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The art of the trailer: Genre tropes

The genre of a film determines a lot, from typical plot points and character arcs to visual style. It’s no surprise then that trailers follow a similar pattern. It might sound obvious that the trailers for comedies and thrillers follow ...

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Gimmicks and sitcoms: A sustainable set-up?

Watching – and thoroughly enjoying –  The Grinder has prompted me to think about sitcoms and their use of ‘gimmicks’ as both a set-up for an entire series as well as for singular jokes. The Grinder is built around the gimmick of lampooning tropes ...

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The Guest: Be careful who you let in

You would be excused for having blinked and missed The Guest during its cinema release. The closest place I could have seen the film was either in London or Milton Keynes during its very brief UK cinema run. It had fairly ...

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Nostalgic Impulse: The Terminator

An inexperienced young filmmaker had a big idea – an idea that had come to him in a nightmare during a bout of food poisoning. That idea – of a killing machine coming from the future to assassinate him – ...

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