Falling into Dark Water: Romeo + Juliet

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet is a cinematic marvel, an intriguing combination of Shakespeare’s historic prose in modern settings. Filmed in cities in Mexico, it transforms Shakespeare’s traditional Verona into a hyper-religious community, awash with Catholic icons and massive statuary depicting Jesus Christ. It is a crumbling city, the result of violence and hatred, as...

The Characters of Jurassic Park

Steven Spielberg could have taken the easy way out. He had dinosaurs—arguably the greatest achievement in CGI up to that point in history. Jurassic Park already had its selling point, its hook, the shiny thing that would make every kid and his family hyped to see the film. Because of the dinosaurs, Spielberg could have...

My First Foray into Austen: Douglas McGrath’s Emma

Everyone had an ‘introduction to Jane Austen,’ and the 1996 Emma was mine. At thirteen years old, I was an average homeschooled costume drama lover… I mostly wanted to watch movies or read books with historical settings and pretty dresses in them. We had a ‘free rental credit’ for Pay Per View, and I begged...

Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is one of my favorite movies for many reasons. It has some of my favorite actors, feel-good themes of love, forgiveness, hope, etc., and it allowed my teenage self to go, “See? School is a waste of time! Look how smart he is, and he doesn’t go to school.” However, my favorite...

When Dreams Come True: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Love makes fools of us all. What do we mean by a fool in love? If we love someone or someone loves us recklessly, without using our common sense? When we see only advantages and do not believe in disadvantages of our object of love? When that relationship seems like the result of witchcraft or...

How to Make a Great Adaptation 101: Clueless

Good adaptations are scarce. A lot tend to either completely rewrite the source material or cannot do it any kind of justice. And Clueless could have been another in a long list of failures. Here’s my list of reasons it’s not only a near perfect adaption but has earned its place as a 90s classic....

March / April 2021: Memorable 90s Movies

Whether you skated through the 90s as an adult, came of age during them, or weren’t born yet, there’s no denying that some of the most memorable films have stood the test of time and still remain crowd favorites to this day. The 90s had a lot of patterns—bratty kids who pull one over on...