Category Archives: society

Vice. Trumpesque Hollywood for a Disenchanted Era

Posted on 23/01/2019 by fesmontemaggi

Vice is a missed opportunity. A more coherent, subtle, and ironical effort could have presented Dick Cheney as a key actor in ushering in the descent into the current paranoia, conspiracy theories, and anti-establishment populism. Dick Cheney was Secretary of … Continue reading →

Posted in America, belief, democracy, disenchantment, Hyperreality, identity politics, knowledge/epistemology, morality, politics, postmodernism, power, Sixties Counterculture, society, Truth, Vice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Originals – Bourdieu & Hollywood’s tack

Posted on 26/10/2015 by fesmontemaggi

The Originals is a most unoriginal show trying to bank on the image of seduction and transgression of vampires whilst being utterly conventional. The Originals are the ‘original vampires’ from whom all other vampires have descended. They come from medieval … Continue reading →

Posted in body, Bourdieu, cultural capital, fantasy/supernatural, habitus, personhood, reality, social conventions, society, The Originals | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Calvary – Justice and Compassion

Posted on 10/09/2015 by fesmontemaggi

A good priest is threatened to be killed by someone who has suffered abuse from priests when he was a child. Father James (Brendan Gleeson) sees through the shit of people with irony and the occasional confrontation; yet he is … Continue reading →

Posted in Calvary, Catholic Church, Christianity, compassion, emotions, Enlightenment, faith, good & evil, institutions, justice, love, morality, personhood, power, reason/rationality, religion, sexuality, society | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi/Witching & Bitching: masculinity and misogyny

Posted on 14/06/2015 by fesmontemaggi

I loved the first 20 minutes of this film. I loved its ironic and absurd humour, yet it turned quickly into a fudge with misogynistic undertones. The film puts gender relations at its core. Everything hinges on it: the characters, … Continue reading →

Posted in fairytales, fantasy/supernatural, femininity, gender, horror, masculinity, power, ritual, sexuality, social conventions, society, witchcraft, Witching & Bitching/Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Stand by Me & Animal House – Liminality & Communitas

Posted on 30/04/2015 by fesmontemaggi

There are two films that best capture Victor Turner’s ‘liminality’ and ‘communitas’: Stand by Me and Animal House. They are not about tribes in remote parts of the world. They are about young kids growing up or refusing to grow … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal House, personhood, ritual, society, Stand by Me, Victor Turner | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dracula (1992) – Sex, Misogyny, and Christianity

Posted on 14/04/2015 by fesmontemaggi

Dracula begins with an overload of cheap special effects, where images are superimposed, one fades into the other, and a battle is represented through Chinese shadows. One can’t help wonder whether the director is some overenthusiastic film school’s graduate who’s … Continue reading →

Posted in body, Christianity, Dracula (1992), fantasy/supernatural, femininity, gender, love, myth, purity, religion, romanticism, sexuality, society, vampires | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Trick ‘r Treat (part 2): Sacrifice, Rite of Passage, and ‘Othering’

Posted on 30/03/2015 by fesmontemaggi

The School Bus Massacre – Sacrifice and ‘Othering’  A group of children go from door to door trick ‘r treating but also collect jack-o’-lanterns. Alpha-girl Macy (Britt McKillip) tells the other kids of the ‘school bus massacre’. Thirty years prior, … Continue reading →

Posted in 'othering', entertainment, fairytales, fantasy/supernatural, good & evil, Halloween, horror, Mary Douglas, myth, purity, ritual, sacrifice, society, tradition, Trick 'r Treat, vampires, Van Gennep, Victor Turner | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Cabin in the Woods – Sacrifice, Scientific Modernity, and the Entertainment Society

Posted on 28/03/2015 by fesmontemaggi

The films starts off with the all too common horror trope of college students setting off for a weekend in a cabin in the woods. The students seem at first corny stereotypes from a B-movie, but they are quickly shown to be … Continue reading →

Posted in America, Cabin in the Woods, entertainment, fantasy/supernatural, femininity, gender, horror, humanity, myth, purity, sacrifice, science, society, technology, Victor Turner | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Housebound – an ethnography of everyday misfits

Posted on 15/11/2014 by fesmontemaggi

Gerard Johnstone‘s Housebound is simply brilliant. It has action, horror and irony. Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) confined to house arrest. She hates being back at home with her mother and behaves like an unruly teenager. At the first whiff of a ghost, … Continue reading →

Posted in ethnography, fantasy/supernatural, horror, Housebound, institutions, society | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment