Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Film (Page 2 of 2)

These are posts on film from the blog Base and Superstructure. Mostly these are just about films I found interesting, but I tend to focus on the intersections between film and politics.

booksmart good boys

Booksmart and Good Boys

October 14, 2019 /

In DJ Shadow’s 2016 Classic Nobody Speak, El-P from the hip-hop duo Run the Jewels starts off the song as follows:

Picture this
I’m a bag of dicks
Put me to your lips
I am sick
I will punch a baby bear in his shit

Two 2019 coming-of-age films feature this charming tune. First, we have Booksmart, which I wrote about a bit earlier as one of the best films of the year so far. And second, we have Good Boys. Good Boys is…something different. This might say something about gender, film, and childhood in the US.

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Green Book and Teen Vogue

February 28, 2019 /
Green Book

Source: Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book.jpg)

Green Book was an OK movie, not a great movie or even a good one. It’s in good company on the list of Oscar Best Picture nominees. You could make an awards case for Roma, but any of the others would’ve been a weak choice. Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice were the worst of the bunch. Neither of the two best movies I saw in 2018 (Sorry to Bother You and A Quiet Place, respectively) made the list.

Grumble, grumble.

I’ve got an upcoming post on the concept of the ‘liberal bubble,’ and what I’ll say here will preview that a bit. A lot of the criticism of Green Book from a particular set, namely highly educated, wealthier, white, ‘woke’ liberals, runs into a sort of bubble issue.

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anti-capitalist films
Source: Poster Boy (https://www.flickr.com/photos/posterboynyc/8603644761)

5 Successful Anti-Capitalist Films

January 14, 2019 /

There’s no shortage of anti-capitalist films. But there aren’t many that manage to both present a strong message and perform well critically and financially.

Let’s take a look at 5 anti-capitalist films that did it all. They present coherent messages that explain some aspect of our world, they were good movies, and they made money at the box office.

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