Story, Style, and Sexuality: Critical Frameworks in Contemporary Film

This course analyzes ten commercial narrative movies that had major critical and cultural impacts during the last five years. Lectures will explain cinema-specific crafts related to images, editing, and sound, applying these concepts to illuminate artistic subtleties in each film. Alongside other interpretive approaches specific to each case study, every lecture will explore how these movies tested old ideas about gender and sexuality or innovated new ones. Half the films originated as pre-existing short stories, plays, memoirs, or essays; in those instances, we will discuss how not just the scripts but the filmmaking nuances transform the literary material. Finally, each lecture will end by drawing connections to other recent movies—mostly of lower profile, but all equally accomplished - that relate in meaningful ways to the ideas, stories, and styles of the assigned texts. Link to Course Reader: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kfRmexAT1usDS40tXB5hCQE-bOiuyew4/view?ts=5bfdae28 Hard copies of this reader will be on sale for $10.00 at the first class session. Link to class handouts and lecture slides: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10gRsp9dJm-wTae4HTPnZqSIxFeONFAmt