Stream Queen: Essential Picks for Black History Month
The year is already sailing by. I was celebrating Christmas, then I blinked, and now it’s February. I couldn’t be happier, though, as this is one of my favorite months! Valentine’s Day turns everything gooey next week, and we’re at peak Oscar season. Perhaps most importantly, though, February offers us an opportunity to celebrate one of America’s richest histories and asks us to learn more about a marginalized culture. Though...
Stream Queen: Feed Your Inner Freak With these Campy Picks
What’s the connecting thread between old jukebox music videos and Carly Rae Jepsen? What ties Swan Lake to My Strange Addiction? One word: camp. I’m talking about the particular aesthetic that marries high-brow and low-brow, producing art too grave to be serious. The stuff upon which Pink Flamingos filmmaker John Waters built his cringe-inducing empire. The sensational equivalent of “so-bad-it’s-good.” Susan Sontag popularized “camp”...
Stream Queen: Looking to Defrost This January?
I just returned from a holiday vacation in the Sunshine State, where I grew up among palm trees, dolphins, and hair-perming humidity. Now, as I chisel my car with all the ferocity of a hunter-gatherer, my fingers and toes quietly preparing to fall off of my body despite my layered outerwear, I can’t help but long for that unrelentingly muggy paradise. I’m sure a few of you can sympathize, as we all here in Western Mass lotion up our...
Stream Queen: Classic Movies for the Apocalypse
As the embers of 2017 dwindle, many are reflecting on what great media the year has had to offer. Was A Ghost Story actually a good movie? Did we all sleep on Top of the Lake: China Girl? What will win Best Picture, Get Out or Lady Bird? It’s a time to fondly recall all the great things we’ve watched this year. But if, like us here at the Valley Advocate, you’re hunkering down for the nuclear winter, you might be making a different...
Stream Queen: Distract Your Family with These Jolly Seasonal Picks
If you’ve turned on a radio recently or gone into any store, you may have noticed that the holidays are approaching — some faster than others, as Hanukkah began this week. For most of us, that means that it’s time to prepare for family gatherings, gift exchanges, and overeating. We had our warm-up during Thanksgiving, but the winter holidays are when capitalism goes full bonkers, constantly reminding us that this is a time to be with...
Stream Queen: The Film and TV Industry is a Steaming Morass of Iniquity, but I’m Still Thankful
Dearest streamers, as the year draws to a close and we start to gather with our families (chosen or otherwise), it’s customary to take stock of how our lives have changed in the past 365 days. To say that the entertainment industry and all its iterations have changed in even the past month would be an understatement. Reverberations of female resistance can be felt in all areas of the entertainment world, which for so long has silenced...
Stream Queen: Hair-Raising True Crime Media for Your Inner Detective
We all have a bit of morbid curiosity in us. Some more than others — according to a 2010 study published in Social Psychology and Personality Science, women are more drawn to true crime literature than men. Maybe that’s because we like to know as much as possible about misogynistic serial killers so that we can feel less out of control in this guy-kill-girl world. Maybe it’s because sexism is fake and women can like whatever they...
This Halloween, Let These Psychological Horror Movies Brainwash You
The leaves are changing, there’s a chill in the air, and every cafe has restocked their pumpkin spice syrup. Fall is finally here, and if you’re interested in movies, that means two things: nearby Oscar season means there are finally some good films in theatres again, and streaming sites have restocked their horror fodder in honor of Halloween. Netflix has especially stepped up their game this October, with new originals like David...
Stream Queen: Shudder Offers Thrills and Chills for Cheap
If you’re anything like me, you’ve shuffled through the Horror section on Netflix, glassy-eyed yet hopeful that somehow, while you weren’t looking, they added something worth watching. It feels like you’ve seen everything in this section worth seeing, and next month they’ll just take away something good and replace it with Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood. You barely even check Hulu anymore, because you know the selection is even more...
Stream Queen: Shows and Films to Lose Your Sanity To
For all the amazing potential of life, sometimes things just suck. In times of confusion and desolation, we often turn to art. Maybe we want to use fictional problems to understand our own real ones, or maybe we just want to turn something on as a distraction. Hard times can be isolating, but the internet provides an entire world of distraction and catharsis and advice that are all just clicks away. Lots of creators have taken...
Stream Queen: All Breasts Are the Best
Some documentaries exist to tackle big-picture issues, while others hone in on life’s finer details. The Breast Archives, by local director Meagan Murphy, attempts both tasks at once, as the film delves into the world of feminist body politics vis-a-vis the breasts. The Breast Archives is truly a unique documentary, making it worth seeing for its message alone. Though this film has some growing to do before it really rends the fabric...
Craving Cool Independent Films/TV Online? Check Out Seed & Spark
In this ever-expanding world of streaming platforms, it can be difficult to look outside the Big Three: Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Viewers mainly feel constrained to these options because of their connections with major networks, their buying power for big-name film distribution, and their own original productions. However, if you’ve ever tried to find a truly original, interesting independent film on one of these sites, you’ve...
Stream Queen: Movies And Shows The Critics Got Wrong
Since its inception in the late 19th century, film has evolved from a seemingly trivial medium into one of the most wide-reaching and popular industries. Film criticism has grown right along with it, as academic and journalistic reviewers endlessly argue over film’s true purpose. Though film and TV criticism depends entirely on the biases and opinions of the critic herself, we all value critics’ opinions over our own. They know what...
StreamQueen: Indie Films Coming Off the Festival Circuit You’ve Gotta See
Though digital media has forever changed the face of filmmaking, there’s still one key way independent filmmakers can premiere their work: by entering it into the festival circuit. Each year many films, spanning all lengths and genres, debut to those lucky minority able to attend the most established festivals. Independent film festivals offer the world’s first look at the year’s best films. Moonlight first screened at the Telluride...
Stream Queen: Video Soundtrack Of Your Summer
When Queen released their music video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” back in the ‘70s, it’s doubtful they thought the medium would ever become as quintessential as it has today. In this millennium of viral content and streaming video, music videos have become an artist’s best tool when packaging a song. Though these shorts used to mostly depict artists’ performances, music and video have since coalesced into one discrete, enchanting medium....
Stream Queen: Butch Lesbians, Streaming, and Straight Clubs
Filmmaker Michelle Ehlen practically invented multitasking. Her IMdB profile stretches on with credits that range from editing and production to cinematography and soundtrack. Though she’s had a hand in other LGBT films, like the popular Eating Out series, Ehlen is best known for her work as actor/director/writer/editor/producer on her lesbian film trilogy, comprised of Butch Jamie, Heterosexual Jill, and S&M Sally. You might...
Stream Queen: The ‘F’ Word
Feminism is a word that has puzzled/infuriated/strengthened so many people in this country. Debates over the goals of feminism rage on, while popular media outlets inject the word into their headlines for maximum clicks. Are selfies feminist? Is makeup feminist? Am I anti-feminist for making fun of Ann Coulter’s reanimated corpse? In my opinion, “feminist” is no longer a particularly useful adjective, unless it precedes words like...
Stream Queen: Move over, ‘The Breakfast Club’ Titles for all of life’s graduations (w/vid)
Graduation season is upon us, as high schoolers gear up for the next vein of adulthood and university students steel themselves for the real world, whatever that is. Fresh from a weekend of back-to-back college graduations myself, I can’t help but contemplate the great universal human experience that is the major life transition. We all know what it’s like to start a new chapter, whatever that may entail, and just how...
Stream Queen: LGBT Movies That Aren’t Super Depressing
It’s nearly time to kick off Pride season with Noho Pride (see the Advocate‘s Guide to Pride), where LGBT Valley citizens will be able to celebrate our identities and our history as we process down Main Street in a sea of rainbow. The parade, which will take place Saturday, May 6, starting at noon, assembles floats, marching bands, school GSAs, and joyous community members for a march to the Three County Fairgrounds. There,...
Stream Queen: Blazing flicks to watch while high
It’s 4/20, and whether you consider today a national holiday or just a chance to gather some friends and smoke, you’ll probably end up watching something. Thankfully, now that it’s no longer the ’70s, stoners can open Netflix or YouTube and watch something unique and outlandish, instead of just staring at a psychedelic Grateful Dead poster. Some high wisdom is obvious. For instance, if you’ve eaten an edible and you’re wondering...
Stream Queen: From Low-Budget Dreams to Indie Esteem
In our world of studio filmmaking driven by franchises and sequels, creators looking to develop original ideas are often restricted to independent production. While indie filmmaking means working on a shoestring budget, it also often means the cast and crew are creating a passion project, working to make something cinephiles have never seen before. Despite what Netflix tells you, “indie” is less a genre and more a means of film...
Stream Queen: Women’s Work, rediscovering female directors
Whether or not Western Mass has gotten the meteorological memo, we’ve officially sprung forward. That means it’s time to emerge from hibernation, put on our rubber gloves, and get ready for some spring cleaning. In my case, I’ve decided to dust off some groundbreaking works by female directors, in honor of Women’s History Month. The cinematic history of female directors is woefully short, and very much still in progress. It took the...
Stream Queen: Personal Documentary (The Real Alternative Facts)
There are a lot of zippy phrases floating around right now that blur the concept of journalistic integrity — “fake news,” “alternative facts,” “White House press secretary Sean Spicer” — but in the film world, objectivity and performance coalesce into a kind of honestly biased duet. Despite its journalistic nature, even documentary filmmaking demands a viewpoint, which the director must decide to tease out through interviews and the...
Stream Queen: Animation Staycation
As far as media genres go, animation is one that rarely gets its due. Cartoons enchant us as children, but are then left in the past, their artistry and potential forgotten. But whether on your laptop or your Saturday morning television screen, good animation can make us laugh, cry, or learn the entire plot of Hamlet at a young age (here’s lookin’ at you, Simba). Animation studios can define the genre for their respective generations....
A Video Bouquet for Valentine’s Day
Recommendations for a romantic night in Whether or not you’re settling down with a significant other on Valentine’s Day, you’ll probably end up watching something. That’s due less to our media-ridden culture and more to the fact that this year’s holiday happens on the sexiest day of the week: Tuesday. Luckily for you, there’s more than enough movies, TV shows, and various other media out there that span the spectrum of romance. Want...
Stream Queen: From Golden Statues to Small Screens
There are few mediums more powerful than the moving image. Movies, TV shows, and even music videos can transport viewers to another time, place, or lifetime. I love cinema but, with so few compelling female/LGBT characters (my favorite kinds) in mainstream titles, I have become something of an expert at ferreting out niche media. In the age of warring streaming services, that means I’ve consumed vast portions of the Internet. Those of...