Tag: privilege

February 1, 2011 / / Main Slate Archive

Monsters – 2010 – dir. Gareth Edwards

Monsters is the story of Sam (Whitney Able), the daughter of the wealthy man who has pressed Andrew (Scoot McNairy), a photographer, into escorting her back to the United States from Mexico. This Mexico, it needs to be said, is a Mexico whose northern half is “the Infected Zone,” where giant aliens have roamed since they came to Earth six years ago.

January 4, 2010 / / Main Slate Archive

The Philadelphia Story – 1940 – dir. George Cukor

There are few movie treasures as evergreen  as The Philadelphia Story, few movie stars as everlasting as the incomparable Katharine Hepburn. Labeled “box office poison” by Hollywood after making a string of nascent hits followed by a string of stinking bombs, Hepburn fled to her native East Coast to lick her wounds and find solace on the stage, namely in Phillip Barry’s play, “The Philadelphia Story” which became a lucky theater penny for everyone involved, Great Kate most of all.

Hepburn had the savvy to buy full film rights to the vehicle, provided she play the lead. She saw the play as her ticket-to-ride back to Planet Stardom, a kingdom she was to rule over for the rest of her life.