Demetri Martin: Live (At the Time)

DEMETRI MARTIN: LIVE (AT THE TIME)

I have a confession to make. I didn't exactly watch this special ON Netflix, as apparently I thought I had a PS3 to use it on, but I had forgotten it can't connect to Truman internet wirelessly, and I had forgotten my ethernet cable at home back in Illinois. I also did not have enough time to contact someone in my class or anyone in my dorm to and ask to use theirs, so I ended having to watch this online on a streaming site. I know, I feel very bad, but it's STILL a Netflix premiere special, so that must count. Hopefully.
For those who are unaware, Demetri Martin is stand-up comedian, director, actor, artist, musician, and writer. He is most well known for his show that aired on Comedy Central from 2009-2010 show, Important Things with Demetri Martin. He is also the voice of Ice Bear from the currently running Cartoon Network show, We Bare Bears. He also directed and starred in two little unknown films, Taking Woodstock in 2009 and very recently in Dean, which came out just last year. However, we're here to talk about his special and also his comedy. HOWEVER however, describing his brand of humor is not exactly an easy thing to do. If you've never seen comedians like Mitch Hedberg or Steven Wright or Emo Phillips, you may not get what he's going for. So, I'll have to put down a few quotes to give an idea of his kind of comedy, like "I was on the street. This guy waved to me, and he came up to me and said, 'I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else.' And I said, 'I am,'" and "If I ever saw an amputee getting hanged, I'd probably just start calling out letters."
Now that that's out of the way, let's discuss the special and my feelings towards it. As the special begins and the intro is gotten out of the way, he makes the first joke, which is basically how people use Jumbotrons at ball games to propose to people, and then suggests they can also be used to break up with someone. Weak start, but it gets progressively better as it goes on. Scratch that, it gets better on the second joke, where he says his favorite sign that he's ever seen is Bridge May Be Icy, "because it's so honest, you know? It's like...'Bridge...maybe? I don't know. I'm a sign. I don't have conscious mind.' " Also, one sign he doesn't like is Please Use Other Door. "You're a fucking door. You don't get to take a break." Both of these got me laughing like an idiot, and I knew this would be a grand time. He goes more into the door bit and gets more hilarious, but I do not want to go into too much detail and spoil the bit. The same goes for most of the jokes in his special because it's much funnier when he delivers them and when they are not expected.
However, one of my favorite jokes is when he considers if cremating a dead body is "all or nothing" and if you can make requests. "He wants to be cremated from the waist down. 'Anything else?' Uh, yeah. Open casket. Wants his torso at the one end, then the ashes. And they lead to a lamp. And, uh, he's dressed as a genie." Another one of my favorite jokes is one involving the French, but I dare not spoil it and ruin the punchline. After a while, nearing the end of the special, he begins playing the guitar and harmonica instead of singing a song like Bo Burham (who is somewhat similar to Demetri in comedic fashion), he goes on essential a "lightning round" of quips, one after the other, ending with another one of my favorite jokes, which I also do not want to spoil (partly because I find it would be awkward to type out, but mainly because of the punchline). Overall, I got what I expected from a comedian like Demetri Martin and I loved almost every minute of the special, and it serves as a great reminder of why he is one of my favorite comedians and why that brand of humor is one of my favorite kinds of humor.

Stranger Things

Not being much of a Netflix viewer myself, I was excited to get started with Stranger Things, a show that was recommended to me by a few friends.  Going into it, I knew that the story would be based around a group of children trying to solve some issue.  Immediately, the director made it clear that suspense and high tension were going to be major focus points for the show.  An interesting pattern that I noticed was the director's interleaving of shots that are more lax and joyful with scenes that presented imminent danger, foreboding, or distress.  Lastly, the initial presentation of rather dynamic characters and the relationships between them was markedly noticeable even for just the pilot episode.  The directors of Stranger Things made a noticeable effort to capture the viewer's interest, fully utilizing every character and every shot to further the plot and lay foundation for future episodes.  

Beginning with the sharp contrast between shots that presented a more joyful mood and shots that stemmed from tense moments, the director’s use of mixing them together and allowing them to help explore different scenes is extremely noteworthy.  The episode begins with a lab scientist being chased by an unknown creature, which sets the tone for the show.  The very next shot depicts the main protagonists playing a board game together.  This scene is then followed with one of the main protagonists biking home from playing the board game at his friend's house; however, he is then chased by perhaps the same unknown creature that chased the scientist and then disappears.  This alternation of moods from scene to scene continues throughout the remainder of the episode.  As I continued watching and recognizing this pattern, it gave me a noticeable sense of foreboding as if I already knew something terrible may happen, yet the directors kept it obscure enough so that I did not know exactly what might happen.  This seemingly simple mood dynamic in the show allows the viewer’s mind to imagine and think about what will happen next, thus leading to elevated levels of excitement throughout the episode.  

Next, the way the directors went about introducing certain characters made them both memorable and increasingly interesting as the episode continued.  Beginning with the presentation of Chief Hopper, the camera pans through his house, first panning over a table covered with garbage and beer cans, then moving to a shot where he’s shown sleeping on his living room couch, and then moving to a shot, soon after he wakes up, showing him having a morning smoke on his outside deck.  Within the first thirty-five seconds of Chief Hooper’s debut, the audience has been giving enough evidence to conclude that he may not be the most inviting or wholesome character in the show; however, what makes him quite interesting is his development throughout.  Despite being depicted as quite a care-free character, Chief Hooper, who we come to find out is the chief of police of Hawkins, Indiana,  takes his job seriously and treats his duty with respect.  Most notably, soon after the search for Will, who went missing early in the episode, Chief Hopper and a few other policemen stumble upon Will’s bike.  Without any other clues, Chief Hopper’s first action thereafter was to go to Will’s home after deducing that Will may have been in danger and made the obvious decision to get home as fast as possible if moving by bike was not an option.  A few scenes later Chief Hopper finds another clue which leads him to immediately dispatch a search party to find Will.  This particular shot depicts a side of Chief Hopper that is sharply distinct from the Chief Hopper that was shown sleeping on his living room couch and then having a morning smoke to wake up.

Stranger Things  caught me by surprise with how quickly events spurred, how quickly tension manifesting, and the pace at which characters were developed.  Just from the pilot episode the show already had many things to continue building upon and methods of keeping the audience interested.  Once again, I personally do not watch much Netflix; however, Stranger Things  may be the first step I take.

Death Note Review

For my blog entry I recently watched the 2017 American version of the anime Death Note. Personally, I have never watched the anime and, quite frankly, am not a fan of the overall style of it. That said, the premise is very interesting and was directed by Adam Wingard, who had previously helmed the 2016 Blair Witch and The Guest, two movies that I really dug and find severely underrated. Not to mention, Willem Dafoe voices the main antagonist which is always a plus.

            Like one of my peers, JBurns2112, who also has a review for this movie up on the blog, the film is definitely flawed. That said, I found enough redeeming moments in the film to actually enjoy it for what it was.

            Let’s first get the negatives out of the way. First off is the writing. It was penned by three different writers (already a bad sign) whose previous work include “films” such as Immortals, The Lazarus Effect, and the 2015 Fantastic Four remake. Much like the writing in those, Death Note is constantly plagued by clichéd characters, horrible dialogue, a very generic narrative structure, as well as incredibly repetitive story elements. Using the repetition as an example here, the film follows a basic structure: character kills someone, character begins to doubt himself, character continues after encouragement from girlfriend and villain. This process is played out too many times. Additionally, the film has an undeserved “happy” ending that felt forced and did a complete 360 from where the plot had been moving beforehand. The characterizations of the protagonist Light and his girlfriend Mia are so boring and generic which are made all the worse by their actors Nat Wolff and Margaret Qualley. While I’ve never seen Wolff before, I saw Qualley in last year’s The Nice Guys where I thought she was great. I have a feeling that the bad performances were less on the actors here and more on the horrible writing. In all fairness, I don’t think even Christian Bale could have made this dialogue work. The bad writing then combined with bad editing to make the film feel very unbalanced throughout. Within the first ten minutes of the film, Light already has the Death Note. By the fifteen-minute mark, he has already shown his girlfriend his powers. Not even a half hour in and we’ve already seen the Light has basically killed almost every criminal out there. This leaves over an hour left to focus on the manhunt for him which, considering how fast the film started, felt very dragging and kind of boring. The other major problem with the film that I found was the cinematography. While I applaud Wingard and director of photography David Tattersall for trying to do some creative camerawork, it was way too much. They utilized a lot of unnecessary crane shots and zoom shots that did not work at all. These kinds of camerawork are effective in big budget blockbusters and huge epics, not a small town horror flick. In addition, there was way too much emphasis placed on slow motion that wore old by about the second use.

            Now that we have the negatives out of the way, let’s look at what was good here. The absolute best part of the film was the soundtrack composed by Leopold Ross and his Academy Award winning brother Atticus. Atticus Ross had previously done scores to films such as The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Gone Girl, all wonderful scores, and his expertise really shines through here. The score feels very synthesized, something that Wingard utilized to perfection in The Guest. Of all the films I’ve seen this year, this has to be one of the best scores of any of them. Another highlight of the film was the visual effects. As JBurns2112 mentioned in their review, the film takes great pride in showing off gory, Final Destination-esque deaths. Personally, I’m okay with that, especially considering I’m a huge horror movie buff. However, if the effects were mediocre, then I would have a problem with that. Thankfully, the makeup and gore effects are absolutely top of the line here. Of course when talking about the special effects of the film, I have to at least mention Ryuk, the “8-foot-tall demon-looking motherf%@#er” as described in the film by the protagonist. For a Netflix original, his effects weren’t bad. For the most part, they keep him in the shadows, which I think works for the best as it not only hides the CGI, but it also allows the character to remain more mysterious. The last positive I want to mention here are a few of the performances. The easy standout is Willem Dafoe as Ryuk, who stole every single scene he was in to an incredible degree. Another standout performance here was severely underrated character actor Shea Wigham (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook) as the protagonist’s cop father. Overall, while the two leads weren’t very good, much of the supporting cast was.

In conclusion, Death Note is slightly better than the typical run of the mill horror film mainly due to a few standout performances, the effects, and the music. Unfortunately, the horrible writing keeps it from being anything more than that, despite a solid premise.

Disjointed

Disjointed was added to Netflix on August 25th (yesterday). I chose it due to seeing the light it would portray medical marijuana in and if it was going to be more of a sitcom or documentary. From the opening, it was clear it was going to be a sitcom. The opening scene was shown through the recording of a commercial for the dispensary. While you could tell it was a commercial and being recorded, the characters made direct eye contact with the camera as well as used a laugh track which made it feel glitchy, cheesy and awkward. The lighting that they used throughout was an interesting choice as it is very bright and well lit throughout all scenes. I would have expected it to change with the scenes and the mood they were going for with each scene, but it stayed bright the entire episode. The theme song was a complete 180 degrees from the remainder of the episode. It featured older music and a black and white scenes of people smoking from multiple old movies.

After reading about camera angles this week, I mainly focused on them as I was watching this pilot episode, to see how they influenced the plot and viewer emotions. Multiple times I caught them influencing my interpretation of a scene. In conversations, the camera cuts back and forth between the people in the conversation, but tends to focus more on the people who are being spoken to. This makes sense as you see their face and emotion to what’s being said to them and their reaction helps guide how the producers want you to feel. At the beginning, a mom, Maria, comes in and is very frantic and emotional about her experience with being at the dispensary. Ruth takes a position of authority in the way that she sits above Maria on the couch. The camera angle also strengthens this, as it looks down on Maria, and up at Ruth. Camera angle is used again to manipulate the feeling of conversation between an Asian girl, Jenny and a guy growing weed, Pete. Jenny has just lied to her mom about where she is and what she is doing, telling her she is in medical school dissecting a cadaver. After this conversation, the conversation between Pete and Jenny evolves into more of a lecture feeling as she is high as the camera is looking down on her and Pete is chastising her.

As Ruth and her son, Travis talk about business plan and future, camera angles are prevalent again. Ruth is seated through their conversation, and Travis starts to discuss his ideas with her, he gets on her level to try and make her feel at ease. As Ruth rejects him, Travis stands up to tower over her. The camera is looking down on Ruth and up at Travis as he is talking about industry and making her business more successful. Ruth is reluctant to change and appears older and is made smaller by the camera angles as Travis talks about big business and his dreams for the company.

A majorly interesting scene in this episode is an animated scene about post traumatic stress disorder. It was very mesmerizing, with scenes that are intricate and complex. There were many flashbacks to the security guard, Carter’s time in Iraq intermixed with aspects of his life such as images of his home and his date falling apart. Instead of simple narration with this, they used flowing words with rhythm, much like slam poetry. The whole thing was hard to take your eyes off but also hard to focus on what you were hearing and seeing, giving way to how people living with post traumatic stress disorder feel daily.

Multiple stereotypes were prevalent throughout the show. The mom, Maria had a stereotypical reason for medical marijuana--that her kids and husband were too much and left her wanting to drive her minivan into a lake. The commercial for marijuana was very stereotypical. It was almost identical to every beer and “manly” commercial on television. The subtle use of the Coors Light logo for the logo of “Kush” reinforced that feeling. The weed grower, Pete, approached everything with a scientific undertone, but at the same time wore a “drug rug”, a sweater popularized by stoners.

Overall I was intrigued by the show, as fake and cheesy as many aspects were. I plan on watching a few more episodes just to see how the characters and plot develop.

Dave Chappelle

As I begrudgingly opened Netflix on my laptop, the very first program that caught my attention was Dave Chappelle. The iconic scarlet letters declaring that firstly, the program was a Netflix original, and secondly, that it was the Dave Chappelle made my heart jump with excitement.

Dave Chappelle is a comedian who was very active and popular in the early 2000’s. He had his own show that broadcasted on Comedy Central titled Chappelle’s Show. This show in particular  was responsible for bringing my family together in front of the television screen and unifying us in boisterous laughter. At the time that this show was most most influential in my life, I was a child, and of course I couldn’t understand exactly why the R-rated jokes were so funny, but it felt good to have something to bond over with my family. Considering the rich history that I have with Chappelle’s content, it may be obvious as to why I was so ecstatic to view this spectacle. I clicked on the rectangular box wielding Chappelle’s goofy likeness with high hopes, high expectations, and high spirits in remembrance of my childhood.

The initial ten minutes of Dave Chappelle found me in constant laughter. Even my roommate had to inquire about my hilarity. After those first ten minutes concluded, I was tired. I have no other word for it. I was just tired. For ten minutes, I’d felt nostalgic and full of pride for this comedian that I had once watched, and then I was ready to move on with my life. However, fifty minutes remained in the program, and I had planned on viewing it in full.

So I watched the rest of it. I quickly noted Chappelle’s tendency to gravitate towards controversial topics such as the case of Orenthal James Simpson, Bill Cosby, the LGBTQ+ community, abortion, and racial profiling, amongst other things. While I did expect for him to cover some topics, such as living in America as a black person or his wacky encounters with other celebrities, I wasn’t expecting his coverage of some of the more controversial topics. Once that initial haze of excitement fell off, I took note of a plethora of things wrong with the performance - his habit of subtly stroking his stomach, his tendency to laugh at his own jokes, hitting the microphone against his body, and what appeared to be a desperate attempt to be as controversial as possible.

Controversy is definitely acceptable, and the ability to hear and discuss differing opinions is necessary for survival. That being said, his opinions alone were not what had me checking the remaining runtime every fifteen minutes. I suppose it was the memory of his sketch comedy show. Though I knew that this program in particular was solely stand-up comedy, I still fondly remembered Chappelle’s Show and the manner in which it alternated between stand-up comedy and very memorable sketch comedies.

Watching this program was just a reminder for me that things and people change, and though you may desire for someone or something to remain the way it is memorialized in your mind, it probably isn’t going to happen. Perhaps, if I went into viewing the program separated from my memories, I would have enjoyed it for a lot longer than ten minutes. Regardless of how I felt while viewing it, I find myself happy that I watched it at all. While I don’t foresee my family and I viewing Dave Chappelle together with split sides, I still value the positive emotions that the performance gave to me.

Riverdale

Riverdale is a Netflix original series, popular to young teenagers. The series begin with the narrator, “Jughead,” describing the town Riverdale. The narrator claims that Riverdale may seem like the typical small town, safe, decent, and innocent but it is far from it. Jughead begins telling a story about the Fourth of July at Sweetwater River with the Blossom twins, Jason and Cheryl. The twins went for an early morning boat ride but only to end with one of them falling in the river and drowning. The police were immediately called after a boy scout found Cheryl crying by the riverbank. So there it is, it was Jason that fell into the river! However, Cheryl claims that her glove fell into the water and as Jason reached for it, he fell into the river. As the crime scene went on, a woman says “I hope in those last moments he suffered. May Jason Blossom burn in hell.” Who is this woman and why does she want Jason to burn in hell!?

An interesting tool the producers used in this series was their use of mystery, they began the series with multiple questions to ask yourself. Who killed Jason? Why would anyone want to kill him? Why would a woman wish a suffering death upon anyone? It’s almost an immediate attention-getter. The woman, Alice, then explains that her daughter had been dating Jason and it basically ruined her! “She was such a shining star before she let that Blossom boy ruin her,” says Alice. Is Jason really to blame for her daughter Polly's downfall or is she overreacting?

The use of drama in this series is another attention getting. For instance, the secret one night stand kept between a teacher and student is wicked but it’s also scandalous and the intended audience would love to see that! Clearly, intimate relationships between student and teacher shouldn’t happen but here it is! Archie, one of the main characters had a one night stand with the music teacher and now that he really needs help with music, things have become extremely awkward between them. But that isn’t the only secret Archie and Ms. Grundy have. The morning that Jason was killed, both Archie and Ms. Grundy were there but failed to say anything. Consequently, the mysteries go on and questions steadily arise. Will Archie and Ms. Grundy pursue his career without stumbling over things in the past? Or will one of them speak up about what really went on the morning of The Fourth of July?

This show also executes a great deal of surprises. While Betty and Veronica were trying out to be River Vixens, Cheryl puts Betty on the spot about the history of Jason and Betty’s sister, Polly. Cheryl practically forces Betty to explain Jason and Polly's history but Veronica isn't here for it. Cheryl may be able to torment Betty but Veronica takes her by surprise with her brutal honestly. Veronica explains that Cheryl wants people to fear her and inflict intimidation but she clarifies that her little stunts will not work on her. Will Cheryl get the idea and leave Veronica alone or has the fight just begun?

After only watching one episode of Riverdale, I can already sense how great the series is going to be. The drama, the endless questions, and the shocking secrets were all great enhancers added to the show and hopefully that’ll be enough to encourage others to watch Riverdale as well.

Death Note's Swan Song

Upon hearing of a movie adaption in the works for the anime Death Note, I was very excited. The show was a guilty pleasure of mine. The show is on Netflix, and I binged the two seasons in a matter of days. This excitement waned over the first five minutes of actually watching the movie. To my disappointment, it has been vulgarly whitewashed. Japan has become USA and the protagonist Light Yagami has magically turned into Light Turner, seemingly solely to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Similarly, the plot has been dumbed down into a typical American teen flick, complete with an unnecessary prom scene. In the first five minutes we see that Light is a quirky high school outcast who goes to school with even more cliched and unrealistic jock archetypes who beat people up on sight. Light likes the cool cheerleader who, despite her good heart, belongs to the popular crowd and has a jock boyfriend. I think we all see where this is going. While there are quite a few stand out hits in Netflix’s portfolio, this paint by the numbers approach is the sad truth of more and more Netflix Originals. I think we would all like to forget the recent Netflix Adam Sandler movies.

As a fan of the anime, there is plenty not to like. There is a shoehorned romance, but that’s to be expected. Unfortunately, all elements of plot seem shoehorned. The most interesting aspect of the show was Light’s gradual descent into a manipulative psychopath on a power trip. It was interesting to find oneself rooting for a protagonist who is inarguably bad. However, this is removed from the movie. To appeal to traditional values, he renounces the Death Note and becomes an even more morally just hero. This takes the interesting plot and turns it into something mundane, expected. It’s frustrating how untrue the movie is to the source material. However, it’s not just bad by comparison; the Death Note movie is bad on its own.

I’m finding it difficult to analyze deeply a movie that appears to have no depth. Every scene was so on the nose in its purpose, an implicit meaning would have to be conjured. All backstory is told, not shown, through unrealistic exposition. Frequently, two characters talk to one another in ways that they never would for the benefit of the audience’s knowledge. This takes away all suspension of disbelief. It feels like I was being told to ignore the man behind the curtain, but the curtain was thin and transparent, and the man squealed, “look at me!” Constantly I was reminded that I was watching a movie. The acting was poor, and the writing was atrocious. Interestingly enough, it seemed like more plot movement happened in montages than anything else. There was constant cursing for no discernible reason, coupled with a completely unnecessary amount of gore. I was expecting a clever thriller and I got mindless decapitations (ha!) in the style of Final Destination. I would advise fans to stay away, and for would-be fans: watch the show.

Fundamentals of Caring

08/26/17

            This week, I decided to check out a Netflix original movie, as I haven’t done so before and am generally more of a movie person. I was drawn to Fundamentals of Caring, most likely because the picture for this movie is of waffles and sausage and (although they are arranged to look like male genitalia) I love breakfast food so I thought I’d check it out. Just from reading the description, it sounded like one of those really basic movies about a road trip, but the big thing that excited me about it was that Selena Gomez was in it and I am so high key obsessed with her.

The movie follows a retired writer named Ben (Paul Rudd) who is now looking to find a job in the field of caregiving and even takes a class called, you guessed it, “The Fundamentals of Caring.” He winds up getting hired by a woman named Elsa whose eighteen-year-old son Travis has muscular dystrophy. It all sounds pretty run of the mill and boring so far, but Travis happens to be an extremely sarcastic and narcissistic, and quite frankly a prick. He is super routine oriented and hates to change even the most miniscule details about the way he lives. He eats the exact same thing every meal(where the waffles and sausage picture on the front cover comes about), goes to the park once a week with a very precise time perimeter, and for the most part sits around his house watching TV all hours of the day. Ben, trying to break Trevor’s routine and give him unforgettable memories, suggests that they go on a road trip across America, viewing some of the lamest roadside attractions along the way. After much planning and reluctance, the trip finally happens. There are many ups and downs along the way, they end up picking up two more passengers (Dot, Selena Gomez’s character, and a pregnant woman), and there are challenges that come along with travelling so far with someone with muscular dystrophy. The turning point of the movie happens when Trevor tells Ben he wants to make a pitstop to see his father who abandoned him at the age of three (also happens to be the age he was diagnosed, a little fishily), and basically the asshole tries to pay off his guilt by giving Trevor money. I wanted to throw my laptop at that part, that’s for sure. Anyway, the trip ends with their big final destination, which is the World’s Deepest Pit, and (spoiler) the pregnant woman goes into labor at the bottom of the pit and Ben has to deliver the baby as the ambulance isn’t able to get there in time.

Honestly, now that I think of it there wasn’t a lot to this movie, but it had a ton of cool twists in it, some that I didn’t even mention. I also enjoyed a lot of the quotes from it, my favorite definitely being, “I’m getting a patty melt, I don’t give a shit.” (Paul Rudd) Another really cool element to me was the fact that the main character has muscular dystrophy, and just trying to make connections with that from what I learned about MD last year in my comm dis intro course. From what I remembered, a lot of it was really accurate, although most people who suffer from muscular dystrophy also have language deficits, but for the sake of this movie I think it made more sense that Trevor didn’t. All in all, I really loved this movie a lot, and it’s one that I will probably force a lot of my friends to watch because I think it’s one everyone should see.

Stranger Things

This week, I decided to finally sit down and watch Stranger Things, the extremely popular sci-fi drama starring Winona Ryder and break out star Millie Bobby Brown. In this show, we're taken for a ride from our real world, into the “Upside Down”, following a diverse set of characters of all age groups and personalities. I enjoyed watching the pilot episode so much that I kept going through the series. With a name like "Stranger Things", it seemingly has such a simple concept, a story about some strange things. Yet, when you dive deeper into it, you see that the name takes on a whole other meaning. When you think you've seen the strangest, there will always be stranger things that you may not be able to see, or even be aware of. With that, I was drawn into the weird concept and story of the show.

While watching, one of the main cinematic tools used in this show is the use of location. There may be minor spoilers ahead, so here is your first and last warning. Our story sets in the small fictitious town of Hawkins, Indiana, a seemingly quiet and ordinary town, in the mid 1980s. One of the more stranger things that occurs in the town is the existence of the Upside Down, a dark world that seems to parallel the town of Hawkins. Some points are more parallel than others. Will, kidnapped into the upside down, learns how to communicate with his mother through lights she hangs around her house. This puts an emphasis on the parallel worlds of Hawkins and the Upside Down. In the same sense Will’s mother first didn’t know if he was alive, to believing he was there and that it was possible to bring him home, viewers are able to figure out the mystery alongside the characters. Two of the other characters, Will’s older brother Jonathan and friend Nancy, eventually find a way into the upside down through a tree in the woods surrounding Hawkins. From an audience perspective, it causes us to be anxious for our characters, in that we know something they don’t, that there is a way out.

In addition, I found it interesting how we’re taken back to the 80s to set the story. The characters aren’t able to just text friends letting them know they’re safe, they can’t search up why strange things are happening. The kids in the show use walkie talkies for messages and are constantly worrying about their friends. Winona Ryder was one of the biggest names to be cast in the show, probably on purpose as she had been such a huge 80s star. All aspects help to enforce the idea of living in the past and add an exciting element for 80s movies fans, like myself.

Stranger Things I believe to be such a great show, as it has small elements from every genre: horror, thriller, sci-fi, and a little romance. That said, there is something in it for everyone, as long as you don’t mind being hit with the next stranger thing.

Film Rebirth

Rebirth was a movie about a white collar father Kyle involved in a cult Rebirth.

Technique montage was used in the beginning of the movie to tell the background of Kyle. This movie connected different scenes to give the audience basic idea about Kyle’s daily life. His daily life started with a kiss of his daughter and then he drove to his office. After getting off from work, he ended his day with his wife. The shot about Kyle’s daily had been repeated for two times indicating the exactly same and boring life he had. The beginning carried a foreshadowing of rebirth. This movie was full of surprise. Zack appeared unexpectedly and later on Kyle involved in a cult. The appear of Zack indicated that there must be something unusual. The most unexpected thing in the movie was that the protagonist didn’t leave Rebirth but advertised Rebirth with all his family. His friends Zack invited him to join in a program without telling Kyle what the program was. After Kyle went back home, he exercised like he used to do. But after exercising, he sat down and watched a video about the program Rebirth. This video used many successful examples to promote the program and Kyle smiled when he was watching it. This was a sign that he would like to join the Rebirth, and give himself a chance to rebirth.

Before Kyle got on the bus to their place for rebirth, a woman showed up and kept saying that Kyle was not belong to this group and should leave the program. This made the protagonist think about why he didn’t belong the group and should leave. On the contrary, Kyle believed that he should not leave. After arriving to a unknown place, Kyle was told to leave whenever he want. This part was kind of irony because Kyle unable to leave indeed. When Kyle was in the wish room, he saw a photographer was photoing. This explained why Kyle’s picture with those sexy women would be in his house. People in this place kept talking with Kyle and tried to confused him. The pink light in the room with three women and one old man was very ambiguous which made the atmosphere ambiguous too. People in that room looked like very nice and kind. In my opinion, they were trying to make Kyle more confused about what was going on. After Kyle gave out his anger, they got close to Kyle and took off his cloth. The pink light matched the scene perfectly.

Of course Kyle didn’t stay with the women but went to rescue his friend Zack after hearing the sign for help. However, this was another trick. In order to get rid of the place, Kyle put a knife on a man’s neck. Surprisingly, they were celebrating Kyle’s courage to do this and treated it as a rebirth. After Kyle backed home, he tried to leave Rebirth behind but found his house was full of Rebirth Produce. In this end of the movie, Kyle was willing to advertise the program Rebirth and saying how great it was. It was very a surprise to me. How could this happen?         

Naked

For this week my film of choice was the movie Naked, this movie is based around a man who relives his wedding day over and over and over again after waking up naked in an elevator. The director Michael Tiddes did a great job of keeping the movie playful and intriguing even through repeating the same day over. Everyday there was another aspect that kept it funny and you were waiting for the next. He did a great job of editing in this movie, if he would have just played the whole day over it would have became boring. Instead he kept the first day at full length and including all details then from there he could take out parts and skip to the part of the day that made it different. Naturally as a watcher you noticed what in the day had happened but wasn't shown because you had seen it before. This was a very important aspect of the movie since most of the movie involved the new days.

Another strong part of this movie was the cinematic language; the same characters were there throughout the movie which really helped develop them even if they played the smallest role. For most viewers they could connect to the main character whom keeps waking up or to the wife waiting for him to come, but if the watcher did not connect to these characters the rest became strong enough characters to connect them to the movie. Continuing this thought the movie was a romantic comedy, they did a great job of balancing these two things which also helps connect to diverse audience. Most people have a favorite genre and both of those are very popular ones along with the fact that most people will like one or the other. I personally really love comedies and I absolutely love movies that can be funny and also have that romantic twist. A lot of romantic comedies focus on the romance first so it was really nice that this show really began as a comedy then near the end it had a very romantic and sweet ending. Along with this thought they also kept the audience intrigued by the mystery and constant wonder of how he got in the elevator naked, throughout the movie you would think it was one character until they showed you that it was not. This factor really kept me a lot more interested because I always want to discover who the culprit is. You are always guessing because you are talking about what happened the night before at a bachelor party and the possibilities are limitless, it keeps you wondering which character had it out for him or was it his own doing? I guess you would have to watch it to find out the truth.   

Overall I believe this is a great movie that I really enjoyed watching and recommend for about anyone for a good laugh and heartwarming experience with maybe a little mystery in the mix.