Let the Research Begin! Blog Post 1/21

Today we started researching about our topics in class using databases. Mr. Rivers has provided us with a list of databases and their respective logins on the senior paper proposal post on google classroom. There is also a list of podcasts for us to listen to for a better understanding of what exactly we are researching. 

You should be in  your most productive state for researching in class. If this means listening to music, then listen to music on headphones or earbuds. On the contrary, if you know music or people being around you distracts you then you can move your desk. We need you to be efficient students!

We talked with our groups and as a class about what discussion means in terms of how it relates to our senior paper. Discussion is a transactional experience where ideas and thoughts on a certain topic are exchanged. As we research about our seeds, we will see how scholars are making conversations with each other through their different perspectives and thoughts. These conversations can be agreement or disagreement, where scholars’ thoughts about topics conflict. We will also see how our film’s perspective on our seed creates cinematic conversation with our seeds and the scholars that we research. These different perspectives will allow us to synthesize in our paper.

To begin researching, try staying zoomed out of your topic. Answer big picture questions to get a big picture understanding on your seed. This can be done through finding casual conversations from news articles, podcasts or even Wikipedia. These should not be our scholarly sources, but a way more us to understand the context of our seeds. 

As research goes on, we can start to zoom in and ask more specific questions. These questions should start to be answered by scholarly conversations from the databases. Our topics may even evolve as we do more research and that is fine. Our research will answer our questions about our topics with reasoning, evidence and points of views. At the end of our research, we should have two scholarly sources and one film source.

Friday, 1/17 Class - "GET OUT"

Hello everyone, today was our final day of watching "Get Out" in class and a lot of freaky things happened. If you missed class today, here is a quick crash course explanation of what the remainder of the movie entailed:

We left off when Chris had realized that the whole family, including his girlfriend Rose, were not only racist, but had somehow hypnotized many black people that Rose brought home over the years, and used these people to their advantage, as servants. The family doesn't let Chris leave and they take his keys and phone. Chris wakes up from hypnosis tied to a chair in a room. A video plays on a tv in the room "welcoming" him to the "family", essentially as a slave. His friend tries to get in contact with him, but fails to do so. This friend reports Chris as missing and explains his theory that rose's family is abducting and brainwashing black people and using them, but the cops laugh at him. When the black cops didn't believe Chris's friend and laughed at his theory, it reflects the idea that there is still racism and social injustice in the world today but it is often hidden, which is why they didn't believe him (sociology). 
Rose lies to his friend on the phone and tells him that Chris left her home days ago - could rose be hypnotized too by her parents or is she just evil like them? We never do find out for sure. The man on tv (Rose's grandfather, the mastermind of the sick plan) tells Chris that he will no longer have control of his mind and actions, and Chris will be living through hypnosis and a switch of his brain with the grandfather's brain, literally. Rose's father begins the surgical brain-swap procedure on the grandfather and Jeremy, the brother, begins it on Chris. However, Chris wakes up from hypnosis and kills him. He then precedes to kill the father. Rose's mother tries to kill Chris on his way out, but he fights and kills her, too. Turns out Jeremy isn't dead, and he attacks Chris on his way out the door; Chris then fights Jeremy and kills him for real this time. Meanwhile, Rose is in her room searching for her next black man to manipulate and bring home. Chris hits the maid with his car on his way out the driveway, and puts her in the car to bring her to a hospital. She wakes and attacks him under hypnosis. They crash the car. Rose is outside the car with a gun and instructs the other servant, or "grandpa" (grandpa's mind) to "get him" (Chris). The servant takes her gun, but turns around and shoots Rose, and then himself. Rose awakes, and Chris attempts to kill her, but can't bring himself to do it. This is when a cop car pulls up, but his best friend gets out of the driver's seat.
His friend tells him "I told you so" and promises him that the situation is taken care of. Chris gets out alive, and this is where the film ends.
Crazy, right? 

REMINDERS: Keep in mind that you must turn in the 3 synthesis sentences for Get Out by tonight! Also, the Senior Paper Proposal essay is due next Tuesday, so don't delay working on it!

- Marina O'Hare

1/1620

 As Tommy said below we continued to watch Get Out. Were we watched as Chris put together that the whole thing was a trap. It started when he met the black man chopping wood. who had acted strange and made the whole conversation uncomfortable. Later he met another man Andre, who acted just as weird. But when Chris took a photo of him, he attacked. Later the family tried to cover it up as a seizure, which Chris knew to be a lie. When packing up to leave he found photos of all the people he met and her and realized he was trapped. When trying to leave the family came after him. 

But that is of course when we had to end the film. Though today was a movie day, we still need to write out the sentences of synthesis for Get Out by Friday. Also the Growing your Seeds: Senior Paper Proposal is due by next Tuesday. 

January 16th Class Blog- The Tensions Rise with Get Out

Today we are continuing our experience with Jordan Peel’s “Get Out.” We are viewing this film through different lenses of our choice as a part of the assignment. It can be the same lense as yesterday but try to find a different aspect of the movie to synthesize. Mr. Rivers also pushed back the due date of the senior paper proposal because he wants us to do more research on our seeds in class.  

Day 2 Summary:

We pick up with Chris sinking into the void after being hypnotized by the mother. We him sinking slowly for about a full minute which really builds the weight and tension of the scene. We then find out that it was only a dream as Chris wakes up in bed in the middle of the night, panicking. Or was it?

In the morning, Chris walks outside and has an interaction with the black worker chopping trunks. The interaction is awkward because the black man comments on Rose, Chris’ girlfriend, as if he’s interested in her. This creates a more uncomfortable environment because Chris loses more hope in connecting with anyone around him besides Rose. 

Many people come to the house for a gathering, mostly old white people. This creates an even more awkward environment for Chris. As Rose is introducing Chris to the people who are over, many of them makes comments relating to his race. A man says to him, “Black is in style.” A woman makes a remark relating to his penis. Very inappropriate stuff. This only further disturbs Chris and makes him not want to be there.   

Chris then sees another black man at the gathering. We, the audience, realize that it is the same man from the beginning who got kidnapped; however, he’s changed. He’s dressed in lighter, formal clothing, like the rest of the white people. He also talks much more softer and more polite, but not in a soothing way. More like in a creepy, unsettling way. While so far, we have definitely felt uncomfortable around these people, this is the first time we know someone is definitely wrong. Chris tries to make conversation with him but he acts and talks awkwardly, just like the worker.

     

When Chris goes in the house, he notices his phone was unplugged from the charger. The maid goes up to him to apologize and he tells her it’s fine. When he makes a comment regarding all the white people, the maid starts to cry and get defensive. The just adds onto the increasing tension between Chris and everyone else around him.

Chris goes back outside and tries to sneak a photo of the black man he saw earlier. The flash goes off and the man freezes up. He suddenly freaks out, grabbing Chris and shouting, “Get Out! Get Out!” It’s like he just woke up from a trance, interesting. 

Chris sends the photo of the man to his friend. His friend calls back to tell him that they know him and Chris then remembers the man. Chris explains to his friend how he’s changed in every way possible from his looks to his voice to his personality. “SEX SLAVE!” his friend shouts to him, suggesting that the white people are keeping black people as sex slaves. 

Chris talks with Rose outside, telling her he doesn’t feel comfortable and wants to leave. After some discussion, she agrees and tells him that she’ll make an excuse. During this conversation, we see the white people quietly bidding for something. As the camera zooms out from a close up of the father, we realize that Chris is being auctioned off to these crazy white people! The tone is now dark.

Before Chris and Rose are about to leave, he goes through a box in her closet. He sees pictures of Rose and her past boyfriends and girlfriends. At first he is weirded out when suddenly he sees a picture of her with the black worker and maid. Could Rose be a part of this? 

The two of them go downstairs to see her brother blocking off the door. Chris, nervously, tells him that they are leaving now. Her father, from across the room, asks Chris what his purpose in life is. Chris feels very intimidated. He screams at Rose to get the keys. Her brother swings at him with the lacrosse stick he’s holding. Her family closes in on him. Rose pulls out the keys but says, “You know I can’t give you the keys. Right babe?” 

That is where we leave off.

January 15th Class Blog

Today in film as lit class it was the day we began watching Get Out. If you weren't here for it then that really stinks for you. Just kidding I will give a nice summary of what you missed that is probably even better than the actual movie.

Before we began watching the film Mr. Rivers gave us an assignment for our three days of watching. The assignment is for each day of film to compose a sentence or two connecting the film and the microaggressions article using one of the academic lens we went over in class yesterday. This lens can be different each day or the same, it is your choice but make sure to put the lens in parenthesis for each synthesis. Basically answer the question: how is the film in conversation with the article? This assignment is due Monday.

Day 1 Get Out Summary:

The film begins with a young African-American man who gets choked out and kidnapped as he walks through a neighborhood at night. Then the film shift gears to another young African-American named Chris and his girlfriend Rose. Rose wants Chris to meet her family and Chris fears that the family may be racist towards him even though Rose assures him they won't be. On the way there Rose hits a deer as she is driving and they call the cops to report the accident. The cop asks for Chris's ID even though he wasn't driving and insists he needs to see it even though Rose refuses to let him show the ID because he doesn't need to. It is clear in this scene that the cop is racist. When Chris and Rose get to the family's house Chris immediately realizes that all the servants are African-Americans which makes him nervous. Chris is introduced to the parents and there is a sense of tension between him and the parents. Throughout his first day at the family's house Chris is showed around the house and notices more and more things that seem fishy such as the behaviors of the African-American servants and Rose's parents towards him. Chris also meets Jeremy who also acts weird towards him as well at dinner. Jeremy makes comments about how Chris could be an all-star athlete with his "genetic make-up" and also tries to demonstrate a headlock on him. When Chris and Rose go up to the room at night, Rose apologizes for her family's behavior as her and Chris realize how racist they were acting towards him. After they fall asleep, Chris gets up in the middle of the night to smoke outside and notices one of the servants who strangely runs past him and a women servant who oddly stares out the window as she fixes up her hair. As Chris goes back inside Rose's mom sits in the living room waiting for him. She makes him sit down and explains how smoking is a poor habit and then goes on to ask question about his family's life. While Chris is hesitant at first, he then explains how his father wasn't in the picture and goes into detail about his mother's death. Rose's mother has Chris hypnotized and Chris begins to freak out as he can't move and feels like he is floating downwards.

This is the point we had to stop watching at before the class ended, but we will pick back up again
tomorrow.

Other Reminders: Our Senior Paper Proposal for growing our seeds of synthesis is due Tuesday so don't be like me and wait until the last minute to do it.

I hope my blog post helped catch you up on what you may have missed. Make sure to be in class tomorrow so you don't miss even more!!

Helloooooooooo people of Film as lit per 3. I hope you guys are ready to watch Get Out tomorrow. As Mr. River says, while we watch we are focusing on synthesis to practice for our senior paper. With this article we will be using to connect with the different lens': Politics, Sociology, English, and ethics to the movie Get Out. Each day we watch Get Out were are going to SYNTHESIZE with the different lens' we discussed today.
Have a great day guys!

Blog Post

Helloooooooooo Film as lit class. First things first Due Monday are our Synthesis Seeds to get us started on our senior papers (Bleh). Remember it is 1 Academic conversation (+1 potential film), 1 Cinematic conversation (+1 potential film), and 1 of your choice. Any film is acceptable in your work. You will submit this homework under the question Mr. Rivers posted on the Classroom. ANYWHO, on to the lesson... To start of the lesson we synthesized how the two movies Get Out and Jurassic Park agrees or disagree with the factors we discussed yesterday. We also discussed the details of the assignment due Monday which is that You can write whatever you want just that it pertains to a scholarly topic and a relevant film. That's all, for now, folks have a great weekend.

Peace Out

01/08/20

Hey guys!! Today Mr.Rivers started class by going over our synthesis statements for The White Knife. We each then picked our favorite ones to go over. After that we all got into groups/pairs to go over other novels based around climate change. For those not only did we have to make a synthesis statement, but had to add sentences of what both the novel and a scholar had to say on the main topic. For instance my group had New York:2140 by Kim Stanley.

For the novel we had written; New York:2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson argues that due to climate change, areas surrounded by water are in danger of being submerged. For the scholars argument we put; Benjamin Horton (Rutgers Professor) claims that in the year 2300 New York will experience extreme flooding. However has a slight chance of saving itself because of other infrastructure Then our synthesis statement; New York:2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson along with Rutgers Professor Benjamin Horton agree that a hundred or so years from now New York will be flooded due to extreme weather conditions, and also discusses a slight chance of salvation due to sea walls and other infrastructure.

There is only about three weeks left to this marking period. Only a few more grades are going to be added soon. And congrats to those who played in the orchestra concert tonight!

The Absolute Worst Movie Ever Made

Before I start off my rant about Ready Player One, directed by Steven freakin Spielberg, I just want to inform you that there will be spoilers in this blog. But you should not care because of how awful the film is, if you sit down and watch it you will waste the next 2 hours and 19 minutes of your life and you will dread every second of that film. This blog is going to talk about a few key things that I strongly disliked about the movie, only because I don't want to write a book on every little thing that was awful about the movie, Now let's get started.
After reading Ready Player One, written by Ernest Cline, I was so excited to see the movie adaptation of this amazing novel. I'm not a book guy, I've probably only read about 10 books in my 18 years on this planet and the majority of them were the I Survived: series ,written by Lauren Tarshis, and this was because I found it so boring sitting there reading for days at a time. That was not how I felt about Ready Player One, I enjoyed everything about the book and was actually upset when I would have to stop reading it to go do something. This book made me so excited to see the film that I actually spent $15 of my own money to buy it off amazon, worst thing I've ever bought. This film is nothing like the book ,besides the names, and that is the worst thing Spielberg could've done. The plot with Parzival and Art3mas was so unbelievably rushed that they barley talked to three days and they were already seeing each other in person. There wasn't enough character development to make the audience feel attached to these characters and want to root for them to actually win.
The movie does a horrible job with developing Parzival into becoming the character he fought to be in the end of the book. In the book Parzival was overweight and not confident about himself and lost literally everything, the only thing keeping him going was finding the egg which allowed him to turn his life around. He was in shape and determined to stop the sixers from taking control of the Oasis. He was so determined that he even purposely got imprisoned by them to take them down from the inside. In the movie it he was already in good shape, and even though he didn't have a lot, he didn't lose anything. It took the kid like two days to figure out the first puzzle and it was nothing like the way it was supposed to be. Instead of some grand duel at Joust between Parzival and a giant undead king, it was a hectic impossible race. And in that race Parzival and Art3mas meeting for the first time felt so forced and unnatural, and after they met they were immediately like best friends. Art3mas was a completely different character in the film too, she was supposed to be an unconfident girl just looking for the egg on her own, but in the film she's working with this big group in order to stop the sixers. And that group is so big that they were able to save and hide Parzival from the sixers like they were undercover agents. Parzival and Art3mas meeting was supposed to be the perfect ending which showed how Parzival wouldn't feel the need to log back onto the Oasis, but instead it was rushed and did't feel that special in the film. And the ending just didn't flow with having Sorrento trying to kill Parzival by himself while he finished finding the egg. And they didn't get help from Og by having them fly to his home and finish finding the egg there, which would've added so much more to the film. Ultimately the movie was rushed, which was a shame for the 2 hours they had to use, and the audience din't feel as attached to characters the way they should have been. Steven Speilberg is an amazing director with tons of great films under his belt, but this one is not one of those and should be berried under a volcano and never shown again.

Tuesday Jan 7 2020

Sup blog,
Today in class Mr.Rivers was not here! Encase you missed it we all held hands and cried to mourn the absence of our beloved English teacher. Don't worry though he will probably be back tomorrow.

Anyways, after that, we posted our synthesized sentences on the evidence of synthesis: what is the conversation document. We synthesized The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi and Professor Leon Szeptycki's idea that with drastic climate change, comes social and economic destruction. After posting the sentences, which was our homework from the night before, we worked with our group to synthesize our own academic discipline with a movie.

For example, my group synthesized the movie The Joker with Roxanne Roberts idea that the upper class in America does not care about ordinary people and only want to benefit themselves. This idea is seen in the Joker multiple times (!spoiler alert!) including when Batman's dad is a corrupt politician, and when the comedian played by Robert Di Nero only cares about himself and uses embarrassing Arthur to make himself look better.

Tomorrow hopefully Mr.Rivers will be back
peace out blog

Class notes - January 6th, 2020

We started the period off with a refresher about the senior paper we will be starting soon and Mr. Rivers showed us a document that we would be using for the class period (SHS Academics on google docs).
From there he began telling us that while Sparta has a lot of disciplines to offer there are still tons more for us to major in or study in college. We all then worked together to come up with as many majors and programs as we could think of and that's when Mr. River began helping out and describing certain disciplines. From there we talked about some of Mr. Rivers experiences in college with what he majored in and how it lead him to the English teacher job he has now. Then we got a little off topic with asking about college and some random questions and after about 10 minutes of that and a nice photo of Mr. Rivers with long hair, just search up "Brent Rivers" if you're curious its the third photo, we finished coming up with disciplines. We were then introduced to another assignment we would be working on which is the "Evidence of Synthesis" document on classroom. In the document there is a link to a NY Times page which talks about Climate change in fiction and if it is really still fiction. In that document as a class we found what the author, or fiction, argues and what the scholar argues. This would lead to our small homework assignment which is in our notes we have to combine the two arguments into one.

Class Notes- January 3, 2020

Today class opened with Mr. Rivers telling us more information about our senior paper. He reminds us that our senior paper is a graduation requirement. If you completely fail yours you will still get the failing grade but you will have to make another "passing paper".

The class then did a little activity where there were multiple titles for senior papers from years before and tried to figure out what is academic and cinematic about the titles.  After spending a couple minutes on that, Mr Rivers posted a new assignment with a doc titled "SHS Academies". Essentially what we did was pick a little piece of paper with a number on it and met up with whoever had the same number. When we got into our groups we were all assigned different academies/disciplines, for example: English/Language Arts, Health, Physical Education, and Wellness, mathematics, etc. We were then instructed to try to come up with questions, assertions, and/or values for them. After we came up with all of that we then tried to tie cinema into the questions, assertions and values. We had a little amount of time to do that.

One thing that Mr. Rivers wants us to bring in or at least have an idea on Monday is to bring either side (Academic or cinematic) that you could use for your senior paper. He wants us to start thinking about this.

Here Yee here Yee, class update/blog post

From Cassius Battaglia,

Bonjour class, it's Cassius, here to talk about what we talked about in class. For everyone who decided to skip the day after break, or those who need a quick jogger on what you missed, or some weirdo on the internet browsing random school blog sites, don't worry I got you covered.
Today wasn't a doozy of a class. Mr. River's started the class with a road map of what to expect for the next half of the year, which includes a quick disclosure on our senior paper (I'll get to that in a minute), our narrative projects (also get to that in a minute), and a teaser for our final exam (for those who don't have a constant 89.8 GPA across all four marking periods {I'm not accurate on those numbers, for those who need clarification ask Mr. Rivers} ).
Mr. Rivers then moved on with the deep, personal, and philosophical question of...how many movies did one watch this year.
(No offense Mr. Rivers) But he then unleashed his obsessive organization catalog of personal movies, books, and tv shows which he put together on a google spreadsheet. It's cool and all, I dig it...but I can't even get my Be Reel Blog due on time...I can't imagine the amount of effort put into recording how many movies one watches AND THEN catalog them in alphabetical order. The dedication is scary.
I digress, for the rest of the class we discussed favorite movies and were asked to comment and read our fellow classmates Be Reel Blogs. So all in all, a pretty good day in the classroom...aside from the fact my lazy bum didn't have a Be Reel Blog posted...it was quite awkward.

As for those who are still reading and are wondering "What about the senior paper and narrative projects?" Good question.

The senior paper prompt is going to explore films discussion with (blank).
It's a Head scratcher....I know.
OK, let's elaborate. So if I understood Mr. Rivers correctly, I will solve this problem with one of his examples. Let's say your passion is engineering. Ok. All you need to do is elaborate on how film as a whole, or a film individually, creates conversation with engineering. Or let's say your passion is art. How does film converse with art? You will be writing on how film converses with aspects of our lives/world. Any further questions? If so I'm sure Mr. River's will explain and or elaborate if asked. Don't feel shy and tell him I sent you...and that I said the money is due by next week....NO EXCEPTIONS.

And finally regarding the narrative projects. Short and simple, it's the same video project we crunched out in 73 hours before break but with a promised...WHOLE MARKING PERIOD OF WORK TIME.
That's honestly a gift...so I don't know about you but I'm going to take advantage of all that time.

That about does it for me. It's been a pleasure and an honor...I just wanna thank my mom and my dad for everything they've done for me...*sniff*....and I just can't thank this class enough...everyone HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Peace out girl scout,
Cassius Battaglia

Jumanji: the next level, Let the good times Roll

Jumanji: the next level, Let the good times Roll

It has been a while since I last saw the first Jumanji. No, not referring to the amazing original first Jumanji, with Robin Williams, but instead the first of the new series: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017). My memory is shot so all I can recall from my experience with the new addition was a general enjoying the movie, I didn’t think it to be good, but not bad. It was a fun, lighthearted, and adventurous take on the 1995 original. It was not existential, critical, cinematically breathtaking, it was simple. And to my own surprise, I liked it for all that it was. Yet, despite all the thematic and narrative problems, Jumunji has done it again with its’ sequel. Directed by Jake Kasdan, Jumanji: The Next Level, with it’s all-nonsense attitude, a huge dose of suspension of disbelief, the movie is an enjoyable one at that.
As it goes for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. J:TNL, it is a lighthearted and simple movie. It follows the monomyth structure pretty straightforward. With the main character’s seen in the previous Jumanji, Anthony (Played by Ser'Darius Blain), Martha (played by Madison Iseman), and Bethaney (played by Madison Iseman), all have their lives together and are living the high life. It’s Spencer (played by Alex Wolff), who’s dealing with a tough transferring to college life, and his really awkward romantic relationship with Martha (which is forcefully dealt with and addressed through the story). After moving back home for break, Spencer discovers his grandfather, Eddie (played by the amazing Danny Devito), is living in his household and sharing his room because of a hip problem. Devito’s character acts as a mirror to Spencer, they both are upset with how time has treated them, Devito’s character is often found saying “it’s no fun getting old” a sentamit that Spencer is all to fond of. It’s with all this angst, and a smidge of depression that causes Spencer to ditch his friends and go back into the video game. His friends notice his disappearance and search for him, leading them, and his Grandfather, back into the game.
To avoid spoilers, I will get to the meat of this movie. Firstly, it is always a blast to see Jack Black. His character, professor Shelby, is the butt end of a lot of jokes. His character’s ultimate uselessness, aside from reading the map, and the occasional casual geometry, plays it’s comedic roles in the movie pretty well and surprisingly it’s narrative role as well. Same can be said for every other character, or rather, every other avatar in the game of Jumanji. Every avatar has a strength and a weakness, and each character uses their ability one way shape or form throughout the movie, which is a good thing. For example, Seeing how Danny Davito’s character react to the overwhelming strength and masculine prowess of Dr. Bravestone (Dwayne Rock) and how he implements Bravestones strengths to the story is, again, a good story element. It builds character and reminds the audience what these avatars are capable of. Alas, it’s the situations that the characters are put in that are the biggest problem in the movie. Deus Ex Machinas are found in litters throughout the movie’s story. Or in laymen, cheap story tricks to solve the problem. Think of an adventurer is trying to slay a dragon, and their sword is melted, but then out of nowhere a giant robot stomped the dragon because the adventurer suddenly has telekinetic powers to beckon giant robots. That is a Deus Ex Machina in its rawest form...and this movie is full of them, up to the very end of the movie. Where this would bother me in other films, it’s almost so obvious and adherent, that one can’t help but roll with it. The water that conveniently swaps avatar bodies, or the fact that the villains weakness is an item that the characters have been carrying for the entire trip, or a character's ability to fly are all cheap, convenient story points that cause me to cringe. But like the Fast and the Furious series, one can only expect this type of storytelling, so one can only accept it. I accepted it, and with this movie, I embraced it.
The film brings just the right amount of good characters, jokes, and action sequences to remind the viewer that this is all for fun. It’s that sort of lighthearted approach that makes the new instalments of Jumanji passable movies. Aside from all the shotty writing, really cheap storytelling, and somewhat cringe moments, the movie knows it’s not serious and it’s with this mentality that truly makes the movie an enjoyable and fun viewing.

YOU will end up stalking this twisted Romance!

You, a psychological thriller directed by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble based off a book by Caroline Kepnes, You. This show was first aired to Netflix in September 2018 and had watchers glued since now the second season had views on the edge of their seats this holiday season since it aired on December 26. I myself have finished the entire thing already and all I have to say is WOW. I didn’t think it was possible for the second season about serial killer could make an even deeper, more well developed character such as Joe other than “he’s a creepy dude who kills and stalks people”. However walking away from this second season I know even more about this crazy guy and was given a glimpse into the mind of a psychopath. 

The role of Joe was portrayed by the fantastic Penn Badgley(known by many teenage girls like yours truly as Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl). The killer with a soft spot and a weak gag reflex. As he is disposing  dead body he throws up several times in the process, which I don’t know many killers that have that much remorse over what they are doing. 

There are several times in the show where I found myself rooting for Joe, because if you could put the killing aside he isn’t a bad guy. He shows great care for his young neighbor. The show left me personally confused because I didn’t know if I should hate him or love him. Especially when his perfect beauty and the target stalkee, Guinevere Beck(played by Elizabeth Lail), was less than perfect. I found Beck to actually be a bad girl, she wasn’t a nice person. Yeah she was being stalked *Blah Blah Blah* but her personality wasn’t good she did shady things too. 

I won’t say much more other than if YOU are scrolling through Netflix looking for something this is definitely a top ten binge worthy series. 

Burning- As Hypnotizing as Cinema Can Get

In the South Korean psychological mystery, Burning (2018), director Lee Chang-dong presents a riveting psychological mystery that captures the audience as it slowly unfolds. The stellar screenplay, cinematography, and performances create an experience that leaves the viewers confused, disturbed and haunted. Lee (Yoo Ah-in), an aspiring writer, comes across an old friend, Shin (Jeon Jong-seo), who eventually introduces him to Ben (Steven Yeun), her handsome, rich friend. As the three of them converse, eat, dance and smoke, the movie takes an unexpected turn and from that point on, the audience is in the hands of Lee Chang-dong's brilliant storytelling. 

Hong Kyung Pyo seasons this art house film with his transformative cinematography. Pyo-who has worked on films like Parasite, Snowpiercer, and The Wailing-translates Chang-dong’s masterful storytelling into a beautiful looking film with aesthetically pleasing shots that you won’t soon forget. The cinematography perfectly complements this twisted tale with its pretty yet hypnotizing composition.

The film opens up with a sequence taken in one long shot that immediately immerses the viewer into the world. The sequence starts with a tight shot on the end of an alley wall where smoke begins to appear. A man walks from behind the wall, revealing he was smoking, and starts to walk down the street in a crowded, urban town. From the opening shot alone, we already know that our protagonist shelters himself from society, smokes (hinting at an internal struggle), and is of low class, given his clothes and where he is. This is the cinematography that perfectly allows the viewer to identify certain aspects of the plot from a visual standpoint. 

The introduction of Steven Yeun’s character is abrupt yet propelling. We quickly see the dynamic change between Lee and Shin’s characters as Ben enters the scene but this dynamic fluctuates throughout the film. Steven Yeun gives a brilliant performance by playing his character as subtle and slick at the same time. The first scene of all three of them together is at an airport where they meet up. As they walk toward the exit to leave, Ben’s character walks in between Lee and Shin’s characters, signifying an interruption between their relationship. The disconnect between Lee and Shin that Ben brings with him is where the movie’s conflict starts from. As the narrative develops throughout the film, we learn more about Ben’s power, morals, and habits. 

While this film manages to be suspenseful and intense, it does so in a quiet manner. The small dialogue allows for most of the storytelling to be visual. It also allows for more intimacy between the audience and the characters as quietness brings our attention to characters as people, not as words. This is not a movie that spoon feeds the viewer information. Lee Chang-dong makes the audience work for the answers. Most of the third act is spent in quietness to allow the viewers to process what is unfolding before their eyes. 

In a scene where the three of them smoke pot at Lee’s childhood farmhouse, Shin starts to strip and dance as she stares off into the sunset. The scene is a four minute long shot that again immerses the viewer into the scene. The camera follows Shin as she waves her hands in the air and dances in front of the beautiful blue, orange skyline that makes for one of the best shots in the movie. Jazz music comes in, contributing to the odd yet relaxing scene. 

In his previous works, director Lee Chang-dong has tackled heavy topics such as oppression, the victimization of women, and the hopelessness that young people feel. His dark and heavy tones as an artists clearly show in Burning. This movie gives the audience a load of interpretative characters, plot, and meaning. What does this film say about class? What does it say about obsession? Is this film about toxic masculinity and the oppression of women?

Lee Chang-dong denies the viewer of a satisfying end. He leaves the audience with an interpretative story with no definitive answer or finish. After all, does love ever end? Does obsession ever end? Does conflict ever end or does it just keep burning?

Rise of Skywalker or Decline of all the Decent Characters

The 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker directed by J.J. Abrams, continues the story of the previous franchise film Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The movie picks up after the death of Luke Skywalker(Mark Hamil) as he used all of the energy he had left to battle Kylo Ren(Adam Driver), new leader of the New Order and son of Leia(Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo(Harrison Ford). The film not only follows the story of Ren, but the story of new Jedi Rey(Daisy Ridley) dealing with the rise of the emperor and his fleet from hidden planet Exogol. Abrams did an excellent job of connecting their stories while keeping a timeline that is easy to follow. The way that they showed them together when they were apart was a cool effect. He used their different settings to not only create a big color contrast, but to emphasize the contrast of good and evil in the galaxy. Overall, Abrams did a good job of relaying the theme that there is good in all of us. 

The movie inspires hope and had an excellent story. Disney did a good job of making up for past failures to please fans of the franchise. All in all it was the best directed film of 2019. The different shot angles and cuts flowed together nicely and were perfect for relaying the message of each scene. The editing was absolutely amazing. The detail in each scene was impeccable. There was not a dull moment besides Ren's death.

On another note, it almost seemed that Kylo Ren was killed off because Disney did not want to pay Adam Driver anymore. It can be argued that he was killed off to show if you’re good you can never turn truly evil and that he sacrificed himself for Rey because he loved her. However, his death was unexpected and unnecessary. After that, the end of the movie was rushed. Rey wasn’t even the slightest bit upset over his death and no one spoke of it. This poor death scene did not do Rens character any justice. The entire plot was based around him and all he got was that sh*tty little death scene. At least Abrams did right by fans having him fade to show that at heart he was a true Jedi. The same goes for Leia. Its somewhat understandable that she did not receive a deserving death scene as Carrie Fisher is dead and her character was mostly CGI but, it still was not done to standards.

I would rate this film four out of five stars. It would deserve five if the death of Ren and Leia was more important. This is a clear representation of what happens when money becomes more important in a franchise than the characters and their stories.