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Author Archives: thatnewyorker
Posts: 13 (archived below)
Comments: 6
Starving? I don’t have money for chips, have a bag of crisps instead.
From the moment I saw a dishevelled, barefoot white woman marching down a street with her diaper-less baby boy in her arms beside her three grade school age daughters looking as if they were going war I knew I what would come next; an explosive Jerry Springer-esque fight between her and another nameless woman. She was bested in battle which sets up how the viewer should perceive this lady: a loser. I don’t think that one word is enough to describe the extreme nature of her backwardness, the aura of trailer trash that she exudes really strikes at you. The film would be a comedy if not for the fact that four innocents, her children are the sufferers of her neglect. I felt a twinge of rage seeing how they were fed. Sugar, a bag of chips and a cup of soda are not the best diet for growing kids. The fact that you see them scavenge for half eaten ribs like a pack of wild dogs will induce an anger, a sense of indignation that I personally have not felt watching any film before. Her neglect culminates in a wasp nearly stinging the infant inside his mouth which would have probably led to his death. It’s a tense scene that will have you holding your breath the entire time. All this tension and all this worry you have for the unfortunate children and all this rage you feel towards their (in name only) mother is laughed at when the credits roll. The song of the ending credits is upbeat and catchy. It reminds you of how this woman deals with her problems: she dances and sings a bit, pretends they don’t exist and keeps right on doing what’s she’s doing. Well, that’s Andrea Arnold’s Wasp.
You just know those kids are completely screwed.
Posted in Independent Film, Oscar Shorts
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The IFC
To be completely honest, I’m not one of the biggest movie goers around. It isn’t unusual for me to not see at most 1 film every five months. It’s not that that I hate movies and it’s definitely not that I’m too cheap, its because I’m afraid. I’m afraid of being disappointed with a crappy film and thirteen dollars being flushed down the toilet. So when my professor assigned us to watch five short films in some obscure indie movie theater, I thought to myself: “Let me buy the tickets ASAP before I change my mind”. So I went online and purchased the tickets, sealing my fate.
I arrived pretty early on the day of the showings, which is pretty amazing for me given my tendency to be tardy. I suppose it helps that the theater is like 3 stops away from where I live. As I stepped out into a neighborhood foreign to me, I immediately noticed a smoke shop to the left of the theater, filled with all kinds of colorful glass pipes, bongs and hookahs which are “STRICTLY FOR TOBACCO USE ONLY” according to a little sign in the shop. Though that itself is nothing but normal compared to the sex shops that practically line the rest of the block to the right of the theater. I wandered inside them, filled with a bit of curiosity and wondered to myself “What kind of theater, which is next to a stoner haven and a garden of mega sized dildos, bondage gear and porn, will I be going to?” Now, I’m not saying those things are bad, I’m pretty far from conservative but I still wondered…
Surprisingly, the theater was very family friendly and even had delicious organic popcorn to boot. The films themselves…well, lets leave them for another post.
Posted in Independent Film
2 Comments
Monochrome Hipsters and a REALLY Lonely Woman
Just because your professor is absent from class doesn’t mean you won’t have work to do. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, its time to elaborate on the assignment the class was assigned with for this particular session. Oh, Inverted World is 13 part web series created by Terence Krey. The first episode features Mina and her three bearded friends returning to their hometown after graduating college. After experiencing the glory that is college life, their hometown seems drab and boring in comparison. In fact, it seems nothing, in their eyes, has changed since high school from the bar they all once thought was cool to getting beat up by the jerk jock. This monotony is broken once the three bearded dudes are taken prisoner by a totally hot seemingly crazy woman in a dress who claims the moon is going to crash. The protagonists remind me of the twenty-something year old hipsters that populate my neighborhood (Williamsburg) and I think I can safely assume that these people are the targeted audience. The type of viewers who would appreciate this series the most are those who associate the word ironic with the concept of humor.
Suite 7…well I’m really biased against Lifetime for certain reasons. This particular episode comes off like a scene from a play. Shannen Doherty, plays the role of an older woman mourning the loss of her significant other. Actually, that statement is a bit misleading. She’s crying over the break up over her younger ex-boyfriend to some poor, hapless hotel manager.
In short, I like Oh, Inverted World much, much more.
“I like the lifetime movie because the actress is really able to express all of the character’s emotions” – Diana Coats, classmate
Well, everyone has their own opinion.
Posted in Independent Film
Tagged web series
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