Film

With the rising discontent with the MCU as seen on many social networking apps and film and television critics, a revisiting of the last truly dominant Genre of Westerns which held control of the box office landscape never before seen and only really eclipsed by the current superhero/comic adaptation market.

What in particular made the western so popular and what in specific lead to the box office death of the genre? What were the politics behind the genre, the economics, and actors both in a gamesmanship context and a performative context.

While AI scientists and technology specialists are signalling AI’s ambiguous and unpredictable consequences, they constantly stress that we should not be anxious about AI. However, movies and media narratives sometimes promote AI phobia. The embedded messages of many films are how human flaws destroy civilizations through AI. But the collective focus of the audience may see AI as an entity causing massive anxiety and fear. We can discuss how AI is portrayed in films and media, especially now that AI tools like ChatGPT are causing interesting discussions worldwide.

Examine the vein in various film media (especially Black Swan and Whiplash) suggesting pronounced suffering to produce great art. Both films, to this writer, state or otherwise imply that our protagonists must suffer under harsh instructors (especially in the case of Whiplash) to be successful in their respective fields. This ideology comes off as very unsettling, especially in an era where mental health and personal agency (especially for women) are becoming more recognized. A potential goal for the topic is to examine how movies of this sort condition young artists to burn themselves out in the pursuit of making art. Another film to examine could be “Lust For Life,” on the life of infamous tortured artist Van Gogh.

The goal in proposing this topic is not to condemn any movie mentioned wholesale, but to, instead, offer examination of less than wholesome implications in media that have not been fully explored for those purposes.

It will be necessary to explore mental health expertise to give structure to the topic. An important video to the formulation of this topic was the YouTube video “‘Rise and Grind’ Film Culture: A Rant” from content creator coldcrashpictures. Potential writers may find material for additional definition for this topic in said video.

Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy ends with Adam being confronted by a giant spider in the bedroom. In a film that otherwise adheres to realism–despite its occasionally surreal quality–the scene stands out. Like most viewers, Adam is initially shocked, but then he lets out what can be best described as a smirk-sigh. Does he know something about the spider that viewers do not? The spider motif is not something that comes abruptly at the end; it exists throughout. So, what does the spider represent?

The movie Annihilation (2018) has a pretty confusing ending with lots of interpretations. What happened to Lena? What was the significance of the mirroring alien? How does the ending tie in to the themes seen throughout the rest of the movie? Who is the Kane we see at the end of the movie?

"We Need to Talk About Kevin" has been praised for its insightful portrayal of a mother’s complex emotions and colour is an essential element in cinema, used by filmmakers to create emotion, convey meaning and evoke historical context. For example, the color red is often associated with passion, love, and danger. Analyze the importance of color in the movie and how it influences the way we perceive and interpret the film.

Analyse Hayao Miyazaki’s use of picturesque European-inspired aesthetics in his movies. Think "Howl’s Moving Castle", "Kiki’s Delivery Service", and "Porco Rosso" – all are either inspired by 19th and early 20th century Europe, or in the case of "Porco Rosso" use real countries such as Italy in the 1930s. How does Miyazaki draw on these elements of aesthetic to create beautiful and magical settings? How does the source material, British author Diana Wynne Jones’ novel "Howl’s Moving Castle", and the real world influences of the time period, World War 1 etc, influence Miyazaki’s renditions? What does he include, what does he exclude? What is the affect of these renditions on Japanese and international audiences especially when considering Japan’s relationship with the West? You can also compare these European aesthetic/story films with the Ghibli films set in Japan, such as "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Spirited Away". Plenty of questions to ask yourself when doing this article. I recommend potential narrowing down the subject to certain aspects of the aesthetic, such as subject, technology, colour etc.

Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home deal with the multiverse in various ways. Multiverse stories can be interesting and also complicated. How did these movies handle this complicated plot? Was it done well or could it have been done better? It might also be good to compare it to other stories with a multiverse plot (ex. Everything Everywhere All at Once, Bioshock: Infinite, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, or Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse if you want an all Marvel article). Explore the pros and cons of a multiverse plot and how these stories fit into it.

(My Opinion): I believe that Dr. Strange and Spider-Man used the multiverse mainly for nostalgia, to varying degrees of success, and the stories ignore the other strengths of the plot (especially Multiverse of Madness). I think these stories are flawed but enjoyable. Feel free to disagree with me, agree with me, or bring up more talking points!