GUEST EDITORIAL: Best Movies for Teachers to Watch with Their Students During Lessons

Movies act as a great source of entertainment; however, what many of us don’t notice is the impact they have on the audiences. Every movie has a story to tell, a message to give. It is due to this and various reasons that academic instructors/teachers should watch movies with their students. There are some movies that teachers/professors can watch with their students in making sure they leave a positive impact on them. The following movies are 21st century’s best teacher films. Teachers can watch these movies with their students while showing them the importance of leadership, mentorship, and other hidden meanings.

2019, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home Media, LIST, SPECIAL, Social MediaDon ShanahanDecember 19, 2019Comment

GUEST COLUMN: 13 Most Anticipated Horror Movies Of 2020

By Justin Osborne

There is always that feeling about watching a horror movie, which you get from no other film. With the increasing number of fans in this genre, producers are working extra hard to deliver entertaining and thrilling content to the enormous mass. This means that we will witness more horror movies in the run-up to the coming year – 2020. This year, 2019, has given us amazing treats, but 2020 is going to be better.

2019, 2020, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIALDon ShanahanDecember 19, 2019 Comments

MOVIE REVIEW: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Diving deeper beyond the basic “something that is final” meaning, the dictionary of this galaxy describes “finality” as “conclusiveness,” “decisiveness,” or “an ultimate act, utterance, or belief.” J.J. Abrams’ massive space opera follows his own The Force Awakens and Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi to aim so very badly for those traits. In many peaks of scope and emotion, his movie achieves such finality. In others, overindulgence and disarray put question marks on the value or vindication of all this promised fulfillment.

MEDIA APPEARANCE: "Marriage Story" Spoiler Lounge content for "CinemaJaw" podcast #450

Here’s some newly-released follow-up bonus content my recent guest appearance on the CinemaJaw podcast, hosted by fellow Chicago Indie Critic members Matt Kubinski and Ryan Jagiello. When we recorded our reviews of Marriage Story a month before its Netflix debut, we entered spoiler territory for a segment to save for later. Well, later is now with Marriage Story going strong in its award season. In this new episode of CinemaJaw recorded at the glam headquarters of Cards Against Humanity, come for the Jumanji and Star Wars talk and stay for the Marriage Story “Spoiler Lounge!”

GUEST ESSAY: Determinism verses Free Will: The Mythic and Secular Architecture of "Minority Report"

By Truman Hood

Minority Report is a dystopian warning of a police-state, big brother-esque surveillance society that has experienced a complete destruction of free will. This central idea of the film is told not only through exposition throughout the film, but also by the built environment where the storytelling architecture assists in creating a narrative of a self-fulfilling prophesy. The built environment of Minority Report conveys how humans have abandoned the belief that their fates are determined by greater powers than themselves, such as gods or karma. Instead of mystic powers responsible for the repercussions of those actions, the contemporary worldview shifted.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, Home Media, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 16, 2019Washington State UniversityComment

GUEST ESSAY: Authority in Architecture: An In-Depth Look at "The Adjustment Bureau"

By Hannah Thayer

The concept of only being able to move a predetermined number of ways within buildings, and within life, is challenged in The Adjustment Bureau. The people in the adjustment bureau are able to defy what architecture is and how it rules us by traveling through space using only doors; they open a door and choose where it leads to. Architecture has no authority over them as they get to use buildings how they see fit and use them to their space-traveling advantage. The built environment can be very demanding and incredibly intimidating. This movie addresses the idea of what is out of our control and how far are we willing to go to get it, while using the built environment to emphasize just how small we really are in the grand scheme of things.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home Media, SPECIAL, Social MediaDon ShanahanDecember 16, 2019Washington State UniversityComment

GUEST ESSAY: "Cidade de Dues:" A Manipulated Reality of Favelas

By Omar Cardoza

In 2002, Cidade de Deus, otherwise known as City of God, was released in Brazil. It did not take too long before the film became internationally acclaimed, in fact this film was nominated for multiple Oscars although it did not win. The film’s narrative, filming techniques, and setting provide for a compelling argument that the whole story is in fact a true depiction of the favelas Brazil. Films and cinema can be a means to generate discourse between a reality presented to us through the screen and the actual reality of the world. This can cause changes not only to the individual but through enough exposure to a broader audience can cause changes at the societal level and “is extremely important and carries tremendous responsibility since believing that films can shape the collective imagination can (re)affirm or deny a preconception or even reinforce…”

COLUMN: How to Brainstorm Film Ideas

So, you want to write a new screenplay, and looking around for some good ideas. But where to start with? What should you do first and how to nurture a movie you’ll be proud of? Birth of a concept might be tricky, indeed, but your creative searches can be easier if you know where to look for. Speaking frankly, ideas are hanging in the air, and all you have to do is to reach out and pick one. Think it sounds easier than done? Good for you, because we’ve done some homework for you, and are ready to provide you with tips and tricks on how to brainstorm few good film ideas. Here we go! Top four good advice tips for creating your future blockbuster!

2019, Column, EditorialDon ShanahanDecember 16, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: Who I Am, Where Do I Come From: The Ontology Behind "Westworld" and the Life of Choice

By Shanle Lin

By the 17th century, when Galilei noticed that the earth goes around the sun instead of the opposite around. Many people were in shock. They couldn’t have believed that human wasn’t at the center of the universe. Generally, it is not the various great ideas that subvert the way of people thinking, but our ignorance of yesterday. People are afraid to accept the impact a brought by the solidified-mind revolution, although this is born with human nature. In the movie Westworld (1973), John Michael Crichton bravely used “technophobia” to express what may happen if robots made for hedonism or recreation purpose generate their own mind.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, Home Media, GUEST EDITORIALDon ShanahanDecember 13, 2019Washington State UniversityComment

GUEST ESSAY: The Plague of Exile in "District 9"

By Steven DiGiorgi

After analyzing Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (2009), the setting of the film capitalizes on the post-colonial setting in Johannesburg, South Africa. What we viewed in the film as a representation of South Africa’s past, through an alternative perspective that identified the oppressed African people as aliens, known as the ‘Prawns’. The isolated community of District 9 represents oppressed living conditions for the millions of people negatively affected during the Apartheid rule (1950-94) (Weaver). For half a century, the South African people had faced dehumanization and discrimination by xenophobic Europeans. The caricature of the European colony was portrayed as the private military, MNU. They followed a typical method of a dystopian society, where power was diverted from the people to the hands of the government.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, Home Media, Independent Film, Foreign Film, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 13, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: Time-Transcending Architecture in "The Lake House"

By Tessa Cleary

“Home is where the heart is” is an expression used to portray the feeling that someone acquires in a building but is realistically used to describe the way they interact with the space around them. The house that was constructed in Alejandro Agresti’s The Lake House, is a prime example of how a building can be considered successful architecture but lacks the interconnectivity that a home needs with the dweller. Years ago, people would stay in their home almost the entirety of their life usually due to things like lack financial stability, inability to move or neighboring family ties. Now it seems as though it is very common to move from place to place throughout the span of one’s life. When someone moves around frequently, it makes the house they dwell in less special because of the lack of time spent in that place to create memories and connect with the space and the people who live in it.

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, Home Media, GUEST EDITORIAL, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 12, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: Che’s Transformative Journey without a Motorcycle

By Gabriel Hernandez

An 8,000 km journey across South America from Argentina to Peru will change people's perspective on life, an experience that will change the way one sees injustices around the world. The viewer will get a grasp on the discrimination between the upper-class communities and the indigenous people across Latin America in 1952. The story of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado's journey through South America was not meant to portray Che Guevara as a hero by any means. I believe it was only meant to recall the trip that molded him through the basis of his memoir. He described himself as a transformed man once the journey was completed from what he saw, whom he had met, and his near-death experiences on the road.

2019, Column, Editorial, EssayDon ShanahanDecember 12, 2019Comment