EDITORIAL: How Do People See AI in Movies?

AI in the real world isn’t remotely advanced enough to allow it to have a true personality. But in movies, AI has been a constant source of interest for many people since the very beginning. Movies allow filmmakers to explore a world in which AI is truly sentient. But that sentience hasn’t always been good.Interestingly enough, when you spread out AI in movies by intelligence and morality, you may start to see a strange correlation. In general, childlike robots tend to be typed as “good,” while superhuman robots tend to be typed as “evil.” Walk through this ranking of AI in movies and see how people tend to type AI across the board.

2019, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home Media, LIST, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 23, 2019Comment

EDITORIAL: How to Create a Perfect Female Character to Grab Millennials' Attention to Your Movie

Everyone sees millennials as the young generation who gets bored very quickly and is continually looking for something new to do or watch. When it comes to movies, the industry changed in the past years, given the millennials' appetite to spend more time in front of the TV, watching Netflix, than going to the cinema. Still, the film industry manages to reach incredible peaks and attract millennials’ attention in different forms. When you write female characters for millennials, you need to keep high standards. Even though the cost of quality might be high when trying to meet millennials’ needs, the benefits will exceed all the efforts.

2019, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home Media, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 23, 2019Comment

GUEST COLUMN: Christmas Movies for Couples: Make Your Christmas Ideal

By Cheryl Hearts

When the weather outside is cold, the best way to enjoy your stay with your partner indoors is by watching a romantic Christmas movie with them. Nothing beats having a homemade dinner or a well-baked pizza, a bottle of quality wine, a dark room, and a huge TV for Christmas with your partner. This kind of romantic atmosphere helps you build a new level of intimacy that would strengthen your relationship and make you cherish the value of being with your partner.

2019, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home Media, Media Appearance, LIST, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 23, 2019Comment

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

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…”

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: Architecture and Animation with "Howl's Moving Castle"

By Terrance Steenman

To be honest, I never thought too heavily about architecture growing up. I imagine most people feel this way their entire lives. Sure, when we were children there were LEGOs or Lincoln Logs (if you were so fortunate as to have those toys), and with those toys one could build a space of imagination, but rarely do people make the connection that the lessons learned can be applied to the masonry, wood, steel or concrete that shape our daily lives. Constantly in the field of architecture, we are told to think back to a time when we did not have architectural eyes, and to instead view architecture from the lens of the ordinary person

2019, Column, Editorial, Essay, Foreign Film, GUEST EDITORIAL, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 12, 2019Comment

GUEST ESSAY: Architecture as Character: “The Hateful Eight” Becomes Nine

By Jake Monroe

Architecture and cinema have formed a relationship through film progression thought the 20th and 21st centuries. This relationship has its roots theater extending beyond the silver screen. Often this relationship acts to create setting, to ground the characters and give them an environment to react to and use to their advantage. It is often used strategically by the filmmakers as a tool for conveying what they set out to tell. At times, however, in the film the architecture transcends the role of place and becomes an active participant in the story at hand. It acts and reacts to alter and progress the story. The Hateful Eight, directed by Quentin Tarantino, is a beautiful example of this kind of architecture in film. I will discuss how the cabin in the film transcends set to become an active character and ultimately have a sense of self.