Cinema In Context

Seven films from the summer for our 70th episode. Sarah Watt, Jeremy Downing and William Chen discuss the following 2021 films: Don't Look Up, Encanto, The French Dispatch, House of Gucci, The Matrix: Resurrections, The Power of the Dog and West Side Story. Don't Look Up: We begin with review by song, highlighting how much the satire was or wasn't on the nose - especially pushing a particular agenda. We celebrate the cast, especially Melanie Lynskey. We reference Heavenly Creatures (1994) and Mother! (2017). Our collective rating adds up to: 2 thumbs up and 2 thumbs down Encanto: We discuss the messages and themes of the film, especially how dark gets and how subtle it explores those ideas. We also talk about the Disney influence on the film, particularly around character and toy design. Our collective rating adds up to: 6 thumbs up The French Dispatch: Wes Anderson's latest film, with a plethora of brilliant actors. We discuss the balance of humour, pretentiousness and how Wes Anderson this new Wes Ande