tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75562521742637407852024-03-12T22:17:57.534-07:00Fear Of KnittingHorror movies, media, culture, knitting, sacrilege.fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-44988230905341864642012-02-25T15:55:00.003-08:002012-02-25T15:56:19.294-08:00How soon is too soon to start studying the nineties?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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....as a decade of cultural failure?<br />
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Let's look at this for a moment: brought to you by BuzzFeed, <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/pictures-that-perfectly-capture-the-90s">48 Pictures that Perfectly Capture the 90's</a>.<br />
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These pictures are a lot of things--they are funny. They are dorky. They are very, very accurate in capturing the decade none of us could ever forget, because we grew up there.<br />
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Besides this--quirky, kind of silly, mismatched, weird--there aren't a lot of adjectives that come to mind when you imagine the 90's. There are a lot of nouns, mostly proper nouns--Lisa Frank! Will Smith! Full House!--but it doesn't seem to have the same niche in our cultural consciousness as many other decades from the 21st century. 1990 was more than 20 years ago, but you aren't going to see anybody throwing 90's themed parties.<br />
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It's kind of an indescribable era--one can tell, one can <i>feel,</i> if you will, when something is "90's," but it's nearly impossible to explain why. It was a strange transitional period between the so-bad-it's-good style and media from the 80's, but not quite the shiny tech-laced era we spent the past ten years in. For this reason, as well as others, I contend that the 1990's was a decade of cultural failure.<br />
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People will protest this statement--Krista, they will say, what about <i>Rugrats?</i> What about <i>Madonna?</i> And they are correct! There are a variety of good things that came out of the nineties. Let's take a look:<br />
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<li>Children's television</li>
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<li>The nineties is characterized by television, namely animated shows on Nickelodeon, and animated Disney films, that were aimed at children but have the vitality to still be enjoyable to those same children today, as they become adults. Finding the balance between subtle adult humor and plots and characters that children would also enjoy was a masterful accomplishment of the decade.</li>
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<li>Surrealist Music: </li>
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What is happening in any of these? Who knows? What caused the nineties to contain this surrealism? Who knows?</div>
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<li>Some good movies.</li>
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<li>Pulp Fiction.</li>
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<li>Good rap music</li>
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<li>And for all the good rap, there is some ridiculously bad rap, too. Exhibit A: </li>
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I'm not talking about things that are so-bad-they're-good, because people's opinions on that differ, and to be fair, the nineties is full of things like that. Even so, the quantity of so-bad-it's-good media and fashion in the nineties doesn't nearly reach that of the eighties, and much of it is good for the novelty and the nostalgia, but how much can you actually take? I'm not saying I don't love Saved by the Bell because of how ridiculous it is, and I'm not contending that I didn't watch every episode of Full House when it was on reruns on ABC family--but they aren't quite ridiculous enough to enjoy the way you can enjoy slasher-boom films of the eighties. The Backstreet Boys and NSync are over the top and crazy, but can they even aspire to the over-the-top craziness of their boy-band predecessors like Drop Dead Fred or, more subtly, Tears for Fears? Nineties fashion is hideous, but can it be rocked the way hideous eighties fashion can? </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These women know how crazy they are.</td></tr>
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Further evidence:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Molly Ringwald looks great, and almost elegant! And young!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Candace Cameron, on the other hand, looks sad and old. </td></tr>
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Something that's really significant about the nineties is that the way we see it today is very much characterized by nostalgia--not any sort of longing nostalgia, just a sort of reflective, laughing nostalgia at how ridiculous we were. How ridiculous we <i>just</i> were, less than twenty years ago.<br />
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Before I make my next point, let's not rule out that perhaps there is nostalgia for many decades like this, that I can't relate to because I wasn't there. I do desperately wish that I were alive in the eighties, or the fifties, or the twenties...but I can't <i>feel</i> it like I can with the nineties.</div>
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Even so! It seems like we have a lot of nostalgia for the nineties, and not a lot else. The reason there is so much nostalgia, and it is so plentiful, is because we didn't actually take anything from the decade. Sitcoms have been drastically changed since then, children's television isn't anywhere near as good, we moved away from the terrible fashion as much as possible, pop has changed entirely. The only thing we really got from the nineties is...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh, right. <i>That.</i></td></tr>
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My friends, hipsters came from the nineties.<br />
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You know this. I know this. Fred Armisen knows this. For all the Lisa Frank, for all the cheesy, cheesy movies and fluffy rap, all the good natured, value preachin' sitcoms, we took the sad music and strange clothing from Seattle. </div>
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I mean no disrespect to grunge, don't get me wrong. I love grunge, I really do. And I'm sure Seattle is great. </div>
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Let's break it down a bit.</div>
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Grunge came about as a reaction to a lot of bad things that were going on in the 90's. Current events of the decade are marked by domestic bombings and civil war--Columbine, the Oklahoma City Boming, the Rwandan Genocide all happened in the nineties. Our military attention switched from Soviet Russia to the Middle East, where we began fighting a culture that we understood even less. Politics are marred by sex scandals and economic problems, resulting in a mistrust of authority. So what does it say about our improvement as a society that the cultural reaction to these negative things is what endured into the millenium? Forget how obnoxious we may find hipsters to be, their cultural basis is <i>sad,</i> and that says some sad things about us.</div>
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QED, the nineties was a decade of cultural failure.<br />
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</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-55231494025435918902012-02-05T20:40:00.000-08:002012-02-05T20:40:29.120-08:00BATMANTICIPATION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In case you all didn't know, I am a nerd girl.<br />
True life: I'm a nerd girl. Confessions of a Nerd Girl. Hello, my name is Krista, and I am a female nerd.<br />
This is a part of myself that I've been dealing with for some time now, but it's time to share it with the world. I should be proud.<br />
That's right. I'm a dork. I read tons of very culty and strange webcomics. I am excited by video game themed crafts. I listen to They Might Be Giants, Pride, Predjudice, and Zombies is at the top of my reading list, and I can quote Firefly in my sleep.<br />
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And I am very, very excited for all the incredibly quirky, campy, nerdy movies that are hitting theaters this summer.<br />
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So it's time for a little SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW. No better way to cure the winter blues, right?<br />
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<b>(Nerdy) Summer Movie Preview--2012--Filmpocalypse</b></div>
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<i>April</i></div>
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This April, the movie I am most excited about ever is happening. <i>The Cabin in The Woods. </i>Watch the trailer: </div>
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As far as I can tell from that video, this is a self aware slasher movie (my favorite genre) but it's also somehow also a science fiction movie, has something to do with terrifying government surveillance, zombies (?) a monster in the lake (?) and a curse that happens in the pagan-esque chamber that is apparently in the basement (???)</div>
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There really is no way to explain what is happening there. It seems to have all the elements of a good old fashioned cabin-in-the-woods slasher, which it better, considering the title: a group of very stereotypical and unbearable teenagers, a small remote house, a keg, some aspect of zombie or mind control film (a la <i>Evil Dead) </i>and a very creepy gas station with a horrifying hillbilly. </div>
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Side note: creepy gas stations are the only fear I believe I obtained directly from Slasher movies. I drive past about a million run-down convenience stores on my way home from college to get to a Cumberland Farms or a Hess Express, no matter how much I need to use the bathroom or how hungry my car is. Go figure. </div>
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I would be happy enough with a meta-teens in the woods horror film, but this turns that completely on it's head. </div>
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The traditional slasher trailer is about surprise--you begin thinking it's about happy teenagers, at some point, we realize they're getting killed. We aren't surprised by that, we know the tricks. Thus, the traditional meta-trailer: we see the happy teens, we predict the killer, soon after comes some aspect of comedy or a line of dialogue about the self awareness of the film, and we know it's a trailer for the next<i> Scream </i>or<i> Scary Movie</i> (which, unfortunately, is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795461/">also gracing the screens this April</a>). </div>
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This trailer even turns that convention on it's head--fairly quickly we go through the steps--happy teens, going to a cabin in the woods, dialogue too obvious to believe that we're supposed to take this seriously. And then, without warning--some sort of electrical matrix fence? Girl kissing a deer head? Scary masked men?</div>
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And, as if it could get more perfect--Joss Whedon wrote it. The brilliant, nerd-god, Joss Whedon. </div>
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SPEAKING of Joss Whedon....</div>
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<i>May: </i><br />
Drumroll, please--<br />
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To a certain degree, the excitement of this movie coming out goes without saying.<br />
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Normally, I'm opposed to contrived sequels, but this, (along with another movie on this list,) is a bit of an exception. Instead of being a sequel it's like the last clue in a crazy filmic treasure hunt, where the first five clues were wonderful in and of themselves.<br />
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It took me a long time to gain appreciation for comic book and super hero films, but in a lot of ways they are just like slasher films. The cult following and the campy-ness that they are allowed charms me in the same way that those qualities in horror do. Superhero movies have the character development that the more low-quality slasher movies tend to let slip, and of course, character development is my favorite part of any film. <i>The Avengers</i> will have characters that we've already seen develop, that we, the insane, culty, nerdy audience, will know very well at the beginning of the movie, whether from the earlier films, or from the comics (and the cartoon, which I enjoy.) This leaves room for an entire new level of character development as well as relationship development between the different heroes, which seems to be the focus of the film.<br />
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A good friend of mine has told me about how this could set a precedent for other films, to have films take place in the same universe and then perhaps conclude in a massive film which combines the different story lines, which, though I am not educated enough on the subject to get into right now, sounds like an awesome direction for Hollywood to go in right now. Joss Whedon directed this movie, which was a brilliant move on Marvel's part. Those people know their fanbase.<br />
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Another note on this film: Robert Downey Jr. is in it. SO. Even if superheros aren't your thing, Robert Downey Jr. probably is.<br />
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<i>June: </i><br />
In the new grand tradition of totally insane movie titles comes <i>Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. </i><br />
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As previously discussed here on the blog, there seems to be a new trend of having films with titles that communicate immediately that the film is going to be amazing for one of two possible reasons: it will legitimately kick some nerdy movie ass, or will be so completely nonsensical and crazy that it can become a cult classic for his accidental hilarity. Nerdy ass-kicking movies and accidentally hilarious cult classics are two favorite genres of many, many people, most of whom reside inside of the internet.<br />
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Unfortunately, not a lot of information is out right now about this film, but come on. Abraham Lincoln slaying vampires. Produced by Tim Burton, hero of dark and strange films, and social commentary. Starring the stunningly beautiful Mary Elizabeth Winstead, my personal celebrity crush.<br />
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Three great things that go great together, killing an annoying cultural icon. </div>
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Definitely seeing this one at midnight if at all possible. By myself. Like a creep. A history/horror/nerd creep.</div>
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As a side note, <i>Rock of Ages</i> is also coming out this month. This is the only musical I've ever seen on Broadway. I convinced my family to go, because they would know all the songs and they served drinks in the audience. The lead singer of White Snake came on the microphone at the beginning and said only dicks took out their phones during shows. </div>
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The movie is going to either be horrible or amazing. Most likely, horrible in an amazing way. But I'm excited.</div>
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<i>July: </i></div>
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This deserves even more than a drumroll. We need the intro to the Rocky theme for this one. </div>
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Please only listen to the first ten seconds. Ok, we're good.</div>
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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. </div>
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I just watched <i>Batman Begins</i> last week, and I saw <i>The Dark Knight </i>in theaters, and I love them both so much. Christopher Nolan may very well be my favorite mainstream director right now. He should be, and I believe, is, at the forefront of the progression of modern cinema. The man is a genius. His dedication to being as real as possible in his films, and avoiding CGI at all costs, is immensely admirable, and shows through not only in the special effects but also in the overall tone of the movies. Not to mention how intense it is that in <i>Dark Knight,</i> they <i>actually</i> flip an 18 wheeler, they <i>actually blow up a hospital shaped building. </i>It creates a situation where there is no room for gratuitous explosions, which makes all of his blockbusters stand out from other action films. Nolan is also one of the pioneers of the emerging action/romance genre, which is a very important aspect of current cinema, and has taken the idea of a mind-blowing twist at the end of every movie to a new level. </div>
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It is only fitting that Nolan, with all of his dedication to realism, directs the Batman films, with the hero who is really only human. Perhaps it is also the realistic, non-supernatural aspects of the Batman franchise that allow it to be so successful and iconic, and represent cultural ills so well! <i>Batman Begins</i> has some serious undertones of mistrust in the government, very appropriate for 2005, smack in the middle of the Bush administration. <i>The Dark Knight</i> is all about terrorism that we cannot understand, and how properly to fight it (I think, I should look into it more). And here we have the stunningly beautiful Cat Woman, translating the shouts from Occupy Wall Street into whispers to Christian Bale. Lately I've been helping out with some high school English classes, and that's the example I use when I need to explain to them why knowing the political and social events surrounding a story is an important part of understanding literature--"You know sexy Anne Hathaway in the Dark Knight Rises trailer? She's talking about Occupy Wall Street! Doesn't that make the movie more interesting?"</div>
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Speaking of sexy characters in Batman, in this we have, as always Christian Bale. </div>
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Forgive me for the side note, but this man deserves some attention. Christian Bale has, in his life, has played Demetrius from <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream,</i> (my favorite Shakespeare,) Patrick Bateman, everyone's favorite serial killer, Howl from <i>Howl's Moving Castle,</i> possibly the most dreamy anime character I have ever encountered, the awesome guy from <i>The Prestige,</i> John Connor in <i>The Terminator,</i> Thomas, the adorable friend of John Smith in <i>Pochahontas,</i> JESUS, in a made for TV Jesus movie, and Batman. The guy is Jesus and Batman. Seriously. </div>
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Aside from the inhumanly attractive Bale, we also have Joseph Gordon Levitt, possibly the only one who can match Bale in attractiveness. These superhero movies are certainly playing to the ladies. Not that they need to. Even if we go for the hearthrobs, but we stay for the realistic special effects, sociopolitical commentary, character development, and cultural satire. </div>
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In conclusion: I'm going to the movies every day this summer. Yes, it is certainly a good time to be a nerd girl.</div>
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</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-80113277944282818732011-12-27T22:15:00.000-08:002011-12-27T22:15:27.566-08:00Sidney Prescott?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Writing about slasher movies and writing slasher movies again is like breathing again. I miss it so much.<br />
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That said, I've had some thoughts lately! Time for sharing!<br />
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They mostly revolve around this lady:<br />
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One Miss Sidney Prescott. I might venture to say, my favorite survivorgirl?<br />
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But here's what I'm thinking--judging (and I mean JUDGING) by the following things:<br />
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-All of her outfits in Scream 3<br />
-Her perpetual singleness<br />
-Her traumatic experience with men<br />
-Her job in Scream 3 working as a councilor for women in crises over the phone,<br />
-Her haircut,<br />
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So I'm thinking that perhaps, Sidney is being set up to be a lesbian.<br />
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Please don't misunderstand--I don't think all lesbians have short hair and wear sort of androgynous khaki pants (?) and are ultra-feminists, or fit any mold for that matter, but I know how movies work, and if there's a lesbian, it's likely that she's going to have some level of cliche to her, which Sidney certainly seems to. Perhaps it'll be a Dumbledore scenario, or perhaps it'll be openly addressed in the next installment, whatever that is.<br />
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Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part--I think it would be a fantastic aspect to add to Scream 5 (please god, please please let this happen) or the reboot of the Scream franchise (It's too soon. Shut it down. Shut. it. down). Perhaps it's time to comment on the real seriousness of Sidney's loosing her virginity to a serial killer (and perhaps having her only sexual experience be with a serial killer, which is entirely possible with the rest of the plot,) and the fact that the world/God is beginning to accept homosexuality so it's no longer a "sin" that can be punished in a slasher movie situation.<br />
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Of course, this thought, along with some jokes about a script I'm working on with my BFF, led me to think about lesbianism in slasher movies in general. has it ever been addressed in a popular movie?<br />
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The only instance I could think of in my viewing experience is the lesbians in <i>Stupid Teenagers Must Die.</i><br />
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Let's talk about <i>Stupid Teenagers</i> for a second. It's thought of as a decent parody of bad slasher movies, with "all the normal stereotypes!" This is the movie that originally inspired me and my aforementioned BFF to write slasher movies. The rest is history.<br />
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Anyways, one of the stereotypes <i>Stupid Teenagers</i> throws in there is this pair of lesbians who are constantly having sex. Which is all well and good for them, being edgy, whatever--but lesbians are simply not a slasher movie stereotype, at least not from the pool of slasher films that I've been watching. From some very superficial internet research, it seems that the most common slasher film that contains lesbians is the misnomered horror porn, such as <i>Zombie Strippers, </i>etc. (disregarding a few films that are specifically lesbian horror films, such as <i>Femme Fatal)</i>These are different from slasher films. Very different. Really, I think they're based on the misconception of what horror films are.<br />
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This begs the question, of course, as to whether or not it would be relevant to address Sydney's apparent sexuality in another <i>Scream</i> film. Even though it isn't a hot button issue in the realm of slasher film, it is a hot button issue in the real world, and current events are addressed in the <i>Scream</i> films (<a href="http://fearofknitting.blogspot.com/2011/04/im-sorry-i-doubted-you-wes-craven-with.html">technology and fame</a> in <i>Scream 4 </i>for instance).<br />
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Thoughts? Rebuttals? </div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-62157341341937217822011-12-24T20:09:00.000-08:002011-12-24T20:10:00.218-08:00Merry Christmas!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It would be wrong to write that Halloween post and then not do a Christmas post. So here we go!!<br />
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Guys, watch this trailer:<br />
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I'll give it a moment to sink in.<br />
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There's this trend with movies right now, where, when you hear the title or see the trailer, you realize immediately that it's going to be a fantastic film for one of two completely opposite reasons: it's either going to be legitimately epic, well done, thoughtful, and entertaining, or it's going to be so entirely off the handle ridiculous that it will still be thoroughly enjoyable to watch.<br />
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This movie...may have been both of those things?<br />
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Let's talk about it.<br />
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Ok, in case you didn't catch it from the trailer, the film is about finding a monstrous Santa Clause buried deep in a hill somewhere in Finland. This is that Christmastime horror that I was talking about before--already, the story is somewhat unorthodox. It is also a premise that leaves room for so, so much badassery.<br />
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The main characters, a group of working class Finnish men living in the Arctic, originally have no vested interest in the whole Santa scheme--they are, as you saw in the trailer, upset because something--or someone--has killed all of their reindeer, which they herd for meat and fur. It is only a group of Americans and one small child who are concerned with the Santa situation.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of these people tops my list for 'Most Badass Characters of 2011'</td></tr>
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It is only appropriate that a Christmas film focus on a child, which is where the main quirk in this film really comes through--even though it is a Christmas movie, it is also an action film, so the typical child main character of the Christmas aspect of the film somehow manages to also become a totally competent action hero.<br />
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For the first half of the film, nobody believes the boy, Pietari, that there is an evil Santa buried in the mountain--until, of course, a creature that appears to be Santa is found in one of the illegal wolf-traps set up by Pietari's father. It is only then that people begin to believe the child, and he leads three middle aged Finnish men into battle not only with their American opposition, but with a group of bloodthirsty elves and an enormous frozen goat monster. Throughout the film, the child completes various nearly superhuman feats and gives the men instructions one would only expect from the most experienced of action heroes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yeah, secretly a crazy action hero. Obviously.</td></tr>
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This is only the very, very basic premise, however--and from that, as well as from the heavy handed one-liners in the trailer, you would have trouble believing that it managed to be a quality film as opposed to a ridiculous and over the top piece of cinema.<br />
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The part that doesn't fit into the basic premise, however, is what gives the film it's depth, and it's all very surprising. The strange, epic main plot is a vessel for two thoughtful and complex themes.<br />
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Pietari's mother died long before the story we see occurs, and much of the film shows us the struggle his father has being a single father and providing a warm and parental touch to the little family's life. It is simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking to see the gruff butcher try to provide for his child not only materially but emotionally, as well, particularly at Christmastime. This sub-plot revolves around the father only having gingerbread cookies for dinner for days on end--in theory, a child's dream, but a meal that ultimately is not practical or nourishing.<br />
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And, as Pietari points out, in his adorable, tear-jerking way, they aren't as good as mother made them. Perhaps, however, this mano-y-mano relationship is what eventually allows Pietari to prove himself to his father, so that he is no longer treated like such a small child.<br />
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The other sub plot is only hinted at, because the film is mainly from the point of view of a small child. In a <i>To Kill a Mockingbird-</i>esque way, social and political turmoil is hinted at when the reindeer are killed, and when the men notice something strange happening on the mountain that is eventually revealed as Santa's tomb. The adults are constantly discussing the potential that Russian agents had killed their reindeer, or were working on some secret project on the mountain. Though it is never clearly explained in the film, there is a very complex undertone of the Finnish-Russian political relationship, which, as far as I can tell from the internet, is mainly stressed by border control issues, which are the focus in this film.<br />
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So, this Christmas, when you're debating between <i>Santa Clause is Coming to Town</i> and <i>It's a Wonderful Life,</i> make the unorthodox choice--pop in <i>Rare Exports</i> for a surprising, action-packed, touching and thoughtful holiday movie. Think of this movie as your Aunt Jill's pumpkin pie--you were really looking forward to the iconic sugar cookies and the decadent eggnog, but in the end it's the pie you go back for seconds on.<br />
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...or, you know, don't think of it that way. Maybe it's best that you don't.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHKMXKhaYg3L6gh9SzfcL4CMCmhUogrG3jOt6qTBBCjqLdeQR7dUJYpyfZGgRHeElN6JymYMkOYY2rWYxCU93g2i-_chlJ_0NJ9qX-5N8D5mTB29kMhZDgLsEt8S1Rdotmo5PtGk8r_8/s400/donaghy.bmp">Happy Holidays, everyone!! </a><br />
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<i>Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is owned by CINET and Petri Jokiranta, copyright 2010. </i></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-19419547953028766642011-12-12T18:57:00.000-08:002011-12-12T18:58:33.978-08:00Chinatown, Roman Polanski, Noir, and a discussion of ART.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Guys, I have been a Noir fiend lately.<br />
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I keep going back to watch a slasher movie, but something else on my Instant Queue always catches my eye instead--<i>Scarlet Street, The Third Man, The Stranger, Double Indemnity, </i>the list goes on and on. Noir is like the slasher films of the forties and fifties. Low budget, not necessarily respected in its time, very, very genre-riffic (I just made up that word,)...all fantastic. Perhaps I will blog about the similarities and the importance of low budget movies sometime in the future.<br />
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Today, however, I'm going to write a bit about <i>Chinatown</i>, because I decided that I'd watched enough Noir that I'd understand it.<br />
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And I think, as much as one ever can understand <i>Chinatown</i> after watching it only once, I do.<br />
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Spoiler time.<br />
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A little summary for you--as far as I understand, <i>Chinatown</i> is a modern-noir, which is now almost forty years old, but that's fine. It's not shot in black and white, which is very important to the genre, as far as I can tell, but you've got the hard-boiled private eye with all his catchy lines, a Los Angeles that I fully believed was in the forties, the gorgeous, GORGEOUS femme fatale (Faye Dunaway ohmygoodness) and a murder for everyone to get tangled up in.<br />
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The standard plot was set up and followed very well, with various surprises around every turn. I suppose the trick to noir is that you have to know the surprises are coming, but you can't know what they are--right? Perhaps?<br />
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In any case, that's how this movie worked, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. There was also a big discussion about government corruption and capitalism which I was really invested in, but don't feel any need to get into here. The various societal commentary, the biblical allusions, the structure of <i>Chinatown </i>has been discussed plenty, and unless you're my film studies professor, we aren't going to get anywhere by me repeating all of it.<br />
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The thing about <i>Chinatown</i> that hasn't been discussed is the fact that it deals very directly with pedophilia and was directed by Roman Polanski.<br />
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This is something I've been trying to grapple with--when an artist has created something brilliant, but done something that our society considers evil, how much are we to separate the artist from his art? On one hand, we want to appreciate the art without it being colored by our perception of the artist, and examine its merits and its impact objectively. However, we also want to maybe see how the artist's moral ambiguities affected his work, and even just give an artist credit for something beautiful they've created regardless how much we disagree with their other actions or even the message they are sending in the work.<br />
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I addressed this issue in a play I wrote this year for a class in which D.W Griffiths was a character. D.W Griffiths made the film <i>Birth of a Nation,</i> the first American feature-length film, which naturally had a huge impact on the ways films were made and distributed. Also, it was super racist and about the KKK.<br />
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And, unfortunately, except in very film-savvy circles, that's what he's remembered for, which is a shame, because he made plenty of other movies. Another, more common example in film is Walt Disney--made great movies, changed the way we see animation and television and mice, also was a Nazi.<br />
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Do we accept the fact that these brilliant men had flaws, and appreciate their work regardless? Or do we pretend that they didn't have those flaws at all? It's a difficult conundrum, especially when they directly address their asocietal (made up that word tooo) morals in their work, the way Griffiths did with <i>Birth of a Nation</i> or Disney did with <i>Song of the South.</i><br />
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For those of you who don't know, Roman Polanski is largely considered to be a pedophile--in 1977, three years after <i>Chinatown</i> was made, he was arrested for unlawful sex with a thirteen year old girl, plead guilty, and fled to London. In <i>Chinatown,</i> it is revealed near the end of the film that Faye Dunaway's character was raped by her father at fifteen, which becomes a major plot point in the film.<br />
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It's fascinating to me that no one has discussed the similarities about this aspect of the film and how they connect to Roman Polanski's sex scandal in the seventies; the girl in the movie was in her early teens, raped by an older man after his wife died. Polanski's victim too was just a teenager, and his wife was killed in 1969.<br />
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However, the director is much more associated with the main character than with the character of the father--the background of Jack Nicholson's detective is that he failed to save a woman in his previous career in Chinatown and as a result, she was killed, and he became rather despondent and apathetic. This lines up fairly well with Polanski, who cites not being at home the night his wife was murdered as his biggest regret and says that it left him pessimistic and with "eternal dissatisfaction about life."<br />
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Perhaps it is out of respect for Polanski and the film that nobody has made this connection, which would be, in my opinion, the best way to deal with the situation. The crime he committed was a mistake, and the worst of his character, while this is one of the most brilliant things he created, if not the most brilliant. Hopefully, years from now, it will be looked upon as such, and hopefully someday we can look at other artists' work the same way.<br />
<br /></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-60059653180991720382011-10-30T17:52:00.000-07:002011-12-11T19:53:52.161-08:00Happy Halloween! Here is a rant for you.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It is, of course, necessary that I write a blog for Halloween.<br />
Clearly I've been neglecting my ponderings on horror films lately, at least in a formal written out form. Worry not, friends, there is no shortage of heated debates about slasher lore and, now, the local ghost stories here at college. And I know, that, since it is Halloween, I can no longer ignore this blog that was once so well nurtured.<br />
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Normally I would write a review of a horror movie, or a general overview of some Halloween movies, or a rant about fake scary movies that they play on ABC family, but I'm going in a different direction.<br />
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It doesn't make sense for me right now to review one of the approximate BILLION scary movies that are on my list of things to watch, because the majority of them are themed with other holidays; specifically, the next movie on my list is <i>Rare Exports,</i> a Christmas-themed thriller, and the next is <i>April Fools,</i> a terrible, terrible slasher. My Netflix Instant Cue opens with <i>New Years Evil</i> and <i>Graduation Day, </i>and, before on the nonsense with Netflix, those two were quickly followed by <i>My Bloody Valentine. </i>Even right here on this blog I've reviewed <i>Black Christmas</i> and <i>Terror Train,</i> both of which take place in the end of December.<br />
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There are a whole slew of slasher films that take place on other holidays, specifically Christmas. And, as you probably figured out, there is a lot of controversy over these films. In fact, you may have found even yourself feeling a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of mixing the gory death of teenagers that we love so much on Halloween with the happiness and coziness of Christmas.<br />
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A little background: <i>Halloween</i> is considered by many to be "The Father of Slasher Movies." It was wildly successful, making $60,000,000 in about two years with a budget of $320,000. Obviously, great formula: spend relatively little money, make a lot more money, and make a great film. America at the time was ready for it, and, thus, an innumerable amount of movies were made.<br />
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The concept was so simple that hundreds (?) of eager indie film makers jumped on the opportunity. Just get yourself a fake knife, some corn syrup and food dye, some cheap, hopeful, young actors, a creepy place, and you've got yourself a film (I know, I've done it). All you need now is a plot, or a theme of some sort--and, riding on the success of <i>Halloween,</i> many manymanymany of the people making these movies decided on a holiday.<br />
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Christmas is maybe not the most obvious of all the holidays to choose for a movie whose action is based around the murder of "innocents," but for some reason it became very popular. Movies like <i>Silent Night, Deadly Night, Don't Open till Christmas, Christmas Evil</i> and <i>Silent Night, Bloody Night</i> didn't seem to do any better or worse than other films. Perhaps because the movie that I consider to be the "<a href="http://fearofknitting.blogspot.com/2010/12/merry-christmas.html">Mother</a>" of slasher films, and just as good as <i>Halloween,</i> also played a part in the beginning of slasher movies. Perhaps, we can take the cynical view, and say that the producers, directors, and writers were trying to cash in on the controversy that came from making these films, which were often considered a direct assault on family structure and Christianity (don't forget about the New Right shenanigans that were happening in the eighties). Perhaps there are enough angsty people who just need to watch a slasher movie at Christmas to dispel the anger that comes from spending time with laughing children and consumerism. Maybe--and let's go with this one, for the hell of it--the juxtaposition of the violence inherent to slasher films mixed with the happiness that is considered to be inherent to Christmas creates a more shocking and therefore effective film.<br />
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The real question is, why are people so accepting for a violent movie on Halloween and so ready to scorn a movie that takes place on Christmas? <i>Christmas Evil,</i> made in 1984, which directly references Carpenter's film in the tagline ("You made it through Halloween, now see if you can survive Christmas"), made approximately two million dollars, with a budget of about one million, in comparison to <i>Halloween's</i> <i>sixty million dollars</i> worldwide. I'm not going to pretend that <i>Halloween</i> isn't a much, much better movie than <i>Christmas Evil,</i> or that the shock value was already wearing off at that point, but still. Fifty eight <i>million dollars</i> is a lot of money.<br />
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I think it's an interesting cultural phenomena that we sequester a time of year to be scared, or, rather, to let ourselves be scared. Clearly this intentional fear is part of our culture--scary movies make millions of dollars all year round, not just at Halloween. Would it be better to accept it into our every day lives, like the many hardcore horror movie enthusiasts and self-proclaimed members of the goth subculture that already do? Or, is Halloween, like horror movies, a safe place to keep it so we can live our lives pretending that death and fear are not present?<br />
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This has been a Halloween blog post.<br />
<br /></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-76510367577716634412011-08-14T16:16:00.000-07:002011-08-14T16:18:57.753-07:00Preview of my wall in college...what i've done instead of actually packing.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: left;">These are the pictures I've decided need to go in the frames I bought to hang on my wall in at Bennington....I tried to go for a creepy, inexplicable old picture feel, of things that happened in the past for which the explanation is lost...but with signifcant amounts of editing with the help of Picasa. Also some Battleship Potmekin references (at least that's what I was going for,) with the selective color, which all came out being orange/yellow without my realizing it. <br />
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Good way to turn important memories into art, yes?</div><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnymx4XRk2w_Bh8s0RauRHxNM_UEEKIadFEcofXAeWPGOtncLYZcGGBLEv5hi7BwtEs57DJiyaC62aaYLF_Wrx5271ruiDhnvqWo8aaOLaTmUHChrRuFB9lOuxFn1p0mQdpXYKBmeGpA/s1600/bridget+and+kenzie-water+splash.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnymx4XRk2w_Bh8s0RauRHxNM_UEEKIadFEcofXAeWPGOtncLYZcGGBLEv5hi7BwtEs57DJiyaC62aaYLF_Wrx5271ruiDhnvqWo8aaOLaTmUHChrRuFB9lOuxFn1p0mQdpXYKBmeGpA/s320/bridget+and+kenzie-water+splash.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="clear: both; text-align: CENTER;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; border: 0px none; padding: 0px;" /></a></div></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-44211195616201778512011-07-18T00:41:00.000-07:002011-07-18T00:46:44.577-07:00A Treatise on Harry PotterI was five years old when I read the first Harry Potter book, and to this day I picture Hogwarts as the house in which it was read to me; the house belonged to my friend, and it was a significant part of my childhood. It was an amazing house, and reading <i>The Sorcerer's Stone</i> in her yellow-painted bedroom of the three-story, renovated barn is one of the many happy memories I have from the house.<br />
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For a long time every book release was quite a bonding experience for her and her mother and my mother and I. When she grew out of it, it became an event that some other close family friends of ours and my brother and I did together, and it was the only time we'd get together. Book, and later movie releases, were bright spots in my mundane summers, where I could have an excuse to sit down and read for a week straight then reunite with childhood friends and stay up late talking and reading and analyzing every aspect of the series.<br />
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I was, for sure, as obsessed as anyone--and it's easy to see why. Harry Potter defined much of my childhood, and even to this day, as an "adult" to some degree, who can recognize the literary and filmic downfalls of the franchise, I cried when <i>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two in Imax 3D</i> closed with a three-shot of Ron, Hermione, and Harry. For me, and for thousands of other people in my generation, Harry Potter has been a constant--as, for the class of 2011, who started Kindergarten the year the first book was released and who just graduated, has been school. The painfully obvious tagline--"It all ends Summer 2011--" poetically punctuates not only the end of a series I have grown up with, but the end of my time living in the little town where I was born and going to school with the same group of people.<br />
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Regardless of my emotional connections to the story, I wasn't as psyched about this release as other people were, and until I was actually sitting in the enormous IMAX theater, after having waited in line for an hour when I could have been home doing something productive, I didn't care to see the film at all--in fact, I never saw <i>Deathly Hallows Part One.</i> People have been going on and on about how a huge chunk of their childhood is ending, about how a little part of them died, about how it is, in fact, all over, and how much of an effect that is going to have on their lives.<br />
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For me, that feeling has long passed. While a lot of people--especially those a little bit younger (current sophomores, my brother's age,) who were five when the first movie came out--have grown up with the films as much as with the books, if not more, definitely see the movies as entirely a part of Harry Potter, I still can't. I felt the way so many people are feeling now when we got the seventh book at midnight, and when I closed the back cover at one in the afternoon the next day. Equally poetically, it was the summer before I began high school--in a parallel to the story, I was ready to move on.<br />
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Of course, not many other people were--HP continued to define our generation, most clearly shown in a pep rally skit performed by my class, the theme of which was, of course, Harry Potter. I saw the sixth movie at midnight, and I, like everyone else, still find the best way to explain many things is to use Harry Potter analogies. ("you know, he said it like...like Ron says to Hermione in the sixth book," or, "Maybe the little boy at the end of <i>Turn of the Screw</i> wasn't killed, it was just a Harry Potter kinda thing," or, "The only parallel to the rise of Hitler is Voldemort.") All in all, though, the franchise and the fandom became sort of a nuisance to me. I have things to do. I am a grown up lady and I won't bother myself anymore with this nonsense.<br />
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Not true, of course. But my cynicism of all things enjoyed by the masses has led me to be a lot more critical of the series, and, in turn, the movies.<br />
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Part of the brilliance of <i>Harry Potter </i> is that, for my generation, the books aged with us perfectly. <i>The Sorcerer's Stone</i> is like a gateway book to a lifetime of reading for so many young kids, and <i>The Deathly Hallows</i> is a dark, dramatic, and complicated fantasy. This brilliance also becomes a bit of a downfall for the series, and especially for the poor characters. There's a massive disconnect that comes in the end of the fourth book. The first three stories are whimsical, spooky, and fantastic for children. There's a clear good vs. evil, the plot follows a formulaic, episodic model that's already familiar to the audience (summer, school, Halloween, Christmas, Spring sports, finals, and so on.)<br />
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By the end of the fourth book, I was eight, and kind of ready for the shock of an almost main character getting killed by the big bad guy. By the fifth, I was ten, and, even though it was traumatic, almost ready for the angst and death that marks <i>Order of the Phoenix</i>. Almost. What had been a fun and whimsical tale set in a fun and whimsical location was suddenly a story of political intrigue, of abandoned houses and prophecies and such, but still sprinkled with fun and whimsical things like pixies and bogarts and the like. Harry's frustrating and inexplicable angst was somewhat incongruent with the stories we knew.<br />
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The sixth book continued with the drama, but at least still at Hogwarts, to some degree; the seventh book could be part of a completely different series. There are two ways to look at this: one, the audience got to old for the fun and whimsy, the universe got so big that there had to be an epic fantasy/war book in order to get things wrapped up, and Rowling wrote the book long after the directors of the films had switched from the lighthearted Christopher Columbus to much darker directors and was being influenced by the style somewhat. This is one of many criticisms, and opens up a discussion about the simplicity of the plot and characters and the simplistic, unchallenging writing, the dependence on a franchise and strong fanbase, and the lack of vitality that the story has.<br />
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Alternatively, one can look at the entirety of Harry Potter as following a similar pattern--if with a more Disney ending--as Chinua Achebe's <i>Things Fall Apart,</i> or Greek Tragedies, or Film Noir<i>--</i>because, by the seventh book/movie, the entire world of the three main characters has completely crumbled. As in <i>Things Fall Apart,</i> the majority of the first part of the story is marked by episodic plots controlled by specific dates, dotted with dramatic adventures that make the characters grow some, but in the end, it is an outside force that the characters feel they need to singlehandedly defeat that entirely destroys their way of life.<br />
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This is an emotional moment for those of us who are emotionally attached to Harry&company. It mimics our own realization that the world is not necessarily all whimsy and fun, and somethings things to fall apart entirely. Ultimately, the whimsical, wizarding setting of the series is incidental; the stories are about death, what happens after death, dealing with the after life and with mourning; it is about a group of non-muggles who are still mortals, who cannot beat death even though they have infinite luxuries of magic and such. This is philosophically somewhat simplistic, but it hits home for the audience of adolescence who, developmentally, are realizing the idea of mortality themselves. Not only that, but it emphasizes the fleeting nature of adolescense and school; no matter how dramatic it may be, you may only be one white page labeled "epilogue" or one black screen titled "19 years later" away from a pleasant adulthood. Harry's life reflects our own in many ways, and while he says the well acted line that so easily could have been cheesey, to Voldemort, "Let's finish this the way we started it--together!" he says to us, the crazy high schoolers who so many times have banged our heads against a keyboard in sincere imiation of his puppet self, chanting "angst, angst, angst, " who grew up with JK Rowling and Harry&Co fixing our problems:"Let's finish this, the nonsense battle with the world that is puberty and public education, the way we started it way back on the first day of first grade--together!<br />
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Overall, the movie itself greatly exceeded my fairly low expectations. IMAX 3D was much more impressive than I expected, and I can now see it as being a tool for innovation in cinematography rather than a novelty tech toy. The combination of light and dark and long and close-up shots was much better and more balanced than the usual (dark field. dark castle. black dragon. Emma watson. Field. Dragon. Castle. Emma. More Emma. Some castle. Field. Castle. Emma.) They didn't dwell too long on many things, the movie didn't feel drawn out as some of the others in the series do. Helena Bonham Carter had to act like Hermione, which was brilliant. The battle scenes and the epilogue, were, dare I say it, better for me in film form than in the book--again, possibly because Rowling had the films in mind when she wrote the seventh book (all the unecessary description in the epilogue does make it read somewhat like a script.) The casting for the whole franchise is quite brilliant. I really enjoyed the whole audience clapping when Ron and Hermione kissed, and when Molly Weasley yells, "Not my daughter, you bitch!" I wasn't even too bothered by the fact that Daniel Radcliffe is 22 and not 17, and that Harry Potter is the most pretentious character in modern film.<br />
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Actually, Harry Potter's pretentiousness did bother me, some. I suppose that's something that also plays to teenagers developmental tendency to be as egocentric as a four year old--three characters, your age, who probably fill enough types that you can relate to at least one of them, who are literally the center of the universe. The movies, especially, are very Harry-centric. Fair enough, he is the eponymous character, and, again, the center of the whole wizarding world. But still, there are some scenes--such as snapping the elder wand in half and throwing it into the lake as his average friends stare in disgust--where his haughtiness is just overwhelming. My favorite part of the movie may very well have been when Neville stepped in after Voldemort had allegedly killed Harry and said something along the lines of, "The forces of good don't simply cease to exist because Harry Potter is dead, you guys..." and everyone was like "wait, what....oh yeah! Stuff happened here before the kid was born too!" (Even though, to be honest, as soon as Voldemort said, "I've killed Harry Potter!" I really wanted Radcliffe to just stand up and yell something like "Think again, bitch! Avada Kadavera!" [or, Voldemort style, ahhvahdah kadahhha!"])<br />
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In my opinion, the most interesting part of the series is the backstory of Voldemort--again, and seriously, it is very close to the rise of Hitler, and feels similar to study--how is it that these villians that we hold in this special, "he who must not be named" spot, in reality or literature, come to be as evil and as powerful as they are? I'd like to see a film directed more around Tom Riddle, personally. I did love in the seventh movie when Harry called Voldemort Tom to his face...that was quite the scene.<br />
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The hype is still a little much for me, but again, I do have an emotional attachment. I'm glad that, in the future, even though I won't be able to say I saw any classic bands playing live, I will be able to say that I saw Harry Potter in theaters when it first came out,and got the seventh book at midnight, and lived through a phase of fandom that was, at the time, rivaled only by Elvis and The Beatles. And I did cry during the film, not only at seeing Ron cry over his brother's body or at the first shot of Dobby's grave, but also when Olivander echoed his line from the first story, "The wand chooses the wizard," and whenever the main theme came in, and in the last shot of the three friends holding hands.<br />
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In an emotion that, again, poetically mimics that of Harry himself as he walks into the forbidden forest, I realized walking out of the gluttonous theater that while I am sad, I am ready for this part of mys life to be over--but I also know that it will not be. Literature and film are written about in the present tense, so any day that I want to relive a sleepover in my best friends bedroom in her old house, or the night I stayed up all night with an old pal finishing the series, I can pick up one of the easiest books to read, and Dumbledore and Dobby and Voldemort will still be alive, it will still be up in the air whether Hermione ends up with Ron or Harry, and the terrible epilogue will not yet have occured.<br />
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Also, does anybody really believe that WB and JK Rowling are going to stop sitting on that comfy pile of ever-growing cash created by the franchise? I think not.fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-13222009365647934392011-07-08T05:53:00.000-07:002011-07-08T05:55:55.178-07:00Writing in the media. What is happening.You know what's terrible right now?<br />
Ok, bad question. Lots of things are terrible right now. The economy and the war are terrible. Corrupt dictators are terrible. Disease is terrible. Stuff is not looking so good.<br />
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Here's what I think is the <i>most</i> terrible: the media.<br />
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The state of journalism right now is just sad stuff. Of course, this is why I'm going into journalism as a career--I have an incredible urge to fix it. The whole thing. Fix it all.<br />
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Really, though, every day I go into my kitchen and watch Fox News with my father, and as he's laughing at the "clever" commentary or "groundbreaking" discoveries, I just die inside. Every moment that those silly blonde women or the silly man who stands in front of the capital building in Massachusetts and yells about stuff says something else I just see the art that I love descending down the steps to hell.<br />
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My thoughts on this are stirred by a conversation I just had after I was accused of getting all my news from Stephen Colbert and John Stewart. First of all, not true. I am a regular news junkie. I get news from those two, but also my Google News Feed, NPR....<i>Wait Wait Don't Tell Me...SNL....The Week...</i><br />
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You may see my problem here--five out of seven of those things are, in fact, news satires. Therein lies the question--where else am I supposed to get news? Satire is the only place where people, instead of talking about all the strange and irrelevant horrible things that are happening, talk about what is happening and how horrible all the people reporting on it are.. Everything right now is a distraction for our bigger problems--we seem to be stuck in an endless loop. Think of the biggest news stories from the past few months. The Royal Wedding? Anthony Weiner and friends? The End of the World?<br />
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Short answer--nothing important. Nothing long term. So much is going on right now, and these are the things we've decided we care most about. The big problems, everything from the corrupt medical system to the war to climate change and our depleting oil supply, is pushed into the background. Which, as far as I'm concerned, adds the media right onto that list of big problems we don't want to think about.<br />
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Until I was thirteen, I wanted to be the president of the United States. I've since decided journalists are much more powerful. Where on earth would the Tea Party movement be without Fox News or Rush Limbaugh? How many democratic bills do you think would have passed if the conservative media hadn't been so upset and critical? Everywhere we can see evidence of the media--television, specifically--being used in ways that it never has been used before. Look at the perfect case study, Sarah Palin--a governor turned vice presidential candidate turned reality show star who may run for president or vice president again. Better yet, we have Donald Trump, who the country braced itself against/embraced the idea of him as a presidential candidate, even though he has been a television icon for the past decade. Rumor has it that Alec Baldwin, a movie star, is considering running for mayor of New York--hilariously, since he himself is a political satirist. Not even to mention Colbert's Superpac, and his run for president last year jokingly, etc.<br />
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The point is, the country is being more influenced by the media than ever before, I might say, and we are influenced by it quite a bit. And if the media most of us were getting was accurate or unbiased, that'd be great. If you're getting your news from the television though, which most of us undoubtedly are, it's almost impossible to do that. You can't check the sources, they <i>are</i> the sources. You can't form your own opinions, the opinions are right in there. Fox isn't going to cover a story of a democratic senator doing something awesome or successful, they're just going to give us twenty four hour coverage of an irrelevant sexting scandal.<br />
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And, as much as I hate to get political here (a bit late for THAT now, Krista,) there's an interesting thing about Anthony Weiner and all of his nonsense--would any of that happened if he were a republican?<br />
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The reason I watch Colbert and Stewart is because they back up what they're saying. They point out the contradictory things that the other news stations do--which makes it nearly impossible to take the other stations seriously--ironically, since they are literally the serious ones compared to Stewart's comedy.<br />
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This is my personal favorite example of a comedian backing up something that they say and contradicting the news giant's own commentary--when Stewart <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/110524/stewart-smacks-fox-over-nazi-hypocrisy.html">totally destroyed Fox news</a> when they got mad that a senator had compared one of his conservative opponents a Nazi.<br />
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Here's where I get to my point--the most important thing, at least to me currently, about being a good journalist with a strong opinion is using your facts. Find them. Put them in your articles. Make it easy for your readers to believe that they are true, even make it easy for them to find those facts themselves. I'm all for fancy rhetoric and style, but you are nowhere, you are nothing more than an arrogant internet troll, if you don't have facts.<br />
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There is one website that I read with embarrassing regularity that is actually the best example of journalism that I think is around right now. Nowhere am I more inspired or can I learn more from for both my blogging and my more serious journalism than this site. And that site is--you ready for this?--cracked.com.<br />
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I'm not saying, of course, that you should get all your news or trust everything on Cracked, but there's no argument that they provide interesting information in an accessible, hilarious, and intelligent way. I've borrowed a lot from their style in terms of incorporating facts and pictures and captions, which you'll probably notice if you read my blog as well as theirs.<br />
<br />
The reason they are so smart is because they do their research and they use technology to tell you about it. One of the reasons I love blogging so much as a journalistic medium is because it's so <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4">easy</a> to just throw<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"> links </a>into your writing to<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8oLu7znwQ0"> just about anything</a>. This means that instead of having to present your facts in lengthy paragraphs about statistics that people will just skip over/not necessarily believe, or having to choose what statistics and facts are best from piles and piles of data that support the statement you're trying to make, you can just bring your readers right to the <a href="http://www.cracked.com/">source</a> and they can figure it out for themselves. I've always been impressed with the way Cracked does this, and they're starting to do it in creative ways: take <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_19288_8-weirdly-sexual-products-you-wont-believe-are-kids_p2.html">this</a> article for instance, which has a sentence with every word being a link to another piece of evidence. Or <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-pro-marijuana-arguments-that-arent-helping/?wa_user1=3&wa_user2=Weird+World&wa_user3=blog&wa_user4=feature_module">this one</a>, which is a perfect example of how much they back up what they're saying with legitimate sources.<br />
<br />
A lot of people write Cracked off as a crude humor site, which, don't get me wrong, it certainly is and totally intends to be. Because they have an excessive amount of pictures of scantily clad ladies and NSFW text, they aren't considered to be a very intellectual site. But what are you supposed to do but swear when the state of journalism is so sad that the most innovative and intelligent source of information is a crude humor site?<br />
<br />
Perhaps the only other thing to do is get a liberal arts degree with a concentration in journalism and try to fix it myself.fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-49189041892523820412011-06-23T22:23:00.000-07:002011-06-23T22:28:04.654-07:00Classic movies--priceless?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I just bought one of my favorite movies, one of the most influential movies of all time, <i>Bonnie and Clyde,</i> for five dollars. My friend and I were at Wally World, buying some blank DVD's on which to put our latest slasher creation (more on that later,) and there was a big bin of movies for five dollars--the best place for finding terrible low budget horror films, which I love. The bin was not organized in any particular way; simply a three foot wide, royal-blue, mesh cylinder filled to the brim with cheap entertainment. And buried somewhere in the pile was the classic, <i>Bonnie and Clyde.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The good thing about this is, I now own and hour and a half of Faye Dunaway and I didn't even spend as much as I would have to buy a small sandwich. The bad thing is, this terribly important movie was tossed away into this bin and that isn't how movies should be treated.<br />
<br />
This makes me displeased about, well, the way movies are presented to us that so many people just accept. A lot of things make me displeased about this, but this particular incident is a nice punctuation to my thought sentence that warranted a blog post about it.<br />
<br />
According to my very intelligent film studies teacher, as well as, well, film studies in general, <i>Bonnie and Clyde</i> is a pretty important film. A super important film. It changed how violence was depicted, it cemented the place of two legendary cultural icons, it launched Fay Dunaways career (guys, I LOVE Faye Dunaway. She was the most beautiful woman in the world in 1968,) it won too many awards to count, it changed cinema (and America? yes?) forever. It is not only a classic, it is one of the few movies that I think can be considered one of <i>the</i> classics. But more on that later.<br />
Is it right for this movie to be thrown in a bin while other, more recent movies like <i>Red Riding Hood</i> or <i>Gnomeo and Juliet</i> are displayed and played on display televisions? What message does that give?<br />
<br />
Considering how many mainstream audiences seem to feel about old movies, in that, they refuse to watch them or understand them in context, it gives the message that old movies are unimportant and new movies are important. It's amazing how many of my very intelligent friends believe that many movies coming out today are brilliant and amazing, but also refuse to watch or respect anything made before their lifetime--where, I think, many of the best movies were made.<br />
<br />
Obviously, this is a necessary marketing technique to keep the movie industry running--arguably we should sometimes end up with a movie that has the potential to be a <i>Bonnie and Clyde</i> forty seven years from now, and without all the stagnant movies in between that wouldn't be able to happen.<br />
<br />
However, classic films such as <i>Bonnie and Clyde</i> are a part of our culture--nearly just as much as classic literature--or, as much as I'd hate to see this, more in upcoming generations. So much so, I believe, that major cultural and educational changes in the way we look at film are warranted: at the very least, stores selling films should have a "classics" section where films like this are displayed and treated with the respect they deserve. Really, they should be displayed with other films and noted as being more important--slap <i>Bonnie and Clyde</i> next to <i>Fast Five </i>on the shelf with a note: Vin Diesel wouldn't be allowed to carry a gun if this movie didn't happen. At the most extreme level of treating these movies as culturally significant, I think film should start holding more weight in regular school curricula. Not only would this connect to literature--it is hard to find a modern cultural facet more influenced by literature than film--it would provide a basis for understanding so much about our popular culture and social culture, just as literature does. I'm certainly not saying that traditional English classes should be replaced by film studies classes, (even though I do have my own issues with traditional high school English classes,) but I think we're going to begin seeing, if we haven't seen already, film becoming an even more massively important part of our culture--it is very possibly already as important to us as books were important to the centuries before us (please, oh culture lord in media heaven, do not let films replace books.) Film is also a fantastic way to learn about history--there needs to be more emphasis on modern history in schools, as well, and there is no better way to learn about life in a specific time than to watch a film, fictional or non fictional, from then. There are so many cultural references and segments of history that I understand because I had the opportunity to take a film studies class and therefore watch a lot of great films that I may not have watched otherwise--however, not everyone has that opportunity.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to my last point, another good thing about <i>Bonnie and Clyde</i> being on sale for five dollars at Wal-Mart. If movies are just as culturally relevant and important as books, then they should be readily available to everyone--even though being buried at the bottom of the five dollar film bin isn't exactly readily available. I'm somewhat appaled that this fantastic film was selling for so little while standing next to some Katherine Heigle formla film being sold for probably four times as much. However, part of me feels like movies this important should be available for free--like classics on Kindle. We are only three years away from the 100 year anniversary of the first full length feature film, meaning, I believe, if it were in book form, it would enter the public domain. It's only so long before lots of influential films gain that status--and should the same idea be applied? Should Itunes advertise free classic flims, to encourage young people to watch them? Should they just advertise them anyways? (yes.) Does making these films cheap make them more accessible or simply lower them to a status below new unimpressive films and next to low budget horror movies? Can any price be put on viewing a piece of culture that affects much of our media today? Is culture truly priceless?<br />
<br />
I'm conflicted about it, but regardless:<i> Bonnie and Clyde</i>. In a five dollar bin. Seriously? Get with it, Wal mart and customers.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XFwjvFKO10h-BwEDKNrEyQnvHXZQaDbt0qoDK3wyhueVgEzSkYNw6NTlYFymFgvChvr2K_yKHITL9wktHmBNVhqZeJz4g_GflgOjqQx-ENSN9o9mqbaD-orGr-xj9ufp7v5Es5-DC4I/s1600/bonnie-and-clyde-faye-dunaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XFwjvFKO10h-BwEDKNrEyQnvHXZQaDbt0qoDK3wyhueVgEzSkYNw6NTlYFymFgvChvr2K_yKHITL9wktHmBNVhqZeJz4g_GflgOjqQx-ENSN9o9mqbaD-orGr-xj9ufp7v5Es5-DC4I/s320/bonnie-and-clyde-faye-dunaway.jpg" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Also, Faye Dunaway in the sixties. So beautiful. </td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-24968902427277543302011-06-08T17:47:00.000-07:002011-06-08T17:47:21.449-07:00MTV Movie awards.../why on earth does this happen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I haven't posted in forever, I'm a terrible blogger, etc, etc, etc.<br />
<br />
But the MTV Movie awards just happened, and I have some stuff to say.<br />
<br />
I did not watch the movie awards, but while it was happening I happened to look at a live feed online of what movies were winning. And I was upset.<br />
<br />
Granted, some good things did happen--for instance, my favorite actress Chloe Grace Moretz winning Best Breakout Star as well as Biggest Badass, two things that are incredibly true. Yay! Also, Emma Stone won for best comedic performance in <i>Easy A, </i>and I love her and that movie as well so that was also good.<br />
<br />
HOWEVER. The thing that really upset me was that <i>The Twilight Saga: Eclipse</i> won Best Movie of the Year.<br />
<br />
Wait: it gets worse.<br />
<br />
Kristen Stewart also won for best female performance, beating out fellow nominees Emma Stone, Emma Watson, Jennifer Aniston, and Natalie Portman who WON THE OSCAR in case anybody missed that. Just to fill out the prom court in as stereotypical a way as possible, Robert Pattinson also won Best Male Performance, over his fellow supernatural beings Taylor Lautner and Daniel Radcliffe, but also his fellow teen hearthrob Zac Effron, and, most surprisingly (though should it be?) Jesse Eisenberg. Pattinson and Stewart also won Best Kiss, (triumphing over Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, among others,) and, most upsettingly, Pattinson, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Xavier Samuels won <i>Best Fight.</i> Seriously? Not Chloe Grace Moretz beating the living daylights out of a grown man drug dealer? Not Joseph Gordon-Levitt beating the living daylights out of some guy while upside down? Are you kidding me?<br />
<br />
Confession time, I have not seen <i>Eclipse,</i> so I don't know anything about it's merit or lack thereof, but I think it says something very strange about MTV Movie awards. With nominees including multiple Oscar winners as well as two of the most money making themes of the film decade--Harry Potter and Christopher Nolan--it's incomprehensible that <i>Eclipse</i> won nearly fifty percent of the awards. (38%, to be exact, 5 out of 13.)<br />
<br />
Some questions come up, one in particular--who decides who wins these things? Who is voting? Is it the MTV audiences? Is it the washed up celebrities who attend the evening?<br />
<br />
According to Wikipedia, the "general public" is voting through a link on the MTV website, which now is rather difficult to get to but before the show was probably on display on the home page. So...it is indeed people who watch MTV who voted for this, but more importantly, people who spend their free time browsin' around the MTV website. ...yeah. (Note: the nominees are chosen by some apparently arbitrary excecutives at MTV.)<br />
<br />
Time to make grand assumptions! I know when I had time to browse around television networks websites, I was about thirteen years old. Maybe fourteen. I know that those years were also the only time in my life where I watched MTV regularly, (oh geez. Not especially regularly. I watched "Next" sometimes on Saturday mornings. I'm not proud. Don't judge me,) and the same goes for my little brother. I also know, or can infer, that it is mostly middle school girls who like Twilight so much, because, as I've said, that is when I liked Twilight.<br />
<br />
So...can we extrapolate that MTV's main audience is, in fact, middle school girls? Yes?<br />
<br />
Further research should be done on this subject, for MTV's sake, because they mostly advertise to what I can only imagine some statistics have shown is their target audience--college aged people, mostly men, who are not, in fact, in college. Their commercials are mostly for late-night flavored Doritos and Axe that makes you smell like you don't have a hangover and colleges that you can go to online if you pay them hundreds of billions of dollars.<br />
<br />
We have some indiscrepancies here. The people voting for these movie things, (the "Golden Popcorn Awards) are so clearly middle schoolers, and yet MTV is perfectly successful targeting its programming towards older people. And I haven't even mentioned TV shows, but perhaps if I look into that i can find a common theme.....<br />
<br />
On MTV on any given day (today), we have a healthy helping of "hot" and "Killer" music videos, followed by the Reese Witherspoon chick flick, <i>Uptown Girls (</i>on Sunday, Witherspoon one the MTVMA's equivalent of a lifetime acheivement award.) After that we get into our daily dose of teen pregnancy, with some <i>Teen Mom</i> followed by some <i>Sixteen and Pregnant: Where are they now?</i> (which I thought was the premise of <i>Teen Mom, </i>but whatever.) Next is what appears to be some reruns of <i>Teen Wolf, </i>then a re-run of the awards, then a mixture of <i>Real World XXX,</i> <i>Jackass,</i> <i>That 70's Show, </i> and just a little bit more <i>Sixteen and Pregnant</i> until midnight.<br />
<br />
MTV. Such classy programming for our 12-24 year olds.<br />
<br />
The question now is, who is watching these shows? And the answer is easy, but unfortunately leads us in an unpleasant circle of teen romance: the same people who watch twilight, for the most part. <i>Teen Wolf</i> is an immediate Twilight parallel, which was worth giving two hours of afternoon time, and the teen pregnancy shows, more subtly, share the common themes of acting like you're an adult when you're in high school and also having terrible creepy boyfriends. Twlight fans watch MTV, Twilight fans vote for award.<br />
<br />
Who are they? I don't know....<br />
<br />
also, <a href="http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/boiling-point-why-you-shouldnt-care-about-mtvs-movie-awards-or-mtv-in-general.php">this</a> is a pretty great and relevant article from the (I think usually) wonderful Film School Rejects. He swears a little bit but articulates his point well...MTV is catering to their target audience, which clearly has to be sixteen year old girls. Regardless, this is upsetting, because not long ago I was a sixteen year old girl and the smart ones should not have the misfortune of being surrounded by people with such dreadful tastes in pop culture and media.<br />
<br />
In my opinion.<br />
<br />
</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-23605616671506089772011-04-18T14:55:00.000-07:002011-04-18T14:57:42.222-07:00Regular posting? Whatt??<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Someday, I will be a real blogger.<br />
I also might get a tumblr. More appropriate for sharing this type of thing:<br />
<br />
I am in love with this man. Honestly, probably one of my heroes.<br />
<br />
The man makes <i>Cabin Fever</i> and <i>Hostel, </i>two gratuitously gory films, directs 90% of <i>Cabin Fever Two: Spring Fever, </i>a film almost entirely based on images of rotting flesh, mentors <a href="http://fearofknitting.blogspot.com/2011/01/moar-babies-chick-flicks-and.html">one of my favorite new directors, Paul Solet,</a> and this is what he's afraid of:<br />
<br />
"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"Fanaticism, in any form, terrifies me. Fanatical devotion to a cause — religious, political, social, even sports teams, often becomes an excuse to let our most violent sides out. When people see others around them that feel the same, they believe in their cause so strongly that suddenly the regular rules of society and behavior stop applying to them, and their actions feel justified because everyone around them feels the same way." (Read the rest <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2065321_2065320_2065312,00.html">here</a>) </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br />
</span>*Squee!* That's what <i>I'm</i> afraid of!!<br />
<br />
Aaanyways, that comes from a list of answers by people that Time magazine has determined in our society to be "scary..." I shan't get into an interpretation of that right now.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikcT9nKV8RieXWphejrZK5p65tsJfc1Lpq6Q6E1qq5FLvNrsRgJxbzs9vHLpMO8fZ6ZBeB3Xp0iOYgKxVkpsSf_1ClcJvVgRKQtlkAKdFvcuqYTnG7cT2J20CUOnzyBAKbNfJjU2z5WtQ/s1600/eli_roth_15934.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikcT9nKV8RieXWphejrZK5p65tsJfc1Lpq6Q6E1qq5FLvNrsRgJxbzs9vHLpMO8fZ6ZBeB3Xp0iOYgKxVkpsSf_1ClcJvVgRKQtlkAKdFvcuqYTnG7cT2J20CUOnzyBAKbNfJjU2z5WtQ/s320/eli_roth_15934.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">*swoon*</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-64006595981695969762011-04-17T14:35:00.000-07:002011-04-18T15:03:07.871-07:00I'm sorry I doubted you, Wes Craven (with some spoilers.)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i>(Correction--a dear critic corrected me, saying that there are A LOT of spoilers. So be warned about that.)</i><br />
<br />
Thank you, Wes Craven. Thank you very very much.<br />
<br />
You have pulled it off.<br />
<br />
I have just returned from actually viewing <i>Scream 4,</i> as opposed to just judging it...<br />
<br />
It MASSIVELY surpassed my expectations. I should not have doubted Wes Craven's ability to be amazing.<br />
I am sincerely impressed.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, I don't even know where to start with this film--besides being accessible for a genre audience, it's actually a really challenging film critically.<br />
<br />
Spoiler alert.<br />
<br />
The film starts out with what you'd expect a <i>Scream</i> film to start out with--two stupid girls picking up the phone and being subject to murder by a stalker. The title rolls in--<i>Stab 6. </i>What?<br />
<br />
Ok, cute. Wes Craven's doing a sort of Nolan-esque thing, starting us off in a film within a film. Two blonde girls, (actresses whose names I do not know, but who were recognizable,) sit on a couch, discussing the metaphysics of horror films. In an amazing way, I might add--I was very pleased to find that the movie was mostly self aware even to the point that it was discussing the now overdone cliche of being self aware in a horror movie, <i>and</i> making fun of overly long franchises, which, now that it has left trilogy status, <i>Scream </i>has technically become.<br />
<br />
Suddenly! One of the girls is killed in a rather creative way, but the killer is also revealed--we are confused. Don't we have an hour and forty seven minutes left? How come you just killed her? Regardless, I was totally willing to watch the movie with the new introduced plot .<br />
BUTWAITTHERE'SMORE. <i>Another</i> title, <i>Stab 8</i>, rolls onto the screen, and the camera again zooms away from a flat screen television onto to more girls sitting on a couch.<br />
<br />
What. What is happening. My mind has exploded. So great. The new two girls discuss Woodsborough, and the fact that the <i>Stab</i> movies are based on Sidney Prescott, (introducing the fact that the <i>Stab</i> movies are the <i>Scream</i> universe's version of itself,) and set up the fact that it is the anniversary of the plot in question. Both girls are killed, more dramatically than any of the previous, and we are pounded with the dramatic white block lettering of our real title, with much more of an impact than it would have had when the other titles rolled onto the screen.<br />
<br />
Perfection. It was rather ridiculous, but it was clearly supposed to be ridiculous. It set up for the almost all of the major themes in the film, such as<br />
-self awareness in movies<br />
-making fun of franchises, therefore, making fun of itself (more self awareness)<br />
-the importance of movies in culture/a microculture<br />
-the importance of culture's influence on movies<br />
-the fame of Sidney Prescott's story in Woodsborough<br />
-whether or not it is a good thing to turn tragedy into horror<br />
-how awesome Wes Craven is.<br />
<br />
These themes were, of course, continued strongly throughout the rest of the film. The media was analyzed and criticized appropriately; the current generation received the same treatment. Particularly under examination was technology--from the first minute of the film, we saw stupid teenagers using facebook on their cellphones (/iphones, yay product placement!) and getting killed immediately thereafter. The trouble with identity confusion that can come from a digital world where everybody is inherently connected to their phone number and facebook account was used to an almost Shakespearean level.<br />
<br />
This, of course, made it more difficult to find out who the killer really was--as per usual, everyone was a suspect, but having phones constantly stolen from supposed "victims--" and we know that, in this franchise, you can never really believe what you see--made one wonder who was at the other end of the text message.<br />
<br />
Technology was also used with plentiful webcam views, which was overemphasized in ads, but still an important part of the movie and very effective. Particularly poignant was one drunken victim, watching the live feed from his handheld webcam on his phone--so he saw the killer in the screen before he did in real life...still on the screen.<br />
<br />
There's one big thing I want to discuss that is a HUGE spoiler, and I'd really hate to ruin it for you, but I will--the killer is female. I won't name names, because I was actually really surprised. Craven leads us so brilliantly to believe that he's doing the same thing he did in the original--and since, in this movie, all the characters have essentially <i>seen </i>the original, in the form of the fictional <i>Stab,</i> they too believe that the killers will fit the same type. I did know something fishy was up--the suspect boyfriend's character was never developed quite enough, and the actual killer was weird throughout the film--something I simply attributed to bad acting.<br />
<br />
Having the killer be female is a huge statement for horror film. It isn't as if this is the first time we've had a female killer, but having it be so otherwise traditional, and having the victims still be female--was quite intense. This is, at once, empowering and victimizing to the female character, in positive and negative ways. <i>Scream</i> has always been the most empowering slasher franchise for women, I think, because you don't have to do any sort of analysis to understand the survivorgirl status of Neve Cambell, emphasized by her ridiculously badass, almost action movie-esque clincher lines. However, this is particularly empowering--although the movie focuses a lot on whether Sidney is a victim or not, as a (apparently still virginal? quote, "Sidney's problem is that she never gets laid," so it would appear so?) woman, but it is clear that women are not only victims because the aggressor is<i> also</i> female.<br />
<br />
However!! The female killer has been created, ironically, <i>by</i> Sidney herself. Her motives lie in wanting to live up to Sidney's fame, in a world where fame doesn't necessarily come from talent, but from "having f*cked up sh*t happen to you," a technique which Sidney is a perfect example of--but that rings very true in our culture today. The killer is ultimately a victim of Sidney's victimization.<br />
<br />
Most importantly, I think, this movie discusses in depth the "new rules" of horror. Wes Craven has as much authority to discuss these as he did to discuss the "old" rules, having remade many of his movies himself. The basis of the new rules is that, to successfully scare audiences, you have to reverse the old rules. You must anticipate the audiences expectations, and simply destroy them. <i>This</i> new movie does that, and discusses it, very effectively. The beautiful irony is that<i>, </i>arguably, the original <i>Scream</i> is what nullified the "old rules." Once a movie like that comes out, revealing all the secrets to the audience, essentially, in an official sort of way, you can't seriously make a film that follows those same strategies.<br />
<br />
The thing that <i>Scre4m</i> doesn't discuss is that you still do have to adhere to those old rules, somewhat, to satisfy the audience. No, they're no longer pleased with a straight up slasher, but they do still want that moment of "don't open the door!" that characterized the old films so much. In a genre with as visible a progression as the slasher genre, it is almost impossible to make a film without paying homage to the other movies that made that one possible--even this movie has at least three shout outs to <i>Psycho. </i>Audiences expect that nostalgic feel when they see a slasher movie, and this one puts that out there very effectively.<br />
<br />
My favorite thing about this franchise is that it points out to a mass audience something that I already know. By being presented as a real horror film--ie, one in which all the characters, in it's own universe, are real and to be taken seriously--but also discussing every step of the plot, it shows something very important that any genre fan believes--we are all, essentially, living in a movie.<br />
<br />
"I judge life by its cinematic counterpart. It makes it worth the seven dollars I paid to get in." -ZS </div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-82621302756757928522011-04-16T08:06:00.000-07:002011-04-16T20:58:59.008-07:00Just how much can Leonardo di Caprio hallucinate in one year?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i>Newspaper-style review for my Journalism class: </i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">It seemed that, in 2010, the bar was set fairly high for films to shock their audiences with extreme realism in animation and special effects or over-the-top plot twists. This, of course, is a brilliant way to have a film become “what everybody is talking about.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"> The best example of this is Christopher Nolan’s Inception, where the audience is left wondering what parts of the movie were simply figments of main character Leonardo DiCaprio’s imagination. But before audiences were left to wonder what scenes in Inception took place in DiCaprio’s head, they were left to wonder which scenes in Shutter Island took place…in DiCaprio’s head. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese, came out in January of 2010, five months before Inception’s high-grossing release. It follows the story of Marshall Teddy Daniels, (played by DiCaprio,) who is sent to an isolated island off the coast of Boston to investigate the escape of a mental patient from a somewhat experimental criminal institution. He is given a new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo,) for the job, and the men trudge through the gray weather of the Atlantic while discussing their military history in thick Bostonian accents. Soon after reaching the island, they learn that things have gone amiss.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> The thing that people talked about most in this movie was the plot twist in the end, which is almost Shyamalan-esque. Scorsese very effectively leads up to this, and setting the audience just a bit off balance throughout the film. Within thirty seconds of reaching the island, DiCaprio and Ruffalo are greeted by guards armed with loaded machine guns. The escaped patient leaves both pairs of her shoes in her room when she flees. All of the patients in the asylum are very clearly reciting their testimonies from a script. And when our dynamic duo tries to leave the island, DiCaprio’s hallucinations of his dead wife, and then a severe hurricane, stop them.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Unfortunately, regardless of the build up, the twist is quite disappointing—in my opinion, the disconnect from the main story is too great and it ends a foul taste to the end of the film. The point of view even changes; throughout the film, we follow along with the adventures of DiCaprio in a series of flashbacks and intense close-ups, but when the twist occurs, the camera turns on a dime and we spend the rest of the film looking, confused and almost accusatorily at the main character. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> The plot arc in the rest of the film is that of a typical psychological horror downward spiral, with his hallucinations of his wife and gory, grainy flashbacks to the German war camps becoming more and more severe as the movie progresses. This is brilliantly foreshadowed, and the central theme of the movie embodied, in a single line: when the local sheriff describes how rigorous the security measures are for “Ward C,” the building for especially violent patients, DiCaprio replies, “You would think insanity was contagious.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"> This, as well as the paranoia that comes with a film taking place in 1954, is what I consider to be the best part of the film. The plot is threaded through with straight-up Cold War crazy, which interacts beautifully with the themes of insanity intrinsic to a film taking place in an asylum. About half way through the film, DiCaprio essentially abandons the task of finding the escaped patient and instead focuses on uncovering the government conspiracy and medical experiments he is convinced are taking place on the island. His lunacy is fed by his post war paranoia that Nazi like experiments are happening at the hospital, and uncited evidence that HUAC is funding the project. Juxtaposed with this is the unwavering hallucinated image of the wife, dressed in a perfectly housewifely yellow dress, and the marshal’s occasional descriptions of and flashbacks to their picturesque suburban life together. The subtext of the movie, which I consider to be much more fascinating than the puzzley plot, exposes the ugly underbelly of paranoia and fear that is such an important part of the era that we remember as I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> Even though Shutter Island and Inception have similarly twisty plots, Leonardo DiCaprio, beautiful cinematography, and hallucinations of tragically dead wives, the former made about half as much money as Nolan’s blockbuster hit. This has a lot to do with the marketing of Shutter Island, and the fact that it’s somewhat in between genres; it has the romance that directors are trying to work into “masculine” movies to appeal to a female audience (plus Leo), it has the plot characteristic of a psychological horror, almost (but just almost,) enough guns and explosions to be an action movie, and enough historical references and implications to be historical fiction—and it was marketed as a slasher. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> However, considering the reputation of Scorsese and the quality of this film, it certainly deserves more credit than it was given when it was released—though the failed attempt at mind-blowing plot twist does take away significantly from the film, it redeems itself with the thoughtful themes of insanity and paranoia. It was over shadowed by Inception, but in terms of plot, visuals, and especially the nearly identical performances of Leonardo DiCaprio, this movie should have earned just as much credit as the Oscar winning box office hit. With the plot twist, this film gets a three out of five stars, but if we were just rating the first hour and forty five minutes, I’d give it a solid four. </div></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-59708090164950602452011-04-14T14:03:00.000-07:002011-04-14T14:04:39.181-07:00Scre4m<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">My friends.<br />
Hello.<br />
<br />
Have you seen <a href="http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1138597145/">this nonsense?</a><br />
<br />
<i>Scream</i> is one of my favorite movies, so I'm pretty excited about <i>Scream 4, </i>or, in the grand history of giving ridiculously punny titles to sequels, <i>Scre4m</i>.<br />
<br />
But this is not good. Not good at all.<br />
<br />
I wasn't really alive and/or old enough to watch movies when <i>Scream</i> came out, and I've gotta be honest, I haven't seen the two sequels preceding this one. I think, however, I have approximately the same love for slasher movies as somebody who went through the eighties, where slashers were a much larger staple of pop culture, so I get <i>Scream. </i>All of it. I get all the references to earlier films, I get how amazingly brilliant Wes Craven is to be able to essentially stare into a mirror with this movie and laugh at himself. And I get that slasher movies were at a point that, well...they needed to be addressed. I've talked about satire before, and how once a genre can have that much self-recognition...well, that's just awesome. And <i>Scream</i> is the perfect example of good satire--as opposed to <i>Scary Movie, </i>which was made by comedians, <i>Scream</i> was a movie making fun of horror movies by the veritable duke of slasherdom.<br />
<br />
And even as those VHS's of the movie unwound more and more jokes and self-mockery, they also addressed some of the moral issues with horror film--and whether or not watching slasher movies makes people into serial killers, the lessons they potentially teach, the carelessness of the characters, etc.<br />
<br />
It was the wicked awesome hat on the fantastic body of slasher film that was the created in the 1980's.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdyNikCnShHzu1y8gX_WeqhwZwL7bolL4cIQrkEhz8Fqp5IlM0KdOsZgbCPeXo6BajEhTHCDcXeuZszqDN7TRpcKmLFF7BdKYrUB0rCT230NAuI9vQbRKlOZMdifV-CzKXeHONw4M869Y/s1600/Freddy-Krueger-costume-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdyNikCnShHzu1y8gX_WeqhwZwL7bolL4cIQrkEhz8Fqp5IlM0KdOsZgbCPeXo6BajEhTHCDcXeuZszqDN7TRpcKmLFF7BdKYrUB0rCT230NAuI9vQbRKlOZMdifV-CzKXeHONw4M869Y/s1600/Freddy-Krueger-costume-3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you want to get technical, it was this hat. For <a href="http://www.google.com/images?q=freddy+krueger&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=442">obvious reasons </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>But I'm really not sure about this <i>Scre4m</i> business. I don't know if it is the right time.<br />
<br />
It's been eleven years since the last <i>Scream </i>franchise film. That last film, titled simply <i>Scream 3, </i>(aw, come on, not Scr3am?) made as much money as the first film (about 161,000,000,) but had almost three times the budget, and was only four years away from the first film, meaning it could still succeed only on the momentum of it's predecessor.<br />
<br />
Obviously, this isn't really the case anymore. The audience for slasher movies is today, as it has always been, teenagers--and, as a teenager, I can say that <i>Scream</i> wasn't a huge part of my childhood, since I was three years old when it was released. If I wasn't into slasher movies as much as I am, I'm not sure I ever would have watched it.<br />
<br />
So that's one big issue--audience. The people who liked slasher movies when <i>Scream</i> came out--ie, the people who were teens in 1996--are now in their thirties. With children. And stuff to do. The people who liked original slashers when they were teenagers, and therefore could understand <i>Scream</i> when it came out for it's brilliant satire, are now in their mid to late forties. Teenagers now were toddlers or zygotes when the original came out. Who exactly are they thinking is going to watch this film?<br />
<br />
Well, apparently, they think they're going to get the current teenagers, because they're marketing it like they would market any other slasher film today. And to be fair, a good chunk of the slasher movies recently have been remakes, and there have been quite a few remakes in my teenagerdom--Rob Zombie's <i>Halloween</i> came out when I started high school, and since then we've gotten remakes of <i>Friday the Thirteenth </i>and <i>Nightmare on Elm Street--</i>in correct chronological order, even. I suppose it is part of the natural order of things for a <i>Scream </i>remake/sequel to come out.<br />
<br />
I think they're marketing it all wrong, though. Again, I haven't seen two and three, but I believe that the tone of the first one is meant to be relatively lighthearted. And, like so many slasher movies of the millennium, this one is, at least visually, very very dark. The original is witty and self aware, this one seems to be taking itself very seriously. The first one banks on a cultural knowledge of slasher movies as a staple of film...and do we have that any more?<br />
<br />
The thing is, the first glimpse of slasher movie culture and structure that most of the kids in my generation get is <i>Scary Movie,</i> which is parodying scream--which <i>is a parody. </i>Could you possibly be less classy? I can't even imagine the confusion that seeing this movie would cause for someone who has seen <i>Scary Movie</i> but hasn't seen <i>Scream--</i>probably most of their key demographic, my peers.<br />
<br />
That is the most important question in whether or not this movie will succeed as anything other than a cult hit. Does my generation have the correct understanding of slashers to "get" this movie? Does this movie simply assume that they don't, and as a result have decided to turn this into a film that takes itself seriously, with the only satire left having the killer constantly ask, "What's your favorite scary movie?" and turn his murders into a game, which is actually a horrible premise if it isn't in context? Can the Ghostface killer stand, ungrounded, with no basis in actual knowledge of slasher lore like the original killers had, but only knowledge of the mythos in the movie based on the original lore?<br />
<br />
Let me clarify what I mean with this infographic.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqXNywtAeR_Aj38GExYbZmjeaHb_b4mYcCNdoUm2z16IQ21Gf8Kknj6R8bnaK1aKfxvTsSgEYDkuUX_rp4wfQkaMoWfiq1A9ZQPxi-iocXQwWfQp74mUgMl8FNJPO7ULdOsXATBSjhFPA/s1600/why+this+wont+work.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqXNywtAeR_Aj38GExYbZmjeaHb_b4mYcCNdoUm2z16IQ21Gf8Kknj6R8bnaK1aKfxvTsSgEYDkuUX_rp4wfQkaMoWfiq1A9ZQPxi-iocXQwWfQp74mUgMl8FNJPO7ULdOsXATBSjhFPA/s640/why+this+wont+work.bmp" width="537" /></a></div><br />
Good luck with this one, Wes Craven. You have gotten yourself into quite a bind. </div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-30537227352789938062011-03-08T16:46:00.000-08:002011-03-08T16:46:59.200-08:00Links.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">These are fun and I wanted to share them:<br />
<br />
This is like hangman, but instead of just guessing a word, you guess the title of a movie with the hint as an iconic object from that movie. It's brilliant. Unfortunately, you can only play it once. You aren't timed, so think hard. You will have many aha moments.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://famousobjectsfromclassicmovies.com/">http://famousobjectsfromclassicmovies.com/</a><br />
<br />
This is hilarious. The Spanish chatter stops around 0:50.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yZAXQHgZNRc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yZAXQHgZNRc</a><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-10907971211268338632011-03-05T20:48:00.000-08:002011-03-05T20:49:17.879-08:00You're Jammin' my Frequencies-Poltergeist and Ronald Regan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I have a confession to make.<br />
<br />
I am in love with Zelda Rubenstein<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHACc4kRsYZmDZfJDdWAGR4pvYHq5FdQzCX-1z6Yjqlso-KP5wh7xtde-c6o9qR8PK9Njjyw1ZPyK1x-VompctSlCqhLc7TajjGszgbNZoKI_YES-JamqRCJpPW2MrmYCD1GDYTHTuKps/s1600/zeldaaaa.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHACc4kRsYZmDZfJDdWAGR4pvYHq5FdQzCX-1z6Yjqlso-KP5wh7xtde-c6o9qR8PK9Njjyw1ZPyK1x-VompctSlCqhLc7TajjGszgbNZoKI_YES-JamqRCJpPW2MrmYCD1GDYTHTuKps/s320/zeldaaaa.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This Zelda Rubenstein</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div>I recently watched <i>Poltergeist</i> for the first time. Until now, I've kind of written it off as a quirky, fun family horror movie where there are some spooky ghosts in a house with some cute little kids. A Halloween movie. Fun, cute, but not fantastic. Cheesy. Certainly not scary. </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1PzvSK5NAvBJmmXXeRd7ONQkOitxU3WJ3KmhsH3mfpbRVh0rlYXH-e5zekKRwCFMOHZTdkvHLfBJst6h7xfrfwvmUAwTUXXcq7vR1pjx-I6JtQpYAx9VnUCpX2ozAW6vEBFheI1z1R2o/s1600/scary.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1PzvSK5NAvBJmmXXeRd7ONQkOitxU3WJ3KmhsH3mfpbRVh0rlYXH-e5zekKRwCFMOHZTdkvHLfBJst6h7xfrfwvmUAwTUXXcq7vR1pjx-I6JtQpYAx9VnUCpX2ozAW6vEBFheI1z1R2o/s320/scary.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BOO</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I was pretty incredibly incorrect. This movie is very, very scary. It's a little strange that Tobe Hooper's other most famous film is <i>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,</i> which I'm pretty sure is widely considered to be the most gory and inappropriate of the classic slasher films. They play <i>Poltergeist</i> on ABC Family. It's rated PG, for goodness sake.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Honestly, I think this is a pretty brilliant move on Hooper's part--there's no real nudity, only one incidence of the "s" word, an I guess because there's no direct human-on-human violence, it somehow gets away with this rating. Because, for the first half of the movie, it has that happy, family feel that Stephen Spielberg (writer and producer,) is so apparently good at capturing, it can play to the target audience of that film--then BAM! Scary time!</div><div><div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcaiCPp9cQDkqFTfrHZkzc-uv5NVZUT_m-Uo3E1HMOBaEj7ldxc9lFepGucAAsI7RwsPN9GjegPUM_1I_u-as6C7X669iLdZ6c5J48vXqtPGnxhGllUw1tB_X2ARlXy9xSiAIyTnSRVFM/s1600/treeeatsyou.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcaiCPp9cQDkqFTfrHZkzc-uv5NVZUT_m-Uo3E1HMOBaEj7ldxc9lFepGucAAsI7RwsPN9GjegPUM_1I_u-as6C7X669iLdZ6c5J48vXqtPGnxhGllUw1tB_X2ARlXy9xSiAIyTnSRVFM/s320/treeeatsyou.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BOOO!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Brilliance. Pure unadulterated scare the pants off of children brilliance. And I hate children, so I love scaring them. The fact that the scary part opens with a tree coming into the kids' window is so terryifyingly wonderful, and certainly intentional--what are kids in 1982 more afraid of than the creepy tree outside their window?</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div>There were parts in this movie that legitimately freaked me out. It is cheesey--a result of its time, I think, more than anything else. It fell victim to the terrible effects available in 1982, but considering how bad it could have been...it's ok. And again, some parts were really very creepy. Like the following, which I literally had to turn away from because it was so disturbing and went on for so long:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgidE2Fbc4WltUlj1d0NkIfgkEq6RBA0FNWK6Qz1eJmq2b1c83-0pYnOWXSQ_PwmYFfRhQ-_nVg8P70WVbReqYTTHF7JX1AsR1aZ-j_rgRv5hjshV07co6xUJ0p5qJmmo-NSkjYxOzl9s/s1600/faceoff....JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgidE2Fbc4WltUlj1d0NkIfgkEq6RBA0FNWK6Qz1eJmq2b1c83-0pYnOWXSQ_PwmYFfRhQ-_nVg8P70WVbReqYTTHF7JX1AsR1aZ-j_rgRv5hjshV07co6xUJ0p5qJmmo-NSkjYxOzl9s/s320/faceoff....JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PG rating, you guys...<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Or this thoroughly creepy scene, which occurs after JoBeth Williams (pictured) gets a nice implied rape from an invisible spirit:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPMG3Z3rw7qqtMaNlC2KxTdmAPZul3EaX82m5_Em7mKopRiBVjel1fBW5kC7mc4iJR86lYh3qKDB472et9WKtO9IiG_iSEZYCh0XJCv-RvtE54at7oiZs5iEDMpneBMyoxLMMS-0mbegE/s1600/morescary.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPMG3Z3rw7qqtMaNlC2KxTdmAPZul3EaX82m5_Em7mKopRiBVjel1fBW5kC7mc4iJR86lYh3qKDB472et9WKtO9IiG_iSEZYCh0XJCv-RvtE54at7oiZs5iEDMpneBMyoxLMMS-0mbegE/s320/morescary.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
Even better than the horror in this movie, though, is the hilarious satire that makes up the beginning of the movie--which ends up being relevant to the horror as well. The whole movie is mocking American suburbia--from the starting notes of the national anthem that we hear in the first shots of the film, to the degradation of the family as the spirits take over their house--a house that is, of course, the basis of their entire family structure. The father, played by Craig Nelson, is a real estate agent for a suburban development in California in which he lives--and where his home is ground zero, if you will. The satire that comes from this is subtle enough that, I believe, millions of happy families were tricked into believing this was just a nice film about them--"satire" or "humor" is not listed in the genre notes on Netflix, nor is it mentioned in the summaries or FAQ's on IMDB. I thought the jokes were hilarious, and I noticed a lot of them, but they were often subtle or visual.<br />
For instance!<br />
In the scene where the poltergeist first shows itself, the last shot is of the kitchen chairs stacked precariously on the table--which then fades to an empty table in the same room, and zooms out so we see that the father is showing another identical house to an old couple. In an earlier scene, the father argues with the neighbor over TV channels--because the families have the same remote control, they can control each other's televisions. ...More on the importance of TV in this movie later. Then of course, there was my personal favorite visual joke about suburbia, the new right, and how silly California is:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxjUUlPERBV01GRfCGJH-kE5Y8ahtEvfXQshMRwbIjCR-EmbkBc2siUwlH7ebsWsc48QPsQWBYulr9iljZG1H35D-uDLfh53iakJ4M4fD8JmMoz9C_Iqy3q75_KRzlm8l75zPVN0INQrc/s1600/poltergeist_regan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxjUUlPERBV01GRfCGJH-kE5Y8ahtEvfXQshMRwbIjCR-EmbkBc2siUwlH7ebsWsc48QPsQWBYulr9iljZG1H35D-uDLfh53iakJ4M4fD8JmMoz9C_Iqy3q75_KRzlm8l75zPVN0INQrc/s320/poltergeist_regan.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As the mom laughs over her small box of marijuana. Just say no!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
It also mocks how suburbia feels about and treats death, which ends up being an incredibly important set up for the rest of the movie. One of the first scenes shows Heather O'Rourke walking in on her mother as she goes to flush the recently dead canary. ("Oh shit, Tweety, couldn't you have died on a school day?"). When the family goes to dig in their backyard to build an in-ground pool, we see the shoe-box coffin of the dead bird being carelessly shoveled away with the dirt.<br />
<br />
Little do they know! (SPOILERS). After the infestation of ghosties and beasties has begun, we witness a conversation between the father and his boss, the CEO of the development company, offering the father a promotion and a bigger house on the hill. Neilson looks behind the hill where they are standing, indicating and expansive graveyard--"Not much room for a pool..."<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisT5D8v5AtHW5XClGxOqtMp8hLtymZza26elX05ltmcfUWXx-uvciCEM294XmW_5QDX6y2orC7R8k4njTX5lRBbs6KFvN46C-XN3QRj7zZZN5su-Vv0mpaA-UYiqOwXKAnwLm1MdxIvYY/s1600/poolroom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisT5D8v5AtHW5XClGxOqtMp8hLtymZza26elX05ltmcfUWXx-uvciCEM294XmW_5QDX6y2orC7R8k4njTX5lRBbs6KFvN46C-XN3QRj7zZZN5su-Vv0mpaA-UYiqOwXKAnwLm1MdxIvYY/s320/poolroom.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It is at this crucial point that it is revealed how the development company builds their neighborhoods so cheaply--they build them in places where graveyards used to be. The new neighborhood, for which the family's new house will, again, be "Phase one," is built over a graveyard, as well as the neighborhood where the film takes place. The father is concerned about this, but the CEO is not, and reassuringly utters some famous last words--</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYjl3ymADuK8fimZaHuu8hmtKFoyaticpHUvIidF5WL0ykW5XFHGCtuOdCdiGblnzCwp4-BI-ShArLz4hDBAhXmpwyx6uEcWqYyaWkTYqjsSBuClrNexXbrB-Z19wHZ7MT9y7pWpXx5k/s1600/famouslastwords.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYjl3ymADuK8fimZaHuu8hmtKFoyaticpHUvIidF5WL0ykW5XFHGCtuOdCdiGblnzCwp4-BI-ShArLz4hDBAhXmpwyx6uEcWqYyaWkTYqjsSBuClrNexXbrB-Z19wHZ7MT9y7pWpXx5k/s320/famouslastwords.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Nobody has ever complained before."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>It doesn't take an above average analyst to realize that this is the root of the problem--the poltergeists in the house clearly are the unhappy spirits of those buried under the suburbs, entering into hyper perfect American life to take revenge on American progress by attacking the most important part of it--the family.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Or, wait a minute. Although they do capture the young daughter, their real target is the house. The mother of the family, a stay at home soccer mom who spends all of her time taking care of the kids, is deeply upset by this, and through the film and the beyond-the-grave kidnapping of her daughter, she undergoes a transformation and rebirth, and, very obviously, emerges from some yonic imagery covered in gloop. The father, however, does not under go this rebirth and replaced importance on family. He is, arguably, the center of the humanized American-ness in the film--as we movie into the eighties, the new right is taking over and the ERA and the sexual revolution of the previous decades fade into the background. So is it the father who the spirits are really attacking? Stealing the daughter is possibly just a side effect of their true victim--the house. The father's life centers around the house, it is not only his home but his entire source of income and a symbol of his manhood. So while it seems that the center of the suburban family structure is, well, the family, it is in fact the house itself--materialism!</div><div><br />
</div><div>And what better way to enter that house, that pure symbol of American suburbia, which is in a development full of identical abodes, the perfect symbol of Californian ridiculousness, than through the essence and symbol of Western progress, a virtual tangible synechdoche for the American Way of Life--the television. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I was going to stop there, but lets keep this going! Let us take a step back from the movie--literally. Imagine that you are sitting in your house, sometime in October, and the film in question is playing on ABC family, as it does every year, as part of their thirteen nights of Halloween gimmick. The camera of your mind, your visual screenshot, is focused on the TV, but let's say it starts zooming out--and there you are, in your house (the symbol of your fathers manhood and ability to provide for his family,) enjoying the mostly uncensored entertainment really only available in the West in such a form, on the American Family channel--perhaps it is at this point that you realize the magic of Tobe Hooper and Stephen Spielberg--<i>Poltergeist, </i>like so many films, has become a mirror of its audience. You are watching television if you are watching this movie! The visual and auditory information of <i>Poltergeist</i> is invading your mind like so many little angry spirits, and perhaps the scary pictures will prevent you from sleeping to well, or perhaps your brain will be invaded with the social commentary!</div><div><br />
</div><div>Mind. Blown. </div><div>........</div><div>..................</div><div>.....</div><div>Zelda Rubenstein!!</div><div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicVdq3ydXhb4LVsRjvOl9mNmvezrCXt1wBv6Fg3XYyDWSgB03BJL2dCKzbGZeXtwkol7K00M1vULj7PLB7Amf9DnOb7eLu_ixNAitErM4A7ksPJfDvvXuFCkXhp71QjPKZMcsHScPERvY/s1600/thishasisclean.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicVdq3ydXhb4LVsRjvOl9mNmvezrCXt1wBv6Fg3XYyDWSgB03BJL2dCKzbGZeXtwkol7K00M1vULj7PLB7Amf9DnOb7eLu_ixNAitErM4A7ksPJfDvvXuFCkXhp71QjPKZMcsHScPERvY/s320/thishasisclean.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This house has been cleaned!</td></tr>
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</div></div></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-60594575665592685552011-03-02T23:17:00.000-08:002011-03-06T17:34:51.805-08:00Proma?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">My mother should know better than to mention vintage dresses available for my use at eleven thirty on a Wednesday night....<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKHflYZu6ZiTGDP4cPo-T2vZ0LEh1R_jAIWRXHCp0-FNIJ8toWNMRiNEs5W48lFbGJ1NDsQroDjNmqCxxqmk_zu0njYGgCysqkn8yljI0DkzP0vbhYHyUsWv7-wM6mIn1IEQ_XhTnOpKw/s1600/DSCF5187.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKHflYZu6ZiTGDP4cPo-T2vZ0LEh1R_jAIWRXHCp0-FNIJ8toWNMRiNEs5W48lFbGJ1NDsQroDjNmqCxxqmk_zu0njYGgCysqkn8yljI0DkzP0vbhYHyUsWv7-wM6mIn1IEQ_XhTnOpKw/s320/DSCF5187.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ohhh yeah</td></tr>
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<div>I've heard a lot about this dress--it's one of the favorites that my mother ever wore. We were talking about it this evening (for some reason? Tafetta came up?) and she mentioned, even though I was already making a prom dress, that she and the other bridesmaids who wore this at a wedding had picked out the dress thinking of what it could be used for in the future. </div><div><br />
</div><div>It is a beautiful dress, and was especially in the eighties--it's a lovely iridescent blue with a triangley waist and a very full skirt. The bodice fits me perfectly. The sleeves, as you can see, are a little ridiculous...but I was given permission to fix them.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Time for an all night sewing fest.</div><div><br />
</div><div>(But first, a bit of irony. Yesterday we recieved the invitation for the second marriage of the man whose first wedding my mom wore this dress too...what? Crazy coincidence.)</div><div><br />
</div><div>Anyways, luckily, the ridiculous sleeves were already on their way out.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV_TS8WplXWeUtTMwTQ70azrnvnBmvOZ2D6kLhZ-Q36sKHsTnxaHld39ieC1Y4knHXy3v33ggjgiPnGhacMiu24Ktxf1VSbjJRLVfC0F5dWPgMuFCHhhkLg3XfTN6z3-6rYbkknBCW2ZI/s1600/DSCF5198.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV_TS8WplXWeUtTMwTQ70azrnvnBmvOZ2D6kLhZ-Q36sKHsTnxaHld39ieC1Y4knHXy3v33ggjgiPnGhacMiu24Ktxf1VSbjJRLVfC0F5dWPgMuFCHhhkLg3XfTN6z3-6rYbkknBCW2ZI/s320/DSCF5198.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That is, indeed, my beautifully manicured thumb...</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Pretty much all I had to do was take my handy dandy seam ripper and take those babies off. It was quite nervewracking, taking a seam ripper to a dress that was at one time very expensive...but I did it. For a good cause. My mom gave me permission (though I do worry she will regret it come morning...)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Even more luck came my way regarding the sleeves!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Remember those ridiculous bows on the side? Perhaps you didn't notice. Let me refresh your memory:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK2Fofkj2BVxmVVmubhY7QOf9ei1krgJLUj4BW10KgaqM7tWPzXpPLzyZOU3UhO7fUH6iOW9MmgBMlsxx58bYXP0_wQRVtu6sxlKSGilKHvlO06Fck4xRDR6sRX-gRJso28wF89YzFhK8/s1600/DSCF5193.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK2Fofkj2BVxmVVmubhY7QOf9ei1krgJLUj4BW10KgaqM7tWPzXpPLzyZOU3UhO7fUH6iOW9MmgBMlsxx58bYXP0_wQRVtu6sxlKSGilKHvlO06Fck4xRDR6sRX-gRJso28wF89YzFhK8/s320/DSCF5193.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjguwg6FjzM9QgISqFfScB3kwjxkNvGykMD0v6FmQvsFMxhLaYxrtfMQgw2ebpZKBAAAE5f3gNGLSjZDy9oXpbdb_dy2KfpwjJblJS_2enFPANKhMgjArWm4QDzS482VLpQRtaH_UFT_c4/s1600/proma_bownonsense.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjguwg6FjzM9QgISqFfScB3kwjxkNvGykMD0v6FmQvsFMxhLaYxrtfMQgw2ebpZKBAAAE5f3gNGLSjZDy9oXpbdb_dy2KfpwjJblJS_2enFPANKhMgjArWm4QDzS482VLpQRtaH_UFT_c4/s320/proma_bownonsense.JPG" width="208" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Fortunately! They were just strips of fabric sewn on rather flimsily, and I was, again, with the help of my handy dandy seam ripper, able to remove them and turn them into..straps!!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, I may take of the bottom, non poofy part of the sleeves and attach them, because I love the idea of a prom dress with sleeves, especially for a girl my size. If you google "prom dress with sleeves," there are approximately .5 results, and any results you do find are only at plus size stores, because apparently the only reason not to expose as much of your skin is possible is if you don't fit societally laudable weight standards...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">...Anyways!! Here's the result of my evening labor:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAcFUrWgU8TpmZK0TLXsnNF-Ju5qITRrj22_mpVzGlqX0OjUEo2_fIeN3Jg6juNBMsh_35adPBHixiWZ9I-f3zTX5a7MfGeMUfd-kdEFPyEc0rOw9laOLG-nT0wyo_GvHRSCXYnv8CbxA/s1600/DSCF5202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAcFUrWgU8TpmZK0TLXsnNF-Ju5qITRrj22_mpVzGlqX0OjUEo2_fIeN3Jg6juNBMsh_35adPBHixiWZ9I-f3zTX5a7MfGeMUfd-kdEFPyEc0rOw9laOLG-nT0wyo_GvHRSCXYnv8CbxA/s320/DSCF5202.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">C'est bonne? I like it, it makes me feel very Victorian and elegant. The whole thing needs a little ironing, and I need to find the right sized crioline to put under it, but I think it's a go for prom, aka the only excuse in most people's lives to wear a formal gown besides a wedding. The dress I was making was sophisticated, but not quite over-the-top enough for prom. There's a certain amount of leeway you get as an eighteen year old at an outdated, stereotypical, coming-of-age formal, and I would like to take full advantage of that by wearing a beautiful, but slightly satirical, poofy iridescent dress. Also, my presumed date and I will have been dating for three years at that point, so it's not as if I'm trying to woo anyone...meaning, I can basically wear whatever I want. Nobody to impress here. I will save the classy, red-carpet-esque dresses for professional formals and dinners where I need to make a good impression on potential employers or something. Prom is an opportunity to be a little bit ridiculous. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div>Opinions on the gown, s'il vous plait....<br />
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Warning: Here are some pictures of me modeling a taffeta sleeve from the eighties as a silly hat.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOEXwTgHQOTKhJSwHWZWx_SsIIThIprVQJVEG-Vcr6EQ2op_f__xrlgYxkRW4Yv87RBpdhvEBQodLY0q8fWm6Xq_Xb-TjZ3SBNAQk0gSaoQmTuW4w76MR4c5QXCpQylOpSqckMLWAdhKA/s1600/snapshot-19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOEXwTgHQOTKhJSwHWZWx_SsIIThIprVQJVEG-Vcr6EQ2op_f__xrlgYxkRW4Yv87RBpdhvEBQodLY0q8fWm6Xq_Xb-TjZ3SBNAQk0gSaoQmTuW4w76MR4c5QXCpQylOpSqckMLWAdhKA/s1600/snapshot-19.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVO1pexUdFL8qFxLKxkrtxjMl7-z3WP4UV0ZNWhWk6YG0VOe7GwLavz3lCu27ftXjrtGStmOz6n1WVmSCv1yUJXkIteivwAQvyeTFtTPfkver6OWzUPG4OC0j21dhjD-Nn0wNJMM-FetI/s1600/snapshot-21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVO1pexUdFL8qFxLKxkrtxjMl7-z3WP4UV0ZNWhWk6YG0VOe7GwLavz3lCu27ftXjrtGStmOz6n1WVmSCv1yUJXkIteivwAQvyeTFtTPfkver6OWzUPG4OC0j21dhjD-Nn0wNJMM-FetI/s1600/snapshot-21.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipLzru7WsGz0eXCgrWbqVIix4Ny8Pp_SWvpHpo96LVl8LHlm2r4RQIIW2Ku3uCD4SpCeRiC2TcA6OJ93UWA5JmSNzB-xpV5UDbB79MlEywKdtHY0xQOT-8NzAJ-LndC5-fJCZz4jTpv2U/s1600/snapshot-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipLzru7WsGz0eXCgrWbqVIix4Ny8Pp_SWvpHpo96LVl8LHlm2r4RQIIW2Ku3uCD4SpCeRiC2TcA6OJ93UWA5JmSNzB-xpV5UDbB79MlEywKdtHY0xQOT-8NzAJ-LndC5-fJCZz4jTpv2U/s1600/snapshot-23.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-27529803313202107422011-03-01T13:59:00.000-08:002011-03-01T13:59:41.362-08:00Citations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Just in case...here's where I get pictures.<br />
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<a href="http://www.auctioneerschool.com/contact_us.html">http://www.auctioneerschool.com/contact_us.html</a><br />
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http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/THE-EXORCIST.jpg<br />
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http://www.meridian.k12.il.us/middle%20school/student_work/scary_movies/The_Exorcist.html<br />
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20185911,00.html<br />
http://media.photobucket.com/image/christian%20bale%20as%20jesus/suntoksabuwan/bale.bmp<br />
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</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-25419779103031822682011-03-01T13:54:00.000-08:002011-03-01T13:58:12.751-08:00Possession: the most fun a religious person can have...?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Today I am feeling POSSESSED to blog about religious horror films. Screw carpal tunnel and my missing wrist brace and my refusal to get tested for arthritis...I've got stuff to say.<br />
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Yesterday, I had the pleasure of watching a fantastic religious horror film, <i>Stigmata, </i>directed by Rupert Wainwright. For those of you who aren't weirdly into religion (by which I mean, fascinated by religion in a nerdy way, not in a evangelical way,) stigmata is the name of the phenomenon where a deeply faithful person suddenly erupts in all of the wounds of Jesus.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmLc9aYsVo98osdGOJnbscCKEhYfb3PqEegS1I2XzWvvzdsfmZOLcWw8dqgnU9SA7bO-0m0d8EsjWbEBTI0s3QCacP_lMHHOj8MYXKh8yKnzaH88F2rE38dtdP-1Ap_FuGh76WO4g0QzI/s1600/stigmata_jesuslovesyou.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmLc9aYsVo98osdGOJnbscCKEhYfb3PqEegS1I2XzWvvzdsfmZOLcWw8dqgnU9SA7bO-0m0d8EsjWbEBTI0s3QCacP_lMHHOj8MYXKh8yKnzaH88F2rE38dtdP-1Ap_FuGh76WO4g0QzI/s320/stigmata_jesuslovesyou.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like, as a reward...from Jesus..because he loves you so much...</td></tr>
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Like any good religious horror flick, the plot of this movie deals with the constant battle between faith and science, and it does it quite effectively. Our main man is a organic chemist-turned-priest who goes around the world trying to assign scientific explanations for miracles. Of course, being stigmatic is a miracle (fun stuff?) so he ends up going to our main lady, Frankie...(?) and trying to scientifically explain her random flesh wounds. Of course, Frankie isn't faithful at all, but in fact a self proclaimed atheist...plot ensues.<br />
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It appears that this movie was clearly made by folks who believe in God--the message seems to be that faith (even spirituality, dare I say it?) is an important part of life, whether or not it is necessarily, scientifically true.<br />
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Fascinatingly! While this movie certainly has its Gody message to give to us, it's main idea is that the organized church is, for the most part, an ineffective and corrupt vessel for Godliness and faith to be brought to humans. Woah! My mind was blown by the fact that this movie was aware of that. On the one hand, we have Frankie, as a pretty moral-lacking, uneducated twenty something in Pittsburg, clearly in need of some direction in her life (at least, it's portrayed that way...lots of partying, etc. The movie is actually complex enough to portray that her lifestyle choice is her own and that it's wrong to judge, but still have the implication that it's not fantastic.) On the other hand, we have the church repressing history and real religious texts in order to stay in power and get what they want, as well as a criticism of fanatical, literal Christianity--the idea of "Jesus on toast," etc, is taken down pretty early on in the film with organic-chemist/priests scientific explanations.<br />
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The other thing I found interesting was how similar the symptoms are when you're possessed by the devil as opposed to possessed by Jesus. Frankie speaks in tongues, has little conniptions, moves around in terrifying ways, adopts a predatory male voice, etc....all of those lovely things we saw in the <i>Exorcist.</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijie2XmjE-acwxOU-Q8ogkxzPKEDHpk7RWvxer4IZBV-3zYqLkNgAG-9aM2-CQ5E3Ff6z35LHefZcvkX1h4Bhy1Yvd6g4kTQZ87chYJfA0rVa2ZzZV-3quV2Kv1J0uobZ6XVN6MNFTvWA/s1600/stigmata_regan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijie2XmjE-acwxOU-Q8ogkxzPKEDHpk7RWvxer4IZBV-3zYqLkNgAG-9aM2-CQ5E3Ff6z35LHefZcvkX1h4Bhy1Yvd6g4kTQZ87chYJfA0rVa2ZzZV-3quV2Kv1J0uobZ6XVN6MNFTvWA/s320/stigmata_regan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie2sKOdtxFTQVdHaEHWIJzlpr3j2l5ncd9mYrRltNtMi6b4NLO0Y7Qxr-TAmV4vzyeA3QHHMgHdFB_ziPTAeoNAURMobxRxmFiFr_OhWV4YfzdqUlH1t_v8CZoln5rrfhm7i4x3X2hBeA/s1600/stigmata_exorcist.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie2sKOdtxFTQVdHaEHWIJzlpr3j2l5ncd9mYrRltNtMi6b4NLO0Y7Qxr-TAmV4vzyeA3QHHMgHdFB_ziPTAeoNAURMobxRxmFiFr_OhWV4YfzdqUlH1t_v8CZoln5rrfhm7i4x3X2hBeA/s320/stigmata_exorcist.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty similar....</td></tr>
</tbody></table>We've got the eyes rolling back...<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwyGGr2TYd2_y-9y739TIaAbzBWZtHhBWnBSc0CUJAc6zFir6w1aY5BFLAeSvFyGpLW4Tfw_-vnk7vF3whGE3-wTX6w7J_G-1ahiCo3AYEfKcwUfk04yuvb_-6c5FRq53Y6hnVkbHOyU/s1600/stigmata_moreexorcist.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwyGGr2TYd2_y-9y739TIaAbzBWZtHhBWnBSc0CUJAc6zFir6w1aY5BFLAeSvFyGpLW4Tfw_-vnk7vF3whGE3-wTX6w7J_G-1ahiCo3AYEfKcwUfk04yuvb_-6c5FRq53Y6hnVkbHOyU/s320/stigmata_moreexorcist.bmp" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsTSXIpBePkX7nb4RkquR0j_0likkDD3_SapjNoTDU4GKZ9f93eTRBcOU6AkjgfpC13v-gsq9z1y5rMH26-RFEpt8iwZabOERhWXkgjD226W8mtIXOrImDVe5kLs6nLPWUlh3ftDcA1g/s1600/stigmata_reganflying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsTSXIpBePkX7nb4RkquR0j_0likkDD3_SapjNoTDU4GKZ9f93eTRBcOU6AkjgfpC13v-gsq9z1y5rMH26-RFEpt8iwZabOERhWXkgjD226W8mtIXOrImDVe5kLs6nLPWUlh3ftDcA1g/s320/stigmata_reganflying.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The weird flying thing...the list could go on if I felt like taking more screen shots. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I was quite intrigued by this--how could it be the same thing, essentially, to be possessed by two completely opposite things?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Of course--(we've been talking about binarisms in English class...get ready for some rantin'), I know that Jesus and the devil are not opposite things. One cannot exist without the other, and Jesus <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_18948_5-real-deleted-bible-scenes-in-which-jesus-kicks-some-ass.html">had to do some pretty devilish things</a> before he figured out how to be...well, Jesus.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Another very un-Jesus like thing that Frankie does while possessed is to try her (his?) very hardest to seduce a priest...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7DL58ArJHdn2NDyDx0T6GiQDbETuY-tdGlOIBNyCuOHhJMOb5ODP2zyjjB0rs7X2T-enT0R8P2tbn2aZeCyc4vwzJoxmhk7MxuD3QUpB1Pyt7GT8h6hfwmsb9xbeeateB5ZEmi2-zXU/s1600/stigmata_godwillstrikeyoudown.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7DL58ArJHdn2NDyDx0T6GiQDbETuY-tdGlOIBNyCuOHhJMOb5ODP2zyjjB0rs7X2T-enT0R8P2tbn2aZeCyc4vwzJoxmhk7MxuD3QUpB1Pyt7GT8h6hfwmsb9xbeeateB5ZEmi2-zXU/s320/stigmata_godwillstrikeyoudown.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Come on now, lets not do this...God will strike you down...!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Movie actually does a very clever job of explaining this, as well as the demon/Jesus possession similarities, by saying that people who are close enough to Jesus to experience stigmata are also closer and more open to demons and temptations gettin' in there and infecting their souls and stuff. Is that true, in religious lore? Who knows. But Movie says it is.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPR4GUTdDMImAObOlo8LlsV0ULqCsIoxBpr76cel0szq5p4oo0Q0qsD5EmnVjEX6yRTaiT0yJNiILi-JMbIIDrxQd4cbf1sqfH0Yg6AftYCcLjYb9_p9Tcluk123vglSwj9GhaMpHXzCs/s1600/stigmata_godwilleatyourbrains.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPR4GUTdDMImAObOlo8LlsV0ULqCsIoxBpr76cel0szq5p4oo0Q0qsD5EmnVjEX6yRTaiT0yJNiILi-JMbIIDrxQd4cbf1sqfH0Yg6AftYCcLjYb9_p9Tcluk123vglSwj9GhaMpHXzCs/s320/stigmata_godwilleatyourbrains.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">God will still strike you down and eat your face off!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The movie pays some well-deserved homage to the real, historical Jesus, because about halfway through the film it is discovered that the tongues Frankie was speaking in and the words she wrote on the wall were the same words that were in a secret Gospel, that was thought to be the "secret sayings" of Legit Jesus.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9pan_nfagXqxeSJhAxZ9NXwJvuWnM5wuACsztaoLzmSI6pZi_eJi3udPYbgF3L3uWOnyfxAY6QyExmIq_QMuIqVDvP40K5KkfdkXyNoEjKiy7KRlZ1tqRR5KDh2ZnE2Z-5w9MzUfQskk/s1600/stigmata_legitjesus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9pan_nfagXqxeSJhAxZ9NXwJvuWnM5wuACsztaoLzmSI6pZi_eJi3udPYbgF3L3uWOnyfxAY6QyExmIq_QMuIqVDvP40K5KkfdkXyNoEjKiy7KRlZ1tqRR5KDh2ZnE2Z-5w9MzUfQskk/s320/stigmata_legitjesus.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Legit Jesus? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>Allegedly, the papacy says that these scrolls are heresy, further blocking out "real" faith and "real" belief in Jesus and his words. The last twenty minutes or so of the movie actually focuses on this issue, and the conflict between the lower levels of the church (priests who are actually scientists and scholars) want to translate and be aware of these words, and the upper levels want to keep them as confidential as possible. If you have crazy possessed young adults running around and writing them on stuff, that's hard to do.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>The movie then ends with a little description of what went down with the actual scrolls, which I described before, which is interesting, but also adds a weird tone of propaganda to the whole film. I, personally, hate religious propaganda, so at first I was a bit turned off by this, but since it's propaganda for historical research and against the church, I felt better about it. </div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
<div>Also, it would probably be worth it anyways, because this movie has some fantastic 90's style surrealism. Very impressive cinematography...a lot of lights and darks, some cool special effects, etc. It depends a lot on close-ups to emphasize thematic elements and to set the mood, which makes it seem a little dizzying (appropriate, since Frankie is having seizures pretty much constantly in the movie,) and trippy. Very 90's, but actually in a good way. </div><div><br />
</div><div>High recommend this movie for your vacation viewing experience, or for anytime you feel like getting a little bit of church-bashing in to your day...add <i>The Exorcist,</i> <i>The Omen, </i>or <i>Rosemary's Baby</i> for extra fun!</div><div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4BkGNscS4eRXI9AQOB-I3AlyZfpzxlOW9cn711BVtR1D7JfIlOILioRrl0zZTGs2RXSJWMOXLmyDTTm5gEFciInvIkxR0Wj0Nd0CgfgczmW8OnBgkGauYCdCfXcXKGpwFpZnHlRv5C6I/s1600/stigmata_reallylegitjesus.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4BkGNscS4eRXI9AQOB-I3AlyZfpzxlOW9cn711BVtR1D7JfIlOILioRrl0zZTGs2RXSJWMOXLmyDTTm5gEFciInvIkxR0Wj0Nd0CgfgczmW8OnBgkGauYCdCfXcXKGpwFpZnHlRv5C6I/s320/stigmata_reallylegitjesus.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seriously, though, if Jesus actually looked like Christian Bale then I'd probably convert to Christianity right now. </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">[<i>Stigmata</i> is owned by MGM, <i>The Exorcist </i>is owned by WB, and <i>Mary, Mother of Jesus</i> is owned by Hallmark.]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div></div></div></div></div></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-88683185659947783092011-02-17T17:44:00.000-08:002011-02-17T17:45:23.431-08:00A little bit of cannibalism in pop culture!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">So lately, both against and of my free will, I've been listening to the song "Cannibal" by Ke$ha.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/2UrA9zBSY8c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>I'm not a huge fan of autotuned pop, but I like Ke$ha.Her music is catchy and she's kinda adorable.<br />
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To be fair, I kind of despise the way she's marketed--hearing children singing "I brush my teeth with a bottle of jack," is disgusting. But I do respect her motivation, even though I don't always respect the outcome--like a few other pop singers right now (Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, who, I must say, are my top two in this new trifecta of hot pop singers trying to be edgy, and whom I think are much more successful in their edginess,) she is trying really hard to break boundaries, push the envelope. To make inappropriate things appropriate. And I love that. I also love about these new edgy pop stars is that, for the most part, they know how ridiculous they are--though perhaps Ke$ha the least of the three--and therefore, are somewhat satirical. Especially Lady Gaga.<br />
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Regardless, this girls music is painfully catchy, and I can't help but enjoy it. And, like I said, she is young and cute and creative. Were I a pop star, I'd probably be Ke$ha.<br />
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That's a huge lie. I'd be Ke$ha, but I'd wear less make up and sing about knitting, ice cream, and stage managing instead of drinking, partying, and being a prostitute.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-PDN46GC2MaAABYY95lzqm1PM-Fm24KXJ-GfSEJyEZUa3djSxj6L4zF7Z3t245wuEqkDhYZ2BqqHbubHb7Nei86We7bTGOJLdWW-aRx9Z5XkfDAKDDdBarGGKoH1jGFAl16BHS1tyaro/s1600/stage_manager.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-PDN46GC2MaAABYY95lzqm1PM-Fm24KXJ-GfSEJyEZUa3djSxj6L4zF7Z3t245wuEqkDhYZ2BqqHbubHb7Nei86We7bTGOJLdWW-aRx9Z5XkfDAKDDdBarGGKoH1jGFAl16BHS1tyaro/s1600/stage_manager.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Because rehearsal-don't-start-till-I-walk-in</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Also, I'd <i>like</i> to think I'd be Katy Perry, but that's very wishful thinking.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>In any case, I think Ke$ha wrote this song to be edgy. What's more taboo than cannibalism? She even goes so far as to obliquely reference Hannibal Lector, (I want your liver on a platter...maybe?) and then even farther, referencing Jeffrey Dahmer. Are we over that yet, as a country? I'm not sure. To add to the edginess, she also refers to herself as a stalker, and says she drinks tea. Which isn't very trendy or alcoholic. </div><div><br />
</div><div>But I am here to say, dear Ke$ha, that though you think you're being edgy, you are not alone in writing songs about cannibals. You, in fact, are just the most recent in a long tradition of writing songs about cannibals. </div><div><br />
</div><div>And believe me...I listen to a lot of music about cannibalism. Here I am to share it with all of you. </div><div><br />
</div><div>First, Voltaire--</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/6tHULNYWQ2Q?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/_i7tqWMbUFU/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_i7tqWMbUFU&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_i7tqWMbUFU&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then there is, of course, a bit of Jonathan Coulton...this one is more about Zombies, but still...humans eating humans </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">And Creature Feature...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/_ASGtDxv2Gk/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_ASGtDxv2Gk&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_ASGtDxv2Gk&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;">(the kid who made this would be my friend if I knew him, I think)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/w-A8jmg2ugI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's one by the lovely Tom Lehrer....a love song, no less! </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/kjPhFSlhOuQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We, of course, can't forget this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/IsQRZ4TsljI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And this may be my personal favorite. (Ok. The previous video is really my favorite but I love this one too.) This is Toto Coelo:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/d4O1A-mmBWw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And with that, we are back to analysis of trashy pop! I don't really understand Toto Coelo, as much as I love them, but I have to think they were going for something along the lines of what Ke$ha is going for--catchy music about horrifying things, that will make her stand out. This song was the band's only hit, (besides <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsQRZ4TsljI">Dracula's Tango</a>) and it's probably because people thought it was so..well, funny. The music video is sexual, but in a kind of hilarious way. It's so over the top taboo that you can't help but find it laughable. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And I suppose that is what Ke$ha is going for as well--but honey, these amazing old ladies beat you to it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But keep up the good work. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-73652059071368234552011-02-13T16:27:00.000-08:002011-02-13T16:43:21.312-08:00Guilty Pleasures<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">If I had to pick my least favorite genre of film, or my five least favorites, one of them would definitely be the typecast-big-guy-comedian-low-life-has-identity-finding-adventure-with-cute-kids movie. Don't even get me started. Few things are so formulaic and based solely on bad, family friendly jokes and slapstick. Yucky. Boring. Suburban.<br />
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But <i>School of Rock</i> is a huge guilty pleasure.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/MoCD0zCHTL4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
EDIT: I'm using this post to sugar coat the fact that I've decided pretty arbitrarily to put ads on my blog. Only fifteen or so people read it, so that will do very little...but here is my rationale for doing this:<br />
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1-I'm going to school for film studies, journalism, and history...which means that, probably in the future, one of the best career choices for me will be...professional blogger! I decided I might as well get started and sell my soul to Google now, even though I plan to make maybe twenty cents in the next year from it.<br />
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2-I turned eighteen the other day!! Which means I can now legally use AdSense! So I'm just gonna!<br />
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3-Targeted ads are hilarious, and considering the things people search for to get to my blog ("amputeeplanet," "majorettes wearing girls," "knitting in pregnancy,") I think we should all get some laughs from what Google thinks we wants.<br />
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Really, no logical reason. If you have some massive problem with it, let me know...</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-35123054795581886092011-02-12T18:46:00.000-08:002011-02-12T19:07:20.507-08:00Happy Valentines Day!--and the evils of the established relationship<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
As is normally the case with my seasonal blogs, I should absolutely not be writing this right now. I cannot even tell you how many anti establishment compositions I need to be working on right now. My little town is in crisis, and I also picked this week (for some reason?) to create major projects criticizing FIRST Robotics and CollegeBoard.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>But you can't be an activist all the time...</div><div><br />
</div><div>I've been planning on writing this since November but saved it specially for today...</div><div><br />
</div><div>Ah well, here it goes!</div><div><br />
</div><div>I can watch slasher movie after slasher movie, watch group after stereotypical group of teenaged characters snuffed off in the prime of their lives, and never does it bother me emotionally. I am able enough, I suppose, to separate myself from them that I don't associate them with myself or my friends at all. It simply doesn't get to me, the characters are too fake and too annoying, the special effects in the deaths are just too interesting for me to be preoccupied with who is actually getting killed and how it will affect the plot.</div><div><br />
</div><div>But sit me down in front of a romantic comedy, and I'm a mess. I constantly vicariously fall for the quirky friend, the inevitable formulaic fight or break up always has me in tears. You can have the most stereotypical characters in the world; if that boyfriend dies, I'm sobbing and sending unnecessarily sappy text messages to my own. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I've psychoanalyzed myself a lot over this one, because I think it's wicked stupid, but I can't figure it out--I'm in a wonderful relationship. Perhaps it is because relationships are like squirrels, and though I've only been in approximately one and a half relationships, I've basically been in all relationships, so I can't help relate to the characters in romantic movies....? No, that's nonsense. Maybe because I have so many guy friends, they cover all the archetypes, so any character I subconsciously relate to one of them, and their sadness makes me sad? Also stupid. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Regardless, for this reason, I don't watch a ton of movies with a ton of romance. But I have noticed a serious trend. I could be wrong...but I'm not. No I'm not. </div><div>(Name that anti-love song!)</div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFByhAdsIxd0tQsyQqjlGPxhYsyqdYjw3103lFgbRkC2zuBXGruDfIz38qSc85a5rZx1gCkjW4EDnIWAq3XnbIioybnpcAG4kPyJqDDl6Hg_sV3VMubqLc9EqF0Kchq2tOjidV8oIbu0/s1600/pulse_harrysally.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFByhAdsIxd0tQsyQqjlGPxhYsyqdYjw3103lFgbRkC2zuBXGruDfIz38qSc85a5rZx1gCkjW4EDnIWAq3XnbIioybnpcAG4kPyJqDDl6Hg_sV3VMubqLc9EqF0Kchq2tOjidV8oIbu0/s1600/pulse_harrysally.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The trend is, to be in a relationship, you must face each other and form a diagonal line across the screen from left to right.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div><div>The established relationship is never good. The established boyfriend, or girlfriend, is always, always the bad guy, whether they are bad or not.<br />
<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Innumerable movies have used this trick. <i>When Harry Met Sally</i> is the prime example of this, with Harry's girlfriend being kind of trashy in the beginning, his wife (?) leaving him unfairly, Sally's fiancee leaving her...all very tragic. <i>Enchanted</i> is the second movie that comes to mind, since I watched it last week--Patrick Demsey's fiancee at the beginning of this movie is played as an antagonist throughout the film. <i>Legally Blonde--</i>same situation, or should I say "sitch," while I'm talking about painfully sororitorial (made up that word) movies. Reese Witherspoon's fiancee at the beginning of the movie is, again, played as a bad guy. <i>The Exploding Girl</i> (which I've only watched the first fifteen minutes of, the friends becoming romantically inclined situation was so overwhelming,) is based around it entirely. They use it in <i>Over Her Dead Body</i>, which, I have, shamefully watched. <i>Life Without Dick, </i>a fantastic comedy that I highly recommend, has the fiancée-to-be as a less moral character than the <i>mobster </i>who Sarah Jessica Parker falls in love with. <i>Mean Girls </i>does it. Last week I watched <i>The Postman Always Rings Twice (</i>bonus points to whoever can explain that movie to me,) where the husband is controlling and repressive, the only thing keeping the gorgouses Lara Turner and John Garfield apart. <i>You Can Count On Me</i> uses it as a sub plot. <i>Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World</i> uses it. Even my very favorite movie besides <i>Behind the Mask, But I'm a Cheerleader,</i> uses it by having the main character's boyfriends be one of the things holding her back from discovering her sexuality (but that one's a little different.) Horror movies use it a lot, but mainly to different ends and lesser degrees: <i>House of Wax, Grace, A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010,) </i>and, most notably, <i>Scream<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">There's always some stupid bullsh*t reason to kill your girlfriend."</span></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV8bAko5426bui5aJ8WRg1RgaJgyc9NWzK8qt80jN8B8ptMssTAZqRwNvTJury8uu4UFXTYN5OrJDImQ71z0OjilGAZDqnmKa4Ht2x5Dqr8Oh7bGw_0MWnXlwjB1873UaoM3fadQPPE0w/s1600/postman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV8bAko5426bui5aJ8WRg1RgaJgyc9NWzK8qt80jN8B8ptMssTAZqRwNvTJury8uu4UFXTYN5OrJDImQ71z0OjilGAZDqnmKa4Ht2x5Dqr8Oh7bGw_0MWnXlwjB1873UaoM3fadQPPE0w/s320/postman.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The diagonal line can start at any point on the screen, as long as it moves down and to the right</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div><div>Books do it too--last week I read <i>The Great Gatsby, </i>with the villian as the main girl's husband. They use it on TV, in horribly written and painfully acted sitcoms and soap operas like <i>Full House</i> (DJ/Nelson/Viper love triangle,) <i>Saved By the Bell </i>(the costume party episode that I've only seen the last fifteen minutes of,) <i>Secret Life of the American Teenager, </i>(every season, every episode,)<i> Greek, Eight Simple Rules, One Tree Hill, Family Matters, </i>as well as fantastic, stand out shows like <i>The Office, Gilmore Girls, Soap, Party Down, Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, Dexter, That 70's Show House, Scrubs...</i>the list goes on. I haven't got around to watching every sitcom. There are probably, at the very least, over a hundred examples. There are also a lot of movies I haven't seen that I know use it--<i>Leap Day, Sex and the City Two, Made of Honor, The Truth About Love....</i></div><div><i><br />
</i></div><div>It's pretty obvious as to why this is such a common formula. Change is sexy. Your life is boring. People are going to want to watch two people overcome a stifling relationship to get together than just get together. People don't want to see a happy couple stay happy, or overcome some challenges then get happy again. Boooooring. Stuff like that happens in real life, why should we care if it happens in movies? It's not like fiction reflects life, or anything like that...<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVF4S9SCBAWGGTZ2-AxzJam3K0R6XLnKRTrJfELil3QEUm0aCnXZptzy6r3PJvqWyL1jQrll9s6dD0bgrA6soV28XvDWo2MSqin2CoitlwQDwn1z8v2JEW94GXIGCzui54XrvTErfRxBA/s1600/321783.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVF4S9SCBAWGGTZ2-AxzJam3K0R6XLnKRTrJfELil3QEUm0aCnXZptzy6r3PJvqWyL1jQrll9s6dD0bgrA6soV28XvDWo2MSqin2CoitlwQDwn1z8v2JEW94GXIGCzui54XrvTErfRxBA/s320/321783.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If the relationship is more light, you may stand a maximum of four feet apart, providing you still form the diagonal line</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div>I think it's pretty detrimental to our society's perception of relationships in a lot of ways. First, look at the descriptions of those movies up there--and look at how many of them have the established significant other <i>engaged</i> to the main character. Engagement is no small potatoes. When you're engaged, it's not a good thing, it's not romantic to suddenly re-meet your high school fling or flirt with your co-workers to the point that you're madly in love with them instead. </div><div>To make this acceptable, movies have to turn the established fiancee into a bad guy, usually by taking normal traits that come from a personality in a long term relationship and blowing them out of proportion or putting them in a negative light. They are practical and safe, (boring, unadventurous, dull,) they are protective (controlling, jealous, overprotective,) they are relaxed and comfortable in the relationship, (they no longer care enough to shave their legs or give constant compliments.) They are normal. You are used to them. They are easy and accessible--we only want what we can't have. And, of course, they're usually perfect for your best friend.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWTK_j5ZGgN4YiuNKsXzc22KF24PlRF3HKO1MDxvQ7SHnIKAd1pMh0kct83EcISmFryB_2HGeCyk7PhAc-MmoROIM7GEsWRCoTNC-0884xl6MfvCXRndlp19OzD2wW4yKz_mGsgJfsQ8/s1600/5710408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWTK_j5ZGgN4YiuNKsXzc22KF24PlRF3HKO1MDxvQ7SHnIKAd1pMh0kct83EcISmFryB_2HGeCyk7PhAc-MmoROIM7GEsWRCoTNC-0884xl6MfvCXRndlp19OzD2wW4yKz_mGsgJfsQ8/s320/5710408.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alternatively, standing far apart could add more dramatic sexual tension</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div>By doing this, I believe that movies and other media give people the idea that when they see these traits in their significant others, they are bad. I don't think that's true at all, even though I fall for their trickery myself all the time. I've recognized that it is, indeed, trickery, so I can see it coming and <i>not</i> fight with my boyfriend when he wants more attention from me than the random hot girl in one of my classes who I don't know, or he tries less hard to impress me than someone who I'm <i>not</i> dating who may think I'm cute. But do those of us who don't analyze the effects of media on society and societal expectations avoid this successfully? The world may never know. </div><div>Unless it listens to me. I don't think they do. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Not to mention, the time that movies usually aim at--the engagement--is, (source needed,) usually the most vulnerable part of a long term relationship, I'd imagine. People get doubts and cold feet, and it's kind of terrible for this plot formula to reinforce it. Heck, I'd be willing to say that people get doubts and cold feet at least in part because of stories like this. Romantic comedy says that by proposing, your boyfriend forced you into marriage before you were ready; they say the fact that your fiancee is a little neurotic about wedding planning means she's too up tight for you; they say that it is okay to kiss that guy in the coffee shop, because your evil fiancee exists to keep you away from his pretty eyes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o8_QWeqBV6R01XsiBpG31kpn8mlOPR3cRKW5wmAhIumvn7zkb13JeRvS8jhu_LfICJkV_Om5dHcHO4f5Y90uFNSTZKbrnI3XEey1XPcPpBfdcy1RrNSef7wgXw2ZoXqXQWFK4C3C3xA/s1600/enchanted_008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o8_QWeqBV6R01XsiBpG31kpn8mlOPR3cRKW5wmAhIumvn7zkb13JeRvS8jhu_LfICJkV_Om5dHcHO4f5Y90uFNSTZKbrnI3XEey1XPcPpBfdcy1RrNSef7wgXw2ZoXqXQWFK4C3C3xA/s320/enchanted_008.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If the colors on opposite sides of the screen contrast, you get bonus points</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div>That is the next way I think these movies negatively impact our perception of relationships--it emphasizes our societal expectation that men and women can't be friends. I'm not making this up, even--I just read an <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200109/can-men-and-women-be-friends">article from Psychology Today</a> not an two hours ago saying that <i>When Harry Met Sally</i> was one of the major setbacks in the societal acceptance of cross-sex relationships in our society. Movies that use this formula really emphasize the fact that men and women can only have sexual relationships, and that is something I just don't agree with at all. <i>Harry met Sally</i> is obviously the most important example of this, (I think it's just the most important romantic comedy,) but almost everybody does it--<i>Legally Blonde, Life Without Dick, You Can Count On Me, Secret Life of the American Teenager, The Office, Party Down, Parks and Recreation, Scrubs, House</i>, and <i>That 70's Show </i>(Eric is in a long term relationship--Jackie Berkheart dates every single male main character by the end of the series. [yes I do watch that much <i>70's show</i> don't judge me.]) In the movieverse, attractive men and attractive women must always have sex, always. Also in the movieverse, you cannot date someone, break up, and then "Just be friends." Which makes you wonder what happens after the movie ends--once the girl breaks things off with her husband-to-be and settles in to a relationship with new pretty eyes...does the original long term relationship just end entirely? Is a friendship that lasted, presumably, months or years simply over forever and ever? Or does the movie simply replay it self in reverse once pretty eyes starts leaving the cap off the toothpaste and original established relationship starts trying to woo again? </div><div><br />
These are some of my favorite movies and tv shows, but come on guys--really? Have you never had a friend of the opposite gender?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqPRCkA8BfggCtNW73gnY9bAEFT2GQpsh9SGNntaLehJiLiFmr4S7VvtKu7vsJUsxTCBDEieVeeaEadCC9At3V29nf9XH6tmDWGo3qTmD3DD48q3n9bk_DHpVHmfY7S0l77g0UR0F5k0/s1600/ramona-flowers-scott-pilgrim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqPRCkA8BfggCtNW73gnY9bAEFT2GQpsh9SGNntaLehJiLiFmr4S7VvtKu7vsJUsxTCBDEieVeeaEadCC9At3V29nf9XH6tmDWGo3qTmD3DD48q3n9bk_DHpVHmfY7S0l77g0UR0F5k0/s320/ramona-flowers-scott-pilgrim.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In rare situations, if you are in a clever indie movie, the girl may be on the higher end of the diagonal line</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div><div>In my very limited relationship experience, which I don't entirely want to explain, I have proved and disproved many of these movieverse concepts.The fact that I know that says a lot about how much these formulas reflect our perceptions of relationship. As I mentioned, I often fall victim to seeing good, normal traits in my long-term boyfriend as negative traits. However, I also have a plethora of good looking and sensitive male friends who I have no desire to have any sort of romantic relationship with. </div><div><br />
On the other hand, my first boyfriend or...whatever was a close friend of mine who I swore, from as early as first grade (that is how far down in age these concepts permeate,) that I would never date or <i>like</i> like because not all girls and boys had to <i>like</i> like each other just to normally like each other. Just to prove another movieverse concept, in our short relationship I managed to coincidentally meet another guy who I started dating immediately after my first boyfriend or...whatever and I broke up. </div><div><br />
However, I have now managed to escape the wiliness of the romantic comedy concept. My friend and I have recovered from our small, weird stint as boyfriend and girlfriend, and now have a lovely, non awkward relationship that would probably make for a really terrible movie. My current boyfriend and I are celebrating our third valentines day together (except we don't ever celebrate valentines day because it's stupid, like formulaic plots,) and our only place in mass media would be as Donna and Eric on <i>70's Show. </i>Except without pot and with more legos. But I do have to consciously avoid thinking I'm in a romantic comedy: no, just because that girl asked you for help on her math homework doesn't mean she likes you; no, your boyfriend is not preventing you from doing whatever you want to, you just made up that entire conversation; no, you are not falling in love at minute seven of the movie you aren't in just because that guy has some quirky thing in common with you.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5QXR1vp0tPTu0zh7cVzObVRwJCNUsMkr9R1eAZBGE-URtzsH5enu3O1V1xu01o01QlpZpmLozr9bmGaMc9VmYk2oyMui6C3omqoloPtgNDAPIF5kIeayen7BUyLZYESNuZ5k1ADE9nQ/s1600/blood-drive-pam-jim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5QXR1vp0tPTu0zh7cVzObVRwJCNUsMkr9R1eAZBGE-URtzsH5enu3O1V1xu01o01QlpZpmLozr9bmGaMc9VmYk2oyMui6C3omqoloPtgNDAPIF5kIeayen7BUyLZYESNuZ5k1ADE9nQ/s320/blood-drive-pam-jim.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you REALLY want to be out there, the line may go THE OTHER DIRECTION!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
The screenwriter of some terrible romcom is in my brain, and if you're a <s>seventeen-year-old </s>eighteen-year-old girl who's been exposed to any pop culture, I bet there's one in your brain, too.<br />
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Gracious, with this and the <a href="http://fearofknitting.blogspot.com/2010/08/when-divorce-rate-for-our-generation.html">Twilight principle</a>, our generation is pretty ruined on relationships.....<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWPRh0o0KrYWYYamF-Rnzcsrc5PAXkS4ANIAGvIJ-ISFF1KJBU9PfgrYFAso3-C0kpX49tXWLixbFEw2vSowOiVKhUR8MorNRm7RaFRxvJ3043Z1eqAT11PLc-DDsaXkMmfuMYHbSlfOg/s1600/valentine+freddy.jpg">Happy Valentines Day!</a><br />
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<3<3<3<3</div></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-24265440312226804692011-02-01T18:59:00.000-08:002011-02-01T18:59:19.814-08:00Disney does Communism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Ok, false. Don Bluth does communism. But it's <i>almost </i>Disney. People pretend that it's Disney a lot.<br />
<br />
For those of you who aren't scholars of nineties animation ( or don't watch <a href="http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/nostalgia-chick">Nostalgia Chick</a> obsessively,) I'm talking about Anastasia, a wonderful animated film. It is wonderful both in the sense that it's weird and hilarious, but also that it's really well done and touching at spots.<br />
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The concept of the setting is really interesting, and it makes me wonder--why does Disney and Bluth/Fox choose to take on these historical events that are <i>not</i> kid friendly, and make them into kids movies?<br />
<br />
Pochahontas, for instance. The Europeans invading America was in no way something you want to portray to little kids--the real story of Pochahontas is even less kid friendly than say, the story of the pilgrims in New England. Everything was very violent, very nasty, and very unpleasant.<br />
<br />
Same with the Bolshevik Revolution. In kids movies, there has to be a good guy and a bad guy. In the Bolshevik Revolution, there was <i>no</i> good guy or bad guy, it totally depends on who you ask. Now, obviously, in America, we see the communists as bad guys, because of that whole Cold War thing that was the twentieth century. Therefore, portraying the revolutionaries as the good guys in a kids movie about the Russian revolution is out. However, the Romanov's were in no way the good guys either--just like Marie Antoinette wasn't the good guy in the French revolution.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>In any case, they made the decision to portray the Romanov's as the good guys in this movie, mostly because they've got the princess, and princesses sell. The movie opens up with a nice little bit about how happy and luxurious it used to be, before all those silly poor people were starving to death in the snow and had to rebel...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUK26VwIaI7M6PVWQ5a3lPukYuxKvF4pnccRr4-OyGHS7DkNYjqX8RYaFxxiZwFjaKV-iS65Ck5pQs075bmSg726UInrt84SJ-kq-vjX_rrgwQKAu1oVX_r7qAhQqUNj0qqNPNrJmxCt8/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+85219+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUK26VwIaI7M6PVWQ5a3lPukYuxKvF4pnccRr4-OyGHS7DkNYjqX8RYaFxxiZwFjaKV-iS65Ck5pQs075bmSg726UInrt84SJ-kq-vjX_rrgwQKAu1oVX_r7qAhQqUNj0qqNPNrJmxCt8/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+85219+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The historically accurate shot to have after this would have been some children dead from malnutrition and hypothermia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>And, I guess, to keep it more neutral and kid friendly, they didn't talk much about the communist party either. It is portrayed in a negative light, with images of the beautiful city of St. Petersburg full of unhappy people and pollution, and one of the main characters saying "That's what I hate about this government; everything's in red!" but it never says that the communists were responsible for all the Romanovs getting killed. <div><br />
</div><div>Their solution is to sort of synthesis of all evil or communist things, or anything that motivated the Bolshevik revolution, into one superhuman villain. He's sort of a mixture of Faustus, the real Rasputin, and American views of Communists, all-in-one.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvEcORAG-G3sP3jOZ5ppWxmAR72LLxff3HeKMcd4z5lQTo-YoHB6XhyBV_tlFic7F0NxTWRKzc3W1VhqT4LXM62HQc4U7ae6SebwQNVjobcEgiUO6IiaMryyYTNJhkzdFlczl6DPOR10c/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+85301+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvEcORAG-G3sP3jOZ5ppWxmAR72LLxff3HeKMcd4z5lQTo-YoHB6XhyBV_tlFic7F0NxTWRKzc3W1VhqT4LXM62HQc4U7ae6SebwQNVjobcEgiUO6IiaMryyYTNJhkzdFlczl6DPOR10c/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+85301+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I believe it. </td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div>Obviously the historical inaccuracy of this is off the wall. IRL, Rasputin was a crazy enough character--he was a healer and a monk, (it is mentioned that he used to be a man of god in the movie, before he went insane,) and was a close friend of the Romanovs because he fixed up their sons hemophilia. When they tried to kill him, he would not die, leading to his portrayal in this movie as a perpetual near-corpse that never actually dies, even though he should. (<a href="http://it.stlawu.edu/~rkreuzer/indv5/rasp.htm">source</a>)Cute, right? Hyperbolic interpretation for kids is fun!</div><div><br />
</div><div>Not cute. This movie is like weird propaganda for the Romanov family. Just like they were actually pretty terrible to their subjects that rebelled against them and killed them, they were pretty terrible to Rasputin too, and killed him for a kind of arbitrary reason after he saved their sons life who knows how many times and became one of the Tsar's best buddies. You can spin a story any way you want, but really, the Romanovs were wrong in this situation. </div><div><br />
</div><div>It's very strange that they made the Romanovs seem like such good guys in this movie, even though that is almost the opposite of historical truth. Obviously America is anti-communist, but does that make all of our media immediately pro-imperialism? Kids grow up--<i>I</i> grew up--with all this input that princesses, in any context, were good, and it was all fun and games to be royalty. Sure, there were evil step mothers, but they were pretty easy to deal with. Again, spinning this story in the other direction and having some romance between some revolutionaries is out of the question, since if Don Bluth did that HUAC would probably be reborn and they'd eat him right up, but when there's no good guy...why would you make a happy Disney style movie out of it? </div><div><br />
</div><div>I guess they had to portray the Romanovs in a good light to lead into the rest of the film, which is also based on a true story, about <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1846670_1846800_1846879,00.html">what kind of really did happen</a>. It's less of an inaccuracy at this point and more of a re-imagining of what would have happened if Anna Anderson (cruel, cruel parents,) was actually Anastasia Romanov. That's actually a totally ok thing to do, in literature. I'm cool with that. </div><div><br />
</div><div>But come on, guys. Anti commuist propaganda? It's <i>1997,</i> not <i>the eighties. </i></div><div><i><br />
</i></div><div>Another thing that's a little bit off about this movie is that it came out in a time where CGI existed, and wasn't terrible, but wasn't advanced enough to make a whole film out of for the kind of budget that Bluth must have had. The result? Random chunks of this movie are done in CGI. And its weird. </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2lmLmyVNUGZN6aUD0AQI8r_uymH9ihCn_2X-NFODugK66C2iaSRohXJ6J3diYMzTFQwjqSfy-3Rr4IptdBr6ac6T4W2D5BICsazGqtk5sPfVY_vhIJnvJbgnyzZbwtLJ26Khy8HpEaLc/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+92535+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2lmLmyVNUGZN6aUD0AQI8r_uymH9ihCn_2X-NFODugK66C2iaSRohXJ6J3diYMzTFQwjqSfy-3Rr4IptdBr6ac6T4W2D5BICsazGqtk5sPfVY_vhIJnvJbgnyzZbwtLJ26Khy8HpEaLc/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+92535+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maybe if we put this shot right at the beginning, they'll be tricked into thinking the whole movie looked this real</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVF2-hZlw_VDZuEh06BXwgodhni3JaVyu-H6Gd5MCa9NlQIMEmT9NgRbFwbvTcb_rF0DQk6jO0cDOieSXLrg1JFbHrHUSNFzx29vyyWLARWi4mqiQRzSHreK2PASn_r6Nws8uqYYqVPQ/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84747+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVF2-hZlw_VDZuEh06BXwgodhni3JaVyu-H6Gd5MCa9NlQIMEmT9NgRbFwbvTcb_rF0DQk6jO0cDOieSXLrg1JFbHrHUSNFzx29vyyWLARWi4mqiQRzSHreK2PASn_r6Nws8uqYYqVPQ/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84747+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey Anastasia! Welcome to the future! Too bad you're still animated like it's '96!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9dOSMlyM6lKY3vRWIrwYmaSMudN17OsnYHMgHILDJdL_A0-6hhVt-ARYBvoI-G9EUBlbDpdszvQtyoi-31kYd4egAVQEN2JnwMaSbLtRz5ipDfriiI1HIvh1PtcT7lY_DWPjwc5olFL4/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84950+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9dOSMlyM6lKY3vRWIrwYmaSMudN17OsnYHMgHILDJdL_A0-6hhVt-ARYBvoI-G9EUBlbDpdszvQtyoi-31kYd4egAVQEN2JnwMaSbLtRz5ipDfriiI1HIvh1PtcT7lY_DWPjwc5olFL4/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84950+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wait, is that real fire in our animated world?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC73F4_-TCG3nP6ra4CxnWrZiX93csEvPIIsnn4TTeNFI-PemXSDPu2GqsgzP2r6zW8jJqNsEnPWoaAtNEAYESw1YQ_zROgwKOT7YnkeShfrrxQwgnAjubwEESjMNpavPNsPvo9mckkrY/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84943+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC73F4_-TCG3nP6ra4CxnWrZiX93csEvPIIsnn4TTeNFI-PemXSDPu2GqsgzP2r6zW8jJqNsEnPWoaAtNEAYESw1YQ_zROgwKOT7YnkeShfrrxQwgnAjubwEESjMNpavPNsPvo9mckkrY/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84943+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yup, that's definitely <i>real fire...</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>And as distracting as that is, they do do some really cool stuff visually. The movie doesn't pledge itself to realism, so besides the normal cartoon gags, there are some really cool surrealist scenes. Which is appropriate for the time it takes place in. For instance, Anastasia has some pretty hallucinations:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxIpyjOvbW8CaiZ99kz4f8SaNDpUGHv6bvXqRHVhbGnPexxOinkr8UHqcho6fftimb4lu02JxvNcOWgm9fojN87ZC52QfN_VukezyL9X7a4uOLBbHFAip3jONwiLX0R5XVAO27WyOy1fw/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+93148+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxIpyjOvbW8CaiZ99kz4f8SaNDpUGHv6bvXqRHVhbGnPexxOinkr8UHqcho6fftimb4lu02JxvNcOWgm9fojN87ZC52QfN_VukezyL9X7a4uOLBbHFAip3jONwiLX0R5XVAO27WyOy1fw/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+93148+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
And Rasputin lives in this nifty underground...planet...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKfXwWx-aiGeduc5T6jpAxCsSGjdolDbnzW7uASfWQA1Y4J9R-G63ZqGcqOur2x4LhtCi4OSs2aebHl1mje3vlrPqkeZJl-oM5h86CuaxO3dv3V0iPDAeHkPs3p7vyD3eGjDLA1_ek9rE/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+93227+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKfXwWx-aiGeduc5T6jpAxCsSGjdolDbnzW7uASfWQA1Y4J9R-G63ZqGcqOur2x4LhtCi4OSs2aebHl1mje3vlrPqkeZJl-oM5h86CuaxO3dv3V0iPDAeHkPs3p7vyD3eGjDLA1_ek9rE/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+93227+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></div>And my favorite--they do an entire song about Paris around 1920 (do you know how much I want to live in Paris in the 1920's? Probably a ton.) and they do a lot of the backgrounds like Van Gogh's "Starry Night.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRIjLECRBgC7-7XP3TtF0Wwre6vfXBSc83glRCJOMNqTNez1rpifBeHOWdKK2hsyvxO-P-FrIcmWqx_HCPxO7TzSs52wz7gmWmEQwLXrT5e2Xs0QzYu3mIySt3u-GUynHvr6OJrQkhPZo/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+85408+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRIjLECRBgC7-7XP3TtF0Wwre6vfXBSc83glRCJOMNqTNez1rpifBeHOWdKK2hsyvxO-P-FrIcmWqx_HCPxO7TzSs52wz7gmWmEQwLXrT5e2Xs0QzYu3mIySt3u-GUynHvr6OJrQkhPZo/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+85408+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's really a beautiful piece of animation, and it captures the spirit of the 20's really really well in a couple of shots (not that I was there...) Plus, a nod to Van Gogh? And there are other allusions to twenties culture, my favorite being "Where not even Freud knows the cure." Who watching this movie would understand those?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The person I originally saw this movie with, actually, my best friend's grandfather, probably would have understood it, but we left the theater halfway through. (We were four at the time.) Our leaving was a result of the fact that this movie is actually terrifying--as a result of these guys:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKldn-F4xZ1nIjLUEHaE5fntJrFJknxRrqQA_g4Hqc9BLMEcyUOvs3nbD5EmJwfiWFFVi1CEH38oW68eIg5ICi-pPyqmHfyJptlrAkuJILays6fhMMtchec7nO6WUQ-YkWtfpLk6cTU_Q/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84826+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKldn-F4xZ1nIjLUEHaE5fntJrFJknxRrqQA_g4Hqc9BLMEcyUOvs3nbD5EmJwfiWFFVi1CEH38oW68eIg5ICi-pPyqmHfyJptlrAkuJILays6fhMMtchec7nO6WUQ-YkWtfpLk6cTU_Q/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84826+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"AHHHH!!!"-any four year old who sees this movie</td></tr>
</tbody></table>They're really conceptual things, but I guess they're sort of goonie demons that come from a little stick full of green fluid that Rasputin gets his power from (speaking of Freud...) In any case, they're horrifying, and they attack the train, and it's probably the scariest thing ever. </div><div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY79_SRG3SkDAr8nVqjrKVbAtb5nvDDz9XHtkUD2JbMxtUjzXDOWlVVXyDXTAjmRuLnCUnuDOgPD02ZO5VSBhPzPCn40I6hQUma_FcSG901GL8cEdci4QHCNagpRBZoa1BxXnoWa2owUg/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84920+PM.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY79_SRG3SkDAr8nVqjrKVbAtb5nvDDz9XHtkUD2JbMxtUjzXDOWlVVXyDXTAjmRuLnCUnuDOgPD02ZO5VSBhPzPCn40I6hQUma_FcSG901GL8cEdci4QHCNagpRBZoa1BxXnoWa2owUg/s320/Fullscreen+capture+212011+84920+PM.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Ohh no puppy!! AHH!!"-four year old </td></tr>
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<div>I was legitimately entertained by this movie, both back in the day and now, as an (almost) adult. The characters and relationships are quite fun and a little bit complex. Anastasia is suffering from some serious post-traumatic stress and repression (more Frued!) and throughout the film her memory returns, and as it does, Demitri, the con man bringing her to the dowager princess of Russia in the <i>guise</i> of the real princess, realizes as well that she may be the Anastasia he knew as a child working in the kitchen of the palace. The two of them have a Harry and Sally sort of relationship, (which is hilarious, because <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000212/">Meg Ryan</a> is the voice of Anastasia,) and in the end Anastasia has to choose between being with him or taking her place as the new duchess of Russia (which is now under Communist control, so it's really just a title...) His being uncomfortable being in love with her once he realizes she is the princess, since he is a kitchen worker/con man, is the <i>only </i>time caste is mentioned in the movie. </div><div><br />
</div><div>So, fun for its historical inaccuracy, fun for both it's weird and beautiful visuals, and fun for it's plot and plot holes. </div><div><br />
</div><div>BUT WAIT! Something I reccomend even more is this, the Nostalgia Chick review of the movie. I watched this a long time ago, and honestly didn't remember that she said so much stuff that I said here. But! She says it even better and with more hilarity. <a href="http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/nostalgia-chick/1950-anastasia">Watch it. </a> Now. </div><div><br />
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</div></div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556252174263740785.post-91748384864117247612011-01-30T08:43:00.000-08:002011-01-30T08:58:22.865-08:00Black Swan, etc, etc...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Yes, yes: as promised, and as should be expected from every movie blogger, a little chat about <i>Black Swan.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The really interesting phenomenon that this film is at the center of is this seemingly new theme where the movies that are the most popular are also the movies that "high brow" film audiences like the best. The Golden Globe nominees weren't the subtle, almost indie or entirely indie films that you didn't even notice were in theaters, but the movies that people were talking about--<i>Black Swan, The Social Network, The King's Speech, </i>etc.<br />
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With that in mind, I went into the first showing of <i>Black Swan</i> that I saw with a question: Why is this film so popular but also so praised by critics and "high brow" film audiences?<br />
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The answer became very clear very quickly, and it is my only criticism (and, apparently the <i>only</i> criticism, considering the incredible reviews it got.) The film lacks a lot of subtlety in plot and symbolism. The conflict, though very deep and thought-provoking, is also straightforward--it is an inner conflict, but it is still white vs. black, good vs. evil. This was reinforced, of course, by the gorgeous but obvious visuals in the film--Nina wears light, soft colors, Lily, Beth, and the mother wear all black. Everything the director, Thomas, owns, is black and white. Reflections are used almost obsessively, (but well,) to, again, reinforce the conflict--mirrors and reflections have been used in film for many, many decades to represent the two sides of a character, and this movie isn't always so adept with it--for instance, when Thomas is explaining the role of the swan queen, the camera cuts decidedly from a medium shot of him in the studio to a shot of his reflection in the dance mirrors.<br />
<br />
There are other moments and things that could have been more subtle. Nina has a weird rash on her shoulder blade--and by some coincidence, it is exactly where a wing would grow were that to happen. A shot of the ballerina in her music box, with head and leg broken off, is shown after her legs break and she hits her head. She puts on a black shirt when she goes out with Lily. The list goes on.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiecMnkFOSKyFzdvduiV8siruGJus_yqdnZfjSKmbPcMZRIOuKki5xFOKr4oFTOXXXFBLA4v80HkRycGjummVcmIzWdTV9tDwEpnRakBscLZfrmUKU4N4p7Cj_yMRzKPbhMwMkBq59BYew/s1600/nina+mirror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiecMnkFOSKyFzdvduiV8siruGJus_yqdnZfjSKmbPcMZRIOuKki5xFOKr4oFTOXXXFBLA4v80HkRycGjummVcmIzWdTV9tDwEpnRakBscLZfrmUKU4N4p7Cj_yMRzKPbhMwMkBq59BYew/s320/nina+mirror.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woah guys it's a mirror!!</td></tr>
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However, this is why, in my opinion, it was so accessible to a mainstream audience and critics (as well as the fact that it's all daring and stuff with the various sex scenes which aren't often shown on screen--more on that later.) The symbolism was there, the mise-en-scene and cinematography reflected the intent of the story perfectly, but in a way that you didn't really have to think about--this way, the mainstream audience (who, presumably, don't pick apart visual symbolism while watching movies,) and the critics, (who potentially do? I will when I'm a film critic?) could both enjoy it and understand it's full value.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssYnNd0R6mNIL87JblzWT9mIIOuLaOIAqKnRmVT5WiXglhc0bhXeLQX4Ws4eynN04fFFzsq99h8bhlDyY044lQGb0uIgZRLQT7R8sEibxvwoc_fb_6jkzHkNYvO81Us5-4M7pAebjG7g/s1600/nina+mirror+creepy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssYnNd0R6mNIL87JblzWT9mIIOuLaOIAqKnRmVT5WiXglhc0bhXeLQX4Ws4eynN04fFFzsq99h8bhlDyY044lQGb0uIgZRLQT7R8sEibxvwoc_fb_6jkzHkNYvO81Us5-4M7pAebjG7g/s320/nina+mirror+creepy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh my gosh. <i>Another mirror. </i></td></tr>
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When I saw this movie with my film appreciating friends, they saw that problem with it, too, (as well as the problem with the lack of gay male dancers...) but my dancer friend, who spends less time than we do analyzing movies, thought the symbolism was very clever (although she also saw the problem with the lack of gay dancers...) So, case in point.<br />
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I loved a lot about this movie though, including the visuals. Last year, my school put on the musical <i>Curtains </i>in the winter, and one of my favorite things that the director and costumer did was to make all the backstage scenes, with the dancers in their dance clothes, in grays, whites, and blacks, with red accents. I adored those costumes, and knitting some legwarmers to go with them, just like I adored the costumes and colors in this movie. The soft grays, pinks, creams, and blacks were so gorgeous together and invoked very well the idea that Nina was still locked in a childhood dream to be a ballerina, and that she still saw it as beautiful, gentle, and feminine, while the other dancers (who all wore black,) saw it as competitive and vicious.<br />
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Also, all of Nina's costumes looked sooo cozy. I wish I were a dancer, because I want to wear various knitted tubes on my legs and arms all the time. Some of the knitted things were so unnecessary seeming but soo beautiful--for instance, the lacy gray top that was knit probably with lace weight yarn and size twenty needles that she wore in her last practice scene, where the piano player leaves her in the dark and she really begins hallucinating. Why was she wearing that? I don't care, it was awesome. She always has one leg warmer or one arm warmer--why? I don't care, they look so comfortable. Amazing knitwear in this movie. Amy Wescott, the costume designer (famous for such films such as <i>The Twelve Dogs of Christmas</i> and <i>Porn n' Chicken....</i>hopefully this is her big break, she deserves it,) is a lady after my own heart and must have had a great time knitting up all sorts of amazing things.<br />
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The knitwear, though, along with the soft colors and the gray brick walls that were the backdrop for most of the scenes, perfectly captured the atmosphere of New York in the winter, (have I ever been to New York in the winter? Nope.) and made the whole movie feel very cold and raw, which made the scenes in her bedroom appear that much more warm. Very skillful.<br />
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The second thing I loved about this movie is also what I think makes it so scary--it is entirely first person. In most movies, we get at least two points of view--usually one a third person or third person omniscient--but in this movie, we know only what Nina knows and see only what she sees. This, of course, leads to some serious confusion when she starts hallucinating, and at only one point--the long shot of her on stage as a human instead of a swan after her solo as the black swan--do we see what we can know is really happening. This point of view makes every surprise, from the shocking notice of her mother while she is masturbating, to the simple event of her walking into a nurse at the hospital, just as surprising for the audience as they are for her.<br />
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I also loved how the various aspects of the black swan--the things she needed to be "perfect," were displayed in the other female characters, particularly Beth. I think Beth is the most undervalued character in the movie, because though she's on screen less than ten times, she's as important as Lily in representing the black swan. Nina's transformation to the black swan is also her transformation into Beth, as embodied by her jealousy of Thomas being with other girls, her paranoia that Lily is trying to steal her part, her destructiveness, and her...taking over Beth's dressing room and stealing all her stuff. More subtlety.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyONK0-do5coILPUbMrNNklUoAVRq8fDF81BSg5GhBmv60-0olGNRYBNDgMdtFCdY-RcM0C2nAAUjq-_g_Uz0gBI2EsrjG6UmX1kbn3Dp_-3BtJqsdp4GSPN1qBtzPTRaEFAlSV8Jf9IE/s1600/beth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyONK0-do5coILPUbMrNNklUoAVRq8fDF81BSg5GhBmv60-0olGNRYBNDgMdtFCdY-RcM0C2nAAUjq-_g_Uz0gBI2EsrjG6UmX1kbn3Dp_-3BtJqsdp4GSPN1qBtzPTRaEFAlSV8Jf9IE/s320/beth.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is actually awesome--the framing makes it <i>look</i> like a mirror. </td></tr>
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Thomas says that Beth's "dark impulse" was what made her so "thrilling to watch...perfect at times, but also so god damned destructive." At that point, Nina begins letting her own destructive tendencies and ticks--her habit of scratching and biting her cuticles, and her bulimia, overcome her much more, presumably trying to be more like Beth. The first move she makes as the black swan, asking Thomas for the role and then biting him when he kisses her, is done wearing Beth's blood red lipstick. The major shifts in the movie--her getting the role, her becoming entirely consumed by hallucination, her "claiming her position," as it were, as the lead girl in the company and taking over the dressing room, all happen after an encounter with Beth.<br />
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I was also super impressed by how they used the <i>Swan Lake</i> music. Tchaikovsky has been my favorite since I was a tiny tiny child, and they used it very very effectively in the movie.<br />
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And the last bit that I'm going to rant about is the presence of sex scenes. Not the scenes themselves, but the fact that they made it onto the big screen. This shows a major change of standards in the rating system, one that I consider to be for the better.<br />
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A while ago, I watched a documentary released in 2006 called <i>This Film is not yet Rated</i>. It detailed (with a lot of bias,) the process of rating films, and how and why some films get an NC-17 rating and can't be released in theaters. The director of one of my favorite movies, <i>But I'm a Cheerleader,</i> was interviewed, and talked about how her movie couldn't be released by a major company because of its rating--a rating that came from a lesbian sex scene with no nudity shown, an girl masturbating over her clothes, and a maybe three second long shot, in the dark, of two men laying on top of each other, also fully clothed. Obviously we've crossed some major bridges in how okay we are with seeing homosexual sex on screen, and I think that's fantastic. How much of the film's audience saw the movie only for the sex scene? What was the intention of the director? I'm not sure, but I think it's a big statement for the progression of film that it's in there.<br />
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The entire movie, really, is a pretty positive statement for the state of film right now--even thought the symbolism was forced, it was there. The plot was accessible and somewhat easy to follow, but still scary and complex. And, of course, just the fact that such a terrifying movie made it into the Golden Globes, the Oscars, and the hearts of film audiences makes me very, very happy.<br />
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</div>fearofknittinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02102181936936215392noreply@blogger.com0