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Blog Post #4

It was fitting that these are the two films for the movie review. I couldn’t understand either of them at parts. Irreversible because the movie was in Spanish and A Clockwork Orange because of their thick british diction  (The “Ol’ In Out” is now my favorite way to say sex). I decided to go with Clockwork Orange just because of how different it is. The movie takes place in Britain in the future. The great part of it is that the movie was made in the early 70’s so the future is from a 70’s perspective, so everything just looks like the 70’s on steroids. I’m not sure if this was a 70’s thing but the amount of sexual imagery is crazy. People just casually have pictures of naked women in their house or statues of penises that intruders might use as weapons (42m-43m). I’d recommend this film purely by how unique and different the setting of this story is. The film is a commentary on human nature, mainly Alex (the main character). Alex’s nature is to embrace evil and violence. At 11m-13m he rapes a woman but at 27m-30m he has no problem getting two women into bed with him. So Alex raping that woman had nothing to do with just wanting to have sex because he demonstated how easily he can get it. He did it just to be evil in a sense. Malcolm McDowell does a great job portraying Alex because when he’s trying to be nice he sounds like he’s so full shit. It always seems like an act to get out of trouble like when he’s talking to his parents at 19m-22m. The movie explores the morality of changing human nature even if it is for the good of society with the experiment Alex goes under. Overall I liked the uniqueness of this film. I’m curious of how different the film is from the book it was adapted from written by Anthony Burgess.

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Blog Post #3

I am really not all that familiar with the subject but from what I watched from these five movies I wouldn’t say the visual style was distinctively “Queer” in my opinion. Admittedly I’m not all that familiar with what makes something “Queer” besides someone’s sexuality. According to Planned Parenthood “Queer is a word that describes sexual and gender identities other than straight and cisgender. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people may all identify with the word queer”(parenthood). If the visual style was the exact same and the only thing that was different was that the characters were straight instead of Queer, I would not be able to tell the style was “Queer”. As for what it might look like, I don’t even want to speculate what it might look like because I might end up generalizing. The only thing I really can say is just being very open with sexuality, which I saw in pretty much all of the movies like in the apricot scene in Call Me by Your Name (1hr:39m:0s-1hr:40m:0s) and the beach scene in Moonlight (54m:30s-55m), as well as pretty much the entirety of  Mysterious Skin. I kind of feel like I am copping out with this question but I really don’t think there is a “Queer” style, at least not one that I‘m familiar with. There’s just characters and ideas in a movie that just happen to be queer.

Race, gender, and other sexualities intersect in terms of relating. The way some sexualities are portrayed is very similar to the way some races are portrayed in society. For example in brokeback mountain (45m:30s-46m:30s) when Jack is getting denied the job it felt strikingly similar to how someone would be denied for their race. I was reminded of the movie 42, which is about Jackie Robinson, and some of these people are heckled in a way that is very similar to Jackie Robinson. A scene like (5m:30s-6m) of Boys Don't Cry where Brandon is being chased down and called slurs reminds me a lot of 42 or Remember the Titans or some other movie that is heavily involved with race. The movies draw a comparison to how all minority groups in society are viewed and treated.

 I also think there’s different acceptance levels for different groups of people and that can boil down to race. In Chiron’s community they are not accepting at all (1hr:1m:30s-1hr:2m:30s) while in Call Me By Your Name and Mysterious Skin people are much more accepting and open. Although I think this could just be more of the overall mindset of the community and not have to do with race. In Mysterious Skin the main character still gets called a F*g at one point (32m:30s-33m) and its not like the white people of Brokeback Mountain are accepting, they end up killing Jack (1hr:53m-1hr:54m).

Movies definitely have the power to shape perceptions and emotions no matter what the subject. As for “queer an audience”, I’m gonna say its plausable. Maybe somebody is inspired by Elio’s courage to explore his feelings at (48m:30s-50m) and they might do the same. I obviously don’t think a straight person walks into a movie theatre to see Call Me By Your Name and they suddenly become gay but I think someone who has suppresed their feelings might have the courage to explore them after seeing one of these movies. Either way I one hundred percent think it can help shift perceptions. One thing it can do is help build empathy. I think this is done by showing just how normal these people are. They are all exploring the same feelings a straight person would have just not in a straight way obviously. With more and more “queer” films hopefully it can help get rid of the irregular stigma a community in the minority has. I’m sure a queer person feels like everything is “straight washed” when they go see a movie because there’s so many straight relationships portrayed compared to queer ones. The continuing inclusion of queer relationships and problems can help the community feel not abnormal in a society that is mostly not queer. I think the films are essential to help the community feel more integrated in society. It also serves as a window into the problems and lives of queer people to straight people. This could be a good learning experience into something they might not be exposed to on a regular basis.

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Work Cited

This is BarryBarry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regular. “Swan Lake / Black Swan (2010) : Movie Plot Ending Explained.” This Is Barry, 6 Apr. 2020, www.thisisbarry.com/film/swan-lake-black-swan-2010-movie-plot-ending-explained/#:~:text=Imaginary%2DLily%20suggests%20that%20she,on%20the%20wall%20to%20break.

Amidon, Aurora. “The Ending of American Psycho the Movie Explained.” Film School Rejects, 6 Aug. 2020, filmschoolrejects.com/american-psycho-ending-explained/. 

“Catharsis.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catharsis.

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1st gif: Black Swan

2nd gif: American Psycho

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Blog Post #2

The two films I picked to do this blog post on are Black Swan and American Psycho. I was initially going to do it on One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Donnie Darko because they were my favorite movies out of the bunch; however, after thinking about it, Black Swan and American Psycho have really similar plots that I can draw some similarities to. American Psycho is about someone who obsesses about perfection and standing out to their peers. Throughout the movie, the main character’s mental health state becomes more and more visible as they strive for perfection and to stand out. No one ever notices their mental health problems however. And when you think about it, Black Swan is about someone who obsesses about perfection and standing out to their peers. Throughout the movie, the main character’s mental health state becomes more and more visible as they strive for perfection and to stand out. No one ever notices their mental health problems however. On the surface the two movies seem really different; one is about a psychopath who kills people and the other is about a girl trying to fit into a role in a play; but, when you really break it down they have a pretty similar premise. There are some differences though. I don’t think Nina wants to receive help. She uses concealer to hide her scratch marks. I think that is a metaphor for hiding her mental health issues. Her mental health issues are still pretty out there if you paid any attention. You can never really hide what she was going through. There were just excuses being made like it's just the stress of the play. Bateman in American Psycho was actively trying to let his mental health issues be known. The guy was killing people and telling people about it and they just would not care. People were too focused on a play in Black Swan and too focused on themselves in American Psycho to notice the main characters’ mental health issues. I also think Nina achieves catharsis at the end of the movie. I think Nina didn’t want to show her mental health issues because that made her seem not perfect. At the end of the movie she said she faked being perfect. According to Merriam-Webster the definition of catharsis is “a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension”(Catharsis). When she was laying their dying, she achieved her goals and that was to seem perfect. Her pain she was experiencing was about to fade and she achieved her goals; that led her into a state of catharsis. I can also see it interpreted as she finally admitted that she wasn’t perfect. That lifted a huge weight off her shoulders and also left her in a state of catharsis. I think Bateman quite clearly didn’t achieve catharsis. Pretty sure he said in his closing monologue that “there is no catharsis”. Bateman’s goal was to get caught and bring his mental health to light. He was never able to achieve that. Another similarity that throws a real wrinkle into things is that both movies involve an unreliable narrator. Due to both of their pressing mental health issues reality is often bended. It makes the viewer question what is real and what is not. In American Psycho it is a legitimate question to ask if Bateman actually murdered those people or if it was all in his head. “Either Patrick has killed a bunch of people and no one really noticed or cares, or he’s imagined the whole thing, or even he isn’t totally sure what the truth is”(Amidon). At one point an ATM machine asks Bateman to feed it a stray cat, so it is pretty clear that what Bateman is experiencing is not reality. The screenplay makes it ambiguous whether Bateman imagined killing those people or if people are too caught up in their own lives to care. Nina hallucinates on multiple occasions throughout the movie. It made me question whether Lily was really out to get Nina. I think this ambiguity emphasizes the struggle these characters are experiencing. Due to how their brain works, their perception of reality itself is in question. As for being satisfied with the ending, that's a tough one for me. After watching these movies you want things to work out for these clearly struggling characters. This does not happen; I think I was more satisfied with the ending of American Psycho. I think there is a lot of meaning to how after all that Bateman did, he was still unable to let people know about his situation, let alone get help. The end of Black Swan left me kind of disappointed to be honest. It looked like Nina was finally turning the page after confronting Lily (at least in her head); she was finally able to perform as the black swan, she looked comfortable in her own skin, she even admitted she wasn’t perfect. It kind of looked like she was taking some steps to fight her anxiety. And then it looked like she died in the end… That didn’t feel great to me. It’s not like she killed people like Mr. Bateman. Having her die didn’t really do much for me. It would have been less dramatic, but it would have been nice to see her get help. In the end, she died like the white swan in the play. It would have been nice to see her break free from that fate. “Her death, right after achieving her one goal is truly sad, but etches her as a brilliant performer in the hearts of the audience forever”(This).

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work cited

Work Cited

Indiewire. “20 Reasons Why 'Kids' Is an American Masterpiece.” IndieWire, IndieWire, 25 June 2015, www.indiewire.com/2015/06/20-reasons-why-kids-is-an-american-masterpiece-60662/. 

“Themes.” The Breakfast Club, thebreakfastclub-analysis.weebly.com/themes.html. 

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Gif 1: (Breakfast Club)

Gif 2: (Mean Girls)

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Blog Post 1

Before I write this blog post let me preface this by saying I do not have a HBO Max subscription. I’ll look into it for the next blog post; so there could be a carbon copy of me in the show Euphoria but I wouldn’t know. Also I’m bad with names which you will see from this post. With that being said the character I related to the most was Telle from kids (just kidding that guy was the worst). Really I related to a couple of characters in the movies. From The Breakfast Club I related to both the jock and the weird girl in a way; which is funny because they ended up together at the end. The jock, besides just playing sports, had a hard time thinking and making decisions for himself. Instead of doing what makes him happy he tries too hard to please other people. I feel like I can relate to that a lot. I’ve had 4 majors in college so far because of what other people wanted, and felt like I should do. I went from Engineering, to physics, to math, until I finally decided to do what I wanted to do. With the weird girl, I am a gigantic introvert so I was always seen as weird in that sense. I didn’t eat cereal and sugar sandwiches or anything but I was seen as weird for my quietness. So I was a combination of doing what other people wanted me to do and very quiet. That is not a great combination, I was a big pushover growing up but I’ve gotten much better. With mean girls I related with everyone just experiencing how extremely fake some people are like the plastics; but really everyone is not as great of a friend as they should be. For mid 90’s, I related to sunburn at the beginning when he was just introduced to the group. I was the youngest kid on my block growing up so I can relate to awkwardly just shifting your way into a group until you’re accepted. I don’t relate to all the other stuff he did with the older kids but I can relate to initiating yourself into the group. Finally for Kids I can thankfully say that I do not relate to anyone in that movie. I certainly didn’t relate to them when I was a middle/ high schooler. 

A couple of common themes I saw throughout the movies was growing up too fast/losing that childhood innocence. That is obviously littered throughout the movie kids. A bunch of kids doing adult activities.  “ When the film was released, many adults found its depiction of casual sex gratuitous and lewd, but from a modern perspective, it’s easy to see how the film’s honest approach actually served as a dire warning against unsafe sexual practices”(Indiewire). Girls quite literally losing their innocence to Telle. This is all fun and games for these kids until they experience adult consequences like they overdose, or get arrested, or like shown in kids they get the HIV virus. I think this is also shown in mid 90’s where sunburn is a 13 year old kid drinking, getting high, and having sexual experiences. These movies make the viewer uncomfortable at times with how young they are. It makes the viewer want to say hey go home you idiot you got the rest of your life to do adult stuff be a kid now. I think that was the point to make the viewer uncomfortable because of their age. Another theme I saw was be true to yourself and don’t care what others think. I think this was very prevalent in mean girls and the breakfast club. In mean girls Regina and the rest of the plastic’s whole characters were based on caring what other people thought about them. They even had rules to keep up the perception of them with the whole wear pink on Wednesday thing and other rules. This getting caught up with the glamour of caring what people think about you eventually led to kady driving away her actual friends. It is not until the end, where everyone is true to themselves, where everyone is actually happy. In the Breakfast Club the popular girl says straight up to the rest of the group that she’d ignore the rest of them if they said hi to her in school. She cared too much about what people thought about her to even acknowledge one of her friends. The jock cares so much what his dad thinks about him that he reluctantly bullied a kid for him. The nerd wanted to take his own life because he was afraid of what his parents would think about him after one bad grade. I think the weird girl is quiet and reserved because she’s afraid of how other people think about her. It's not until they overcome this that they become happy. Finally, another theme I saw was how looks can be deceiving.  “ Like many teenage movies and TV shows (Mean Girls, Glee), the use of stereotypes is used frequently because it enables people who watch them to form an opinion of the characters and their beliefs just from seeing them before they may have even spoken and sometimes just from the way they walk and are spoken to by other people”(themes).  I think this is best shown in breakfast club how everyone already has these preconceived perceptions about each other. They’re labeled from the beginning as the nerd, the princess, the criminal and so on. Once they got to know each other really though they realized they’re all pretty similar and their assumptions were wrong. For mean girls, Regina and the plastics are idolized by pretty much the entire school. Everyone wants to be them until they realized hey they’re not very nice; hence the title mean girls. Also in the math playoff thing both teams picked the girls because they assumed they were dumb. For mid90’s the mom assumes the skater group is nothing more than street rats; which is kind of justified because her 13 year old son came back wasted after hanging out with them; however, when she sees them passed out at the hospital she realizes oh wait they actually really care about my son. For Kids, its more in a literal sense of this looks like a good time just me having fun but oh wait the other person has the HIV virus.

I think a soundtrack is monumental to a film’s story. It can sway how you’re feeling. Just think how differently a movie like Jaws would be without the classic  “duuun dun duuun dun” (Jaws). I think soundtracks are great when they’re either very memorable like the Jurassic Park theme song or the Dark knight soundtrack for me or not memorable at all because you didn’t even notice the soundtrack. When the soundtrack goes so seamlessly with the story that you don’t notice it it's perfect. It’s when the soundtrack sticks out like a sore thumb where a film gets in trouble.

So I’m weird and not really big into music so finding music that’ll define my adolescence  will be difficult but I’ll do my best.

Cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin. I’m pretty close with my dad and I used to imitate him a lot. The only music I somewhat know is classic rock because of my dad. Always really liked this song.

Hourglass by squeeze. My dad played this once when driving me and my friends around when I was like 10. The song is just so weird that me and my friends loved it. We still listen to it when we hang out. 

Enter Sandman by Metallica. This just represents by sports fandom. This was mariano Rivera’s entry song for the Yankees.

Power Rangers theme song. I was quite a big power rangers fan. I was also obsessed with dinosaurs so when they made one with dinosaurs I peaked in life.

Spongebob theme song. Me and my friends quote spongebob way too often. Its actually a problem.

Happy birthday song. Birthdays were always fun growing up. So many things happen in life, its nice to have a day that is just about you once in a while.

Mr. blue sky by electric light orchestra. I just liked this because it is the happiest song ever.

Don't stop beleivin by journey. This represents the awkward middle school phase because this song played at the end of every middle school dance.

Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley. I was a big internet kid so that means memes.

The party’s over by Willie Nelson. This just represents my childhood ending.

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Introduction Post

My name is Michael or Mike or whatever you want to call me. I attended Washingtonville high school (Go Wizards). I am a new media major at SUNY Orange. Besides media, other interests I have are sports; Baseball, I’m a Yankee fan; Basketball, I’m a Nets fan; football, I’m strangely a Saints fan because ten year old me liked their jerseys. Last movie or tv I watched was the Superbowl. I’m not sure if that qualifies as a tv show but I’m counting it. I’m actually watching the superbowl while writing this. It looks like Brady is gonna get his 7th ring (I hope I just jinxed it). The last video game I played was Call of Duty Warzone I believe. I’m not much of a reader, I really couldn’t tell you the last book I read. The last thing I created was a Giants highlight video my friends requested me to edit for them. Finally, my last meal request would be a whole tub of baked ziti.