The award-winning short documentary features interviews with student athletes, coaches (including Stanford’s Tara Van Deveer), athletic directors, academics, and prominent professional athletes including Martina Navratilova and Zina Garrison-Jackson as they describe how the fear of being labeled a lesbian or “dyke” hinders the performance of all female athletes, and even prevents many women from participating in sports at all. The personal tales are contextualized within a larger narrative that illustrates how sexism and homophobia are wielded as political tools to retain male control over the multi-billion dollar women’s sports industry.
The biggest highlight of the film is easily the performance of Andrew Garfield. In his days since hanging up his Spiderman suit, Garfield has routinely churned out great performances, and Mainstream is no exception. He proves that he is willing to try anything and go anywhere in a character.
In Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (1986), we follow the love life of powerful female protagonist Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) and explore the relationship dynamics she has with her partners. She sees three men simultaneously: Greer Childs, (John Canada Terrell) Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee), and Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks). Though an 80’s film, She’s Gotta Have It is surprisingly progressive with its themes of female sexuality, although at some points in the film it is handled clumsily. Overall Nola is an incredibly compelling character especially for modern women, as we as a society acknowledge female sensuality more and more without the negative stigma.
This coming-of-age Mexican movie is about a group of school children who fulfill their dreams.
Looking back at the representation of different cultures in the magical world of Harry Potter
Leveraging the cockiness of many of his interview subjects, Theroux created an exposing documentary that shows just how scary these sections of the internet can be.
"The Old Guard" doesn't break ground, but it sure does bust boredom and fictional heads as an entertaining action romp on Netflix.
