Prolific director Spike Lee is looking to work with some of music’s biggest names to star in his upcoming film Chiraq. The director claims that he is attempting to recruit rappers Kanye West and Common alongside actors Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Piven to fill out the cast list for the film, which is believed to be shot and set in Chicago. The title Chiraq comes from a song by a Chicago based rapper Lil Durk. It is believed that the film will detail the rising prevalence of gun violence that the city has been experiencing. Both Kanye West and Common hail from Chicago, so it is possible that Lee believes the rappers would bring an additional sense of legitimacy to the project. This would hardly be Common’s first acting roll. The rapper has been appearing in film since 2002 when he made his debut playing himself in Brown Sugar. In 2003 he made an appearance on television playing his first character in Girlfriends, and in 2007 he made his film debut as an original character in Smokin’ Aces. Recently the star received critical acclaim for his role in the historical drama Selma, for which he also supplied music for the film’s soundtrack. His soundtrack contribution “Glory” has received a series of awards this year, including an Academy Award in the Best Original Song Category. The rapper has experienced a resurgence in his rap career as well after the …show more content…
The rapper has appeared as himself in several projects since 2005, and he has also starred in two short films that he has written and directed himself. The rapper has expressed an interest in breaking into the industry and is rumored to be making an apperance in the upcoming Zoolander sequel. Chiraq could present the musician with an opportunity to truly break into the film world with a more serious effort. Currently West is working on releasing his seventh solo studio album So Help Me God, which is scheduled for release sometime in
The auteur theory is a view on filmmaking that consists of three equally important premises: technical competence, interior meaning, and personal signature of the director. Auteur is a French word for author. The auteur theory was developed by Andrew Sarris, a well-known American film critic. Technical competence of the Auteur deals with how the director films the movie in their own style. Personal signature includes recurring themes that are present within the director’s line of work with characteristics of style, which serve as a signature. The third and ultimate premise of the Auteur theory is the interior meaning which is basically the main theme behind the film.
The film that interested me for this assignment was “Boyz n the Hood”. The movie was about a Los Angeles neighborhood expanding of drug and gang culture, with increasingly tragic results. It was about how one teen had family support to guide him on the right path in life regarding the social problems around him. The other two teens in the film wasn’t as fortunate and fell into the social problems of drugs, violence, and gangs; where one ended up dead.
Before the likes of Spider-Man, Captain America, and Thor ever hit the big screen, there was Blade the Vampire Hunter. The character, played by Wesley Snipes, was one of Marvel Comics' first big movie stars and spawned a successful trilogy of films during its run in the late 90's and early 2000's.
An early scene in George Roy Hill’s film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) shows illustrious bandit Butch Cassidy walking into a bank and observing a series of security upgrades (e.g. an alarm system, a safe, and several different locks). As Butch Cassidy exits the establishment, he asks the security guard, “What happened to the old bank?” The guard responds, “People kept robbing it.” Butch remarks, “Small price to pay for beauty.” Although Butch Cassidy’s disappointed assertion may have been rooted in disappointment for the loss of a heist rather than the loss of architectural merit, it leads one to question: To what extent are cultural attributes lost at the expense of new technology? I will consider this question as I examine the ways in which Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid highlights the
Google the phrase “the best hip-hop movies” and the search engine will return a plethora of various films with multiple artists and actors and similar background stories. Hip-hop and film have been linked for over 30 years. Before hip-hop was a popular culture, a collection of movies helped to spread the latest elements to larger audiences. To define a “rap movie,” one must consider the role that rap plays in such a film. For some, the mere presence of a ‘rapper’ constitutes a ‘hip-hop’ movie, while others consider rap to be an overall major theme of territorial appropriation and a search of identity. Common elements of drugs, crime, and vulgarity paired with sexual dominance and an attitude of hating the police can be found across several of these works, while even more encompass activities such as graffiti and b-boying to express their appreciation for the culture. A ‘hip-hop film’ cannot be defined simply; it is instead any compilation of work into moving picture format that expresses how those within the culture are currently living, producing, and expressing themselves. A movie such as ‘8 Mile’ is more generally known for expressing this first ‘common element’, displaying the struggles of poverty seen in both America and France, as well as the brutality and hate that exist often between opposing hip-hop fans. Conversely, ‘Wild Style’, recognized as the genre’s best film, displays an initial look at the four main components: MCing, DJing, graffiti, and breakdancing.
History is full of great figures whose influence shaped the world we live in today. However, such great figures are kept on books, and people know little or nothing about them. Usually, people do not like to read history books because they provide bleak information. Although Alexander Hamilton is one of the most influential founding fathers of the United States of America, having an insight about him through history books can be a hard process. Therefore, The Hamilton Mixtape by Lin-Manual Miranda offers an interesting and concise alternative to history books. It gives a holistic view on Alexander Hamilton and the founding fathers of the United States in terms of both personal and political lives. The work consists of forty six songs, each
Han – a period of time in China in which the country was merge together (Dictionary)
New Jack City, noted as ‘the crime film of the 90’s’,serves as an important episode for African-American people in America. Set in New York city, the film depicts the story of a success-driven antagonist Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) who builds an empire powered by organized crime, drug trafficking, and Black delinquent young adults trapped in the cycle of crime. Ronald Reagan’s economic policy coupled with the popularity of crack-cocaine in the inner city creates inconsistencies and untapped markets in the poor community which Nino Brown brilliantly capitalizes on and exploits. His empire is able to successfully cut out the middle men in the drug trafficking market and centralize their operation in a single low-income housing complex inhabited
When American Sniper opened in theaters January 2015, the world was shocked and excited that a film about a war has finally shown the emotional and psychological pain a soldier goes through. To many this was a new concept but, what the public did not realize, was in 2014, a World War II film, Fury was released. Fury is an insightful film about a tank crew surviving through World War II through the emotional and psychological hardships. The film takes place in April 1945, five months before WWII ends (Fury, IMDb). There are many key points to which makes Fury a modern war film from the extent of backstory each character has, to the prescreening prep and training, to the research of the props. Though American Sniper and Fury differ in wars and
The 1974 film Chinatown (U.S 1974, Roman Polanski) is about a private investigator, J.J Gittes, who was hired by a women impersonating Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray to investigate leads connected to her husband having an affair. J.J ends up meeting the real Mrs. Mulwray in the movie and learns about the sudden death of Mr. Mulwray. Once learning this, J.J quickly begins to realize that this case will be far different than his usual routine gigs. In the 10-shot sequence that I chose to evaulatue, multiple things take place. Firstly, J.J Gittes and Evelyn Mulwray are in the backyard of her mansion talking. Because of J.J’s injury during the altercation when a water department
...ts out to do, the art of rap and hip hop. That is the skill, talent, and ability that one must have in order to rhyme. Yet, the movie seems to not provide enough historical background or inform the audience of the cultural aspect of Hip Hop. Had the movie went deeper into the origins of Hip Hop then the audience would be able to get a fuller grasp about all the elements that are truly entwined in such a genre.
Priyanka Moodley, director of the new blockbuster film, “Warrior”, talks of her childhood inspiration and her thoughts behind the making of this new take on superheroes.
I chose to view the movie Lion, a movie based on the book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. This movie is about a five-year-old boy, Saroo, living in a poor, rural area in India. Saroo convinces his older brother Guddu, to let him tag along and find work in a nearby city. Saroo ends up trapped and alone in a decommissioned passenger train that takes him to Calcutta, over 1,000 miles away from his home.
As time goes on, history has a way of getting distorted from its most truthful form. Time causes people to drift away from accuracy and become more interested in what they want to remember. Hollywood has a reputation of creating films that cater more to the average viewer, rather than the history buff. Inglorious Basterds, by Quentin Taratino, take very liberal liberty with a history story, and creates a story that will sell to the crowd. This may seem dubious, but it is often not such a bad thing. Hollywood can take a story that may have one connotation, may it be serious or dreary, and turn it into something that evokes different emotions, will still addressing historical issues or topics. Taratino chooses to film a movie of this type because of the way he can portray a very serious topic in way that no one has before. He picks the topic of World War II and the Nazi’s, but does not take the generic portrayal of it. Many previous movies of this subject have been released either show heroic American that battle insurmountable odds, or forsaken Jews that fight threw the worst. While it may seem dark to make a movie that takes a serious subject so lightly, it is part of the process of history. As it becomes more and more distant in time, there is less and less truth and seriousness put into it. It is seen in many other Hollywood movies, such as The Patriot (2000), 300 (2007), Braveheart (1995), and Django Unchained (2012). The interesting thing in many of the movies like these, is the enemy is often portrayed in an extremely negative, almost so extreme, they could be compared to the Nazis. Hollywood uses that Nazis as the level setter for enemies, it does not get worse than them. It is interesting to see how Taratino portrays the ...
The movie “John Q” narrates a story of the financially constrained character John Quincy Archibald who ensures that his nine year old son at the brink of death, secures a heart transplant by any means possible. Throughout the movie, there is a compelling display of the love shared by a family and this is seen in the great lengths John went to save his son, however unlawful. The main characters are John, Michael and Denise Archibald, Rebecca Payne, Doctor Turner and Lt. Grimes.