Movie Review: Dana Stevens

Ah, The Sandlot. A movie full of fifth and sixth grade boys playing baseball in the Summer. If you think it sounds boring, you're wrong. This is an excellent movie. It starts with a boy, named Scotty (Tom Guiry) who needs friends. He needed friends so bad that his mom was even concerned about him being cooped up in the house for a quarter of the summer. One day, he wanders to a baseball field and his want to have friends and be a part of something comes true. He even got a nickname, "Smalls". The boys did everything together, even got into and out of trouble together. But the number one important thing all nine of the boys did, was meet at the baseball field every single day.

Quentin Tarantino’s films are always controversial, and Pulp Fiction is no exception. The film depicts graphic violence and overt drug usage, while shying away from politically correct language. The film’s controversial topics such as racial stereotypes, has led some critics to hail the movie as racist; however, the movie denies many of these stereotypes, portraying character and character relationships as not exclusive to their stereotype. Furthermore, the movie mocks many of societies stereotypes, and it is not afraid to address, or not to address, uncomfortable racial topics. Thus, Pulp Fiction challenges racial barriers.

Everyone has a chance to succeed; it might be harder for some, but easier for others; but with hard work and dedication, it can happen. In the book called “The Other Wes Moore” by Wes Moore, he explains why The Other Wes More was not successful. The book is about two children named Wes Moore. They both grew up with similar backgrounds with both of their fathers never around. However, one became successful because he had a supportive family who pushed him through his limits to succeed; while the other spent the rest of his life in prison because of not having good family examples and support.

In Rear Window, Hitchcock uses visuals in order to capture the perfect cinematic film and experience. We as the viewers identify with Jeff because much like how he is watching his neighbors, we are also speculating his life as a film. Our hero, L.B. Jeffries or “Jeff”, out of boredom creates an outdoor theater for himself by spying on his the people outside his window. Hitchcock uses “murder-as-entertainment” and the idea of watching a cinematic film as ways to captivate the viewers and make us subconsciously take part in intruding on someone else’s life. Hitchcock then punishes Jeff and the viewers for being “peeping toms” and casting our unwanted voyeurism on other people’s private lives. Through fear and embarrassment, Hitchcock puts our actions into perspective as we become self-conscious of our indecent objectification toward human lives.

The beginning of the movie starts with a footage of football player Mike Webster (played by David Morse), showing his plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as the man speaking in a conference. This all took place in September 2002, Mike is homeless and living in his car, suffering from dementia. Nigerian pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu (played by Will Smith) is giving a testimony in court over a murder case. He works at the coroner's office in Allegehney county where he has an odd habit of speaking to the deceased. Webster visits Dr. Bailes over his condition. He appears to be getting worse. Webster is visited at his car by fellow football player Strzelczyk, who is also suffering from a similar condition. Webster complains that he doesn't want to go to sleep, so he is seeing tasing himself to stay awake. He is later found dead and it shocks everyone. His body is brought in for Bennet to examine. Bennet takes a look at Webster's brain and discovers severe head trauma that led to his mental problems. He furthers his research by studying football videos and noticing the amount of times he took serious blows to the head. After this Strzcelczyk is seen ready to attack his wife and children, claiming that the voices in his head are telling him to kill them. His wife screams at him to get out, and he drives away and ends up dying. Bennet examines them as well and concludes that the men suffered from CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). After word of this gets out, it is believed that Bennet is trying to talk badly of the sport and is told to take back what he says. Meanwhile, Dave Duerson is approached by fellow

The movie “Friday Night Lights” is based on a book by author H.G. Bissinger. It takes place at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas in 1988 when tension between races was still strong in some areas of the south. There is a focus in some areas of the film having to do with the racial tension and ongoing conflict between the student body and the city as a whole. Even though desegregation had happened by the time the book was written and the film was made, schools sometimes were still racially divided. I also felt the movie showed how this football program exploited their black athletes. Of interest to me was, the following of two of the main football players who are black. Boobie Miles and Ivory Christian. They are as well respected as their white equivalents on the football field but, it illustrates how attitudes change when the players walk off the field. The movie touches on the many controversial subjects like, racism, hypocrisy, and failure where as the book is extremely socially-oriented, and centered primarily on racial issues and educational priorities. The film touches on these issues, but, as I wrote, it is not the focal point of the movie.

This is a good family movie that can show the viewer’s how some people prey on one another. This movie reminded me of the times my brother and I didn’t get along. It shows how different families are and how they treat one another. Sadly this movie also shows how family members can be so cold blooded. This movie duplicates real life situations where innocent People get hurt, family loyalty gets divided and couples end up in divorce.

“Hollywood usually ends up swallowing people and eating them alive”, are some of the beginning words in the National Geographic docu-series Drugs Inc... The documentary is rightly names “Hollywood high” because of its raw footage. This film is a chilling depiction of drugs and Hollywood. Its uncut material shows the reality of how drugs can affect people of every walk of life. A person doesn’t have to be rich or poor to become drug dependent. The film goes on to say how “fame hungry wannabes” and the “panhandling homeless” are two of the main populations to be affected by Hollywood’s thriving drug trade. Some of the other populations affected by Hollywood’s thriving drug trade are those who want to “stay up” and “be thin”. This film is not only about the populations affected by the thriving Hollywood drug trade but also the drug dealers and doctors who provide the drugs to that population.

We had to use the back door to get in. They called it the “black door”, which was basically just the name for the only door that the black people could use to get into the place. They made us come in through the back, about an hour before the front doors opened, and set up our stuff onstage. We were given a little under ten minutes to set up everything and then they sent us offstage, where we were told to stay out of sight until they called us onstage. Most places gave us our own dressing room, to hang out and smoke in, unless of course there was also a white man performing, in which case he’d get the room, and we’d sit on the floor backstage. Tonight, we had a dressing room. It was nights like this that I loved; when we could book a speakeasy to perform at, and the man who ran the club treated us like we were real stars; when we got our own dressing room, the same one that all the white men used. Those nights when we had to give up the room to those men, by contrast, were the worst; it was like being reduced from the star of the show, to the opening act. They called us Richie and the Gang. Eli played a really slick four-stringed Dobro Tenor, Lyon performed with a 22 fret plectrum banjo, Denny and Rod had the hippest bass saxophones around, Louis played the Buescher trumpet, and Ray and Eugene used whatever piano and drum set the speakeasies we played at had to offer. The girls and I sang back up for Richie, the real show-stealer. He was everything you’d expect from a 1940’s

While trying to figure out what to do with the body they go have a look at the cook Mrs. Ho to find her murdered in the kitchen, with the knife in her back. On coming back to the study Mr. Boddy has vanished to be later found bleeding from the head in the washroom attacked with the candlestick.

The indie hit Short Term 12 is a film about scars, external and internal caused by those closest. The unassuming title of the drama refers to a foster care facility, set somewhere in Los Angeles. It houses troubled teenagers that are between court dates or foster families. These kids can be there for sometimes a week or sometimes years, many living in a state of limbo. These are kids who have experienced more in their life than some its supervisors, most who are not much older the kids. It is a master piece about broken people

The New York Times is generally acknowledged to have liberal leanings, but the language of the review is formulaic and its length comparable to several other film reviews read by this writer, leading to the idea that this is a “cookie cutter” format for the newspaper – after all, space is money for publishers.

The movie I have chosen to do my psychological film disorder assignment on is Girl Interrupted which is a psychological drama directed by James Mangold. The movie takes place in a mental institution for troubled women. All of the characters in this movie suffer from one or more mental illnesses such as depression, borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia. The movie gives us an inside look on how poorly these women are being treated and how they are treated as if they are abnormal because they are in this institution. Similarly the women are faced with their own personal and outer issues within the institution. The director gives us an inside look on how the patients are being treated poorly are

An emotionally stirring movie taking place in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, “The Help” stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Octavia Spencer as three women who share a common motive. This racially tense setting creates the perfect foundation for a drama film such as this. The characters’ personalities in combination with the emotion of the plot develop a socially accurate depiction of the struggles faced by the people of the time. While the racial aspect of the movie is dominant, viewers may also find compassion and friendship within the conversations and encounters of its characters.

Nothing Personal is set in Belfast during the “Troubles”, shortly after the 1975 cease-fire between the Protestant Irish Republican Army, the Catholic Ulster Volunteer Force, and the peacekeeping British government. The film focuses on the perspectives of Kenny, a vigilante Protestant, and Liam, a family-man and Catholic. A ceasefire agreement between the UVF and the IRA is brokered. After the ceasefire, Kenny and his right hand, Ginger, continue to commit acts of violence on behalf of the community’s UVF leader, while, simultaneously Liam sets out to defend his home from a growing riot. After the riot, Liam is badly injured and seeks shelter in the home of Kenny’s Protestant ex-wife, while Kenny continues to meet with other loyalists at his bar and roam the streets in search of Catholics to attack. Eventually, Kenny finds Liam on the streets, kidnaps him, and eventually sets him free because they were childhood friends, but, to enforce the ceasefire the UVF leader has called in the location of Kenny, and the British army executes him and his gang members. One important aspect in the creation of an ethnic conflict is a group’s justifications and reasoning behind engaging with another group in a violent conflict. Therefore, the focus of the paper is going to be on how these justifications for violence were initially formed, and how they continue despite some efforts to curb it.