog such as 'All Power to the Imagination' ( https://youtu.be/YCtcD9CfMOI ) goes into deal laying out the events very well. The biggest takeaway I got from the video was when they refer to the slogan 'All power to the imagination', because that was where the spirit and sentiment lied as they were facing an authoritarian form of education and government. So, a late 60's bunch of protests that we associate with documentary snippets in black and white, where students were fed up with the blandness and control coating their lives is the best jumping off point for Anderson's colorful, eccentric directing style? Well, yes. This notion of ...

The other night I watched the movie ‘Platoon’ that came out in 1986 and was both Written and Directed by Oliver Stone. Stone is known for other historical dramas like ‘JFK’, ‘Born on the Fourth of July’. However I believe neither of these go as deep into war as 'Platoon', which completely takes place in Vietnam and does not hesitate to show the horrors of war. The story follows an American soldier named Chris played excellently by Charlie Sheen, who experiences the struggles of Vietnam and sees the evil not only among the enemy but also among his fellow American soldiers. It is refreshing to see Charlie Sheen in a movie back when he was more of a respected actor. Now, I mostly only see him in comedies. Soon into Chris's tour, he becomes close with his Sergeant, Elias. Elias is played by Willem Dafoe who got nominated for an Oscar in one of the actors early performances. Elias is a stereotypical soldier who fights for his country with pride, but he is a good person who tries...

Last week I finally got the chance to go on Netflix and watch David Fincher’s ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’. I had high expectations going in not only because Fincher is one of the best directors to date, but also because of the cult following I hear about from film buffs online. Right away the standout elements of the film were cinematography and editing. The high quality of these elements maintained throughout the film and I wasn’t surprised to find out that it received the Oscar for Best Film Editing and a nomination for Best Cinematography among both ‘Hugo’ and ‘The Tree of Life’. Although the production of the film was what got me so invested, it was the story, or rather the story structure, that I found myself thinking about the most. While the average Hollywood movie has three main acts and one main character, this film didn’t follow that classic formula. The two main characters don’t even meet until halfway through the runtime, and once they do it isn’t far from the climax....

This past week, I watched Wes Anderson's debut feature film,  Bottle Rocket . It was the actually the last film of his I still had to see, so now I'm all caught up.  My initial reaction to  Bottle Rocket  was that it was a solid start to Anderson’s large and high quality filmography. It stars Owen Wilson and his lesser known brother Luke Wilson who play young thieves trying to plan a heist. It was also co-written by Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson, who went to film school together and initially made a short film of the same name. They had an idea early on and continued to build it as they got funding for it, which was inspiring to me as I am someone that may want to do something similar one day. What I really liked about the film was that even though it wasn’t that professional and had a lot of flaws, you could still see Anderson’s unique directing style that is so famous today. The whip shots and symmetrical frames are just as fun in this as they are in his later works...

Hey, Welcome to my brand new blog, where I'll be talking all about the art of Cinema. My name is Dom and I am a Sophomore at North Central College. I'm an English major with a minor in Film and Screen Studies, so this will be a resource I utilize often in order to continue analyzing film. Aside from academics, I also am a member of the Cross Country and Track and Field teams here at North Central. I love to run, workout, watch movies, write, listen to music, and talk anything art. So, why Film 490? It may seem like there would be an obvious answer, considering my Film and Screen Studies minor, but then again, why that? I have loved movies for as long as I can remember, but not in the same way as I do today. When I was a kid, I was a Pixar fanatic. Every toy in my room, every halloween costume, every drawing I drew, the background on my first iPod, all Pixar. Other animated movies from Disney or Dreamworks were entertaining, but they weren't even close to the top of the pede...