Jennifer Lawrence, early sitcom star and four time Oscar nominee; has become one of Hollywood’s most demanded stars. From being one of the youngest people to gain various Oscar nominations to becoming the highest paid actress in 2016. It is fair to say that Jennifer has proven her versatility as well as maintaining her naturally bubbly personality.
Jennifer’s most recent work includes her role in the Sci-Fi film: ‘Passengers’ with her co-star Chris Pratt. Released on the 21st of December (UK) the DVD is estimated to release in March.
To celebrate this we have decided to compile a list of Jennifer’s most popular roles.
Winter’s Bone (2010)
Winter’s Bone (2010)
Jennifer’s breakout role for the 2010 film, earned her first Academy nomination for the ‘Best Actress’ category; at just 20 years old. Her performance as ‘Ree’ an Ozark Mountain resident and home maker, introduces us to the talent Jennifer possesses. In ‘Winter’s Bone’, we watch Ree, as she encounters some unwanted truths on her quest to find her errant father. Winter’s bone is based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell, greatly portrayed by Lawrence.
The original Blair Witch Project arguably created the found footage genre when it was released back in 1999. Telling the tale of a bunch of students striding out into the Maryland woodlands, the film offered audiences a new way of experiencing terror from the point of view of those being subjected to it, and they lapped it up. Now, the franchise is back with a bang in, well, Blair Witch, a Force Awakens to the original’s still terrifying A New Hope.
With Blair Witcharriving on Blu-ray and DVD from January 23rd, what better opportunity to look at some of the found footage terrors the original film has inspired:
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Cannibal Holocaust
Okay, I know we just said The Blair Witch Project created the genre, but only in as much as Halloween created the stalk’n’slash (when actually, Black Christmas pipped it to the post but didn’t take off in quite the same way), but Cannibal Holocaust pre-dates the woods in Burkittsville by nearly 20 years. The tale of an attempt to recover reels of film from shot by a documentary crew is replete with nastiness – so much so that the director was briefly charged with murder – so it’s pleasing to see the genre took a more acceptable turn as years went by.
We’re only two months away from the release of the new Ghost in The Shell and most likely friends and foes of the epic animation classic will be ready to shoot their ammo at this Scarlett Johansson starred remake.
Which by itself is, as far as old school anime fans are concerned, a statement of intent from the director or, probably, from the producers. In spite of debating whether making real-life adaptations of animation movies is or is not a smart move (normally it’s not), casting Woody Allen’s muse as Motoko Kusanagi, the Section 9 agent chasing the Puppet Master, seems like a rather adventurous decision. However, considering Margot Robbie was the first option of this Paramount and DreamWorks co-production, maybe Scarlett’s presence isn’t that bad after all.
In any case, Johansson’s being the lead role is one of the most commented upon things in the upcoming release for obvious reasons: one could arguably say that this choice completely kills the appeal of the sober, serene and cyber-looking protagonist of the old movie, which is, spoiler alert, a crucial part in the development and understanding of the plot, once Motoko and the Puppet Master finally become fused. That having been said, and from the other side of the argument, it could also be claimed that without a big name on the front page, this ambitious remake would have never been possible to fund. So there’s that.
The other issue that has been touched, from the scarce information the audience has been able to collect, i.e. what they’ve seen in the trailer, is the aesthetics. And now the Simpsons Comic Book Guy attitude towards anything new changes to a very simple phrase: “it looks freaking amazing”. And why’s that? Well, that is mainly due to the fact that in this particular aspect, the producers and creators of the remake have tried their best to respect the original product; judging by the trailer, quite successfully. This way, the visual spectacle the 1995 movie was (because let’s face it, it was a nice story, but what made it great was the whole package) seems to be well-preserved and kind of exported to real-life action through using the same shots and framings.
One way or another, Ghost in the Shell (2017) will be one of the few things to look forward to in this early 2017.
Now that a big percentage of new big commercial movies are remakes, second parts, prequels and sequels of old-time classics, let’s keep calm, sit down and be ready for long pint-watered discussions.
Dogs have often had a starring role on the big screen alongside their human co-stars.
To celebrate the release of Wiener-Dog on DVD and Digital, we’ve picked our 10 top dogs that have appeared in films.
Lassie
Undoubtedly one of the most iconic dogs on the big screen is Lassie. This rough collie first graced the big screen in Lassie Come Home and has been a star ever since. Did you know that Lassie is one of three dogs to have her own star on the walk of fame in Hollywood?
Uggie
Uggie is one of the charismatic stars of The Artist and also appeared in Water For Elephants. See some of his highlights from The Artist below and why his performances make him one of our favourites.
Directed by NYU film student Lewie Kloster and animated by his younger brother Noah, Legal Smuggling is a neat short film that illustrates an improvised monologue by the filmmaker Christine Choy about an adventure she had while trying to buy herself cheap cigarettes at a New York duty free shop. The story is narrated by Choy and animated with sketches, cutouts, construction paper, and minimalist drawings that wonderfully illustrate Choy’s narration. The handmade feel of the illustrations seems as off-the-cuff as the story, but something like this was naturally meticulously planned ahead of time.
Choy teaches filmmaking at NYU, which is no doubt how Kloster met her. She’s quite a character, and packs a lot of information, overt and implied, into a four-minute story.
Legal Smuggling is a neat short film that illustrates an improvised monologue by the filmmaker Christine Choy about an adventure she had while trying to buy herself cheap cigarettes at a New York duty free shop.
So, for the story: after some calculations, Choy comes to the somewhat amazing conclusion that it’s actually cheaper to buy her cigarettes from a duty free shop. And that includes a cheap round-trip ticket to Canada. She loads up with seven cartons of her favorite brand, but her adventure turns into misadventure when she’s forced to take the flight to Canada that she purchased. On her way back to the U.S., she learns that she can only bring one carton of cigarettes with her into the country. And so she comes up with a scheme to import the rest of her six cartons. It’s a gamble, and maybe a big one, but Choy says, “Being an artist, I always gamble.” Indeed.
I left this brief experience with an intense curiosity about Lewie Kloster and Christine Choy and I’m very interested in following their careers, as well as that of the young animator Noah Kloster.
