All posts tagged: reception

Female-Driven Films: Reception and Impact of ROUGH NIGHT

Published by Sheridan Nunnery

The movie Rough Night follows the reunion of five friends who get together to have a bachelorette party. Jess (Scarlett Johansson) is getting married, and a fun night away in Miami with her friends is exactly what she needs to take her focus off of a stressful state senate campaign. But the celebration is cut short when a freak accident ends with the entertainer the women hired died on their floor; by their hands. To say that they have a rough night is a pretty large understatement. Not only does this movie feature a mainly female-cast, but it is also the directorial debut of Lucia Aniello a female filmmaker, settling this film in the category of female-driven films due to its involvement of women in the production of the movie. This film is female-driven too because every decision these women in the film drives the plot forward. Do they hide the body, or call the police? Women have a central role both on and off-screen, making this a female-driven film. Without these women, this movie …

Sheridan Nunnery is a rising junior and a Cinema Studies major with a specialization in filmmaking.

Real Monsters and Real Disgust: Comparing Reception of FREAKS and FRANKENSTEIN

Published by Nicole Diroff

INTRODUCTION Scholarship surrounding Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932) mostly includes discussion about public perception of disability. This discussion is certainly warranted, but I am hesitant to place sole responsibility for the film’s poor reception on said perception. Indeed, to place such emphasis on viewer attitudes about disability is to ignore systematic exploitation and “othering” of disabled people on behalf of MGM and the film itself. Therefore, with this essay I aim to provide a more complete historical analysis. I cannot claim to provide a complete historical analysis, because it is probably contentious to claim whether any historical analysis is fully complete. Nonetheless, I hope this essay suffices to make the point that discussing the 1930s attitude about disability is not enough when doing this reception study. I make this point by referencing a few different historical elements. Firstly, I raise James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) as a foil case because both films were characterized as “gruesome” the PCA files, and because they both have similar themes about ‘who the real monster is.’ Secondly, I compare the discussions …

Nicole Diroff is a double-major in Cinema Studies and Philosophy, with a minor in Creative Writing. She’s also the editor-in-chief of this edition of Screen Culture, and hopes one day to become a full-fledged professor.