Topic · across the network

Masculinity

The script men are handed, and what it costs to follow.

46: briefs
4: subjects
12:14: average
562 min: in total

Abstraction 407 Absurdism 137 Acoustics 220 Acting 65 Adaptation 372 Addiction 95 Adolescence 202 Advertising 77 Age of exploration 14 Ageing 113 Agriculture 100 Algorithms 114 Ambition 46 Anarchism 38 Ancient Egypt 17 Ancient Greece 38 Ancient Rome 30 Animals 172 Anthropology 23 Apartheid 12 Architecture 165 Archives 32 Argentina 10 Art Deco 26 Artificial intelligence 78 Astronomy 81 Attention 42 Australia 32 Automation 73 Avant-garde 164 Aviation 79 Banking 72 Banned works 40 Bauhaus 12 Beer 5 Behavioural economics 22 Berlin 16 Big tech 6 Biodiversity 136 Biography 86 Birds 41 Black holes 20 Blockchain 12 Boxing 14 Branding 77 Brazil 43 Bread 29 Britain 131 Brutalism 4 Bubbles 3 Buddhism 28 Byzantium 10 California 17 Canada 18 Capitalism 94 Cars 468 Celebrity 59 Censorship 110 Cheese 24 Chefs 9 Chemistry 104 Chess 2 Childhood 87 China 109 Chocolate 8 Christianity 49 Cinematography 343 Cities 90 Class 485 Climate change 107 Club culture 100 Cocktails 2 Coffee 11 Cognitive bias 14 Collecting 16 Colonialism 284 Colour 42 Comedy 89 Community 52 Complexity 21 Computing 309 Consciousness 16 Conservatism 14 Conspiracy theories 8 Cooking 178 Corruption 38 Cosmology 31 Cover versions 64 Craft 116 Crate digging 42 Creativity 8 Crime 234 Cryptocurrency 8 Cryptography 24 Cuba 10 Cybersecurity 30 Dada 12 Debt 38 Decision-making 28 Decolonisation 46 Deep time 80 Democracy 45 Denim 16 Deserts 45 Detroit 17 Dinosaurs 12 Directing 168 Disasters 59 Disease 109 DJ culture 89 Dreams 32 Drones 5 Drum machines 96 Dystopia 69 East Africa 28 Ecology 337 Economics 36 Editing 72 Education 92 Egypt 12 Electric vehicles 59 Emotion 22 Empire 92 Endurance 49 Energy 120 Engineering 541 Entropy 8 Epidemics 13 Equality 9 Espionage 31 Ethics 44 Evolution 174 Existentialism 106 Expertise 2 Exploration 49 Extinction 23 Failure 37 Family 240 Fandom 22 Fascism 45 Fashion 215 Fast fashion 12 Fear 34 Feminism 122 Fermentation 126 Film music 81 Fishing 12 Folklore 71 Food history 588 Football 16 Forests 31 Forgery 7 France 163 Fraud 15 Free will 13 Freedom 16 French literature 15 Friendship 24 Furniture 36 Gambling 14 Gender 63 Generations 28 Genetics 87 Geology 96 Germany 66 Globalisation 74 Gothic 32 Greece 5 Grief 126 Habits 6 Happiness 2 Hardware 709 Haute couture 22 Headphones 8 Hi-fi 12 Hinduism 12 Hoaxes 1 Human history 23 Human nature 41 Identity 138 Illustration 8 Impressionism 6 Improvisation 249 India 89 Indonesia 15 Industrial design 342 Inequality 13 Inflation 4 Information 34 Infrastructure 280 Insects 29 Intelligence 8 Interiors 31 Internet culture 88 Invention 329 Iran 41 Islam 40 Islands 17 Israel 9 Italy 52 Jamaica 10 Japan 114 Jewellery 5 Journalism 34 Judaism 13 Justice 42 Korea 41 Language 70 Law 90 Leadership 20 Learning 6 Liberalism 1 Libraries 6 Literary criticism 26 London 12 Loneliness 61 Los Angeles 62 Lost works 9 Love 67 Luxury 55 Machine learning 15 Management 10 Maps 5 Marketing 21 Markets 51 Mars 6 Marxism 26 Masculinity 46 Materials 138 Mathematics 79 Meaning 6 Medicine 124 Memory 82 Mental health 70 Mesopotamia 4 Mexico 38 Migration 95 Minimalism 68 Mining 30 Misinformation 9 Modernism 63 Money 24 Monopoly 32 Mortality 61 Motivation 2 Mountains 16 Museums 27 Mysticism 11 Mythology 60 Nationalism 40 Neuroscience 23 New York 36 Nigeria 7 Nihilism 10 Noise 31 Nostalgia 33 Nuclear 29 Nutrition 17 Oceans 48 Oil 42 Open source 45 Painting 18 Palaeontology 29 Parenting 14 Paris 18 Partition 6 Patents 71 Patronage 14 Perception 44 Personal style 27 Personality 2 Persuasion 8 Peru 10 Philosophy 77 Photography 37 Physics 206 Plants 26 Platforms 89 Podcasting 1 Poetry 25 Poland 17 Policing 34 Pop Art 16 Populism 2 Portraiture 6 Portugal 18 Postmodernism 23 Power 91 Prehistory 24 Preservation 28 Printmaking 21 Privacy 11 Probability 6 Productivity 1 Programming 54 Prohibition 1 Propaganda 35 Protest 75 Pseudoscience 17 Psychology 80 Publishing 22 Punishment 16 Quantum mechanics 44 Race 145 Radio 30 Railways 35 Rave 17 Realism 47 Record labels 19 Recording 810 Relativity 23 Religion 154 Resilience 15 Restaurants 30 Restoration 2 Retail 94 Revolution 58 Risk 18 Ritual 96 Robotics 26 Romance 96 Russia 58 Salt 9 Sampling 246 Satire 84 Scandinavia 28 Scientific method 186 Screenwriting 26 Sculpture 7 Secularism 2 Self-deception 14 Semiconductors 73 Sexuality 102 Ships 18 Silence 24 Silicon Valley 17 Slavery 35 Sleep 2 Smartphones 27 Sneakers 15 Social media 58 Socialism 9 Software 68 Songwriting 180 Sound design 332 Sound systems 20 South Africa 19 South East Asia 30 Space exploration 84 Spain 18 Special effects 41 Spices 62 Spirits 12 Sport 82 Startups 21 Statistics 10 Status 9 Stoicism 4 Storytelling 68 Strategy 70 Street food 99 Streetwear 16 Studio craft 508 Subcultures 59 Sugar 12 Supply chains 115 Surrealism 53 Surveillance 21 Sustainability 30 Synthesis 232 Tailoring 37 Taxation 14 Tea 24 Textiles 97 Thailand 11 The American Revolution 19 The American South 88 The Arab world 41 The Arctic 19 The Balkans 17 The Belle Epoque 13 The body 29 The brain 26 The Caribbean 28 The civil rights movement 62 The Cold War 160 The eighties 268 The Enlightenment 29 The financial crisis 19 The First World War 39 The food industry 157 The French Revolution 9 The Gilded Age 9 The Great Depression 18 The Holocaust 20 The Industrial Revolution 93 The internet 61 The interwar years 135 The Middle Ages 35 The Moon 4 The music business 169 The Netherlands 10 The nineties 26 The Olympics 10 The pandemic 13 The Reformation 1 The Renaissance 16 The Russian Revolution 19 The Second World War 102 The seventies 58 The sixties 28 The space race 5 The United States 19 The universe 7 The Victorian era 37 Therapy 20 Tokyo 11 Trade 48 Tragedy 22 Translation 5 Trauma 85 Travel 5 True crime 2 Turkey 18 Typography 54 Uniforms 23 Unions 8 Urban planning 66 Utilitarianism 1 Utopia 5 Vaccines 10 Vegetarianism 15 Venture capital 6 Video games 291 Vietnam 12 Vintage 65 Vinyl 6 Virtual reality 11 War 169 Watches 4 Water 11 Weather 29 West Africa 29 Wilderness 10 Wine 3 Work 22 Workwear 19 Worldbuilding 121

film.briefs Film

All 39 in film →

13:00

A Ship Bound for India

Ingmar Bergman · 1947

A Ship Bound for India (1947) is Ingmar Bergman’s third feature and first original screenplay, co-written with Martin Söderhjelm. Set in a Swedish port town, it follows Johannes, who returns after seven years at sea and dreams of his teenage years under his domineering, blind-bound father. Built around a single extended flashback, the film charts Johannes’s slow assertion of self amid familial cruelty, unrequited love, and physical stigma — all rendered with stark, unhurried realism and no stylistic flourish.

13:00

Amores perros

Alejandro González Iñárritu · 2000

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 2000 debut is a tripartite Mexican drama linked by a single car crash. Three stories — a teenager in dogfighting, a model recovering from injury, and a hitman estranged from his daughter — unfold across Mexico City’s social strata. Rodrigo Prieto’s unadorned cinematography and Iñárritu’s tight editing sustain a tone of controlled urgency. The film treats dogs not as symbols but as narrative counterpoints, and its themes — fractured masculinity, economic precarity, moral inertia — emerge through action, not exposition. It won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language and remains a touchstone of early-2000s arthouse cinema.

13:00

Baby Boy

John Singleton · 2001

John Singleton’s 2001 crime drama follows Joseph 'Jody' Summers, a 20-year-old South Central LA resident navigating fatherhood, fractured relationships, and the quiet pressure to grow up. Anchored by Tyrese Gibson’s layered performance and grounded in domestic realism, the film traces Jody’s incremental shift from evasion to accountability — not through grand gestures, but through repeated, often awkward choices. Its power lies in specificity, restraint, and its refusal to separate personal failure from structural constraint.

13:00

Beau Travail

Claire Denis · 1999

Claire Denis’s 1999 arthouse drama relocates Herman Melville’s Billy Budd to the French Foreign Legion in Djibouti, tracing Adjudant-Chef Galoup’s psychological unravelling as he fixates on a new recruit. Shot by Agnès Godard and edited by Nelly Quettier, it relies on physicality, repetition and withheld motivation to explore power, masculinity and colonial space — culminating in a solitary, ecstatic nightclub dance that resolves nothing but everything.

13:00

Bull Durham

Ron Shelton · 1988

Ron Shelton’s 1988 romantic comedy follows a veteran catcher, a rookie pitcher, and a baseball-obsessed teacher in the Durham Bulls minor-league team. Grounded in precise detail and unhurried pacing, it explores mentorship, obsolescence, and the rituals that give shape to transient lives — all without resorting to sentiment or spectacle.

13:00

Chasing Amy

Kevin Smith · 1997

Kevin Smith’s third feature follows comic artist Holden McNeil as he falls for lesbian writer Alyssa Jones, fracturing his lifelong friendship with Banky Edwards. Shot on a $250,000 budget in New York, the film uses talk, not spectacle, to explore jealousy, sexual history, and the limits of empathy. It won Independent Spirit Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Male (Jason Lee), and remains a defining — if contested — entry in 90s American indie cinema.

13:00

Decision at Sundown

Budd Boetticher · 1957

Decision at Sundown (1957), directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, follows a man seeking vengeance in a small Western town — only to have his certainty unravel over a single day. With Burnett Guffey’s stark cinematography and Charles Lang’s tightly coiled script, the film builds tension through dialogue and silence rather than action, culminating not in a showdown but in a quiet, bitter withdrawal. Part of the Boetticher–Scott cycle, it stands apart for its psychological austerity and moral ambiguity.

13:00

Drive, He Said

Jack Nicholson · 1971

Jack Nicholson’s 1971 directorial debut, adapted from Jeremy Larner’s novel, follows a disillusioned college basketball star navigating affairs, draft anxiety, campus unrest, and a volatile roommate. Shot on location at the University of Oregon, it features committed performances from William Tepper, Karen Black, and Bruce Dern, with cinematography by Bill Butler and a sparse score by David Shire. Though critically divided and commercially obscure, it remains a singular artefact of early-70s American countercinema—uneven, urgent, and uninterested in tidy answers.