ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2021: #8 – First Cow Louise Burrell December 31, 2021 Analysis, Features, Opinion With an outpouring of festival and critics’ awards over the last 18 months, it seemed almost certain that Kelly Reichardt’s stunning First Cow would garner a handful of Academy Awards nominations in early...
Why First Cow Was The Biggest Oscar Snub This Year Louise Burrell March 27, 2021 Analysis, Features, Opinion With an outpouring of festival and critics awards over the last 12 months, it seemed almost certain that Kelly Reichardt’s stunning First Cow would garner a handful of Academy Awards nominations. But in a...
Bloodless Spectacle and Everyday Sexism in Silence of the Lambs Katy Moon February 1, 2021 Analysis, Features, Opinion Feminist author Betty Friedan dismissed the critical and popular success of Silence of the Lambs by calling it a film about “the evisceration, the skinning alive of women.” On the surface, her disgust is...
Why Mother Gothel is the Best Disney Villain Phil W. Bayles November 19, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion Tangled - Disney’s 50th animated feature, and the film that kick-started the studio’s ‘Revival’ period - turns 10 years old this month. In the decade since its release the studio has gone from strength...
Aaron Sorkin’s Demons and Better Angels Anna McKibbin October 10, 2020 Close-Up, Features, Opinion Eight years ago, Kevin Porter posted a video entitled “Sorkinisms – A Supercut”. Over 1.5 million people have watched this video which features different Aaron Sorkin-penned characters uttering the same...
Saint Maud’s Feminist Evolution of Body Horror Rob Salusbury October 9, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion The role of the female within horror cinema has always been a complex and hotly debated topic. Some argue that the frequent depiction of the monstrous female - most commonly realised through the figure of the...
The World Is Yours: Power and Decay in Scarface and Carlito’s Way Rob Salusbury September 11, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion, Spotlight Few directors can boast a more diverse filmography than Brian De Palma. The legendary filmmaker’s work has stretched from taut psychological thrillers to disturbing horrors and big budget action vehicles....
Blade Runner’s Visual Construction of the Future Weiting Liu September 4, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion Blade Runner's science fiction cyberpunk world is anchored in the classic noir genre’s sombre aesthetics. But it also subverts them. The film combines urban decay in the high-tech metropolis of a futuristic...
Disney’s Live Action Remakes Are in Need of Life Scott Wilson September 3, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion Disney’s 1994 The Lion King is full of life, death, and the harmony in between. At a tight 89 minutes, it never runs out of steam, and its colour palette is as vibrant as its song book. Part of the "Big...
In A World: Cinema’s Most Innovative Trailers George Howarth September 3, 2020 Features, Opinion, Top 10 So you're a director, you've made your genre-defining debut picture, and now it's time to convince the viewing public that your film blows the other cinematic dross out of the water. But how do you prove it?...
Why are Filmmakers Falling for Monochrome? Rob Salusbury July 22, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion It may feel like a lifetime ago now but it was only back in February when Jane Fonda opened that golden envelope and sent the film world into rapture. The cinematic sensation of 2019, Parasite became the...
The Painted Bird and Depicting the Holocaust on Film Rob Salusbury July 15, 2020 Analysis, Opinion The Holocaust is, without a doubt, the toughest topic to discuss in modern history. The mass murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime during World War Two was a defining moment in the history of mankind:...
Are Nymphomaniac and Love Still Pointing the Way for Sex in Cinema? Rob Salusbury June 23, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion If films are to be believed, then it appears that most of us have basically gone celibate these days. Take a look at the BBFC’s classifications for the last few years and you’ll find a swift decline in the...
Batman Begins and the Birth of Christopher Nolan as Blockbuster Auteur Patrick Nabarro June 9, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion It’s no coincidence that Tenet will likely be the film leading the charge back into cinemas this summer. Its director, Christopher Nolan, is a staunch defender of the cinematic experience, and perhaps the...
What To Watch After You Watch Normal People Rob Salusbury April 26, 2020 Analysis, Features, Opinion It's fair to say that few writers have captured the peaks and troughs of modern love quite like Sally Rooney. The Dublin-based writer is something of a sensation in the literary world, her writing driven by a...