The Rise of Self-Awareness in Cinema: Is Film Doomed to Become a Mockery of Itself?

Posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 by Adam Quigley

Cinema has entered a new dawn. It arrived a while ago, actually, and you may not have even noticed.

I’m not referring to the recent surfeit of remakes, sequels and adaptations, or the rebirth and subsequent profusion of superhero movies, or even the resurgence of 3D. No, I’m talking about the evolution of a burgeoning subgenre in cinema: meta films, aka movies about movies. Whether you’ve seen it or not, these self-reflective satires, parodies and homages have become a recurring staple of the aughts, and slowly but surely, the landscape of modern cinema is changing because of them. Read More »

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Filmmakers on Stage: Trey Parker and Matt Stone go Off-Broadway; In Bruges Director Martin McDonagh Teams Up With Tom Waits and Robert Wilson

Posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 by Russ Fischer

Two stories today about filmmakers hitting the stage. (Well, one of them is about a filmmaker returning to the stage, but close enough.) First, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are working with Robert Lopez on what is likely to be the musical about Mormons that the three guys have been working on for ages. Lopez was one of the composers and lyricists behind Avenue Q, the adult-themed ‘update’ of Sesame Street. That featured numbers about porn, racism and homosexuality, so it should be fun to see what the three come up with on the topic of Mormonism. Oh, people will probably be angry. An August-September run is planned for the New York Theater Workshop. [Variety]

After the break, the man behind In Bruges teams up with the avant-musical duo of Tom Waits and Robert Wilson. Read More »

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