Mel Campbell | Author
Mel Campbell
Reviews
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25.01.2022 I love Karolina Zebrowska's salty YouTube videos about costume history. It's magnificent to see her taking on something I also ranted about in my book 'Out of Shape': the Hollywood myth that historical corsets were patriarchal prisons designed to crush women's bodies and spirits. Basically, these actors did not grow up wearing corsets on a daily basis. Their costumes were probably not well fitted and 'broken down' to the same degree as real corsets in comfortable everyday wear. And their films had lazy plotlines that used tightlacing as a visual shorthand for oppression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB4FVq8MltI
21.01.2022 Robert Connolly's big-screen adaptation of Jane Harper's blockbuster crime novel 'The Dry', starring Eric Bana, is in preview this weekend ahead of its official release on 1 January. I really enjoyed the novel and I think Bana's pretty good in this (even though he's a decade older than the character on the page) but I was a little disappointed by the film maybe a TV miniseries would have been a better format? Here's my review at Screenhub:
12.01.2022 At Screenhub I review 'Baby Done', which I found refreshing and relatable. It's very funny, but it also has a certain quiet rage at low social expectations. Matthew 'Yes, Neville Longbottom Glowed Up Beautifully' Lewis is adorkable but Rose Matafeo is magnificent as a pregnant woman who fights it all the way to the delivery room. Maybe it's the dry, laconic quality of New Zealand comedy, its embrace of dorkiness and everyday absurdity, that makes me like it so much better th...an Australian comedy, which always seems to be trying too hard to please. I don't think you can accuse a film like 'Baby Done' of being tryhard, but at the same time it's not too cool for school either. Anyway I really liked it. About five people see the stuff on this page so I always feel freer to be discursive here than anywhere else thank u and bless https://www.screenhub.com.au//film-review-baby-done-is-del
08.01.2022 I really enjoyed Brazen Hussies its archival depth makes it both intimate and dynamic. My favourite bits were the 'consciousness-raising' scenes, where you can powerfully feel a political purpose emerging. Also, I felt like the film was smart to acknowledge the fraught divisions among feminists. Larissa Behrendt consulted on this film and as a result it has some harsh truths from Blak feminists that white feminism still struggles with today. Its relationship with lesbian r...adical feminism is more subtly handled. Lesbians found themselves sidelined within some early feminist movements, but these women were pivotal to women's liberation in the 1970s. However, many radical feminist philosophies developed during that time are now problematically bioessentialist and transphobic. The film has some equivocal moments in the way interviewees talk about the women-only retreat Amazon Acres, and it shows its hand at the very end when it emphatically depicts trans women's rightful place within feminism. This doco has already played a few festivals but it'll be in general release from 5 November. https://www.screenhub.com.au//film-review-brazen-hussies-c
02.01.2022 At Screenhub I review 'Bump' on STAN Australia: with 30 pacy minutes in each of its 10 episodes, this new Australian dramedy about adolescence, adulthood and parenthood never wears out its welcome and would make an enjoyable weekend binge. https://www.screenhub.com.au//tv-review-bump-is-australias
