Summer in Athens, Ohio

A place where the students retreat for months, the Union is full of good people, the coffee shop is relaxing, Strouds Run becomes a daily outing, there’s never a wait at Casa and the sun is hot hot hot on these Appalachian hills, this is Athens, Ohio.

And! I am back on the movie review train for my last summer here. $4 Tuesdays and her sister day, Free Pop Corn Wednesdays at The Athena Cinema on Court Street will once again be my movie viewing days, followed by my review.

I believe that we should experience a reflection of aspects of our own unique lives in movies. I watch movies by searching for the commentary on my own journey, because a great movie will reveal lessons to me. If I can’t learn a thoughtful idea on humanity than an important element is likely missing. Above all, this is the key element in a movie for me.

I also evaluate my films from the Betchel Test perspective. As cinema should reflect realities from our lives, the Betchel Test determines this accuracy from the feminist perspective. This test was designed to score the representation of reality for the female gender. Unfortunately many movies miss this mark, which is a pity because passing The betchel Test would enhance a lot of movies’ plot, acting, directing, and script writing.

The Test is as follows:

1) Are there more than 2 females in the movie? (Yes = potentially feminist, continue to question 2)

2) Do the 3 + female characters talk to each other? (Yes = THANK GOD. How many movies have you seen in which the female characters only talk to men? Consider. It’s a surprisingly high number, isn’t it?)

3) Do these 3 + female characters who talk to each other talk about anything (literally ANYTHING) other than men?

Answer yes to all these questions and congratulations, your movie may be feminist and conscious of the real lives of women the world over. Women who interact with each other.

Now let’s dig deeper. Why would women be portrayed in movies only in terms of men? Well because patriarchy. Fuck the patriarchy!

No, but really. Men run the film industry and therefore don’t often consider the female perspective. My own theory is that when we portray women in movies as having independent lives from men it threatens the sexist power dynamic.

Women who interact with each other, talk. Women who talk to each other inevitably start revolutions and stir shit up. Feminists of the 60s and 70s knew this when they began conciousness raising groups. Any female rock band knows this is true. Women are killing it in politics today.

So why are a large number of films failing to show women as they are- thinking, communicating, thought provoking and plot driving beings? Mysteries of the universe.

This speaks to my privilege but I’ve heard of a race version of the Betchel Test, which I’m assuming are very similar questions but with race instead of gender. I will look those up and use that analysis in my movie review.

Ah so summer, we meet again. I’ve waited all year for $4 Tuesdays to happen again. Sometimes we have to go through a year long depression before being able to pick a hobby like this back up. Or is that just me?

Another story for another time,
Hans SG

$4 Tuesday: Ginger & Rosa

Edit: Throughout the first part of the movie Ginger and Rosa are so close that they even wear the same things. But people change, they have to. As each girl discovers more her own individual identity they realize that the things that bonded them together as children can no longer bond them as adults. Is the ending of their friendship inevitable?

They said Elle Fanning would be sensational, and they did not lie. I just saw Ginger & Rosa directed by Sally Potter for today’s installment of 4$ Tuesday.

*Spoiler Alerts*

In 1960s London, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Ginger and Rosa are best friends and do everything together. Ginger, played phenomenally by Elle Fanning, is a budding activist who is deeply disturbed by the state of the world and is internalizing the stress of it all with the growing intensity and despair in the way that only revolutionary young adults do. She is a child in a world in which she sees no other choice but to be the grown up, in the micro-sense because of her dysfunctional parents inability to be adults and in the macro-sense as she confronts the government’s irresponsible and potentially lethal actions.

Rosa is religious and prefers a peaceful approach to the war over Ginger’s urgent need for forceful action. She’s flirtatious with boys and embraces her sexuality inclinations without much thought to the consequences and likewise unperturbed by the consequences in the end. Rosa develops a flirtation with Ginger’s father, Roland. Rosa and Ginger begin to drift apart as Ginger becomes closer to the activist movement and Rosa becomes closer to Ginger’s father. As Rosa and Roland develop an intimate relationship, Ginger struggles to cope with the deceit of her friend and family. Roland is a revolutionary whose articles are respected by Vietnam protesters. He tells Ginger “Every man must fight for his own authority, his own autonomous thoughts. Which means you shouldn’t listen to a word I say.”

Roland’s immaturity and hypocrisy show through when he tries to convince Ginger to understand him and his life philosophy, which has dictated his carpe diem actions even at the expense of his daughter’s lifelong friendship and well-being. The ending makes you wonder if Ginger has forgiven him. I don’t believe she does because the “I forgive you” that we hear narrated is from a poem to Rosa and does not depart from its train of thought to address Roland, who is in the scene by circumstance.

As strong as Elle Fanning’s performance is in this film, the weak points rest on newcomer Alice Englert’s character, Rosa. The film had the opportunity to explore the complexity of Rosa, but instead I was left feeling like I just could never get on her side because it was never made to feel appealing or logical. Instead we are left with a bitter taste in our mouths for a girl who has so easily hurt her friend and thrown their friendship away. Was there no internal struggle there? Rosa is delusional and thinks she can help Roland and that they are bonded by something other than a physical attraction. I wanted to feel Rosa’s pain, her conflicting emotions towards her friend and the tension of her budding sexuality pulling her to Roland. I didn’t get any of this. Instead it was more like a you-don’t-particularly-care-about-your-friends’-feelings-and-the-consequences-of-your-actions-plus-you’re-a-slut kinda vibe. When it comes to the war, Rosa is a pacifist, who chooses prayer over protest, religion over rebellion. Meanwhile, the intensity of Ginger’s emotions come across clearly, twisted and raw from the many stresses in her life that cannot be pushed away through prayer and attention from boys.

Christina Hendricks, who plays Ginger’s mother, gives a fairly weak performance, using a British accent that sounds authentically forced.

Overall though, I really did enjoy this film. I walked away considering my own point in time and the stresses in my own life. I relate to Ginger and her desperation. Though not the 1960s. the crisis of my generation is that of overpopulation, starvation, contamination, and climate change. I used to feel constant desperation and now I often feel hopeless. The human race is facing the greatest test: Our imminent mortality on a massive scale. There is only a matter of time before mass migration and wars over clean water cause issues more pressing than ever before. And there are days when I feel like I will explode too. And I have no answers.

Favorite Quotes:

-I think we should do something about the bomb, you know, protest.

-I think we should pray.

Can’t you be a girl for just a minute or two longer?

There’s poetry in small spaces… a beauty in confinement.

But I don’t want to die, I want to grow up and do things!

Happy is not really an option when the whole world is about to be blown to pieces.

I’d prefer the world not to end, wouldn’t you?

And I will say, “I loved you, Rosa.”

It’s worth seeing despite it’s weak points.

hsg

$4 Tuesday: Skipped

My apologies wordpress world, I haven’t seen a movie this week. It’s the last week of classes and exams are next week and I’m on the super struggle bus. Fear not, summer is nearly here and then maybe my brain will stop trying to sabotage my life. 

 

hsg

 

$4 Tuesday- Spring Breakers

James Franco as rapper/gangster Alien is equal parts hilarious, convincing, disturbing and sexy (which is weird to say because I really didn’t think I would be able to get past the grill and corn rows white boy vibe). It’s pretty raunchy too, which I guess shouldn’t surprise considering what apparently goes on during spring break among college kids (alas, I only know the rumors). It starts with a montage of boobs and beer and continues with the whole boobs theme throughout the movie. I desperately want the four main girls, Brit, Candy, Cotty, and Faith, to be my absolute best friends… this movie certainly put into perspective how boring my own life is.

Faith/Selena Gomez has the brown hair and is a Christian fish out of water, simultaneously wanting to have fun but not wanting to push the boundaries, although she unintentionally gives the speech that motivates her friends to rob a chicken restaurant. Faith is uncomfortable with how her friends got the money after she learns the details. Before too long and after they spend a night in jail, she bails and that’s the last we see of her. The other three hang around Alien until a drive by shooting sends Cotty/Rachel Korine packing. Several robberies and a threesome later, the action really picks up.

The question throughout the whole movie is, how far are they going to go? The movie takes a turn after the first two leave, focusing on the power dynamics between Brit/Ashley Benson and Candy/Vanessa Hudgens and Alien. To provide some insight, the girls force Alien to his knees by sticking loaded guns in his mouth and demanding he suck. It’s a little rape-y, and if the roles were reversed it would be genuinely disturbing. Except, it’s disturbing anyway because these girls love the money, drugs, power, automatic weapons, and adrenaline of Alien’s business. It’s also what makes it interesting.

This film makes you laugh and feel totally disturbed at the same time, a delicate balance to pull but done quite well.

Favorite Quotes

I’ve found who I am here. – all the girls

You two girls are my motherfuckin soulmates. – Alien

This is the fuckin’ American dream. This is my fuckin’ dream, y’all! All this sheeyit! Look at my sheeyit! I got… I got SHORTS! Every fuckin’ color. I got designer T-shirts! I got gold bullets. Motherfuckin’ VAM-pires. I got Scarface. On repeat. SCARFACE ON REPEAT. Constant, y’all! I got Escape! Calvin Klein Escape! Mix it up with Calvin Klein Be. Smell nice? I SMELL NICE!

– Alien

I think that’s the secret to life- being a good person. – Brit

Aside from being a great genre departure for the previous Disney stars Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez from virgins to raunchy young adults (can’t there be a balance!? Gotta market yourself somehow post Disney I guess…) this film is worth seeing.

See it, enjoy it, and wish your spring breaks were half as fun as this movie.

hsg