Children of Men Review

At the beginning of Children of Men by Alfonso Curon we see this dystopic future where people are no longer able to conceive children. We are unaware if it either the men or the women who are infertile. The main character Theo lives in England the only area still somewhat functioning after the infertility crisis but they are barely surviving. They aren’t letting anyone else into the country no foreigners are allowed and anyone captured is immediately taken to an immigration camp. Soon after the film starts Theo takes a trip to see his friend Jasper who lives in a secluded and hidden area with his wife. We see Jasper as this funny kind of carefree guy who doesn’t seem to be hindered by the failing country. We also get a little glimpse into Theo’s past he was married and had a child but as of right now he had neither.

A few days after he leaves Jasper’s he gets kidnapped by his ex-wife Julian and a groups of extremists they need hos help transporting this girl by the name of Key. He has no idea why but on the way to the safe house the car is ambushed by people and Julian and a few cops are killed in the battle and everyone in the car is now named a fugitive. When they finally reach the safe house Key finally reveals to Theo why she is so important. She is pregnant. They are trying to get her to the human project. She is the “Key” to humanity because she is the first pregnant woman that they have seen in a really long time.

After a night at the safe house he finds that this group that is trying to get her to The Human Project are behind Julian’s death and they just want to use the baby to their own advantage. He immediately takes key and the midwife away. He takes it upon himself to get her safely there. He takes the both of him to his friend Jasper who agrees to help them. When the house is being ambushed he gives Theo direct instructions on how to get out of the country and gives them a car and helps them leave. Shortly after they leave Jasper is killed.

Theo takes the two to meet a border patrol cop and he gladly takes them to the Sexhill immigration camp, they have to sneak inside but on the bus there Key’s water creaks and the midwife gives her life to protect Key and her baby. Once they get in a nice lady brings them to a room where Key gives birth to a girl. The next day the cop comes back when he sees them on the news with a reward for turning them in and tries to take them but thankfully the lady saves them. Once they get outside the building it is hell on earth, fighting everywhere. The immigrants are rebelling and the military is doing its best to get them to remain calm. When Key is captured by the same group from the beginning of the film Theo runs after to save her at this point the baby is crying and everyone stops when they hear this as many have not heard it in year. Everyone including the soldiers stops to see the baby and they have this aura about them as though this is the change of things. This is the new beginning. Theo successfully get Key out but right before The Human Project boat comes to take her away he bleeds out and dies after he successfully completes his job.

Key was the key to humanity and Theo felt the need to save her, especially if it meant a new beginning for the people of the human race.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind Review

To be completely honest Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind by Michael Gondry made absolutely no sense to me, at first. It all seemed like a jumbled mess and I couldn’t figure out what Gondry was trying to get across to us as viewers. Little did I know, this he was doing on purpose. He wanted us to be a little confused and in fact scrambling to find the answers because that’s how his characters in the movie felt.  The main character Joel finds himself with the random need to get on a train to Montauk and he can’t seem to find out why. On this train he meets a girl named Clementine she is a little quirky but Joel finds himself interested in her as she takes him on a little adventure throughout the day. As this day goes on little things start happen that make no sense to us as the viewer. After that point it shows a bunch of memories that Clem and Joel share together. On Valentine’s Day he shows up at Clem’s job to bring her some things and she has no idea who he is. Joel is very perplexed by this and he doesn’t understand how someone he knows so well has no idea who he is. 

He soon finds out that she had every memory of Joel erased from her mind. He is so extremely hurt by this she is also already seeing another person. He is devastated and he decides to have her erased from his mind because he feels as though it is the better alternative than feeling the way that he does. As he goes through the procedure he finds himself remembering not only the bad things about Clem but the good as well. About half way throughout the procedure he finds himself wanting to no finish the procedure and begins resisting but finds himself being unable to resist because he has no way of moving or talking. All he can do is open his eyes is not enough to get them to stop the procedure. When the people computing the test see that they put him back to sleep and make sure they are targeting the right part of his brain. Since he wants to avoid his memories from being erased he brings Clem in his mind to other memories do that he goes off the map and it’s harder for the personnel to erase those memories. He finds this harder than he thought and finds himself at his first memory of Clem. It was not meeting her on a train it was on a beach and they sneak into a house and because he is really scared he is going to get caught he runs away. But before he leaves he remembers Clem and goes back to say goodbye to her and she tells him to meet her at Montauk.

 After he wakes up we see the same scene we saw at the very beginning of the movie. It brings the movie completely around and the scene we see at the beginning is actually not the first time they meet but the second. It was an unusual technique but the film at the end finally made sense.

Animal Farm Review

When I first started reading Animal Farm by George Orwell I was honestly extremely bored and I didn't really know what was going on. As the book went on I noticed this intense power struggle between the characters. I knew at the beginning that they had over thrown their so called "government" but I saw what seemed to be the new "government", also known as the pigs, slowly start to gain control. At first the pigs seemed harmless but the began to take on new demons as the book continued. I think that the pigs began to feel satisfaction of being in power. For me, I think that power creates greed and that with even the smallest taste of this that people can let it get them and then slowly begin to become corrupted.

At the very beginning of the book I saw that the pigs did want the best for the other animals they had the best intentions. They all began planning things together such as the animal farm commandments. These so called "rules" included things like all animals are equal and four legs good, two legs bad. With these rules it showed that all animals were in agreement. They all began working together on the farm in order to better the farm. They were successfully self sufficient in their endeavors at the beginning, but Napoleon began contact with other farms behind the other animals backs. When they found out they were quite weary of Napoleon because he began to do these things but Squeeler was always there to sweet talk them into believing some piece of crap story to keep them doing their jobs. Squeeler was the best speaker of all and he was very good at persuading or making the animals believe what he said.

Once Napoleon began contact with other farms he began negotiating trade deal that in all reality did benefit their farm. These were only the beginning steps to his tyranny. He began to think of himself and the pigs as higher than that of the other animals. They even began acting more like humans, they designated an office inside as their "headquarters", began sleeping in beds, and to the horrors of the other animals began even walking on two legs. The relationship they established with other farms became more prominent as well as the fact that they used a scapegoat for everything that they did wrong in the eyes of the people. They blamed everything on a pig that ran away because he felt threatened by his fellow animals. His name was Snowball. When the windmill that they all built together was destroyed they blamed it on Snowball, the pigs needed to out fear into that of the other animals because they needed the other animals to need a leader in order for them to succeed in their climb to power.

Once the pigs were able to assume the highest power they could achieve they began to moderate the commandments when the other animals were working, not paying attention, or were sleeping. They changed little things so that the animals would think they were originally written in there. For example, the fact that no animals could sleep in a bed with sheets, so the pigs would just strip the beds of sheets and sleep on bare beds. Another example would be that of the fact that all animals were somewhat equal, but some animals were more equal than others. Those more equal animals were the pigs. When they invited their friends from the neighboring farms over for a game of poker you couldn't notice the difference between them any longer. The pigs were just as bad, just as greedy, and just as corrupt as the government that they had originally overthrown. Therefore all the animals were back to square on. The theme of this whole book is that power really corrupts people and once you get a taste of power you only want more. It is a never ending thirst.

Moulin Rouge Review

Overall I really liked Moulin Rouge even though it was very quirky and funny it had an underlying more serious theme to it. The theme was that the greatest gift of all is to love and be loved in return. Overall the the mood as well as the tone is very tragic even though it is comedic a lot of the time. The way Baz Luhrmann portrayed that into the movie was something I am not usually used to. They used comedy to get serious a point across which made me want to pay more attention to the movie because sometimes when things are too serious I just get overwhelmed and then I lose interest.

The different filming techniques that Luhrmann used in the film were used extremely strategically. At the beginning of the film you see a curtain and a stage and as the movie begins the camera pans into the screen and makes its way through the city. This has a very inviting feel to it and it makes you feel as though you are part of the story. In other parts of the story you see the camera pan out and see things that are extremely unproportionate to the story. For example, the gun hitting the Eiffel Tower and the hats flying up in the air out of Moulin Rouge. This gives the viewers a nice little break in the intense story line and makes Moulin Rouge feel like a fictional place.

Another great cinematic technique Luhrmann uses is the use of semi-recent music in a time before any of that music was created. The time period used was the 1800's but most of the music used was music from the late 1900's. It gives the movie a timeless feel as though the Moulin Rouge is a place that is so amazing it's out of its time zone. I also think it symbolizes that love stands throughout time and that the different music represents that timeless feel.

Narrative Essay: Flipped

Flipped

Hurt and pain were all I could remember. The utter shock when it first hit deep within my heart just about killed me. I never saw it coming. She left me; didn’t even care. My whole world was flipped upside down and I felt so empty. The day my mom left was the hardest day of my life. She never even told me that she was leaving, the only thing I got was a text a week later saying that she was all settled in. I remember feeling so abandoned by one of the people was supposed to be genetically programmed to love me. I couldn’t understand it, but the biggest decision I made that day was that I wasn’t going to let her decision define me. I was going to be better and do better than her, that I knew for sure.

It was four days after Christmas when my mom and dad sat me down to tell me they were getting a divorce. I can remember my sister and I sitting there in shock at what was going on. My parents always seemed happy, they never fought, and when they did it was more like debating rather than arguing. After that day everything just got really awkward. My mom moved to the room in the basement while she looked for a job and an apartment while the rest of us stayed living upstairs. The interactions between my parents from then on out just seemed like business, in fact, I wasn’t even sure if they were friends or not. The most annoying thing though was that they pretended like everything was fine. They had no idea that this decision that they made was killing me, but I just never wanted to show it.

After a couple of weeks my mom found a job and an apartment and moved out. It was nice to not have that uneasy feeling every time I walked into the house, but there was one major event to come of this, dual custody. We had to spend one week at my dad’s house and then flip and spend one week at my mom’s. It was really hard to keep myself focused on things because I was always switching houses and it was just all a big mess. It was really hard to stay at my mom’s too she was really secretive all of a sudden and became really controlling. It was weird to see the shift in attitude, and as weeks turned into months I found myself not being able to be around her for long periods of time. We never got along and it killed me that she treated me like I was 10 years old. After a couple of months she sat me and my sister down and told us that she and the guy she had been talking to for several months were planning on getting married. I didn’t even know she had a boyfriend and here she was telling us that she was getting married. She said that he had asked her to move down to New Mexico where he was stationed at and Air Force base. After she told us the news she told me and my sister that we had to choose whether or not we wanted to move and live with her or stay here with my dad. I can sometimes understand her logic behind that statement but I never understood why you would ever give a 15 and 13 year old a decision like that to make. I knew what I wanted and that was to stay in Portland with my dad, but I also knew that wasn’t the answer she was looking for.

The months that followed her move were probably some of the hardest months of my life. The shift in personality of my mother were something I never expected. I knew she was mad that I decided to stay but I never knew it would turn her into a monster. She began sending hateful emails and texts and began to call me some of the meanest things I’ve ever heard of. She told me that I wasn’t smart enough, or pretty enough, or good enough. Those were three of the statements that have always stuck with me. We always fought whether it was over the phone or through email, and the worst part was I couldn’t even show that I was hurting because I didn’t want to show her that I was weak. This went on for months until finally she said one thing that threw me over the edge. Her direct words to me were, “my new family is more important than you ever were.”. Those were the words that are still burned into my mind today. It was incomprehensible to me that someone who I used to hold in such high regard could tear me down that way. That was the last straw for me, I told her that I never wanted to see her again for the rest of my life. I told her to never text me or email me, I wanted no contact with that beast.

That was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my short life, but I knew it was the right one. I still struggle everyday with the decision I made, since then we have had very little contact with each other except for an occasional email. I usually just answer the questions she needs to know, like if her postcards or gifts were delivered. I have since then shared no personal information with her and continue to remind her that I wanted no contact unless necessary. This past summer she and her husband moved to Germany and felt no need to tell me or my sister which I felt as though that was necessary information, but that was her choice. This was all her choice, her selfish decisions, she ruined me and my family. There is not a day where I don’t have a doubt in the back of my mind that it was somehow my fault, even though I know it was not. She definitely changed me as a person, and from the day I said I wanted no further contact I decided that I was going to be better than she ever was. I knew that even though she told me one day I would be just like her that I would never do to the people I love what she did to me. Yes, it still hurts, but although it was hard it was the best decision I ever made for myself.

Essay Brainstorm

I’ve kind of already made up my mind on what I want to write about for my essay. The first prompt I think is the best for me because of the event that happened with my mom. The divorce between my parents and her walking out on me and my sister have definitely shaped who I am as a person and I feel as though that might be something I want to write about. The other three prompts I really couldn’t think of anything.

Outline

1. The news and the change
2. When she got engaged and decided to move
3. The ensuing months and how it got worse
4. The decisions I made that affected me a lot
5. What I deal with today and how I still struggle with the events that happened and the decisions I made

Flipped

Hurt and pain were all I could remember. The utter shock when it first got deep within my heart just about killed me. I never saw it coming. She left me; didn't even care. My whole world was flippe upside down and I felt so empty. The day my mom left was the hardest day of my life. She never even told me she was leaving, the only thing I got was a text a week late saying that she was all settled in. I remember feeling so abandoned by one of the people who was supposed to be genetically programmed to love me. I couldn't understand it, but the biggest decision I made that day was that I wasn't goin to let her decision define me. I was going to be better and do better than her, that I knew for sure.

The Movie that Changed my Life

There are so many movies that I feel changed my life but the one movie that stand out to me would have to be The Breakfast Club. I saw it right before I was about to go into high school and at first I thought it was just another stupid high school movie like my parents had made me watch before. After the first 20 minutes I was thoroughly engaged in the movie. There was a hidden cynical comedy behind the obvious jokes. It showed me how people with different backgrounds, personalities, and social groups sometimes interact with one another. As the movie continued the five began to have more serious conversation. They explained to one another why they were there and the movie took on a more serious role. They were all sitting in a circle explaining things about themselves when you began to see the empathy that each of them had for each other. It showed me that it was okay to be different and that inside were all still human beings and despite what we show on the outside were all relatively the same on the inside. It eased my fears about going into high school, instead of worrying about who I was going to be I just worried about being myself and accepting everyone. Through this I knew that others would learn to accept me for me. This led me to discover a statement, although cliche, that I live by: Don't judge a book by it's cover. I've met so many amazing people by just allowing myself to know who they are on the inside instead of on the outside.