The 7 Best Movies to Buy or Stream This Week: ‘Spy,’ ‘Unexpected,’ ‘Cop Car’
September 30, 2015 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
Look, I don’t know what to tell you. We do our best to keep our weekly new release guide to a crisp five titles, and we’ve occasionally given one more a pass, but this week’s shelves are just too packed — we’ve got seven, and I make no apologies for it. So read on, to find recommendations of a big summer blockbuster, three ace indie flicks of the season, a terrific film geek documentary, and two modern classics getting the Criterion treatment.
ON DVD
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films: Director Mark Hartley has become our documentarian of choice for exploitation cinema; in films like Not Quite Hollywood and Machete Maidens Unleashed, he manages to balance affection for these low-budget programmers without deluding himself (or anyone else) as to what they really are. That’s a helpful approach when documenting the rise and fall of Yoram Globus and Manahem Golan, who created a factory for action schlock in the ‘80s, releasing Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson vehicles as quickly as they could make them. Hartley’s fast, funny, entertaining jaunt gathers various co-conspirators and innocent bystanders, who lay out exactly how the Cannon business model worked, and why it stopped working — and how it was repurposed into the way far bigger fish make movies today. (Includes 25 minutes of deleted scenes and, best of all, over 30 minutes of vintage Cannon trailers.)
ON BLU-RAY/DVD/NETFLIX
The Duke of Burgundy: Writer/director Peter Strickland hand-crafts a loving, sexy, fragrant (no, seriously, there’s a perfume credit) ode to the Euro-sex era, when artisans like Radley Metzger and Jess Franco were making softcore films that were loaded with eroticism, yet often short on explicit sex. Here, he delves into a sub-dom relationship between an older and younger woman, examining how a dynamic that initially seems to add spice ultimately becomes an obligation. It’s a bit of a miracle, really; he makes a film that takes these women and their relationship seriously, while still delivering the required doses of lingerie-clad goodness. (Includes audio commentary, interview, deleted scenes, short film, still gallery, music promo, and trailer. Also streaming on Netflix.)
ON BLU-RAY/DVD/VOD
Spy: The ads for the latest from director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy made it look like two hours of one joke: Wouldn’t Melissa McCarthy be a funny spy, haw haw, lookit her fall down! Feig thankfully thinks past the obvious joke, to the more interesting one: wouldn’t it be funny if Melissa McCarthy were a great spy? He ends up with an honest-to-goodness action/ comedy, and one where each element complements the other, rather than taking an either/or approach; he also sneaks in a fair amount of sly commentary on lookism and women in the workplace. And as a performer, McCarthy is clearly energized by his confidence; she takes over rooms, thinking on her feet and riffing her way out of tight situations, like Eddie Murphy in a Beverly Hills Cop movie. Maybe we know the next ‘80s franchise Feig and McCarthy should remake? (Includes unrated cut, deleted and alternate scenes, gag reel, featurettes, and commentary.)
Unexpected: A deceptively modest affair from writer/director Kris Swanberg, who tells the story of a 30-year-old white inner city teacher (Cobie Smulders) and the 17-year-old black student (Gail Bean) she ends up connected to via their unplanned pregnancies. You can see, from that description, the kind of white-savior land mines a picture like this could set off; Swanberg sidesteps them gingerly, and addresses the underlying issue itself, both in a head-on confrontation and in the way she juxtaposes their experiences. It’s a remarkable juggling act, lending equal weight to the thorny questions her older protagonist must weigh about staying at home vs. working motherhood, while also reminding us that for some mothers, even the question is a luxury.
Cop Car: Kevin Bacon moves effortlessly into grizzled character-actor mode with an effective turn in this tense little potboiler. He’s a dirty deputy whose squad car gets lifted while he’s doing dirt — by two preteen boys, no less, who see it as the ultimate good-time play-toy. But that good time comes to a quick end when the ruthless cop picks up their scent, and the cat-and-mouse game gets ugly fast. Co-writer/director Jon Watts not only has a way with atmosphere and suspense; he’s got a good ear for how these kids talk, and how they — and their antagonist — might actually react to this rather extraordinary situation. (Includes featurette.)
ON BLU-RAY
A Room with a View: Criterion’s really been going after the Daniel Day-Lewis back catalogue these days — they put out My Beautiful Laundrette back in July, and here’s a sparkling new edition of Merchant-Ivory’s sleeper hit from 1986. The future Oscar winner — wonderfully loathsome as a boater-wearing fancy lad who kisses our heroine like she’s his grandmother — wasn’t the only rising star in its impressive cast; Helena Bonham Carter shines in a rare, straight-up ingénue turn, while Julian Sands smolders impressively. Anglophiles will also drool over the pairing of Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in supporting roles, while Denholm Elliot shines as Sands’ kindhearted and socially awkward father. It’s got the period trappings and formal (read: slow-ish) style of your usual Merchant-Ivory production, but there’s plenty happening under the delicate surface, as Carter struggles with the eternal partner-choosing question of steadiness or passion. (Includes interviews, vintage television segment, and trailer.)
The Honeymoon Killers: Criterion’s also giving the Blu-ray upgrade to Leonard Kastle’s complex and fascinating 1969 true crime tale. Shot in tabloid-friendly black-and-white and framed like a lurid exploitation movie — which it was originally marketed as — this “incredibly shocking drama… based on newspaper accounts and court records” (per the opening crawl) crosses the real-life crime spree angle of the recent sensation Bonnie Clyde with a decidedly Cassavetes-influenced surplus of brooding and yelling. Tracking Martha, a shy, humorless nurse who’s “a little on the heavy side,” and her con-man boyfriend Ray, who marries rich women and takes them for their money, Kastle keys in on how jealousy fuels their sexual tension, and the way their lies (they masquerade as brother and sister) become an aphrodisiac. The flat, almost documentary-style approach to their crimes grows more intense in the closing stretch as Martha gets downright bloodthirsty, a lifetime of being ignored and underestimated finally boiling over. A tough, chilling, gnarly item. (Includes interviews, video essay, and trailer.)
Tags:
Share and Enjoy
Lingerie’s Quiet New Rebellion
September 29, 2015 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Comments Off
Feminism and lingerie have not always been the
best of bedfellows, but one label is seeking to let love bloom
between women and their intimates, discovers Divya Bala.
New Zealand’s Lonely Lingerie label was born
when designer Helene Morris and her contemporaries were unable to
find modern lingerie suited to their fashion-forward sensibilities.
“There was no lingerie label that spoke to us and our customer,”
said Morris, who co-founded the label’s parent ready-to-wear line,
Lonely, with her partner Steve Ferguson. “We didn’t want push-ups
or linings so our starting point was soft-cups – sometimes knowing
what you don’t want makes it really clear what you do. I think
coming from a fashion background, we’ve always done things our own
way and I think our customer can really see that.”
Though the collection doesn’t immediately shout feminism,
it is asserted quietly through careful design and technical
consideration; in the lack of heavy padding; in the ease of wide,
velveteen strapping – a signature for the brand; and the fine
artistry of French and Austrian lace. Offered in a rich,
custom-dyed palette of gilt nude, khaki, deep bronze and burnt red,
sizes run the scale from 30B to 36E.
There’s so much photoshopping and air-brushing
these days, it’s just so good to have imagery out there that is
real
It was in this spirit of inclusion that the Lonely Girls
Project was founded. As a creative endeavour executed via social
media to celebrate not only the brand’s muses but their dedicated
followers, wearers were encouraged to share photos of themselves in
the collections via the hashtag of #LonelyGirlsProject. The
resulting images are beautiful and diverse and a wholehearted
homage to women of all forms.
Powerful imagery has always been an important point of
difference for the brand, with the designers straying from
traditional hyper-sexualised lingerie campaigns, and led to its
creative collaboration with stylist Zara Mirkin, designer and art
director Mayan Toledano and Canadian photographer Petra Collins -
whose feminist-leaning subject matter has been appropriated
by American Apparel (the printed T-shirts she collaborated on,
depicting female genitalia and menstrual flow, predictably caused
an uproar and were even banned from Instagram for including female
pubic hair). “Petra’s awesome feminist work just clicked with us.
We gave the collective absolute creative freedom, which often makes
the best work,” Helene explains.
The campaign’s grainy, emotive imagery makes artful note
of stretchmarks, abdominal folds and intimate hair. “Some people
almost think of that as an unnatural thing to see, when it’s the
most natural thing – it’s actually our bodies!” exclaimed Helene.
“There’s so much photoshopping and air-brushing these days, it’s
just so good to have imagery out there that is real.”
It was this ethos of strength and authenticity that caught
the eye of Net-a-Porter’s lingerie buyer, Maria Williams. “Lonely
was set up with the aim to empower women – we don’t have to look a
certain way to feel beautiful. I love that message and I’m
a huge supporter of any initiative that makes
women feel good about themselves,” she explained. “I adore the
combination of graphic detailing with stretch fabrics and laces and
our customers love soft-cup and underwire bras. The Lonely lingerie
ethos of ‘No padding, no push-ups, no thongs’ resonates with our
customers globally.”
Would Morris call herself a feminist? “Yes. Hugely,”
Morris responds with certaintly. “I would definitely call myself a
feminist. It’s just equality, really. How could you not want that?
I think the position we are in, producing impactful imagery and
intimate clothing for women, we can question people, make them
think differently and make a difference – why would we
not?”
Lonely Lingerie is available at Lonelylabel.com.