Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

The Godfather at 50: Cinema Reinvented

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Tom Jolliffe looks back at The Godfather as it turns 50… In 1967, Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde began a solid decade of a mature, intense and gritty American cinema. Though Penn was fairly experienced by this point, he was unknowingly going to help forge a path that a new wave of (future) iconic directors […]

The year Heat was criminally overlooked by the Oscars

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Tom Jolliffe looks back at the Oscars in 1996, when Heat was criminally overlooked by the Academy… The year was 1996, which looked back over the films of the previous year. It was a fairly strong year, and like a lot of the nomination lists throughout that decade there are some oddities. There are also […]

If Film & TV Is A Game… Is Korea Winning?

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Tom Jolliffe looks at the booming worldwide popularity of Korean film and TV. With the Western studios so preoccupied with IP, are we getting more engaging films and shows from Korea? German cinema in the 30’s. American noir in the 40’s. Japanese cinema in the 50’s. Nordic cinema from the 50’s and 60’s. British cinema […]

1975: The Year Francis Ford Coppola Dominated the Oscars

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Tom Jolliffe looks back to the 1975 Academy Awards ceremony, when Francis Ford Coppola had The Godfather: Part II and The Conversation in competition… With the Oscars around the corner, now is a good time to look back at the 1975 ceremony. It was a year filled to the brim with exceptional films. Among an […]

I’m Too Old For This Sh*t!

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Tom Jolliffe on that fateful day when you start to outgrow things… Getting older is inevitable. It’s a sad fact of life. Petrol prices are going through the roof, along with everything else. I’m paying a mortgage and all the unexpected joys (read costs) that come with having a home (always resting on that knowledge […]

The Fascination with Origin Stories

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Tom Jolliffe looks at the fascination with origin stories… Film and TV have long had a burning desire to milk popular characters or franchises for all they’re worth. If it works and audiences respond to it, then logic dictates that more adventures must follow. It could be sequels, spinoffs, reboots (with iconic character played by […]

Anti-Revenge Cinema

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Tom Jolliffe on when vengeance on screen is shown as futile… It’s a dish best served cold. Cinema has long held a fascination with revenge. As a sub-genre, the revenge picture still carries plenty of market appeal. Many actors over the decades, particularly cinematic tough guys, have made careers in dishing out vengeance. For the […]

Michael Bay and the Finer Points of Bayhem

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Tom Jolliffe on Michael Bay’s unique approach to cinematic destruction… In the mid-1990s a young upstart director burst out of the music video scene and blazed into the action genre with the kind of blustering gusto very few helmers have managed before or since. When I was growing up as a young teen, the cinema […]

A Double Hit of Cyberpunk from 1992: Nemesis and Split Second

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Tom Jolliffe looks at a pair of cyberpunk infused sci-fi films from 1992… The year is 1992. Video shops are still a thing. I spend many an hour perusing them and there are a number of VHS covers that stamp themselves into my brain and will remain fresh in my mind almost 30 years. These […]

The Cinematic DNA of The Batman

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Tom Jolliffe looks at Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and the movie influences littered within… So The Batman has settled itself in cinemas across the world. The box office coffers are merrily heaving and the industry itself is given a much needed extra shot of adrenaline to keep death from its door. The verdicts have largely […]