Indiana University CinemaEstablishing Shot

Eight Legged Freaks and the Good Rental

Posted on by Laura Ivins

DVD cover for Eight Legged Freaks showing a tarantula hover over David Arquette's head
DVD cover for the widescreen edition of Eight Legged Freaks

This June, Establishing Shot will feature a miniseries we’re calling Here’s Looking at You, 2002 as we take a look back at films celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. Today, Laura Ivins makes us nostalgic as she reminisces about the rise of the DVD and the charms of the video store.

In 2002, the DVD format overtook VHS. DVDs had been introduced five years earlier and experienced rapid adoption among the home-viewing market. Outlets like Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, and independent video stores were phasing out their VHS stock and shifting fully to DVDs. Even though about 60 million more U.S. homes had VCRs than DVD players at this point, DVD sales far outpaced VHS in all categories except children’s entertainment.

In 2002, my boyfriend and I lived in an apartment complex that was next door to a Blockbuster. This was Blockbuster’s peak, with over 5,000 stores in operation in the U.S. and Netflix streaming still five years away. (more…)

Physical Media Isn’t Dead, It Just Smells Funny: Imprint Films, Fun City Editions, and Criterion Collection Blu-ray Reviews for June 2022

Posted on by Aja Essex

Artwork by Nile James Arena

Full transparency: all Blu-rays reviewed were provided by Imprint Films, Fun City Editions, and the Criterion Collection.

Back after a hiatus to get the blog rebranded and re-URL’d, and to give your usually vibrant and passionate reviewer some much needed time off, I am once again here to bring the hottest and most interesting titles from some of my favorite big Blu boutiques. Back again this month are our pals at Fun City Editions with one of the most uniquely toned films that they have put out to date, the 1985 film Coca-Cola Kid. Criterion has the welcome release of Tampopo director Junzo Itami’s The Funeral.  And finally from Imprint Films, we have a psychological and ambiguously supernatural double feature of sorts featuring detectives maybe a little bit over their heads with the releases of Man on a Swing and The Wicker Man.

It’s summer and it’s too hot to go outside, so give these releases a gander and maybe you’ll want to sit inside with a cold cola and bask in something cinematic and special. (more…)

The Spectacular Action-Adventure Movie of 2002: Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

Posted on by Noni Ford

Clone army marching onto ships
Still from Attack of the Clones

This June, Establishing Shot will feature a miniseries we’re calling Here’s Looking at You, 2002 as we take a look back at films celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. Today, Noni Ford points out the merits of one of the most polarizing Star Wars flicks George Lucas ever made.

What I’m about to write may divide any casual readers of this article but here it goes: I unapologetically enjoy the Star Wars prequels. And yes, I know that the prequels have been roundly ridiculed, mocked, and memed to death by many die-hard Star Wars fans for years. A few years ago, if you were to ask me what I thought about Star Wars, I probably would talk about the original trilogy but I wouldn’t dare mention the prequels for fear of sparking a messy debate that could go on for hours. But now with the Obi-Wan Kenobi show and the new reassessments of the prequels, I’ve seen the tide start to turn as more and more people have begun to appreciate them for what they are: great action-adventure films with some corny lines that only work in the context of the film, but boy do they work. So now I finally feel emboldened enough to reveal my true feelings about the movie Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones on the year of its 20th anniversary.  (more…)

Russian Ark and the Politics of Camera Movement

Posted on by Jack Miller

People in fancy clothes on a grand staircase
Russian Ark (2002)

This June, Establishing Shot will feature a miniseries we’re calling Here’s Looking at You, 2002 as we take a look back at films celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. Today, former contributor Jack Miller returns to the blog with his assessment of a visionary historical drama that Roger Ebert once said “spins a daydream made of centuries.” Welcome back, Jack!

Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark (2002) may be one of the few “experimental” films that legitimately feels like a controlled experiment of sorts: the film is composed of a single, unbroken, 95-minute Steadicam shot which moves through 33 rooms in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, a site which also encompasses the Winter Palace. Though this awesome technical achievement can be seen as a formally radical gesture on Sokurov’s part, it is paradoxically brought toward a subject and a social milieu which could justifiably be seen as traditional or conservative: the aristocratic history of czarist, pre-Revolutionary Russia. In considering Russian Ark, one is immediately confronted with a certain paradox at the heart of the project, a shotgun marriage between radical and conservative aesthetics. (more…)

100 Years of Judy Garland

Posted on by Michaela Owens

Judy Garland

She was a torch singer, a comedienne, a gay icon, a hoofer, a mother, an actress, a pillar of the movie musical, and one of history’s most illustrious entertainers all wrapped in one magical package. She was Judy Garland and today would’ve been her 100th birthday.

For almost the entirety of those 100 years, Judy has been sweeping people off of their feet with her genius. A Judy Garland performance is an experience, an emotional awakening that overwhelms you with its sheer humanity and honesty. Abused by a system that claimed to love her, she struggled to find stability and happiness, and still she gave us everything and protected nothing. Instead of shielding even one small part of herself, one piece that was hers and hers alone, Judy laid it all bare on and off the screen: her anguish, her addictions, her loneliness, her bliss, her self-doubt. Witnessing her pain is excruciating, but it is also what makes us feel so close to her. We recognize her wounds and she recognizes ours. (more…)

Catch Me If You Can at 20

Posted on by Jesse Pasternack

Poster for Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Poster for Catch Me If You Can (2002)

This June, Establishing Shot will feature a miniseries we’re calling Here’s Looking at You, 2002 as we take a look back at films celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. Up first, we have Jesse Pasternack’s appreciation of a Steven Spielberg classic that deserves a reappraisal.

It might seem strange to describe Catch Me If You Can (2002) as underrated. When it was released twenty years ago, it made $352.1 million on a $52 million budget. Catch Me If You Can was also a critical success, as evidenced by its 96% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. This film even spawned a musical adaptation which ran on Broadway and won a Tony Award for Best Actor. How can a film which achieved so many different levels of success be regarded as “underrated?” (more…)

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