Review: Dead Poets Society

3.5/4

This is a wonderful, heartbreaking, enriching film experience. It is extraordinarily inspirational to those of us who are conformists, controlled, not living our own lives. The philosophy portrayed in this film isn't groundbreaking in its novelty, but it is earth-shattering in its might. The film is humanist, romantic, transcendentalist. It tells us to fight for ourselves and what we know to be good, to be brave and do what we need to do to really truly live.
How can one put this into action? Why does it seem so easy now, and so hard when it's called for? Has this movie ever actually changed a life? Do we need a musical score playing in the background of our lives in order to muster up this kind of courage? Do we need a supporting cast to encourage us?
I wish that I could be a part of something like this in true life. I wish that I had the opportunity to fight for truth like this.
The thing that's difficult to accept is that I do have that opportunity. Every day there is some struggle for truth, and I mostly just fail. I stay in my natural state, and no matter whether my natural state is conformist or not, truth-seeking or not, it is not brave, the way I live.
Keep Dead Poets Society in your mind as long as you can. Talk to somebody about it. Watch it with someone. Let them be the support you need for a courageous life. Do what you can to make this a reality and then you'll be able to live the way you need to live.

I do believe in the humanist philosophy celebrated in this film. I am a Christian, and believe in devoting your life to God's will, but I also believe in the value of the human, the beauty and glory of the human. I believe in fulfilling potential, I believe that God gives gifts of all kinds, and that exercising those gifts is a duty unto yourself and that God blesses that. I believe that "Honor your father and mother" is entirely different from "Obey your father and mother". I believe that it is a human need to fulfill ones potential in all areas of life, not just spiritually, and this includes pursuing passions that are separate from the Church. I believe that I have not glorified God if I have not lived the life He granted me to the fullest and with joy and passion. This doesn't expel the concept of discipline, but it expands our common idea of religious freedom.

I am not sure that I believe in all that I said. I will have to think about whether or not God really blesses pursuits other than His own glorification. What were we truly made for? Was it to praise Him, or to praise the world and life He gave us? Are they one in the same?
By indulging in the great glories of life and coming to consciously appreciate the Creator behind it, I think that we are praising Him in the process. To pursue a passion instilled on ones heart is to take hold of God's gift, to glorify Him, and not to waste what He has given us.

As far as the movie goes, it is wonderfully-made. It is a bit dated, a bit corny, but finely acted and directed. The spirit behind the film is obviously what has lasted through the years. It is one of the greater spirits I have seen in all of film. At this age, Dead Poets Society won't change my life, but it may shape my philosophy some. It was nice to see, and to be reminded of what I have missed the last few years. It is something I would show my kids; in fact I would like for every person on the planet to hear this message.

Reflections on Orange is the New Black: Season 2

3.5/4

I'm realizing more and more how original the fundamental structure of this series is. It's difficult to point to one technique that separates it, because it's just an underlying unconventionality. It's willing to do things that most series won't do--I suppose it's extremely brave.
The most significant feature of the series to me is its emotional ambiguity. You don't know how to feel.

I don't want to blog about this anymore... As I watched the final episode of the second season with my watching buddy I watched never from a critic's perspective. I was fully invested. The show sucked me in so that I can't play the role of the observer. I love the series, no matter how bad or good it is, and I won't let myself examine it like it doesn't mean something to me, in the same way that I wouldn't talk about how good or bad a person I think my mom is in front of her. It doesn't matter. I care more about the show than I do its quality.

(Five days later, I am now removed enough)

Orange just feels like real life, with some extra added emotion and drama and humor. That's why it's not my kind of show, I just like it a lot. I need things such as 2001 or Apocalypse or Magnolia where I can be in a different world where greater things can happen; where reality can be defied.

Review: 2001: A Space Odyssey

5/4

This won't quite be a review. I have seen this film I estimate eight times, so all impressions are gone and all I can do now is soak into its murky depths. It is easiest to tell the quality of a movie probably after the second viewing in a year's time. After a few viewings, you concern yourself more with the world of the movie than with the movie as a movie. This is absolutely the case with 2001. I can't say how great it is... All I can attest to is its originality--it does things that no other pieces of cinema have even dreamed of--and its finesse--there are techniques used here that are the pinnacle of fine direction--and its effect--no other film in my eyes can equal the feelings of disturbance and hypnosis.
I was asked why I got into this movie after the first time--why this is among my couple favorite movies. I thought back to those first couple viewings...probably 4 years ago, age 15. I called it genius immediately, if only for its imagination. Is it genius simply to be able to think outside convention?
I also marveled at the feelings it invoked in me. Never was I bored in this film, not for a second: I was so invested and engaged in this world that I felt every second of this long and slow-paced film. I take pride in how I was able to handle this film, especially at first. I have never demonstrated greater patience or appreciation in my life, I don't think.
The feelings I experienced were transcendental. They rose above life and pushed me into the abnormal. I felt wonderful there. It felt like drugs to me, every time. But it wasn't the physical feeling, it was believing finally that there was more to life. That's what was addicting: believing that there was another level to the world and I could see into it.
I don't have a clear-cut interpretation of this film. Even this time I was thinking things I had never thought before. I'm not sure whether Kubrick knew what truly happened or not. I certainly don't, and don't think I ever will, but I'm excited about the idea of eventually finding my own 2001: a plot that nobody sees but nobody can dispute.
This was my first viewing of it in my current filmgoing era (beginning around the entrance of summer '14, a few months ago). I consider it to be sci-fi-horror. It certainly feels like a horror movie to me. The only reason one wouldn't call it that is because of its unconventional restrain. But don't all the greatest movies have that? The horror in 2001 comes from a close-up of HAL's little red bulb, or from the wailing on the black screen, or from an astronaut's terrifying face frozen in time: we don't see the evil, but by what we're shown we know it's there. That's Kubrick's brilliance. He shows us the surface and we're terrified by what's underneath.

Review: 12 Years a Slave

4/4

I am typically not "into" Best Picture winners or nominees in the recent era. They lack substance, and only have a concept behind them. A concept the Academy likes for this grandiose award. But 12 Years a Slave is great and powerful: that is undeniable.

Steve McQueen takes on slavery with the right perspective. He focuses on one man's journey into and out of loss. He makes it personal. Rather than focusing on Solomon's days of fame and success as a lecturer and familyman, we see him completely alone. As his own person. A portrait is so much stronger when it portrays a character alone, rather than with respect to those around him.

McQueen and screenwriter Ridley also utilize the strengths of anti-hollywood film to depict a hollywood-type topic. This makes all the difference. The conventions of slavery film are broken by the philosophical tilt of the dialogue, and also by the fact that the story is taken from true life. The artistic philosophy of McQueen's direction is so far beyond that of most directors, if it weren't for the grand acting and major topic it would feel like a fully independent picture.

The characters are terrific here:

Solomon is strong-willed and righteous, but put in such an existentially brutal situation, even he must occasionally question the laws of morality.

Michael Fassbender is weak and disgusting. In my belief it is just to blame him for the stupidity that doesn't allow him to see morality clearly. Hannah Arendt doesn't convict the Holocaust Nazis because they were nurtured to be what they were. I think that surely there is a factor of free will, although it is hard to reject the idea that any one of us would become a Nazi or a slaveowner if put in the right situation.

Paul Dano is like Fassbender: he is the height of despicable. That's the word that the producers must have based their writing and casting around. He is as he is in There Will Be Blood. It is a terrific character, and he plays it perfectly.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the man who knows what's right, but says that he must consciously give way to the system anyways. Though we don't feel it, he is probably just as despicable a slaveowner as Fassbender or Dano--possibly even more.

Brad Pitt is the possibly unrealistic man who knows what's right and does something about it despite being in the perfect situation to know and do wrong. You would expect the savior to be a hurt fellow, but what would be more realistic than a true story? I still love to see this charcter because of the way he speaks, acts, and because of who the actor is.

McQueen's great fusion of hollywood and indie is what makes this Best Picture winner special from the rest. It is beautiful, poetic, and a dialogue on ethics.