What Is Sex? (2024)

Netflix's Afterlife of the Party might fall into the rom-com genre, but it's much more about grief, strong female friendships, and platonic love than it is about romance.

I understood post-memory as passing down stories and images of one’s experiences that are not your own. For decades, rape has been depicted in cinema through a third-person perspective, leaving the viewer to observe rape; not to experience it. 

The genres of science fiction and fantasy are not exclusively masculine territory. Over the last few decades, female directors have brought to the screen some of the most visually stunning, intellectually daring, and deeply moving works of speculative fiction. From big Hollywood productions like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel to independent low-budget films, women filmmakers are making a name for themselves around the world.

The differences in these films could not be more blatant, and yet Gus Van Sant has found a way to portray the same messages and use the same techniques in each.

Wild Child tells the story of a wealthy, spoiled teenage girl named Poppy Moore who lives in Malibu, California, who attends a boarding school in England. This film shows us how Poppy is first labeled as a fish out of water compared to her boarding school classmates, as she is a wild child, but eventually earns her roommates' friendships and respect.

Disney has a glaring and, up until recently, unaddressed issue that spans nearly its entire lifetime - an absence of diversity.