Clueless @ 25: The Best Costumes!

by Cláudio Alves

As previously mentioned in my "Emmas of Yore" miniseries, Clueless is one of the best cinematic adaptations of a Jane Austen novel. By modernizing the core narrative of Emma and stripping it of historical detail, Amy Heckerling was able to create a teen movie classic whose biting satire exists hand-in-hand with a sense of overwhelming affection for every character on-screen. Humor and romance are well-balanced, with the comedic element always taking precedence over the love story – as it should be when tackling one of Austen's prickliest and funniest novels.

That being said, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Clueless' release, we're not going to focus so much on its genius screenplay or how it updates Regency-era social commentary to the Beverly Hills of the 1990s. Fashion is our concern this time around or, more accurately, we're exploring the costume design of Clueless. Since 1995, Mona May's colorful stylings have become as iconic as the screenplay's witty dialogues and, in a fair world, they might have even won the designer some well-deserved Oscar gold… 

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Inception's dreamy femme fatale

by Cláudio Alves

It's a bit strange for me to be writing a celebratory piece about Inception on the movie's 10th anniversary. I've always considered the picture to be a tad overrated, undeserving of the titles of life-changing masterpiece or perfect action movie that I've seen people bestow upon it. Aside from a deadening first hour of exposition, my main issue has always been a matter of imagination or lack thereof. The world of dreams and the human unconscious is so rich in possibility, that it's disheartening to see Christopher Nolan bend it to fit the model of a heist picture.

Even the set design reflects that. There's much talk of impossible architecture, but what we get is modernist lines as far as the eye can see, bellicose fortresses and concrete cityscapes without a hint of surrealism. Notoriously, Satoshi Kon's Paprika, an anime hallucination with a lot of similarities to the Nolan blockbuster, is a good example of how the oneiric world of dream-sharing can be used to explode the rules of cinema. Still, has previously stated, this is a celebratory write-up and, while Inception's creative limitations may be frustrating, it would be a lie to say they are devoid of value.

After all, the most interesting character in the whole flick is an archetype of crime pictures and film noir. She's a trope, an old character type that has deep roots in men's fear of complicated women. She is Marion Cotillard's Mal…

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Yul Brynner Centennial: "The Ten Commandments"

by Eric Blume

Back in the day, Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments received an annual Easter airing in network prime-time, much the way The Wizard of Oz and other family classics would be broadcast annually with much fanfare, delivering consistently high ratings each year (remember:  only three network options!).  I feel like I saw The10Cs multiple times when I was a little kid, each year mesmerized by its massive sweep, colossal size, and amazing special effects.

Revisiting the film for the first time as an adult, in honor of Yul Brynner’s Centennial, wowza is it a howler...

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Facing mortality with "Toy Story 3"

by Cláudio Alves

Have you ever thought to yourself "my time has come to an end, I'm going to die"? I have, in at least three instances.

The first was in 2011, in Tokyo when the Tōhoku earthquake happened, making me stare in horror as skyscrapers swiveled around me, looking like they could fall at any moment. The second time was considerably less spectacular, caused by gallbladder stones and some incredible bouts of bad luck. From the most searing pain I've ever felt to internal bleeding after surgery, it all seemed like it was going to end. Thankfully, it didn't. The third moment where I contemplated my death in a very immediate way is, weirdly enough, the one that still scares me the most. It was late at night, I was eating something and a piece of food got stuck in my throat. I couldn't breathe, I was alone and started to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen, gasping for air while the world around me was going dark. I lived, but I'll always remember the feeling of thinking I was going to die, the fear, and the resigned acceptance of it.

Anyway, let's talk about Toy Story 3 on its 10th anniversary…

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Hara by Ozu

by Cláudio Alves

100 years ago in 1920, Setsuko Hara was born in the city of Yokohama, Japan. Thanks to the powers of nepotism and the influence of her brother-in-law, she got a job at the Nikkatsu Studios at the age of 15. In the next few years, she rose to prominence. By the 1940s, Hara became somewhat of a symbol of new Japanese womanhood. Curiously enough, that's not how she's best remembered today, in part thanks to her most famous directors being ones that cast her in roles typifying the conservative values of a traditional Japan. Despite multiple collaborations with such legendary filmmakers as the master of melodrama Mikio Naruse and Japan's superstar director Akira Kurosawa, it's her work in the films of Yasujiro Ozu that now most define her legacy… 

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