Category: Film Review
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
CATEGORIES
February 27, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The soundtrack to The Hours by Philip Glass
The Hours, a 2002 film based on the novel by Michael Cunningham, weaves together the lives of three complicated women. First, Virginia Woolf is shown writing the manuscript for Mrs. Dalloway. Next, Laura Brown, a housewife in the 1950s,
January 16, 2026
Thanks to Chad Greene, former Fellow in Ideas, for today’s blog.
“It’s like I said: I love this film. I’ve seen it over one hundred times.” – Phil Connors, Groundhog Day
Winter break was about to end. Spring semester was about to start.
In the third or the fourth week of the semester, it would be Groundhog Day. In the ninth week of the semester,
» Read more about: ‘To Watch a Master at Work’: Learning from Teaching Groundhog Day »
November 21, 2025
Thanks to Rachel D. Perez, a 2025 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
Barbie: The Movie sparked a wide range of conversations—from gender roles and identity to free will and power. But what struck me most wasn’t the obvious. It was the subtle, yet profound, commentary on the branding of liberation. That scene in the Mattel boardroom, where executives discuss how to “brand” freedom through Barbie—along with Gloria’s projections onto Barbie and Barbie’s own misconceptions of freedom—left me thinking about how we,
» Read more about: Aspiring, Achieving, and Unraveling: The Branding of Liberation »
October 10, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s review.
While I’ve always loved Jane Austen’s characters, it was only after becoming an adult that I understood Austen’s complex social commentaries. I’ve read most of her works multiple times. For some reason, however, I never picked up Persuasion. So, in honor of Austen’s 250th birthday this year, I read that final novel. As usual, I identify with the strong female voice.
March 21, 2025
Thanks to Joy Reeves, a 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s blog.
“Fortune befriends the bold,” Virgil first wrote in Aeneid. But in a world where boldness, the self-serving counterpart of courage, is so quick to estrange and sour relationships—is fortune’s friendship enough? Todd Field’s 2022 film Tár masterfully addresses this question in a unique, provocative portrait of a lonely musical genius.
February 21, 2025
Thanks to Rachel D. Perez, a 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
Cinema, at its most incisive, does not merely tell stories—it unmasks the world. El hoyo (The Platform, 2019), directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, is one such film, a relentless interrogation of survival, power, and the human condition. Set within a vertical prison where food descends level by level, the film captures the raw brutality of artificial scarcity.
» Read more about: The Horror of Being: A Philosophical Review of El hoyo (The Platform) »
Thanks to Aaron Ducksworth, a 2023 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
November 10, 2023
Many movies of various genres have been made about the relationship between humans and anthropomorphic technology and the complicated relationship between them – think The Terminator franchise (1984-2019), I, Robot (2004), Virtuosity (1995), and The Matrix franchise (1999-2021). M3GAN is different! Not because it attempts to bridge the gap between horror and science fiction through an AI-based film,
» Read more about: FILM REVIEW: Philosophical Roots in Tech-Horror »
March 3, 2023
Thanks to Ally Zlatar, a 2023 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
Japanese death game films, also known as ‘Battle Royale’ films, typically depict a scenario where a group of individuals are forced to participate in a deadly game or competition, often with the goal of being the last survivor. Think of movies like Squid Game (2021) and Hunger Games (2012) but more grim.
» Read more about: The Art of Japanese Death Game Films Through Analysis of As The Gods Will »
March 11, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week marked the end of HMU’s Winter Film Series. I cannot express how much I love this series. If you were unable to join us, never fear, we will host another film series next winter. In the meantime, the following thoughts resulted from this wonderful discussion.
As usual, leader Gary Schoepfel opened discussion with some quotations focused on the idea of Truth.
» Read more about: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Film Discussion »
February 18, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
In Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 film Rashomon few facts can be established. As with most murder mysteries, the viewer sees a tangled web of evidence unfold before them. Unlike most murder mysteries, the audience begins to assume the role of judge and jury. Though we never receive an answer to the crime, the audience weighs details from each testimonial.