This thesis project attempts to frame Joe Swanberg’s Mumblecore films as a means of cauterizing the universal wounds of the anxiety and trauma experienced by subjects of Generation Y. Mirroring the ...cinematic movement of post-World War II Italian Neorealism, Swanberg’s productions create what I refer to as “Neo-Neorealism,” which forces audiences of an ascending generation to confront our own traumas. Such traumas contribute to generational insecurities, economic precarity, and an elusive identity. All of which contribute to the proverbial question of “who am I? and/or “who am I supposed to be?” In a cinematic world of mimetic, escapist fantasy and contagious hyperreality, Swanberg holds fast to the cinematic realism and the authenticity of his often de-glamourized characters. His films attempt to negotiate the complexities that accompany a sought understanding of our own mortality. The four cinematic texts that I have chosen to discuss the concept of “stuckness” in Swanberg’s work are Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), Silver Bullets (2011), Drinking Buddies (2013), and Digging for Fire (2015). Among the vast filmography of Swanberg, I have selected four films made between 2007 and 2015 because they exemplify the complexities of life by way of generational perceptions of anxiety, desire, and de-glamourization. Additionally, these films promote a commentary of the navigation of societal pressures and relational dysfunction as they contribute to the pressure points of modernity’s infrastructure. Such pressure points include relational anxieties by way of the plot points of life narrative as reciprocity, the expectation of reproduction, and maintenance of profitability. Often, I return to the questions, “why Swanberg?” and “why now?” To which my response is his cinematic texts present an informative and cathartic viewing experience, rendering him a voice for an often voiceless generation.
...one could argue that films produced outside the Hollywood mainstream, particularly in international cinema, have never been bound by "rules" of structure and often consist of in- tuitive, organic ...plotting. Federico Fellini's work strays so far from logical progression at times that the expression "like a Fellini film" has long been used as a veritable adjective to describe chaotic, absurdist events.
Cloward asserts that modern conspiracy paranoia in the American society all started on November 22, 1963, with the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas. Here, he explores the society's ...fascination about the conspiracy theory on Kennedy's assassination and how Dallas manages its image after the assassination. He says the expansion of conspiracy narrative allows Dallas to escape the national reproach. While the city have mercifully outgrown the tag "City of Hate," it has not been able to take control of the legacy of hosting the murder of a popular president.
This essay examines the work of contemporary film director Richard Linklater in the light of the concept of pastiche. After beginning with a brief overview of recent scholarship on pastiche, both in ...culture as a whole and in cinema, it argues that it is a structuring mode in three Linklater films: Dazed and Confused (1993), Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). The purpose of the analysis is to assess both the films’ intellectual meaning and, specifically, the emotional resonance of the different varieties of pastiche they offer, in order to explore the affective possibilities associated with the mode. In this way, not only is it suggested that an understanding of the aesthetics of pastiche illuminates Linklater's films; conversely, examination of the rich and often innovatively conceived pastiche aesthetic that informs the director's work can be seen to open up understanding of the value and potentialities of pastiche itself.
... in scene 13, we see a simple painted style with subdued outlines as two women talk about aging. ... in some places the rotoscoping presents a "realistic" view of the world, without adding any ...extra iconography, whereas in others it adds surreal cartoons that illustrate ideas being discussed or stories being told by characters in the scene.
