Latest news with #BlueSteel
Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
City-break-worthy ensembles — an elevated take on old favourites
And just like that, Carrie and co are back on our screens, serving a fresh dose of sartorial inspiration. Brimming with city-break-worthy ensembles, this next style chapter offers an elevated take on old favourites. Whether you're a tailoring-loving Miranda or prefer to bend the rules with a dash of Carrie's panache, being stylish in the city has never looked so fabulous. Get The Look: Fashion Style And The City from M&S. Bring the sartorial heat to your city escape with a smoking hot co-ord, as seen at M&S. Blue Steel: Fashion Shirt Dress with Bow Detail, €238, Kate Cooper available nationwide. Steal Charlotte's signature prim style with a classic shirt dress, €238, Kate Cooper. #ieloves: Candy Crush: Fashion Bon Bon Platform Neon Pink with Red Stud,€280, Nicki Hoyne. A night on the town deserves a showstopping, Carrie-coded platform heel, €280, Nicki Hoyne. Cloud Cover: Fashion Freya Cloud Bag, €160, Somas. Soft as a fluffy cloud this supple leather bag is effortlessly city chic, €160, Sómas. Pocket Friendly: Ring Me: Fashion Green Onyx Maldives Ring, €69, Juvi. An enviable statement ring instantly elevates any outfit, €69, Juvi. Power Balance: Fashion Printed Tailored Trousers, €38, Michelle Keegan x Very. Effortless yet tailored, these wide-leg trousers perfectly capture Miranda's new era vibe, €38, Michelle Keegan X Very. Flower Show: Fashion Floral midi skirt, €49.99, Mango. Made for city breaks, the trusty midi skirt will keep you in style from day to night, €49.99, Mango. City Lights: Fashion Oversized Sequin Blazer, €69.95, Zara. Sparkle under the bright city lights in summer sequins, €69.95, Zara. Zebra Crossing: Fashion Puff sleeved zebra print blouse, €34.99, H&M. Keep to the wild side of the Upper East Side in this puff sleeved blouse, €34.99, H&M. Top Hat: Fashion Knit hat, €29.99, Parfois. And just like Carrie, top off your city style with a fedora-style hat, €29.99, Parfois. Read More Desire Lines: A capsule collection, body makeup, and a Spice Girl gúna
The Guardian
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Woman in uniform: Jamie Lee Curtis plays a troubled, morally murky cop in Blue Steel
When Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break was released in 1991, it marked the arrival of a radical new voice in action cinema. Here was an adrenalised film about cops and robbers, centred on the intensely emotional bond between two men on either side of the law, that so happened to be directed by a woman. 'It's not just about breaking gender roles,' the film-maker said in a 2009 interview. 'It's to explore and push the medium.' Throughout her career, Bigelow has routinely operated in genres primarily occupied by men – perhaps most famously with her Iraq war film The Hurt Locker, which made her the first woman to win a directing Oscar. But just a few years before the macho melodrama of Point Break, Bigelow had already taken a scalpel to the action film in her wonderfully sleazy Blue Steel, a deceptively subversive, female-fronted thriller that investigates the thorny conflation of power and gender in the male-dominated cop genre. Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Megan Turner, a rookie NYPD officer fresh out of the academy who miraculously thwarts an armed robbery on her first night out on patrol. When the suspect's weapon mysteriously vanishes from the crime scene, however, she's shunned by her colleagues and suspended by the force for allegedly killing an unarmed man. To make matters worse, one of the hostages she rescues that evening, Wall Street money man Eugene (a perfectly slimy Ron Silver), becomes dangerously obsessed with his saviour and starts to commit his own murders, with Megan soon trapped in a cat-and-mouse game against a psychotic killer. Against the grimy surfaces of New York City, the film tracks the frustrating ways that Megan's efforts to apprehend Eugene are hindered by the very same systems she's taken an oath to uphold and protect. Her male superiors and fellow officers dismiss her claims of both personal abuse and professional innocence at every turn. It's not until she takes advantage of the liberties afforded her by her badge – much like Dirty Harry did back in 1971 – that Megan wrests justice into her own hands. The film's gaze is thrillingly romantic: its opening credits, for example, are overlaid on top of slow-motion footage of a service revolver being cleaned and reloaded, ingeniously shot with all the hazy festishisation of a softcore porno that transforms the barrel of a gun into a phallic object. The same principle applies to the many scenes of Megan donning her deep-blue police attire; Bigelow's camera leers at every buckle fastened, every button done, as if its subject were a masked vigilante triumphantly suiting up for a night of extrajudicial vengeance. All these images form Blue Steel's central concern: the disruption of a woman dressed in a uniform that so frequently signifies masculine authority. When we first meet Megan's parents, it's clear that her brutish father, Frank (Phillip Bosco), detests the profession his daughter has chosen. But what initially seems like a baby boomer-era misalignment of gender expectations soon reveals itself to be the result of something much more sinister, as an abusive misogynist now realises there's one fewer person in his life he can victimise. The point is only further accentuated by the savvy casting of Curtis: cinema's most recognisable final girl once again forced to rely on no one but herself in order to survive. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning What could have easily been a simplistic 'girls can be cops too' tale is instead complicated by Bigelow's clever manipulation of genre cliches. In its blaring climax, her protagonist engages in a reckless and chaotic gunfight across crowded streets and subway platforms, bending the troubling politics of state-sanctioned power to her own personal interests regardless of how morally justified they may be. 'Why would you want to become a cop?' one of Megan's male partners bluntly asks her early in the film. 'You're a good looking woman – beautiful, in fact.' She turns to him and drily responds. 'I wanted to shoot people.' Blue Steel is streaming on Stan in Australia, Starz in the US, and available to rent in the UK. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
