Revenge of the Studios: Hollywood Strikes Back

Guest speaker: film critic Adam Nayman   

In this follow-up to Adam’s winter 2020 series on New Hollywood and the American cinema of the 1970s, this 6-part series with film clips examines the 1980s, Hollywood’s decade of sequelization. The franchise mentality inaugurated by Star Wars was met with skirmishes of resistance on the fringes of the industry – by independents and visionaries working in the shadow of blockbuster takeover. Films examined will include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to The Future, Aliens, They Live and Field of Dreams.

Weekly Lecture Topics
1: The Empire Strikes Back – sequels, serials and stagnation
2: Tech Noir – the impact of special effects on American moviemaking in the 1980s
3:  Toy Stories – E.T., Gremlins, Mac and Me and the evolution of Hollywood product placement
4:  An Actor in the White House – Back to the Future, They Live and other Reagan-era allegories
5:  Fight the Power – independent voices from Penelope Spheeris to Spike Lee
6: The End is the Beginning – the transition into the 1990s

Adam Nayman is a well-respected film critic, author and lecturer. He has been a member of the Toronto Film Critics Association since 2002, and he has programmed and hosted films for the Toronto International Film Festival’s Reel Talk series. Adam regularly writes about film for publications such as The Globe and Mail, The Ringer, Sight and Sound and Reverse Shot, and his reviews have been published in The Walrus, The Village Voice and Film Comment. He is a contributing editor for Cinema Scope and POV, has reviewed books for Quill and Quire, and was a staff writer for season one of The Vice Guide to Film. He has also written three books: It Doesn’t Suck: Showgirls; Confusion and Carnage: Ben Wheatley; and The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together. Adam regularly lectures about film at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University. At the Miles Nadal JCC, he has programmed and hosted films for the Toronto Jewish Film Society, and has taught the very popular series “In Nayman’s Terms”, “That’s Entertainment! The Evolution of the Hollywood Musical”, “The New Hollywood of the 60s & 70s: Geniuses in the System”, and most recently, the virtual lectures “Films Shot & Set in Toronto”.