Spring Breakers opens with what it says on the tins: harems of Californian college students in luminous bikinis and knotted t-shirts party along the beach. Men pour beer into the open mouths of bare-breasted women who lie at their feet. Electro music pumps. Girls shake their gluteal folds in the camera’s face. Everything is brightly-coloured … Continue reading
Mhysa – Season 3, Episode 10 “Some people grow to love their chains.” After some glorious hours of television viewing across all three seasons, Game of Thrones has marched its way to the top of the hill with an audience of 13.6 million. Its character-driven plot means every episode is an opportunity for richer character … Continue reading
“The Rains of Castamere” – Season 3, Episode 9 “[The Red Wedding is] the moment that makes Ned’s death look like just a drop in the bucket, and the clearest evidence of George R.R. Martin’s wanton disregard for his own characters and their happiness.” ~ Cultural Learnings After coasting along on a relentless plateau of … Continue reading
“Second Sons” – Season 3, Episode 8 “[Your beauty] meant more to me than it did to them.” In the world of Westeros and Essos, beauty can function as both a key to freedom and a form of imprisonment. For Daenerys, her beauty has been the key to freedom – she broke free for the … Continue reading
“The Bear and the Maiden Fair” – Season 3, Episode 7 Reaching this late stage in the game, we viewers were only to expect the slow-burning to continue as this episode moves the pieces to the appropriate places on the board, or at least reiterates the spatial configuration of the characters you need to know. … Continue reading
“The Climb” – Season 3, Episode 6 Having now swiftly passed the half-way mark of season 3, plotlines are now in motion, moving in various directions across the map, all except for Theon that is. Theon isn’t moving anywhere in fact – tied up in a dungeon, in an unknown place and by an unknown … Continue reading
“Kissed by Fire” – Season 3, Episode 5 I’m not usually one for endings – with books, and more so with films and television, a bad ending can really ruin something that was otherwise pretty good. Final scenes tend to fall into the extremes of complete resolutions of balance, moral messages, and all things roses … Continue reading
“And Now His Watch Is Ended” – Season 3, Episode 4 If there was ever an empowered woman in Game of Thrones thus far, Daenerys has really taken gold this episode. To the absolute dismay of her two knights, Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan, and the non-book reading audience, Dany had agreed to exchange one … Continue reading
“Walk of Punishment” – Season 3, Episode 3 Abandoning their old fondness for sexpositions, the Game of Thrones writers seem to have taken a new route toward the comic exposition in this episode. Lord Hoster Tully is given ship burial, but his son, Edmure, after three attempts, is unable to set alight to the boat with … Continue reading
“Dark Wings, Dark Words” – Season 3, Episode 2 As all of the characters continue to traipse through their various wildernesses in what can only be said to be a second instalment of a lengthy set-up to the third season, there seems to be an emerging pattern of increasingly empowered female characters. Power relations are … Continue reading
Stranger on Film 