In a movement mostly known for genre experimentation, these films managed to add emotionality to postmodernism.
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Going ‘Down With Love’: Sex, Lies, and Romantic Comedies
‘Down With Love’ is a pastiche of the sex comedies of Hollywood’s past and a critique of the romantic comedies of its own time.
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Perfect Humiliation: ‘All About Lily Chou-Chou’ (2001), Adolescence, and the Dawn of the Internet Loner
‘All About Lily Chou-Chou’ (2001) explores the relationship between identity, humiliation, and fandom for the kids of Japan in the early days of the Internet.
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What Happened To Hope?: The Emotional Emptiness of Modern Cinema
Hope seems to have disappeared from modern cinema. Where has optimism for our future gone, and will things actually ever change?
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“People are All We’ve Got”: Finding Hope in Humanity and Other People
The flamboyant cast of characters goes through heartbreak, grief, unbearable family dinners, vain attempts at human connection, fear of failure, and for the most part, universal experiences. The series feels very down to earth, and its relatability is one of its greatest assets. It carries out a message of hope.
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Biting the Apple: Female Autonomy, Desire and Danger in ‘Margaret’ (2005) and ‘YES’ (2004)
Between 2004-2005, two audacious films sought to explore the long-mythologised concept of female desire.
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Tolerate the Uncertainty: Intimacy, Human Connections and Everyday Messiness as Found in Joe Swanberg’s Work
To celebrate Joe Swanberg’s 40th birthday, we look back at his career to discuss the fearless and original ways he explores intimacy, communication, and the general strengths and weaknesses of human behaviour.
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The Unrelenting Optimism of Taika Waititi’s ‘Boy’ (2010)
Nostalgic and warm, ‘Boy’ is a film that centres around youthful optimism and never wavers from the belief that life can be both hard and happy.
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‘Children of Men’ (2006) and the Birth of Hope
As we follow Kee and Theo’s journey, ‘Children of Men’ shows us what a little hope can do to a person’s whole outlook on life, and the extent that they will go to to keep that hope alive.
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The Ties that Bind Us: Hope and Family in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ (2004)
“It takes the entire Hoover family pushing a bright yellow van, a few stops along the way, and a dead body in the back of the trunk for them to gain back what they lost.”
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