News

Game of Thrones andHouse of the Dragon have helped popularize a dark fantasy aesthetic characterized by menace-looking warriors in glinting armor, twisted-looking castles, and the return of eerie old magic. To make up for the absence of these TV shows, it's not uncommon for fantasy fans to look into the past for unique fantasy movies, seemingly forgotten in time. After all, the fantasy films from the '80s and '90s directly inspired many elements of modern fantasy movies and TV shows.

Classics like Conan, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and Willow continue to influence popular culture through their bygone style. However, there is still a wealth of other fantasy movies that remain hidden gems. This retro or dark fantasy deserves revisiting by any fan of the genre. It melds the impressive effects of horror and sci-fi with the glamor, adventure and theatricality of historical fiction dramas to create worlds, heroes...

Death of a Unicorn is an upcoming A24 horror comedy and there have been some exciting updates about the film. Joining the increasingly unmatchable stable of A24 horror movies like Hereditary, The Witch, and Pearl, while also dabbling in A24 style comedy like Zola, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and The Disaster Artist, Death of a Unicorn looks to bridge two genres the studio excels at. Unrelated to Peter Dickinson's 1984 novel of the same name, Death of a Unicorn is shaping up to be a hit for horror and comedy fans.

Since 2023, news has been slowly rolling out about the movie with the unusual and exciting name. So far, it looks like A24 may have once again produced something wildly unique and enjoyable with some of the biggest stars working. Despite the interest in the film, and A24's trailer, which suggests the movie is far along in post-production,...

Let's be real: Dragons are awesome! Since ancient Mesopotamians whispered about Tiamat and Marduk's red serpent servant, the legend of dragons thrived. For generations, these scaly creatures have induced fear and delight. Tolkien drew from these myths to bring the creature into the modern fantasy canon, with his childhood love of Fafnir, Siegfried's legendary foe, transformed into the prideful Smaug. Now the fantasy genre is almost synonymous with dragons. Of course, the '70s introduction of Dungeons & Dragons helped, too! Today, there's a resurgence of love for these big fellas -- starring in movies like "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Raya and the Last Dragon."

Putting dragons on the big screen is a huge technical challenge. Not every movie's budget can commit to that feat. For decades, animation came to the rescue -- pitching price-conscious versions to younger and more accepting viewers. But after the release of "Jurassic Park,...

★★☆☆☆The BFI's admirable commitment to preserving classic items from the British film and television industry's past brings this DVD release of The Changes, a TV serial from 1975. Based on a series of books by Peter Dickinson, adapted by Anna Home and directed by John Prowse, The Changes explores a vision of 1970s Britain shorn of modern conveniences. After a sudden strange noise causes everyone to smash up all technology, society collapses to the point that...well, actually, outside of the emptying of the cities, not all that much seems different. Given the premise of the series you might be surprised by how often the protagonist finds old men in flat caps drinking pints of ale in the sunshine outside pubs.

Moments of sartorial significance, and that glimmer of recognition that we feel upon seeing an onscreen outfit worn more than once are found throughout Smooth Talk, Joyce Chopra’s underseen 1986 adaptation of a Joyce Carol Oates short story. The film is rife with all the monotony of life and charming ensembles we expect of a teenage girl in the summer, yet it simultaneously offers complexity and creepiness. Laura Dern plays Connie, an ingénue spending her days as an “unfinished girl, waiting for completion of some sort” (Quart 74). In her essay, “Smoothing Out the Rough Spots: The Film Adaptation of ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’” Rebecca Sumner discusses some of the costumes in Smooth Talk (as designed by Carol Oditz) in the midst of a larger argument of how well the film functions as an adaptation. She writes that Connie’s wardrobe is “not sufficiently versatile to communicate...

This all probably started in 2005, when Animal Planet aired a special entitled “Dragon’s World: A Fantasy Made Real”. Unlike most of their regular programs, which seemed to mainly be focused on various law enforcement professionals specializing in animal control problems, “Dragon’s World” took the idea of the dragon as a real, scientifically plausible creature and made a documentary complete with a mummified dragon corpse being unearthed in Romania.

Neil Gaiman served as a consultant on the program. When it aired, there was a mix of CGI animation, “experts” being interviewed, and footage of the dragon being excavated and preserved. Gaiman himself did a couple of blog posts about the work and it was a fun little exercise in idle speculation. It wasn’t anything spectacularly new, after all, similar ground had been covered in the excellent book “Flight of Dragons” by Peter Dickinson and Wayne Anderson concerning scientifically...

We all know his Adagio for Strings (from Platoon, if nowhere else), but little else Samuel Barber wrote. Leon McCawley urges a revival of a neglected 20th-century great

This year has seen a glut of important musical anniversaries. We've had Chopin aplenty, plus Schumann and Mahler to boot. Samuel Barber's centenary (1910-1981) has also fallen during this eventful season, but I guess we're out of candles and there's no more cake. Why has this wonderful composer somehow missed the cut?

At the tender age of nine, Barber left this touching note for his mother:

"Dear Mother: I have written this to tell you my worrying secret. Now don't cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I shall have to tell it now without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlete. I was meant to be a composer,...