Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Movies

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    J. K. needs to stop Harry Potter queerbaiting

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 21 March 2019
    11 Comments

    Rowling still wants it both ways — the kudos for representation that she never explicitly included, with the benefit of no actual risk. Back then, having an openly gay character would have been taking a stand. But now, in 2019, a straight author winking at queerness is just not good enough.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The trouble with JK Rowling

    • Eleanor Harrison-Dengate
    • 26 November 2018
    5 Comments

    This is the first time so many characters with major screen time have been from diverse backgrounds in a Harry Potter film. But it’s not enough to just plonk them into an already bursting script.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    In defense of Halloween

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 31 October 2018
    12 Comments

    As a kind of culture-blending holiday, there's room for many types of Halloween. The fact it has endured for so long and in so many forms is testament to how much we desire connection: to our past, to the dead, to one another. I don't think that's such a bad thing to celebrate.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    A journey with urban refugees in Bangkok

    • Michael Kelly
    • 27 August 2018
    3 Comments

    Some days I feel like a people trafficker, though I'm not making a zack out of the trafficking. Other days I see myself as a latter-day Oskar Schindler. But mostly I just feel trapped along with the 1000 refugees and asylum seekers I'm doing my not-very-successful best to get the hell out of an open prison called Bangkok.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Nowhere to hide thanks to wi-fi in the sky

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 29 June 2018
    2 Comments

    Who wants wi-fi up in the air anyway? Until the recent arrival of in-flight internet connectivity, flights presented one with a rare opportunity to escape real life and forget it ever existed. This, after all, is the reward for a long, uncomfortable flight: precious time. At least, it used to be.

    READ MORE
  • ECONOMICS

    The big, bad business of America's war industry

    • David James
    • 20 April 2018
    6 Comments

    As the West flirts with starting World War III in Syria, it is worth examining some of the financial and business dynamics behind the US 'military industrial complex'. War may not be good business, but it is big business. And in contrast to Russia and China, the industry in the US is heavily privatised, including the use of mercenaries.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Another dog day for cultural appropriation

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 11 April 2018
    1 Comment

    The commentary around the film's appropriation of Japanese culture has been sustained and substantial. At least these allusions are for the most part detailed and respectful; that the hero is named after a defunct American video game company is less palatable. Trickier still are the creative decisions related to language.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    New ways of gauging films' feminist cred

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 22 March 2018
    1 Comment

    The Bechdel test, which deems there must be two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than men, has become shorthand for gauging gender imbalance in films. But it isn't always a good test. If you take the rules literally, Suicide Squad, which is aggressively misogynistic, passes on a technicality.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Finding freedom after fleeing North Korea

    • Eunhee Park
    • 21 March 2018
    5 Comments

    Freedom is a common word that is often used in our daily lives, but it is not easy to define. Freedom for me means being able to express myself and be outspoken. It means thinking for myself and being free to be curious. Finally it means preserving important economic, social, and cultural rights. I am a North Korean refugee who escaped in 2012 for this freedom.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    A vision of a gun-free America

    • Zac Davis
    • 06 March 2018
    2 Comments

    A man took his own life Saturday, shooting himself outside the White House. The scene was cleared, the victim identified, and everyone moved on. In America, a 26-year-old firing multiple rounds into himself right outside the presidential residence is not an A1 story. It may not spark conversation or policy change - but it should.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Sympathetic men need to check their privilege

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 01 March 2018
    7 Comments

    While the female-led outcry continues, those men benefitting from the imbalance ought to question their privilege. Instead of carrying sympathetic white roses into the Oscars, they should use the opportunity to question their own complicity in accepting roles in movies where women are inadequately represented.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Mental illness does not equal violence

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 22 February 2018
    11 Comments

    Many films and TV shows use mental illness to explain violent behaviour. The stereotype is so ingrained that after the recent Florida shooting, Trump said he would deal with 'the difficult issue of mental health', but didn't mention guns once. In reality, people with mental illness are more likely to be the victims than perpetrators of violence.

    READ MORE