Author: Olga Tchepikova-Treon

The Thin Line Between Chaotic and Lawful: Litigious Grief in Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter

  By
A medium-long shot of Tom McCamus as Sam Burnell sitting on top of a picnic bench alongside Sarah Polley as his daughter Nicole Burnell. Sam has one leg propped up on the bench of the table, his hands resting in his lap and holding a half-eaten ice cream. He's dressed in forest green coveralls and wearing a brown leather toolbelt, staring up and to the left with an inscrutable expression on his face, his shoulder-length dark hair blowing in the wind. Nicole has both legs propped up on the same bench and is dressed in beige, white, and pink clothing, including a patterned sweater with rabbits strewn across the chest. She is mid-bite of her cone and looks amused. The brightly lit background indicates they are at a carnival at dusk.

| Chris Polley | I barely understood what a lawyer was as a teen in the 90s. I especially never thought I’d end up marrying one. The major reference points I had were all from TV and movies: I loyally watched The Practice even as ABC kept messing with its time slot… Continue reading

A Subtle Kind of Jackhammer: Moulin Rouge!, Pop Art, and the Cinema of Baz Luhrmann

  By
A man and woman smile at each other under a red umbrella in a rainstorm.

| Dan McCabe | Baz Luhrmann isn’t your typical “great” filmmaker. His style hits audiences like a jackhammer. Moulin Rouge! (2001) is technically a period drama, but you could be forgiven for thinking the period was the 1990s and not the 1890s… Continue reading

Courtesan Glamour: Watching Moulin Rouge! in 7th grade

  By
Nicole Kidman, as Satine, a light-skinned woman with loose ginger hair, is gazing at the camera with a look of dangerous seduction on her face.

|Olga Tchepikova-Treon| I saw the “Lady Marmalade” music video before I saw Moulin Rouge!. Performed by a hot quintet of pop-singing ladies (Missy Elliot, who I admired for smooth dance moves; Christina Aguilera, entering her exciting dirty grrrl phase; P!nk, a tomboy role model;… Continue reading

A Stanley Kubrick Christmas: Intense Paranoia and Masquerade Orgies

  By
Masked group at the orgy staring ominously.

|Dan Howard| There’s certainly something about the holiday season that strikes a chord with filmmakers. Whether it’s Todd Hayne’s Carol, Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, or Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, any film using Christmas as the backdrop for a non-holiday story sets… Continue reading

A Woman’s Place in Television, Ambition and Murder: Gus Van Sant’s To Die For

  By
Nicole Kidman with strawberry blonde hair, purple eyeshadow, dark pink lipstick, dark pink jacket, gold earrings, staring into the camera in midspeech with white background. White text, "You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV," fills bottom of image.

|Penny Folger| To Die For plays at the Trylon Cinema from Friday, January 10th through Sunday, January 12th. Visit trylon.org for tickets and more information. Gus Van Sant’s To Die For, released in 1995, showcases a bristlingly ambitious woman named Suzanne Stone, played by Nicole Kidman, who will stop at nothing… Continue reading

Ghosts in Spain: The Complicated History of Amenábar’s Breakout Hit

  By
Nicole Kidman cries while looking through a metal gate in the fog front of a large mansion.

|Malcolm Cooke| The Others plays at the Trylon Cinema from Friday, January 10th through Sunday, January 12th. Visit trylon.org for tickets and more information. Director Alejandro Amenábar wrote the music for his third film, The Others (2001), just like he had for all of his previous projects. He was admittedly still an… Continue reading

Columns on Kidman: Revisiting To Die For 30 Years Later

  By
A black and white newspaper photo of Suzanne, portrayed by Nicole Kidman, happily reporting the weather for a television news broadcast.

|Ben Jarman & Carey Nadeau| To Die For plays at the Trylon Cinema from Friday, January 10th through Sunday, January 12th. Visit trylon.org for tickets and more information. The teens in this film are not realistic. That’s the only negative thing I thought about Gus Van Sant’s To Die For, but I… Continue reading