Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Seven years after George Miller's previous film, Mad Max: Fury Road, he dives back into the scene with an equally daring movie. Although not nearly as action-packed, his newest film Three Thousand Years Of Longing challenges the typical format of a film, giving you a well-known plot in an unexpected way.

Based on a 1994 short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" by A. S. Byatt, the movie follows a lonely and bitter British woman who discovers a mysterious bottle while on a trip to Turkey. When cleaning said bottle, a djinn is unleashed and offers her three wishes. She is unable to think of anything until the djinn tells her his story.

Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba are two beloved actors who end up being even more interesting leads. Swinton and almost all of the crew are white and/or men. However, Elba and many of the side characters were of African descent, Middle Eastern descent, or were women. So, overall, I would consider this film a win for diverse casting as there was a wide variety of people.

The biggest issue, as you can guess, is the actual "djinn" part of the story. Although we're all used to the "genie with three wishes and three rules" trope, this film was actually a bit accurate in its mythology. Djinn (also known as Jinn or Genies) are described as beings of "smokeless flame" which is referenced often in the film as Elba is often smoking or breaking into ashy particles. They are able to transform into anything and often act like humans (i.e. getting hurt, having relations, and more). Djinn don't usually interfere with humanity, but instead live in societies of their own kind. This is also interestingly covered in the film as 3,000 years ago, Elba lived among djinn and half-djinn. These societies are also what he often says he wants to return to.

After the onslaught of comments on Thor: Love and Thunder, Marvel’s next film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has become the main focus of fans. Obviously, being made after the death of Chadwick Boseman will be a hard but exciting ride for this Marvel entry.

Ever since its predecessor was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, the question will be raised of whether or not this film will turn the same trick. It’s very rare for Marvel movies to pull a feat like this off, but it’s not impossible. If Martin Scorsese is right about Marvel films, they are not "cinema" and are only to be viewed as amusement park rides. However, it seems that Black Panther has elevated the genre to a higher echelon than that of children’s entertainment.

Nevertheless, can the Black Panther sequel garner the same success and score a nod for Best Picture?

Disclaimer: This article reflects the views of the author.

With COVID-19 cases on the decline and vaccinations on the rise, more and more movie theatres are reopening their doors. If you're anything like me, though, you're still working through the backlog of content on all those streaming services you subscribed to during quarantine. So far, HBO Max has impressed me the most with the size and caliber of its library. Before you cancel your subscription, check out these movies and shows that earn high marks for both quality and diversity.

This critically acclaimed Brazilian film offers an unflinching look at organized crime in the titular "city," a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. The vast majority of the cast were unknown prior to City of God. In fact, some of them (particularly the child actors) were residents of favelas: rural slums in Brazil that date back to the expulsion of formerly enslaved African people from major cities. Casting people from the setting that the film portrays results in a raw realism that may not have been achievable with professional actors. Douglas Silva stands out as Li'l Dice, a deeply disturbed and deeply disturbing child who grows up to be a sadistic drug lord. However, while City of God doesn't shy away from the horrors of organized crime, it also emphasizes the systemic failures that lead people to commit crimes in the first place.

The characters that made the cut are in essence — girls that kick butt, challenge stereotypes/gender norms, and are just in general, great characters to begin with. Who says a girl can’t have some spunk?

Matilda is a special girl with telepathic powers and a brilliant mind for her age. She frequently stands up to her ruthless principal and parents with both her smarts and psychic abilities.

Whenever it feels like the end of the world, the word “Thunderdome” ultimately pops up somewhere. It’s like Godwin’s Law of terrible circumstances. For example, in the week before social distancing, the bottled water section of my local Costco was a full-on Thunderdome of people pushing, shoving, and trying to outwit the “one case per person” rule.

Sure, Hunger Games also applies to these situations, but long before Katniss ever volunteered as Tribute, a guy named Mad Max got thrown into a cage match to fight on behalf of Tina Turner. And that’s not even the weirdest part of this film.

Directed by George Miller, who has written, directed, and produced all the films in the Mad Max franchise, as well as…Happy Feet and Happy Feet 2 (talk about range)… Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome takes us back to the 1980s era of post-nuclear apocalypses. Our hero, Max (Mel Gibson, back when he was a heartthrob), wanders into a place called Bartertown, where the citizens and traders dress like someone who has never heard of BDSM decided to design haute couture for that community. Bartertown is run by a woman called Aunty (Tina Turner), whose power (both literal and figurative) is threatened by a guy called Master and his thug Blaster. Through some convoluted red herring plot points, Max winds up fighting Blaster in the eponymous Thunderdome on behalf of Aunty so that Master will STFU and let her run Bartertown. Aunty kicks off “another episode of Thunderdome!” by ziplining in on a throne-like a badass, and then Mel Gibson fights for his life in an extremely well-shot action sequence. Aunty turns against Max and he’s thrown out into the desert wasteland. Just as he’s about to die, he’s found by the leader of a tribe of feral children, which makes nothing but sense. Any parent stuck doing distance learning with their kids right now will recognize the filthy, half-dressed kids as our collective worst nightmare slowly coming true.

The half-pints think Max is there to save them, but he loudly and grumpily assures them he’s not. Somehow, a group of the children, led by Max, wind up at Bartertown, then have to escape Bartertown, and then the kids head back to what’s left of Sydney and Max is…wandering the desert again and the audience is left wondering what the hell just happened for the last 106 minutes.

So basically, this movie is named after one small part of the entire story, and “Thunderdome” as a cultural touchstone refers to that one short scene.