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IT (Chapter One and Two) (2017, 2019)

I saw IT: Chapter One (2017), when it first came out, however, I hadn’t seen the second part. For the first movie, I would give it a score of four out of five, and I would rate the second movie three out of five. Overall, the series was enjoyable, but as my ratings show, I prefer the first installment over the second. Part of me wonders if it was because we were experiencing the world of Derry through the perspective of children instead of adults. While watching IT: Chapter Two (2019), the emotions I primarily felt were disgust and unease. I found myself looking away from the screen during certain graphic scenes, but it never made me feel scared in the way the first movie did. Those moments when the kids walked into dark basements or shadowy rooms had me tensed up, even though I knew what was going to happen. Like I said earlier this semester, The Shining was my first Stephen King book, and I do not think that IT will be the second. I’ve heard some things about the novel that make me uncomfortable, so I think I’ll stick to the movies.

IT: Chapter One (2017) follows a group of middle school students during the Summer of 1989. They live in Derry, Maine, a town where children and adults go missing in twenty-seven-year cycles. Led by Bill Denbrough, whose brother Georgie was eaten by IT in the form of Pennywise the Clown, the group of outcasts work together to defeat the evil threatening their home. In the end, they manage to seriously injure IT, but IT is not dead. IT: Chapter Two (2019) picks up twenty-seven years later. The kids are now adults, and all have moved out of Derry except for Mike. When people start disappearing again, Mike calls the team to return to their hometown. His friends answer the call, however, most of them have forgotten their time living in Derry. This movie focuses more on the group member’s traumas. To kill IT, which we learn is an entity from outer space, the gang must retrieve artifacts from their childhoods and burn them in IT’s nest. At the end of the movie, the group is down two members, but they manage to defeat IT by making IT feel small.

One thing that I enjoyed about IT: Chapter One (2017) in particular, was how involved IT was across the whole movie. Although IT was present in part two, it did not feel like a looming specter the same way it did in the first movie. I could predict when IT would show up fairly easily, whereas those appearances are less predictable and more prevalent in the first movie. Part of this was because I didn’t expect IT to show up as often as it did in Chapter One. The film barely gave us room to breathe, which ups the ante and feeds into the audience’s response. In part two, there was too much breathing room, so the film felt like it moved slower. My favorite parts of the second movie were the flashbacks into the past, which gave us more context about why each of the characters is the way they are now as adults. While these threads were hinted at during the first movie, it was nice to see them play out to give us a rounded perspective.

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First Blood by David Morrell

While I’ve heard the name “Rambo” in pop-culture references before, this was my first time interacting with the character. I have to say, I understand why First Blood by David Morrell was a big hit. The stakes were high, the characters were complex, and the writing style was so compelling. Multiple moments disturbed me, but I could not put the book down because I had to see where it was going. I would give this book a four out of five stars. I found the last hundred pages to be a little confusing, even if it was on purpose. However, the way Morrell established Rambo and Teasle as foils was expertly done, and I enjoyed the exploration of how the U.S. discards veterans after they return from war.

            This novel follows Vietnam War veteran John Rambo, who is on the run following a deadly encounter with a group of cops from Madison, Kentucky. The conflict between Chief Wilfred Teasle and Rambo begins when Teasle drives Rambo to the city limits and tells him to get lost (Morrell 7). Rambo has been hitchhiking his way through Kentucky and is used to being told to leave, but Madison seems to be his final straw. Eventually, Teasle arrests Rambo and drives him into a PTSD flashback by ignoring multiple signs that Rambo is becoming agitated (Morrell 52-53). In a fit of panic, Rambo kills a couple of people on the force and steals a motorcycle to escape (Morrell 55). Over several days, Teasle and Rambo develop an intense obsession with one another that ultimately results in the deaths of many people, including themselves.

            As far as thriller writing goes, I was locked in. Morrell’s visceral descriptions were incredible and hard to read. I felt sick to my stomach a couple of times, particularly when Rambo was sick in the caves before and after he hid in the mud. Language choice and sentence structure are vital to building tension. I found this easy to read, but it was enjoyable because it flowed well. Morell knows how to get you on the edge of your seat without a soundtrack. I think another aspect of what makes his writing so engaging is how deep we are in Teasle’s and Rambo’s heads. Their thoughts blend in with the regular prose, and their mental states affect how the prose is relayed. When Rambo is more of a sound mind at the beginning of the novel, everything makes sense and reads logically. However, at the end of the novel time and events flow together, mixed up. Teasle’s narration follows this same pattern. This choice is kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s a very clever way to relay the mental collapse of both characters without directly telling us. Furthermore, it also brings readers into the moment, because we can only see what these delirious people see. However, it can also negatively affect the reading experience by making it hard to follow what happens. Even though I could understand and appreciate why Morrell wrote the last few sections that way as a writer, it did make it less enjoyable for me as a reader.

            The message of how veterans are treated impacted me personally. My dad is in the military and suffers from PTSD, but he is not really able to get the treatment he requires because of the stigma around mental health. To me, it’s crazy that we can send people to these places where they get traumatized and then offer them no support to handle that trauma when they get back. Many of them are unable to return to work and end up becoming homeless as a result. While I don’t necessarily back the US’s military-industrial complex, I do think that soldiers deserve extensive social benefits to aid in their rehabilitation to society. If Teasle had paid attention to Rambo’s reactions instead of clouding his judgment with his assumptions about who Rambo is because he’s on the streets, nobody would’ve lost their lives (which I know is the whole point of the book, but damn dude police need de-escalation training).

Works Cited

Morrell, David. First Blood. Grand Central Publishing, 2017.

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

            The first time I watched anything related to The Lord of the Rings was last year when my friend made me watch the extended editions of the first three movies, so I was glad that I had some context while coming into The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). However, I have not read any of the books, which I think made it harder to watch this movie in particular. I would rate this movie a two out of five, which is the lowest rating I’ve given in class so far. One of the most important things when consuming media is the ability to keep my focus. I’ve watched some really poorly made movies, but they kept my attention throughout the whole thing, something I cannot say for this movie. I sat and watched this whole thing and I cannot remember half of what happened because it dragged on for so long. Connecting to our discussion this week on the dangers of alienating potential fans through adaptation, I do think this movie kind of does this. If I’d read The Hobbit before, I would’ve been more invested, but since I had no context of where this was going, it was very hard to pay attention.

            This movie follows Bilbo Baggins sixty years before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Despite his adventure-filled youth, Bilbo mellowed into adulthood and thought he was content to live the life of a simple hobbit. However, this illusion is shattered when Gandalf the Grey invites a bunch of dwarves to his house for dinner in an attempt to convince Bilbo to join their quest. Their goal is to reclaim the Kingdom of Erebor, which was captured by the dragon Smaug 171 years ago. Despite some pushback, Bilbo eventually agrees to join their group. In this film, we follow them on the first leg of their quest. Honestly, I think Martin Freeman was the perfect choice for this role. He’s kind of developed a type cast as the cautious, reluctant, sarcastic protagonist/sidekick, but he plays it so well. His personality got me through the lulls of action during this movie.

            I promise I have some nice things to say! I really enjoyed the whole Rivendell scene because I got to see some characters I actually knew. I also think it did a nice job of establishing Gandalf's philosophy, which makes his choices of protagonists make so much more sense. My favorite scene in the whole movie was, of course, the scene with Gollum. This section had the most tension and highest stakes of the film, in my opinion. I was folding clothes while watching the majority of the movie, but I had to stop what I was doing during this part because I was so invested. Andy Serkis does an amazing job of making Gollum creepy, yet sympathetic. His performance always draws me in, and I think the movie would have suffered without the inclusion of this scene.

This week I don’t particularly have any comments on themes, because I have a hard time recalling what the plot was in general besides getting from point A to point B, but I did appreciate Gandalf’s whole speech about why he picked Bilbo specifically. He says: “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love” (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012). I think that is what stuck with me the most walking away from this movie. Will I finish the franchise? Probably not. I have a lot of diehard LOTR fans as friends, and they loathe this trilogy so I don’t feel the need to watch it, but I might consider reading the source material. Unfortunately, the studios kind of shot themselves in the foot with this one. I would’ve had the patience to sit through a four-hour-long movie if it covered the whole book. Making a trilogy out of a book that is shorter than any of the The Lord of the Rings books was not the best idea.

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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas follows Starr, a Black high schooler, who feels torn between the underprivileged minority community she grew up in and the affluent white community where she attends school. Already struggling with identity, Starr’s life erupts into chaos when Khalil, her childhood best friend, is murdered by a white police officer in front of her. This was another five out of five for me. I started this book at work one morning – I’m a substitute teacher – and finished it by lunchtime. It was impossible to put down. Thomas does a wonderful job at establishing tension, stakes, emotional connections, and voice. As someone who is less comfortable with writing first person, I admire how deep we got into Starr’s head. I will definitely be taking notes to apply to my work. While this novel explores many important themes, the two that stood out the most were how deeply police brutality is intertwined with systematic racism and Starr’s conflict of feeling like she must perform to meet other’s expectations all the time.

Despite how heavy this topic is, Thomas leverages multiple points of tension to keep readers hooked on the story. Furthermore, all these conflicts appear at varying distances to Starr, exchanging places at different points in the story. In some moments, the fights between the gangs take center stage. During other moments, the focus is on Starr’s interpersonal conflicts between her friends and family, and sometimes it’s just Starr’s struggle to find her voice in all of this. In a novel with so many threads, it’s important to shift what plots are in the forefront, so that readers do not get bored. This choice also prevents readers from feeling too overwhelmed by the sheer amount of conflicts present. I would love to know how Thomas braided these issues together because I really admire how this novel is crafted.

Another thing that Thomas succeeds at is portraying how infected the United States is with systematic racism, and how sinister, yet casually it appears. In the TV interview, the officer's father lies about the circumstances of the shooting without blinking. He claims that Starr and Khalil were cursing at the officer who pulled them over (Thomas 246). He says that his son “got scared, ‘cause they could’ve taken him down if they teamed up” (Thomas 246). Of course, none of this is true. But instead of questioning these statements, or pondering about the other side of the story, Hailey, Starr’s white friend, believes the officer’s father immediately (Thomas 248). When Starr confronts her on this, she gets defensive rather than listen and considers what Starr is saying (Thomas 250). This reveals how deeply ingrained and brainwashed so many people are in this country when it comes to police brutality against Black Americans. After Starr gives her statement to the Grand Jury, Hailey still refuses to entertain the thought that Khalil was innocent, saying Starr should move on because “‘Somebody was gonna kill him eventually’” (Thomas 341). Although this book came out almost seven years ago, nothing has really changed. Every time a Black person is killed, we go through the same song and dance: finding any way to justify why they “deserved” to be killed, performative activism from companies that never do anything to address their harmful policies, and a media circus never truly challenges these issues.

However, Starr’s journey of finding her voice acts as a message of hope. At first, she is terrified of speaking out about what happened: “I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down. Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak” (Thomas 34-35). However, after his funeral one of Starr’s friends from Garden Heights, Kenya, challenges Starr on her silence (Thomas 197-198). She says that Khalil would’ve said something if it had been Starr who got murdered, and continues “‘Here you are, with a chance to help change what happens in our whole neighborhood, and you are staying quiet. Like a coward’” (Thomas 198). This combined with the philosophy of the Black Panthers, which Starr’s father is a firm advocate of, inspires Starr to speak up against the lies of the police. At the end of the book, when the Grand Jury rules not to indict the officer, Starr protests against the injustice and uses her voice to emphasize that Khalil isn’t just some statistic, that his life had inherent value just in his existence as a person (Thomas 412). The novel ends with a tribute to those who have lost their lives to police brutality, and instead of leaning into how hopeless it feels, Starr asserts “I’ll never forget. I’ll never give up. I’ll never be quiet. I promise” (Thomas 444). As long as we never stop fighting against racial injustice and a system that continues to oppress non-whites, they can’t win.

Thomas, Angie. The Hate U Give. Balzer + Bray, 2017.

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Jurassic Park (1993)

            Jurassic Park (1993) was based the book written by Michael Crichton. While this was not my first time watching Jurassic Park, I knew quotes from this movie before I ever saw it. In my opinion, this is the biggest blockbuster we’ve discussed so far. I would rate this four and a half out of five stars. As someone studying the Save the Cat method for my novel, it was so cool to see how clear the beats are in this film. The moments of building and releasing tension were so well crafted. I found myself getting stressed, even though I knew the characters I cared about would live. The characters feel so alive and even those who had smaller arcs, such as Dr. Grant learning to like children, had me emotionally invested. Speaking to the hubris of humanity, I believe Jurassic Park will always be relevant.

            As a new horror writer, I wanted to take notes while watching this movie. This comes as no surprise as the film was directed by Steven Spielberg, who’d already had a massive number of hits under his belt by 1993. The writing, acting, directing, and cinematography work together seamlessly. I particularly enjoyed how we switched between the two main groups in the most dramatic scenes. The camera work during the scene where the visitors are attacked by the T-rex heightens the fear by focusing on different characters' reactions and switching rapidly between them. I felt like we as the audience were looking around frantically with them, unable to see the dinosaur, yet experiencing its impact on the environment. The horror is hidden until we are at the edge of our seats, and then lighting strikes, revealing the dinosaur as it eats the goat. Spielberg maintains our fear by switching between Hammond and his employees in the office, and the people being attacked. We have moments of respite, but during that time we are thinking about what is happening to the kids. He does the same thing later in the film when Dr. Grant climbs over the electric gates with Tim and Lex, as Dr. Sattler turns the power back on. Seeing both perspectives makes it more stressful because we know how close she is to turning it back on, versus how slow the other three are climbing. At one point Dr. Grant told the kids to take their time and I yelled out loud: “No! Go faster!”.

            I admired so much the way this movie was structured, however, there was one thing that bothered me a little bit. You can only do so much character growth in a movie with this big of a cast, but I would have liked to see more from Dr. Sattler, Ian Malcolm, and Tim. I picked up on three arcs of change: Hammond realizing his hubris, Dr. Grant learning to like kids, and Lex being able to face her fear to save her brother. These arcs were done so well and did not take time away from the story to complete, that I wished we had seen growth from the other three. If they’d had less screen time, I would be more okay with them being flat, but they were in so much of the movie that I wanted more. Again, this is a very picky complaint, but I think it would’ve just leveled up this already great movie even higher.

            The whole theme of humans getting their hands on a power they don’t know how to control reminded me of how we treat technology today. We are making progress in so many fields, especially AI, but I don’t think we are spending enough time considering how this will affect our society. Tech companies may have some good intentions, like Hammond did in the film, but ultimately what they are creating has the potential to hurt a lot of people. Already people have used AI to create sexually explicit images of others as a way to harm them. We’ve seen so many cautionary tales, and yet we do not seem to be taking their advice. Hopefully, before anything else happens, we can sit and think about potential consequences. Personally, I do not want to be eaten by the AI “dinosaur”.

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

            Like a few of the blockbuster books and movies we’ve already discussed, I was very excited when I saw The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams on our list. I first read this novel in middle school, when a friend let me borrow her copy of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which included all five novels in the series. Perhaps I’m being too biased with my ratings, but this book was another five out of five for me. There were a lot of things I’d forgotten; however, I did remember some of the more iconic lines. Having lived in London since I last read this book, I picked up on more of the British-isms and cultural references. Adams’ style of writing is something I aspire to meet. Every line fits well together, each cleverly crafted to create this wonderful flow. His dry humor and witty jabs made me laugh out loud while reading. What struck me the most was the emphasis on improbable versus impossible. Particularly regarding the insane probability of Ford, Arthur, Zaphod, and Trillian knowing each other and ending up in the same place.

The absurdity and heart of this novel makes it easier for the reader to digest the massive amount of information Adams throws at you. Had the tone of the book been overall serious, I’d question more of the ideas he posits. Instead, Adams allows the novel to take on a earnest silliness, which means that I don’t need an explanation for every single fact – although he often expands on his statements. Having the entries in the novel made this an engaging read. Whether they were their own chapters, or just mentioned in the prose, I was desperate for knowledge every time it was offered to me.

Another facet of this book that makes it so memorable is the humor. Particularly, how British it is. From Ford Perfect telling Arthur to get over the destruction of his own planet to poking fun at every single character, it is clear where this author came from. While I have read great scifi pieces by American authors, it hits different coming from a Brit. Arthur’s ability to remain polite in such obscure situations makes him a compelling character, but I love seeing him break down as well.  

Looking at this novel as a self-contained unit, I simultaneously enjoyed and struggled with the non-traditional plot structure. Adams does an excellent job at keeping the past fast, so most of the time you don’t notice that certain beats are skipped. Part of this comes from how short the book is, in my version it is only 143 pages long. That being said, as the first novel in a series of five that follow the same character, I think this works fantastically.

Regarding the discussion of improbable versus impossible, I enjoyed how Adams used this argument as a point of hope in a story where, despite the humor, some messed up stuff happens. I’ve experienced a similar situation where I ran into someone in real life whose writing I had read years ago online. Before that, I would’ve thought moments like that were impossible, but they aren’t. They’re just very very improbable. Rereading this book encouraged me to reflect on those moments and appreciate the chaos of the universe. Sometimes it seems like our lives make no sense, and then moments like those occur and suddenly I am filled with hope.

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Legally Blonde (2001)

When I saw this movie on the list, I got so excited. Legally Blonde (2001) is probably in my top five favorite movies of all time. We watched this movie all the time when I was growing up, so I have a lot of special memories attached to it. To me, this is a five out of five. Some of the jokes and moments haven’t aged well. However, I still think the overall message of the film holds up. Girls need to see that being intelligent and powerful does not mean you have to sacrifice femininity. So many pieces of media have shown female characters becoming more masculine or trying to appeal to the male gaze to have more power, and I think Legally Blonde (2001) does a good job arguing against this idea. Elle does not dress the way she does for anyone else, she does it because she likes it. While the message of this film is a more surface-level feminist argument, I’m not really expecting in-depth theory from a romantic comedy.

Legally Blonde (2001) follows Elle Woods, a wealthy girl from California, who follows her ex-boyfriend, Warner, to Harvard to get him back. However, winning him back is not as easy as she hoped. Unable to fit in with the east coasters, Elle struggles to find a place for herself in law school and learns that Warner is engaged to someone else. By letting go of that relationship, Elle discovers a passion for law and helping others, like Paulette and Brooke. Ultimately, she realizes that she doesn’t need to pretend to be someone else, or do things for other people, and she surrounds herself with people who like her for her. The tone of the movie is very lighthearted and has many iconic lines that people still quote today (“What like it’s hard?”) I ended up re-watching this with a friend, and she was shocked with how much of this movie I had memorized.

I do adore this movie, but as an adult, I noticed moments that bothered me more than they did when I was younger. The biggest was the body shaming and early-2000s diet culture. I found myself cringing at Brooke Windham’s whole plot about liposuction, or the comments about losing weight and going down sizes Unfortunately, this is par for the course for early 2000s movies, but I think this is a potentially large turn-off for folks who are not emotionally attached the same way I am. Additionally, I also struggled with some of the stereotyping. There are a few queer background characters, and I do think they have funny moments, sometimes it relies a bit too much on stereotypes. The only context we see gay men in relates to fashion or beauty, and the only lesbian character is mean and angry. I think it would’ve been a lot more interesting if Enid, the aforementioned lesbian, had been an ally to Elle instead of a foe. They have a lot more in common than different.

Another thing I noticed about this movie was the perspective. A majority of movies from the early 2000s, and still today, fall victim to the male gaze. Even in this movie, there are a few moments that sort of do that (the scene where she is getting ready and the bunny costume). However, I would like to argue that most of this film is filtered through the female gaze. Elle is a hyper-feminine person, obsessed with pink and all different kinds of fashion. Most guys I know are not really into that women who dress like that, but my fellow queer women friends adore Elle and her outfits and find them attractive. Sure, not every queer woman likes this femme look, but there are a lot who do. Another example is the love interest. Movies under the male gaze often have the girl end up with the buff, successful main guy. But Elle ends up with the soft-spoken, supporting guy who wears sweater vests. Again, in very generalized terms, love interests like this appear most often for the female gaze. If this movie had been targeted at men, Elle would wear super revealing sexy outfits instead of coordinate pieces and bubble gum pink dresses.

            While Legally Blonde (2001) isn’t for everyone – I have a large soft spot for this film. I understand why it’s a blockbuster.

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The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

Usually, TikTok romance books are not my thing, but The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams surprised me. I would rate this novel three out of five stars. At first, I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it, but after the first hundred pages I could not put it down; at one point I was reading it at a red light on the way home from work. Some moments were a bit too cheesy for my taste, and I had a hard time relating to the characters. I think part of this is because I am definitely not the target audience for this book, which I assume is cis-het married women, most likely millennials. However, Adams was able to get me invested in the stakes of the story. I was genuinely interested in whether or not Gavin and Thea would be able to fix their relationship. Honestly, I’m glad that I did not know this book got popular off BookTok, because that would have influenced my perception of it. What I admired the most about this book was its exploration of the mental load placed on stay-at-home moms (SAHM), and how that can ruin marriages.

            The novel follows Gavin Scott, a major league baseball player, who is having marital troubles with his wife, Thea. What seems like a problem with their sex life, is actually much worse. Gavin and Thea are forced to confront parts of themselves they’ve been hiding in order to avoid getting divorced. Gavin grew on me throughout the story. At the beginning, I struggled to sympathize with him because I felt that he should’ve been able to notice that his wife was faking an orgasm. However, as he continued to apply himself and make an effort to become a better person and husband, he did not bother me so much. With the romance genre specifically, the likeability of characters is big for me. By the end of the book, Gavin passed the test. As for Thea, I thought she was very complex, and I thought the way that her trauma wasn’t just magically solved was very true to life. Unlearning thought patterns you’ve had your whole life does not just change overnight. It was important to me that she wasn’t perfect either, they were two flawed individuals, which made them more relatable.

            One thing I did struggle with was how heteronormative all the relationships were, although, I think this is due to the fact that I am not the target audience. As a queer reader, I would honestly prefer an author to avoid depicting queer characters rather than write them incorrectly, but it did make it difficult for me to empathize with some of what Gavin did. I probably would not have picked this book up on my own, even though I do enjoy romance. But on the other hand, I have read BookTok books that I disliked much more in comparison.

            Going back to what I said earlier, I appreciated how Adam’s presented the discussion of mental load, and how much work is put on women, especially SAHM’s. It could be argued that this discussion is somewhat surface level, but I think even just brushing on it is better than nothing. For most of their marriage, Thea has been raising kids by herself, and when Gavin was present, she had to attend events as a wife of a player (Adams 21). The load placed on her stood out the most when the Scott family got home from Thanksgiving. While it’s important that Gavin helps Thea clean up after the girl’s vomited, he continuously has to ask questions about where things are even though he lives there. (Adams 150-151). Thea already has a lot on her mind with cleaning the girls themselves, and by asking her that instead of looking himself, Gavin only adds to her plate. This discussion reflects the current conversations of mothers on social media. A lot of women in heterosexual relationships are speaking out online about how exhausted they are. Nowadays, many women have corporate jobs on top of being parents, but the distribution of household labor is slow to change. While some heterosexual couples have adapted and evenly split parenting and household duties, there is still a huge issue with women being expected to clean, cook, and parent on top of a nine to five. A Gallup poll found that despite an increase in equity regarding household tasks since 1990, “the division of labor in U.S. households remains largely tilted toward traditional stereotypes: Women are more likely than their husbands to take care of the house and children, and men remain the primary caretakers of the car and the yard.” (Brenan).

            If this was book wanted to be a more serious critique on relationships, I’d have a lot more issues with it, but for a light-hearted contemporary romance I think this was pretty successful.

Adams, Lyssa Kay. The Bromance Book Club. Berkley Romance, 2022.

Brenan, Megan. “Women Still Handle Main Household Tasks in U.S.” Gallup.com, Gallup Inc., 31 May 2023, news.gallup.com/poll/283979/women-handle-main-household-tasks.aspx.

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The Hunger Games (2012)

            The Hunger Games (2012), based on the series by Suzanne Collins, is one of my top ten favorite book-to-film adaptations. I actually saw this movie opening weekend with my mom, who got me into the books earlier that year. I give this movie a five out of five. Although certain moments were removed for the run time, the most important story beats were present and held the emotional weight well. Watching this movie as an adult, I got a lot more out of it than I did when I first watched it. Another thing that shifted my perspective during this viewing was the fact that I just watched the prequel, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023), a few weeks ago. While that is not the topic of our discussion, it had a significant effect on what aspects of the film stood out to me the most. With everything going on in the world today, and how the internet changed post-COVID-19, The Hunger Games (2012) is more relevant than ever. Particularly with its commentary on the illusion of intimacy with strangers.

            The story follows Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl from District 12, who volunteers to take her sister’s place in the 75th annual Hunger Games. The games were created by the Capitol 75 years ago as a way to keep the twelve districts in check after the rebellion. Katniss is forced to perform for the crowds to get sponsors and kill her fellow tributes in the arena. With the aid of the male tribute from her district, Peeta, Katniss wins the games. However, her life can never return to what it once was. To win, she and Peeta acted as if they were in love and could not survive without each other. Now, they must keep up the act to keep themselves and their families alive.

            The movie succeeds in many categories, however, the acting stood out the most. Jennifer Lawrence understood the role of Katniss. She is able to convey how uncomfortable Katniss feels performing in front of a crowd. The raw pain in her voice when Prim’s name is chosen for the games is heartbreaking. Lawrence nailed how Katniss switches from young and vulnerable to responsible and aloof as a result of living in a world that forces children to grow up too fast. Besides acting, one of the other parts of this movie that stood out to me was the set and costume design. The creators established the dichotomy between the Capitol and the districts immediately through the scene with Effie in District 12. Surrounded by grey buildings and people in muted, worn clothes, Effie’s bright pink attire looks ridiculous. Without even seeing the Capitol, the audience already has an idea of what it’s like. And then once we are finally brought there, we see that Effie almost looks normal in comparison to the other Capitol citizens.

            My biggest issue with this movie is the cinematography. It’s been over 12 years, and I can still remember how dizzy I was watching this movie in theaters. I think they used a shaky, handheld camera to give the movie the same raw feeling that Lawrence created with her acting. I’ve seen hand-held cameras work so well to create meaning, but I do not think this is one of those instances. Those moments still make my head hurt when I watch them.

            When I was younger, I knew that it was messed up that they treated the games like a TV show, but watching the prequel made me focus on how the tributes were treated before, during, and after the games. (Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen the prequel!) In the early days of the games, the tributes were placed in an outdoor enclosure – a literal human zoo – before they were taken to the arena. In The Hunger Games, which takes place 65 years after the prequel, the tributes live in luxury before the games, and after if they are a Victor. Yet, the Capitol still finds ways to dehumanize them. The tributes live under constant surveillance, even in their last moments. During the interviews, they are encouraged to share parts of themselves with the audience to gain sympathy so people will sponsor them, and the Capitol audience is desperate to learn more about these children. They crave intimacy and ask to see and know very private things. It reminds me a lot of how people feel the need to post very private moments on social media now. People are pressured to let people see into their lives to be more relatable. So many people reach for the camera when they cry. I think part of this is because we have become so lonely and separated that we will consume anything that helps us feel close to other human beings. However, this results in a culture where people feel entitled to personal information and violate boundaries to gain access to that illusion of intimacy. But that’s all it is, an illusion. Relating this to the people of the Capitol, I think it’s interesting how they dehumanize the tributes at every step of the process and want to connect to them on a human level. It makes me pity them.

This film is very special to me, and each time I rewatch it, I discover another layer I’d never seen before.  Thanks for reading!

[gracesshelves]

The Shining by Stephen King

While I have seen a few movies based on Stephen King’s novels, this is the first time I’ve ever read one of his books. It did not disappoint! Now I understand why he is so well known for his horror writing; he definitely got my heart racing. Overall, if I had to rate this book, I’d give it a four out of five. I loved how King built tension and fear through word choice and repetition as Jack slowly goes insane, but I think that when it comes to conveying information to his audience, King could get places a bit faster than he does. The main message I took away from The Shining was of the impact that generational trauma has, and how important it is to break that cycle of familial violence.

One of the biggest strengths to me was King’s ability to turn the mundane into something terrifying. I was less afraid while reading scenes that were explicitly supernatural than I was during the scenes that simply suggested the supernatural. Out of the whole book, the moment that scared me the most was when Jack went to check room 217. Even though I knew what was in the bathtub, the language that King used was able to reignite that tension. Phrases like “sudden rattling”, “jerked convulsively”, and “leaden step” made my stomach sink with dread for Jack (King 381). One of my biggest fears is the unknown, so being able to make me afraid of something I am aware of is a tough job.  Another scene that stood out to me was when Danny faced the hose in the hallway. The way that Stephen King personifies the hose, having it stare him down as “the nozzle of the hose gleam[s]” made me fear for Danny’s safety (King 159.) I would say these two scenes combined scared me more while reading than the climax did.  

However, despite how much I enjoyed King’s ability to build tension, there were a few things I struggled with. A lot of important information gets conveyed in dialogue that seems to go on forever, and in my opinion, could have been given more succinctly. For example, Watson tells Jack about people who’ve died in the hotel and how dangerous the boiler is, which is relevant later in the book, but had King not repeated that information in prose, I would’ve forgotten everything Watson said (King 22-36). This isn’t to say that you can’t have a character who is defined by rambling speech, just that there should be a balance in order to keep your reader engaged. Related to that point, I think there were also places in the prose that I wish had gotten to the point faster. I do agree that knowing Jack’s psychology and backstory is vital, but some moments negatively impacted my reading experience (King 162-172). I also understand that this is more of a slow-building horror, but if I wasn’t reading this for a class, the pace of the first half of the book might’ve stopped me from finishing it. My copy was 683 pages, and the last 300 flew by because of the action and stakes, but the first 300-ish felt like wading through quicksand.

    Despite my issues with some of the storytelling techniques, The Shining was a very compelling novel with a message that touched me deeply. The focus on inter-generational trauma and healing is reflected in the way Jack, Wendy, and Danny interact with the supernatural. Throughout the novel, Wendy has very few interactions with the ghosts haunting The Overlook. Often, she is taking a nap or making food during these moments (King 343). I think this reflects how she has broken out of the cycle of trauma in her own family. This can be seen through the very fact that she is aware of those mistakes to begin with and worries about repeating them with her son (King 73). Unfortunately for Danny, Jack has not broken this cycle. He continuously loses his temper and physically hurts Danny multiple times (King 24, 186). This means that Danny does face these entities in the hotel. However, unlike Jack, who ultimately falls victim to the violence and anger he inherited from his father, Danny has inherited the shining from his mother, the ability to break past that trauma (King 644, 129). Because he is able to feel what others feel and hear their thoughts, he is more empathetic than Jack. In the end, only Wendy and Danny leave the hotel, the cycle of inter-generational violence, behind for a brighter future.

King, Stephen. The Shining. Pocket Books, 2001.