Pauline Kael: A Delicious Character

Involuntary shaking, difficulty moving and short term memory loss all characteristics of Parkinson’s disease.  Pauline Kael was feeling all of these side effects during her interview and many of them in her last few years of work.  Yet we see a wonderfully optimistic woman in the interview.  This shows how truly special Pauline was.  The book Afterglow does a great job telling the story of her amazing life.

            Francis Davis does a great job of catching her great love of movies.  He talks about her passion since she was a young child, not understanding why her siblings did not see them as more than entertainment. Francis also does a great job catching her unique descriptiveness.  When describing Franklin Pangborn she said, “What a delicious character.”  He also touched on her want to write more provocative reviews by discussing a movie called, Deep Throat. 

            In many instances Pauline was ahead of her time, that is why she pioneered movie reviewing as it is known today, Francis made this clear.  After reading Afterglow one misses Pauline, even if they had never heard of her or read any of her reviews.  It is safe to say after reading Afterglow reading some of her old reviews will be on the to-do-list.   

Emotion: Nothing Worth Running From

Director John Carney wrote the movie Once for all of us who have had a bad day.  In the movie one can feel the power of music as therapy.  The lead role is played by Glen Hansard a member of the Irish rock group, The Frames.  It is the story of his life as a vacuum repairer who lives with his father.  He has gone through a difficult break up; in the movie he expresses himself through his music.  During the movie meets up with a single mother played by Marketa Irglova, a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, the two come together because of their love for music.

            John Carney’s use of actual musicians instead of actors made the movie spectacular.  Once is a break from the normal movie, the passion in the movie is real.  One can not only see but feel this passion by Glen when he sings.  The songs used for the movie really express this passion.  It is clear these songs were written by a man who has a broken heart.  The pain and emotion Glen conveys in the movie is worthy of an A-list actor.  The rest of his performance is average, however, this gives the movie a very casual feel that works well for the film.  It is a good portrayal of a poor man that transforms into someone completely different when he signs. 

             Marketa did a good job as a musician acting in a film.  Her signing was  good, but it did not have the passion that Glen brought to the movie.  Her lyrics were her best contribution to the movie.  She seemed awkward on the screen, fortunately this worked for her character.  She brought music talent and passable acting ability but no lasting impression to the movie.

            The storyline of the movie is very moving.  When watching the movie it felt like the two main characters were living their lives, writing the songs as life happened to them. Both characters lead difficult lives in the moive.  Marketa is a single mother living with her mother in an apartment complex with one T.V.   Glen still lives with his father above his father’s vacuum repair shop and has recently been cheated on by a women.  Both find comfort and release in music.  The pain and hurt Glen has from leaving his woman can be felt especially in the songs, Leave and Say it to Me Now.  Marketa’s song If You Want Me, is moving, the way she sings one knows she has been hurt.

            Once is a movie that leaves an impression.  The emotion that Glen has when he sings is very powerful and is the most memorable part of the movie.  Marketa’s lyrics were very good but were shadowed by Glen’s performance.  The story is very easy to relate to, this makes the emotional impact that much stronger.  Once is a great movie to put in when having a bad day, it warms the heart and the soul. 

Gloria Steinem Article

Women are not taken as seriously in society as they deserve.  Gloria Steinem brings up a valid argument in Women are Never Front-Runners.  Her stance on racism is not correct, it is still an issue. 

            Gloria seems to complain that black men should not have had the vote before white women.  This is making an argument for her stance, however, it seems racist.  The article’s argument is that racism is less of an issue than women’s rights.  This proves that racism is just as much of an issue as women’s rights today.

            The article brings a good argument that women’s rights are behind in American society; women are just as intelligent as men and can help society.  Gloria wrote, “this country can no longer afford to choose our leaders from a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers and paper degrees.”  This is truly what our country needs but, Gloria needs to listen to herself.  In the final sentence she says, “I’m supporting her because she’ll be a great president and because she’s a women.”  Gloria has been discussing how we need to break gender barriers, this last comment makes one feel that maybe the barriers shouldn’t be broken but changed, to support women. 

Response Writer's Strike

Television has taken over the lives of countless Americans, many follow the lives of Grey of Jack Bauer closer than a friend.  With the invention of TiVo it has become even easier to stay a part of T.V. characters lives.  Now with the looming writers strike this, alternate life, could be over.

            David Bauer’s article, Despite writers’ strike, shows must go on, discusses how network TV is going to play out in the near future.  He says that almost all primetime shows such as, Grey’s or Hero’s have no more episodes written.  The programs that will be shown are less popular programs like, New Adventures of Old Christine.  People in turn will need to fall in love with reality T.V. and sports broad casts.

            What David is saying is proving everyone’s worst fears.  Without a resolution to the strike in sight TV as we know it is about to change.  One has to believe a resolution will be reached, the question is will it be in time.  By the time a resolution has been reached any people may have found better uses of their time.  This strike is the worst thing that could have happened to network television and they will be seeing the repercussions of being cheap for decades. 

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettell5546317jan21,0,6928532.story

Critical Response to Cloverfield Review

Lisa Schwarzbaum’s negative review did not focus on the worst parts of the movie Cloverfield.  Instead, she focused on the inexperienced crew that, “did not have anything interesting to say.”  She felt that the use of terms such as, “dude,” (which she considered negative) gave the movie a young, casual feel; this worked well for the movie.  In the last section she briefly mentions the camera work as being, “a big picture disaster.”  More focus needed to be put into this because the camera work makes one want to run to the nearest bathroom and vomit of motion sickness.  This was the greatest downfall of the movie aside for the lack of story development and closure.  Cloverfield had to be the easiest story to write because the story consisted of a monster coming from an unknown location which then began to terrorize the city. There was only slight mention as to it being a sea creature by one the main characters that is portrayed as being less than intelligent.  Also the ending is as open to interpretation as the appearance of the monster.  Lisa was right in bashing the movie. However, she did not focus on the proper aspects that made the viewer leave the theater wondering why they had not stayed home to watch reruns of Judge Judy.  

Atonement the Danger of Jealousy

 

            Atonement directed by Joe Wright, a director best know for Pride and Prejudice, tells a story of jealousy that is over shadowed by a compelling love story; it takes place mainly in London before during and after World War II.  Main character Cecilia played by Keira Knightly, better know as the love interest of William Turner in Disney’s, Pirates of the Caribbean, plays an upper class girl who finds herself madley in love with a servant with whom she has grown up with.  The love interest Robbie Turner is played by James McAvoy.  McAvoy most recently played a starring role in the acclaimed Last King of Scotland.  Briony, the sister of Cecilia, played by Saoirse Ronan, wrongfully accuses McAvoy’s character of rape because of jealousy in turn he has to go to war.  Cecilia and Robbie long to be together but tragically both die before they can reunite.  Briony becomes an author and tells the story as she is dying.

            Atonement on the surface is a love story, however the plot is driven by jealousy.  The director does a very good job of hinting at the feeling.  Briony is a rich girl who is shown as very intelligent who has a great passion for writing.  Robbie works at her home the two have a friendly relationship.  At one point we find that he has read all of her plays.  The first sign of jealousy is in a scene where Cecilia, Briony’s sister, takes off her dress and jumps into a fountain.  Briony doesn’t see everything and assumes more than was there.  Soon after this Robbie writes a letter to apologize for dropping the vase in the fountain, the real reason Cecilia took her dress off.  Robbie gives the wrong letter to Briony to give to Cecilia, the letter is very vulgar.  She reads it, at this point one can see Briony has feelings for Robbie.  Cecilia gets the letter and realizes that she has feelings for Robbie and the two proceed to make love in a library.  Briony walks in on the two.  It is clear the hurt in her face in seeing the two in the library.

            After this the viewer sees a very tense dinner in which everyone has to leave to find two young boys who had run away.  During the search Briony sees a friend, whom she had previously told about Robbie’s letter, she was being raped.  Briony says that she saw Robbie doing it, she and the girl both know this is false.  Briony tells the police Robbie did it.  In a great scene showing the true character of Robbie, he returns much later than anyone else with one boy on his shoulder and the other holding his hand.  Robbie is then taken away by the police.  As he is being driven away there is a very emotional scene with is mother trying to stop the police.

            In a flash back later in the movie Briony jumps into the water, to see if Robbie will save her, this is the proof that Briony has deep feelings for Robbie.  One also sees a discussion in which Briony says she has never been in love but had a crush on Robbie, this is done in such a way that one knows it was more than a crush.  Briony’s jealousy lead her to do terrible things, because she could not have Robbie than her sister couldn’t either.  This movie is a great example of how powerful jealousy can be and is conveyed exceptionally.