Seconds before pressing ‘send’ on the original version of my newspaper column this week, the news about Philip Seymour Hoffman broke. At the moment, we know very little, other than he was found in his home, and it’s suspected he died of a drug overdose. Over the coming days there are going to be thousands
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire passes the Bechdel Test. Good news. You’re allowed to watch it.
Ever heard of the Bechdel test?
Don’t worry if you haven’t, chances are you’re going to hear about it a lot in coming years.
For those of you that haven’t stumbled across it before, the Bechdel test came about due to a comic strip by cartoonist Alison Bechdel (hence the name), and it lays down three simple rules that decree whether a film is gender-biased or not.
1. Are there two or more female characters with names?
2. Do they have a conversation with each other?
3. Do they talk about anything other than men?
Sounds straightforward enough, but it’s surprising how many of your favourite films will not pass the test. The original Star Wars trilogy, the Lord of the Rings films, and all but one of the Harry Potter films fail. Of course, they aren’t exactly festering with misogyny, but they do not pass the test.
When Hollywood starts talking about Kickstarter, then you know it has jumped the shark.
Not content with having their own money, well-known filmmakers are now turning to crowdfunding website Kickstarter to get yours too, permeating the service like Japanese knotweed.
The site is a genuine life-changing tool for people who have great ideas, but no money or contacts to make them a reality. Using Kickstarter, they can post their dream projects (artistic or otherwise) and if people like them, they can pledge money. The higher the amount pledged, the bigger the benefit they receive.
After months of hype and a very cool viral campaign, Prometheus is upon us. You may have noticed that, unlike most new releases, the number of reviews out there before the release was quite small. Usually when this happens it’s because the studio knows that their film sucks, and they don’t hold preview screenings for
The High Court has ruled that file-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers. For the unaware, The Pirate Bay is perhaps the most popular file-sharing site on the web and allows people to access a huge range of content including movies, games and TV shows. Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk,
