February 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It’s 1980, A.D. The United States and the U.S.S.R are throwing nuclear weapons around their own countries, sometimes detonating them, while American and Soviet citizens size up their country against the other, like two kids on the playground, debating whose dad is stronger. Meanwhile, comedian Richard Pryor suffers burns from free basing cocaine. And, yes, John Bonham has just died.
To many, the 80s is an anomaly. The fashion was bizarre – the hair, the jeans, the make up – it was as if soap television shows Dynasty and Dallas directly influenced the choices of the typical 1980s brass. There were some drastic shifts in society; women began to flood the business sphere and as this working woman identity expanded, so did their shoulder width.
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February 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The measure of a story is found in its journey. Where are you, the audience member, being taken, and why are you being taken there?
Jeffrey Hatcher’s Scotland Road is a captivating look at several distinctive journeys, all set in a single room. It begins on the fringes of four hazy characters and then spirals inward, offering glimpses of their true intentions and ulterior motives.
The play focuses on one desperate man and his unpredictable interactions with three mysterious women. The man, known as John, is on the verge of shattering. Obsessed with the disaster of the infamous Titanic, his life simply can not carry on until he obtains the answers he needs. Through any means necessary.
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February 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment
On January 22, 2008, Heath Ledger died. And for some reason, I care.
It affects me. It goes beyond the simple tragedy of a young life ending suddenly. I read or hear about the death of some young father, or a loving woman, or an innocent child regularly – in fact, they’re hard to miss. I myself have even lost a number of friends to unspeakable ends. But for some reason, perhaps because of the sheer commonness, I forget to render proper reverence to those equally important lives.
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January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Juno
reviewed by Chrystal Vible
The film Juno caught my attention as I stumbled across an article which featured ex-stripper, blogger turned screenwriter, Diablo Cody – who was first discovered by an agent on her personal blog, “The Pussy Ranch.” After landing her first book deal, her agent urged her to write a screenplay and – for the price of countless hours spent sitting in Target – Juno materialized.
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January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Canada seems to get a bad rap when it comes to culture. Somehow we’ve ended up with the reputation of borrowing from everyone else. From our food, to our music, everything looks, smells, touches and tastes like the rest of the world. It seems as though multiculturalism has lived up to its name: everyone has stuck to his or her own thing, and as a result, Canada has no mass culture to call its own.
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January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Maria Bamford is a stand-up comedian, currently living in L.A. Her routines focus on “High voice, low voice” impressions of her family members, and wittily constructed social commentaries. She has also done a lot of voiceover work and has appeared in various movies including Lucky Numbers with John Travolta. This interview was a short online dialogue between Maria B. and Frames editor Josh Gregg.
Mars’ Hill: Talk about your roots in comedy—what was it like stepping into the industry?
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January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Ideal conceptions of love, romance and sex are shaped by popular cultural forms of media and their content: movies, books, newspaper, television and others. Think of a movie such as The Notebook and the way it influences our image of the ideal romance: an assortment of passion and intense but playful love in an idyllic setting punctuated by a tasteful scene of love-making.
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January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Comic books. Film. Comic books into films. This notion of melding these two media forms has been around since the grand inception of the hallowed art of comic book writing. Ever since Batman, Superman, X-men, Ant-man, Iron Man, and Wonder Woman made their triumphant debuts, there has been a stream of comic book to film adaptations; some have succeeded while others are some of the worst cinema to hit since Ed Wood films. Alas, for every single good film (i.e. X-Men 2, Batman Begins, Superman Returns), there are at least two bad or very bad ones (Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, Elektra, Catwoman, Batman & Robin, etc.
