Who Is Amy Schumer's 'Trainwreck'?

The concept art imitates life is crucial to film directors who express their views on political and social issues in film. In regard to film studies, race is a topic rare in many films. Like America, many films simply refuse to address this topic for various reasons. However, more recently, Jordan Peele’s 2017 box office hit Get Out explicates contemporary race relations in America. In the form of an unconventional comedy horror, Get Out is intricate in its depiction of white liberal attitudes towards African Americans. In short, Get Out suggests a form of covert racism existing in a post- Jim Crow era. Similarly, Eduardo Bonilla- Silva’s book Racism Without Racists acknowledges the contemporary system of racism or “new racism,” a system

Chicago Reader film critic Ben Sachs writes, “…This feels somewhat contrived in its narrative mechanics, yet it gets so many thing right-about the state of bureaucracy, the way children internalize abuse,

Amy Poehler has many memorable roles, from being a recurring member on Saturday Night Live, to her award-nominated portrayal of Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation. Poehler is an American-comedian classic. When she was chosen as the 2011 Harvard Class Day Commencement Speaker, she took on a serious and honorable role. Poehler gave the graduating class of 2011, a hilarious, engaging, and inspirational speech. Poehler was chosen to give a speech that was out of her ordinary comfort zone, to inspire a hardworking class of graduates as they headed off into the working world. Her speech is an excellent example of effective rhetoric through its use of artistic proofs, humor, and establishing common ground. Through the content of Poehler’s speech, her detailed care to the rhetorical situation, and her impressive use of rhetoric, Poehler gave one of the most memorable and moving commencement addresses in Harvard’s history.

I chose to write about the 2017 psychological thriller Get Out, which was written and directed by famous comedian Jordan Peele. Get Out is about an interracial couple Chris and Rose who are taking a weekend trip to meet Rose’s parents who are unaware that Chris is African American. Chris at first takes Rose’s parents, Missy and Dean’s, overwhelming appreciation for black culture and overly accommodating behavior as being nervous in regards to their daughter’s interracial relationship. However, as the plot unfolds a more sinister

Trainspotting presents an ostensible image of fractured society. The 1996 film opens, famously, with a series of postulated choices—variables, essentially, in the delineation of identity and opposition. Significant here is the tone in which these options are delivered—it might be considered the rhetorical voice of society, a playful exposition of the pressure placed on individuals to make the "correct" choices, to conform to expectation.

In the hit film of 1995 -Clueless, director Amy Heckerling effectively uses film techniques to further portray the deep meaning of the story. The film tells the story of a selfish teenage girl who transforms into a responsible woman. In the beginning of the story, the main protagonist, Cher, is depicted as a narrow-minded, extravagant teenager. Heckerling uses vivid colour and extremity to show Cher’s unique characteristics. For her own interests, Cher begins to help others but begins to find more than just her own outcomes in the process. The director uses indirect actions to show the change in Cher’s character. At the end of

The film that I chose to write about is a Paramount Pictures presentation titled Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan and also featuring a handful of Saturday Night Live cast members, including Tina Fey the author of this picture. The reason behind choosing this film is because it has a unique style of introducing characters, transitioning between scenes, and various tools to help spice up the film. Being one of my personal favorites, Mean Girls is a comedy about a home schooled teenage girl who enters high school for the first time. She tries to figure herself out by where she can fit in and who she needs to become friends with.

In the film ‘Crash’ directed by Paul Haggis in 2004, several lives cross paths because of an adage, ‘it’s a small world’. The characters come from different backgrounds and social class, consequence, the underlying tone of race is presented in a facet which is a cause for concern. In today’s current tension infested race topic, stereotypes tend to push the notion that one’s perception of race, gender and class must be reality. The question becomes, where does an individual develop these notion and perception and does the blame belong to media and film. Looking at the movie ‘Crash’, it was nominated for over 100 awards and won 3 Oscars; impeccably depicted the intertwining of gender, race and social class that one would assume that the movie’s a depiction of reality. One may conclude that movies are responsible for the perpetual class and virtue given to the middle and upper classes only. Although Parenti’s belief that Hollywood films always attach virtue to the well-off middle and upper classes this is not always the class. Hollywood media and films are guilty of assigning privilege to some and strife to others, however the characters in the movie Crash, Brenden Fraser, Chris Bridges and Thandie Newton all form different economical classes display different types of class and virtue.

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenage girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug when he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White). As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected they can become from their children in a social media world.

I have read many books over the course of this school year. Choosing Yes Please by Amy Poehler was purely based on the fact that in Bossypants, Poehler was mentioned frequently. I was curious about how one woman would write about the other. However, after reading the novel, I noticed that there are plenty of similarities between Poehler’s book and some of the other books that I have read for this class. The construction of essays is reminiscent of Sedaris’ novels Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day. And one can’t deny the similarity between Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Yes Please, which are both about the women working through their career in comedy and giving advice to people of the world. Although her book has many elements in common with other

The principles and theories of Social Psychology are important and useful in assessing behaviors in situations. These social psychological principles and their applications can be seen in fictional films which can also be attributed to everyday life. One such film that holds certain social psychological perspectives is Will Gluck’s 2010 production of Easy A. A film about high school student Olive Penderghast and how a sudden change in popularity and financial status, after an unintentional rumor about how she supposedly lost her virginity to a college guy spread through the entire her school. The film draws on the behavioral connections of pronounced hussy Olive Penderghast and her English class’s assigned reading of The Scarlet Letter.

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenaged girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug while he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White) As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for the today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected parents become from their children in a social media world.

The film Crash, written and directed by Paul Haggis, examines racial exchanges in several different ethnic groups living in Los Angeles. As the film move forward, we are able to view how each characters’ own racist experiences change their attitudes towards other races. Paul Haggis illustrates those change through the mood tone, setting, and even the music. By the end of the movie, the audience is left with a feeling of hope and an ambition to examine its own thought and actions towards others. Even though critics argue that the film Crash is stereotypically racist, the film encourages America to see past the misbelief we have of each other because empathy and self-examination is the starting place for change and the destruction of society is based on one’s choices.

A smart but naive college graduate Andrea has a big dream to become a journalist. Looking for a job she finds herself in the office of Miranda Priestley, ruthless and cynical editor-in-chief of the high fashion magazine the Runway. Hundreds of girls would kill for that job but Andrea finds it all bizarre – people running around trying to please a woman who picks belts for dresses. However, smart and determined to keep this job she tries to fit into this organization where people are evaluated based on their shoes.

Andrea is fresh out of graduating from university in hopes of finding a job to help reach her dream of becoming a journalist in New York City. However she is sent to Miranda Priestly – the chief editor of Runway, a fashion magazine, for an interview as an assistant. She reluctantly gives it a shot in knowledge that a year of being an assistant for Miranda would open opportunities for her to become a journalist anywhere she pleased. Although Andrea lacked in experience and knowledge about the fashion industry, her credentials and smart thinking won her the position. Andrea, also known as Andy finds it hard to fit in with the lifestyle of the fashion absorbed. Through the instigation of Miranda and the people around her, Andy