The pleasures of watching an "off-beat" film: The case of Being John Malkovich

Martin Barker

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Hollywood in the 1990s was a complicated place, and source of films. As well as the tent-pole summer and Christmas blockbusters, and the array of genre or mixed-genre films, through its finance houses and distribution channels also came an important sequence of 'independent' films -- films often characterised by twisted narratives of various kinds. Building in different ways on the achievements of Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994), all the following (although not all might count as 'independents') were significant success stories: The Usual Suspects (1995), The Sixth Sense (1999), American Beauty (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Blair Witch Project (1999), Memento (2000), Vanilla Sky (2001), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalScope
    Volume11
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2008

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