Wendy and Lucy: A Statement on Capitalism

For this week’s movie, Wendy and Lucy we have a very interesting film that opposes against how society acts, especially when it comes to those who suffer economically. It is a very refreshing film in where we see this coming from a single woman’s point of view and even more interesting enough to see her suffer because of it. The usual tradition for Hollywood for a movie which is focused on a female character where she is not suffering because of the world, she is usually shown being safe and secure from the world and always having all her conflicts being resolved by the end of the movie.

It is in this movie we have Wendy who has everyone initially going against her as she attempts to travel to Alaska. This can only instill a feeling of dread within the character having so much opposition being forced against her with some of these conflicts never having a positive outcome for her. This can be especially shown with the scene of her sleeping in the woods while listening to someone having a monologue of him being in the same situation. Where I believe his most powerful words he said to her which drove her to crying later is, “I’m out here, trying to be a good boy and it’s just like they don’t want to let me you know?”

Wendy's Anguish Given a Physical Form

This statement can best be translated that if someone is within this situation society won’t allow them abide by their rules; they instead force them to go against their rules so they can suffer more. It brings about the question of not only morality but also human decency. 

O' Brother Where Art Thou: Something New?

 Well you can never go wrong with a Coen Brothers movie. This is especially the case of them mixing in elements from one of my favorite Greek stories as well. This movie I will say has a few too many stories going on at once (in the case of the election, the convicts, and their pursuers) with even more stories popping up along the way. Though there was one scene in the film that really stood out to me. It occurred after John Goodman’s character tricked, beat up, and stole from two of the convicts.

The closing shot of this scene greatly resembles the ending transition of the Merrie Melody cartoons. I can only guess for this shot the Coen Brothers were going for that kind of feeling for the scene itself.  I believe this to be so because, of how outlandish the prior events were that led up to this specific point not to mention the usual formula for the Merrie Melody cartoons is to have the main character(s) to end up in either a terrible situation or leave those character(s) beaten or even so much as to have them killed by their situation (most of the time with characters ending up in hell) with no moral or resolution of the problem. 

My Own Private Idaho: The definition of Avant-garde?

This week’s movie certainly brought an interesting perspective to one of the sects of the gay culture. The director of the movie Gus Van Sant had brought about several very different styles for specific shots. This is already shown very early on in both the opening credits and ending credits of the movie with having the shots composed of solid colors with the text of the individuals who are involved within the movie.

One of the more interesting shots I saw in the movie was the display of the model magazines within this drug store. I believe this shot was interesting just from looking at nothing but static objects and then all of the sudden the model magazines that had Keeanu Reeves and River Phoenix all of the sudden started coming to life and having a conversation with each other. Only after a little while they were talking the surrounding magazines started joining in on the conversation with them. This shot left a real impression on me because of the surreal nature of just seeing nothing but 2D images on a stand and then all of the suddenly they are given depth on a two dimensional surface there’s no way you can’t help but not be impressed by this shot.