Mao Jiao Li
Bio
When you think, act like a wise man; but when you speak, act like a common man.
Stories (52/0)
Cinema still needs to make space for queer women
henever minority voices in the field of film criticism or even the general movie-going public talk about expanding the canon, or even going as far as destroying it, we’re arguing for our place at the table. It is not breaking news to say that the film industry has been dominated by white men for over 100 years at this point.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
The bold pioneers of cinema who paved the way
Cleo Madison’s name is little known now, catchy though it is, but in 1916 she was a popular screen actress making the transition to writer and director. Asked years later if she had been afraid to direct, she reportedly said, “Why should I be? I had seen men with less brains than I had getting away with it.”
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
Is it time the all-white period drama was made extinct?
eriod dramas have served as the backbone of British cinema and television, ever since the first films began production at the tail end of the 19th Century. But more often than not, these productions have had one major similarity: an all-white cast.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
Robert Pattinson: ‘Twilight was an arthouse movie!’
The Lighthouse is a delirious, black-and-white horror drama about two 19th-Century lighthouse-keepers fending off seagulls, mermaids and their own rum-fuelled madness on a tiny island off the coast of New England. To put it another way, it is a typical Robert Pattinson film. Just over a decade ago, the British actor shot to superstardom by playing a sparkly-skinned, lantern-jawed vampire in the Twilight series. Before that, he set young hearts a-flutter as Hufflepuff hunk Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
A new frontier in Bollywood
Change is afoot in Bollywood. Early this year, Indian screens were hit by trailers of the latest blockbuster, ripe with lavish costumes, songs and dances, and a love story. Matinee idol Ayushmann Khurrana stars in it. And yet, the new film Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (Be Extra Cautious of Marriage) is different – Khurrana plays a man in love with another man.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
False Positive and the chilling dramas exploring infertility
If birth is the most elemental aspect of life, what happens when fertility and motherhood are threatened? In the new psychological horror film False Positive, Lucy, a woman who has struggled to become pregnant, suspects she is being gaslit by her controlling husband and their charming fertility doctor. Ilana Glazer, its star and co-writer, described it in a perfectly distilled phrase. "It's about the patriarchy as expressed through medicine," she said.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
Do stars remember their past?
Stars in their "young" years, from newborn to adolescent, pose a major scientific challenge. Because of their complexity, modeling the star formation process in theoretical models is extremely challenging. Observing a star's oscillations is one of the few ways to find out more about a star's age, structure, or formation.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Futurism
Why Asian superhero Shang-Chi could truly change the world
hen, in 2018, Black Panther hit cinemas, it grossed $1bn worldwide and brought Marvel Studios its first ever Oscars. But its impact was about more than money and awards – with a predominantly black cast and crew, led by star Chadwick Boseman and director Ryan Coogler, it sent a message to Hollywood that there was a huge thirst for black stories that was still not being properly catered for.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
Netflix's You and how 'nice guys' became the real villains
cliché about villains propagated by film and TV is that they’re physically conspicuous, and so anyone with eyes can see they are a threat. That's why, from Freddy Kreuger in Nightmare on Elm Street to Rami Malek’s character Lyutsifer Safin in the new Bond film No Time To Die, villainy has been visually coded via the extremely prejudicial use of facial disfigurements.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in FYI
A Brief History of Black Americans from Slavery to Emancipation
The History of the African Slave Trade by Country When it comes to the history of black Americans, most people know that they were trafficked to America by European colonists hundreds of years ago. Europeans were not the first culprits in the African slave trade. Slavery has long existed among African tribes, just as it has existed among Europeans for thousands of years, and its history can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. As early as the 1st century in the park, the book of African history called "The Return of the Red Sea" contains accounts of slaves from the Horn of Africa (today's Somalia).
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in FYI
House of Gucci and the trouble with extreme actor makeovers
Ridley Scott's lurid new true-crime drama, House of Gucci, chronicles the betrayal and murder that tore the Gucci fashion brand apart at the seams in the 1980s and 1990s. The film's social-climbing anti-heroine is Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), who pushes her diffident husband, Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), to take over the family business, even if that means ousting Maurizio's uncle Aldo (Al Pacino) and his cousin Paolo (Jared Leto). Gaga is sure to be Oscar-nominated for her fiery performance. Leto's performance, though, is another matter. His woozy clowning, his sing-song mewling, and his ripe Italian accent belong in a sketch set in a pizza parlour on an old episode of The Muppet Show. But, in his defence, his acting is no more eccentric than his hair and make-up.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
The underrated genius of David Bowie's acting
ne of the many pioneering elements of David Bowie's career was his commitment to the visual. For Bowie, sound and vision went hand in hand. His many star personas – Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Major Tom – each came with their own fully realised aesthetic worlds, costumes, make-up and artwork that were as instantly recognisable as the music itself. Long before the advent of MTV, Bowie was making short films to promote his music, and he would go on to push the boundaries of the form with iconic videos such as Ashes to Ashes. Indeed, Bowie's final gift to the world came in filmic form – the video for his last single Lazarus was released on 7 January 2016, just three days before his death.
By Mao Jiao Li8 months ago in Geeks
