film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: BRWC

  • Inspirational On-Screen Wedding Fashion And Accessories 

    Inspirational On-Screen Wedding Fashion And Accessories 

    Inspirational On-Screen Wedding Fashion and Accessories 

    If you are a fan of the Twilight saga, then one of the highlights of the Twilight Saga, was the marriage of star-crossed lovers, Bella and Edward in Breaking Dawn Part One. You may recall that every little detailed was laid down to perfection, ranging from Bella’s romantic Carolina Herrera dress (made from crepe satin and French Chantilly lace) to the location of the wedding—an enchanted forest graced with a white arch filled with white wild flowers.

    It was the ultimate scenario in which everything goes right. The ceremony itself inspired many real-life celebrations of love, starting from the outdoor venue to Bella’s beautiful diamond pavé ring and the scene is undoubtedly one of the most memorable on-screen weddings. If you want to discover a few more that shone in terms of fashion and style, read on.

    Carrie Bradshaw’s Almost Wedding in Sex in the City

    Who can forget the pop of blue in Carrie’s Vivienne Westwood dress—that’s right, the one she wore to her “almost wedding” to Mr. Big. The dress was as elaborate as befits a true lover of high fashion, and if one thing defined the character of Carrie, it was definitely her sartorial talents. The couture gown featured an abundance of layers and two different tones. Carrie herself called it “a dress so special, it could wring a wedding tear from even the most unbelieving of women.” Sadly, she never got to wear it down the aisle because her ‘Bridezilla’-style wedding planning gave Mr. Big a serious case of wedding jitters!

    Carrie Bradshaw’s Black Diamond Ring in Sex and the City: The Movie

    Big may not have been ready the first time around, but he pulled out all the stops when he was finally ready to commit fully to Carrie. He did so with one of the hottest current trends in wedding jewelry—a sparkling black diamond ring. When Carrie asked him why he chose black, he answered that it was rare, just like her. Today, transparent diamonds are still the number one sellers for engagement rings, but many more couples are choosing colored diamonds, sapphires, gemstones, and pearls. They are thinking along the lines of Mr. Big, valuing meaning over tradition and getting creative through purchases like twisted wedding bands, eternity engagement rings, and three-stone designs.

    Juliet’s Dress in Love Actually

    Juliet and Peter’s wedding in Love Actually was just about as romantic as they get. You may remember the ceremony, in which their friends surprised them by playing instruments and singing to The Beatles’ All You Need is Love, inside the church. Those with an eye for fashion, of course, were more focused on her dress, which comprised a long, sheer jacket with a cropped lace design on top and a skirt comprising both pink and sheer lacy fabrics.

    The outfit was both ultra-romantic and modern, invoking a sense of celebration that defied traditional wedding fashions. Fans later learned that director, Richard Curtis, actually envisioned Kiera’s character wearing a bare-bellied dress because he wanted her “to be kind of sexy, even as a bride.” The film’s Oscar-nominated costume designer, Joanna Johnston, toned his idea down, going for sheer fabric that was the perfect fit for the end of the scene, where the bride is partying with her guests.

    Film and TV have inspired many a wedding fashion trend. Carrie Bradshaw’s “almost wedding” dress, for instance, became one of the most coveted dresses at the time, and many brides opted to add a splash of blue to their hairstyles on their big day. Today, many brides and grooms are also opting for colored gemstones. If you had any doubt, check out the $10M green diamond engagement ring Ben Affleck recently gave Jennifer Lopez!

    Inspirational On-Screen Wedding Fashion and Accessories 

  • The Most Influential Movies Of The 1980s

    The Most Influential Movies Of The 1980s

    The Most Influential Movies of the 1980s

    When we look back over the decades, there are few eras that carry such strong cultural connotations as the 1980s. Even for those who weren’t alive during the period, any mention of the 80s instantly conjures up images of feathered hair, leg warmers, electro-pop, and the neon-drenched, sunny optimism.

    Arguably, the 80s left its most enduring mark on film. So many cinematic releases from the decade are endlessly re-watched, re-made, and re-quoted to this day. Here’s our roundup of the most culturally influential films of the 1980s. 

    Nightmare On Elm Street

    The 80s was truly the era where the blockbuster horror flick came into its own. No film is more emblematic of this cultural shift than Nightmare On Elm Street, in which the blade-fingered Freddy Kreuger terrorizes suburban America in its sleep. The terrifying antagonist has since reappeared in more than a dozen films, as well as countless video games and TV parodies. If you have even a passing interest in horror, you’ll know all about Nightmare On Elm Street. 

    The Goonies

    The classic adventure comedy is about as 80s as it could get, complete with the hair, fashion, and music that made the era so culturally distinct. The film chronicles the adventures of a gang of friends who are about to be turfed out of their working-class neighbourhood called “the Goon Docks” to make way for a country club, that other symbol of 1980s excess and opulence. Spielberg’s classic was an instant cult hit and has gone on to become one of the most culturally reproduced films of the era.

    In fact, fans of The Goonies today can even play an official online slot version of the game – The Goonies Slot. Featuring all the original cast, soundtrack, and catchphrases, The Goonies is ranked as one of the most popular online casino games at William Hill, a leading international gambling site. If that’s not a testament to the cultural impact of the film, we don’t know what is.

    Die Hard

    This was the film that launched the stratospheric career of the lead, Bruce Willis, and for good reason. Set inside a luxury hotel and office complex on Christmas Eve, Die Hard depicts the efforts of a wisecracking NYPD cop who must foil a heist attempt by a gang of German terrorists with fabulous facial hair.

    This is an 80s film that has probably generated more quotes than any other, not least the protagonist’s iconic catchphrase. Fans of the original can even relive the action via a range of video games, with the most popular probably being the 2002 PC release Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, an absolute classic of the genre. 

    The Terminator

    “I’ll be back”. Three words that almost anyone alive today will instantly associate with the critically acclaimed James Cameron sci-fi that remains one of the highest-grossing releases ever of this genre. The film follows an evil humanlike cyborg from the 2020s who has been sent back in time to the 1980s to assassinate the mother of John Connor, a general in the future who is on the verge of foiling a robotic takeover of Earth.

    The film perfectly walks the lines between terrifying, thought-provoking, hilarious, and high-camp in a way that only the 80s really could. Since the original release, the franchise has spawned a number of box office smash hits, as well as more than a dozen video games. 

    For us, these are the 80s movies that have had an outsized impact on popular culture that is still felt to this day. Whether any films from our current decade will match up remains to be seen. 

    The Most Influential Movies of the 1980s

  • Atabai: Review

    Atabai: Review

    Atabai: Review. By Andrew Prosser.

    Twenty-one, thirty-one, forty-one, fifty-one, sixty-one, seventy-one, eighty-one, ninety-one, one hundred and one, one hundred and eleven, hundred twenty-one, one hundred and thirty-one. So counts the narrator and titular character of writer-director Niki Karimi’s latest, Atabai, as the filmbegins.

    And a fitting beginning it is, because much like watching the rest of the film, as we sit there, listening to our lead monotonously drone on in voiceover, the camera slowly zooming in on his stoic face, what we’re seeing and hearing defies any attempt to glean its significance – and there’s no end in sight. 

    The character goes on to explain he met his deceased mother in a dream, asked her at what age he would die, but couldn’t hear her answer, but in a move that will be repeated many times throughout the film, we’re presented with a mystery (why the counting), and given the answer almost immediately, yet it remains unclear why that answer matters. Karimi seems instead more preoccupied with mood than with story, more interested in painting her protagonist as a man haunted by the ghosts of his past than in giving an audience any inkling what that same character endeavors to do with his future.

    There are the bones of a straight-forward homecoming story here, as Atabai returns to his family home in the countryside to find the orchard has been sold to a rich out-of-towner. There are the seeds of a family drama as Atabai frets over the proper way to raise his surrogate son, the teenage child of the lost sister whose memory haunts him.

    And, perhaps most bizarrely, there is a love triangle, one side of which reveals itself for the first and last time as a young woman begs the graying Atabai to marry her, even though viewers are likely scratching their heads at that point, trying to recall if the two had ever spoken before. With so many disparate plot points, it becomes impossible to tell what actually matters, and the film suffers a lack of any forward momentum because of it.

    The performances are powerful, but one can only endure two men cutting open their shared trauma and clearly stating exactly how they feel on a beautiful hillside so many times. All in all, Atabai is a collection of scenes jammed together, many of which are genuinely touching, but this amalgamation is not stronger than the sum of its parts, making this one ultimately forgettable.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq3_hrdFpbA
  • My First Summer: Review

    My First Summer: Review

    My First Summer: Review. By Andrew Prosser.

    Writer-director Katie Found’s sophomore venture (her previous being 2015’s The Widow) is, I suppose one could say, “short and sweet.” In just under eighty minutes, Found manages to tell the story of Claudia (Markella Kavenagh), a teenaged girl whose mother has kept her entirely hidden from the world, tucked away in their modest home somewhere in the woods of Australia – until the day her mother decides to go for a walk in the nearby reservoir, her bright yellow dress (it has pockets!) weighed down with stones, that is.

    Another girl of the same age, Grace (Maiah Stewardson) witnesses the suicide and discovers the now-alone Claudia. From that dark jumping-off point, the film becomes a charming coming-of-age tale, as the bond between the two girls grows, Grace at first shocked by how little the sheltered Claudia knows of the world, but soon taking delight in becoming her new friend’s guide to everything that’s good in the world – from strawberry milk and candy necklaces to pink sheets and pinky promises.

    It’s truly impressive how deftly Found manages the tone throughout, because it is balanced perfectly atop a tightrope – too much to one side and one can’t help but draw parallels to Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth, but thankfully the initial premise of a young girl’s homeschooling being taken to the extreme is where those similarities end. We never get the impression Grace is taking advantage of the vulnerable Claudia, which is a growingly important distinction, as their relationship grows into a romantic one.

    Still, and perhaps more impressively, Found never allows the film to veer too far in the other direction either – into the overly-saccharine, sentimental schlock perhaps a less-adept filmmaker couldn’t help but fall into. Instead, her film is a teenage girl’s coffee cup full of marshmallows – almost certainly too sweet for its own good, and still, somehow never quite.

    Both Kavenagh and Stewardson turn in highly commendable performances filled with subtlety and nuance, and it’s a good thing too because it is in the strength of those performances where it’s decided if the film works or not. For my money, it does, so if you can check this one out, it’ll be worth the hour and a half of your time – I Purple Promise.   

  • Hit The Road: Review

    Hit The Road: Review

    Hit the Road is why your friends can’t stand arthouse movies. By Andrew Prosser.

    Let it not be said that Panah Panahi’s debut as a writer-director is not an impressive one. His skillfully shot tale of a family’s journey to the border as their eldest son flees Iran, for many viewers, strikes all the right notes. If you’re currently reading about it on a film review website, you might even be one of them (thanks, by the way). Still, to the friend/family member/significant other/captive you twisted the arm of to get to watch another one of your “artsy movies,” the film hands few favors.

    Much of the action (if it can be called that) takes place within the family’s minivan, which, as the film wears on, can start to feel claustrophobic, and worse, dull. A generous viewer would say that Panahi doesn’t talk down to his viewers, that he has faith in their ability to see the larger picture, even if the details are elusive. On the other hand, it isn’t unfair to say the film is ambiguous to the point of frustration, that the filmmaker is too precious with what precious little plot he has to dispense.

    Our travelers are forever looking over their shoulders, in fear of being found out by the nefarious enemies they see lurking in every shadow and dare not even name, but that fear, the precautions they take – throwing out the youngest child’s cell phone despite his fervent objections, never addressing their actual task at hand, almost if they were suspicious the car itself might be bugged – never amount to anything.

    Panahi isn’t interested in high-speed car chases and daring escapes, opting to delve instead into the mental and emotional toll of such a journey, and to his credit, he accomplishes that well. Masterfully understated performances by the film’s leads pull the whole thing together, even when Panahi takes what might be his biggest filmmaking swing by shooting the emotional climax of the piece in one ultra-wide shot of a hillside, reducing mother, father, and sons to the size of ants, leaving us only to speculate about the looks of dread and despair which must surely be on their faces.

    Here, as always, Panahi deals in shadows, and it’s equal parts stunning and frustrating. All told, for fans of arthouse cinema,

    Hit the Road is well worth its relatively short ninety-three-minute run time, but it won’t be winning any new converts.