Gamer -Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor: 2009

Gamer is a Sci-Fi shooter comprised of virtual reality programs that threaten human existence. Technology has taken a turn towards extreme measures with giving people the opportunity to live a second life socially (like the Sims) or like a third person shooter. People can either pay to own a real live person who carries out their commands via a microchip in the brain, or they can earn money by being the one controlled. The problem with this is both sides have been made slaves to the system. The controllers fail to live in their own body and become obsessed with a virtual world created by one man, the controlled have no ability to form their own thought processes when being used. So then there is Slayer, a virtual reality shooter comprised of a bunch of death row inmates who can earn their freedom after surviving 30 sessions. Kable (Gerard Butler) has survived all but one challenge, the last one. It is up to the 17 year old boy to control him until he reaches the promised land, but there lies one problem in the last challenge, the game is rigged.

Overall the acting was okay and appropriate for this kind of story line. Gerard Butler plays his usual role of a warrior who is fighting for the chance to reunite with his wife and daughter once again. Michael C Hall plays a madman CEO who wants nothing more than world domination by the likes of his mind control operation. Hall for me was the shining star. And that maybe because i love his character in Dexter so much, but he really is the perfect villain, for any movie. He has the clean shaven look and charming smile that makes you think "Hey this guy isn't so bad", then he begins to speak with his monotone voice, and continues to form a smile with a blank stare into what you can only imagine as being as the worst place in the world. What is behind the mind of Michael C. Hall, I guess we will never know. My guess, teddy bears, bloodstains, kitchen knives, and lollipops. Perfect

Other actors include the experienced Terry Crews, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Amber Valleta, Kyra Sedgewick, and Aaron Yoo. Pretty good lineup, but thrown into a story that only took them so far.

The whole mind control/virtual reality/sex and violence has become a little outdated for me. The Matrix, Surrogates, Minority Report, Avatar, and the list goes on. Maybe if this movie came out ten years ago then we would have something to rave about. But this is 2009 and it has been done before, over and over again. But i guess the whole first person shooter theme has something going for it, or maybe not. The movie did not really include enough for me that involved the Slayer game series. Kable would go out and run around a little and then survive. If the directors really focused more on that concept they could hit on something original and intriguing. They would be able to gain a huge audience of young adults who spend every night with the Xbox live headset on screaming profanities at the TV. A narrowed focus on how video games have shown such a large boost in popularity over the last ten years would be the best approach. Because no movie has really touched upon social networking in gaming culture before. Gamer barely skimmed the surface.

Grade: C+


Actors:


Gerard Butler: Recent Work (Law Abiding Citizen, P.S. I Love You, 300 ) Future Work (Machine Gun Preacher, Playing the Field )



Amber Valletta: Recent Work (Transporter 2, Hitch, Premonition) Future Work (Girl Walks Into a Bar )

Michael C. Hall: Recent Work (Six Feet Under (TV), Dexter (TV) ) Future Work (Dexter (TV)) 

Kyra Sedgwick: Recent Work (The Closer, The Game Plan, Second Hand Lions ) Future Work (Man On a Ledge, The Posession) 

Logan Lerman: Recent Work (The Number 23, The Butterfly Effect, 3:10 To Yuma ) Future Work (The Three Musketeers, The Perks To Being a Wallflower, The Only Living Boy in New York ) 

Alison Loman: Recent Work (Big Fish, Matchstick Men, Drag Me To Hell ) 

Terry Crews: Recent Work (The Expendables, White Chicks, Idiocracy ) Future Work (The Expendables 2, Are We There Yet (TV) ) 

Ludacris: Recent Work (Crash, 2 Fast, 2 Furious, Fast Five, No Strings Attached, ) Future Work (Break Away, New Years Eve) 

Aaron Yoo: Recent Work (Disturbia, 21, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist ) Future Work (She Wants Me) 

“I Love You Bro Montana,” Gender Identity in a Bromantic Comedy

There has been a reoccurring theme of brotherly romance in Hollywood over the past few years. The causal high five, chest bump, backend tap, and sometimes even holding hands. What makes men able to interact so closely with other men and still retain their masculine status? Society has defined a man as being a conservative or even insensitive. But there seems to be a shift in what is deemed acceptable for what men can get away with that strays away from the cultural norms. It has been evident in real life and in Hollywood that men are more comfortable in having their sexuality questioned. In the 2009 film I Love You Man actors Paul Rudd and Jason Segel develop a friendship that goes deeper then Sunday hangouts watching football at the bar. They reveal a new face to heterosexuality through a comedic rendition of two guys who become so involved with each other that their friendship becomes a romance.  

            Masculinity is a cultural product that has been under close examination of the mass global population of recent time. In order to see why men act the way they do we must pay attention to the details of what is portrayed in our media. In the past, films, television, magazines, books, etc have shaped a specific mold of how men should behave. Common themes of masculinity have classified a man as being impervious, rugged, and insensitive. But in new and upcoming films there has been an evident shift in characteristics of heterosexual men. In the film I Love You Man the main character Peter Klavin (Paul Rudd) is stuck in a predicament of not having a best friend that can act as his best man in his upcoming marriage. In the movie the relationship between Peter and his fiancée Zooey Rice (Rashida Jones) is stable and Peter seems to be a very committed partner. But his commitment grows to be more of a nuisance because of his lack of social life with people other than his wife and family.

            In Antony Easthope’s book What a Man’s Gotta Do he explains the idea of defining masculinity. He introduces the idea that people are greatly influenced by the media, and they will knowingly and unknowingly reflect the ideologies and behaviors that a text reveals about people of specific characteristics. But in order to properly define a person of their gender there needs to be a deeper analytical point of view. Easthope states “ Gender can be defined in three ways: as our body; as our social roles of a male or female; as the way we internalize and live out these roles. To define masculinity in terms of physical apparatus, male genitals, doesn’t get you very far” (Easthope, 1990). He reiterates that with masculinity comes a myth that has become a norm in our culture. The myth involves the population of men as a whole acting in the same way. The idea of men being controlling, tough, and superior is a common misconception that forces anyone outside the realm to be made into a counterculture minority. Masculinity has created a strong foundation that has been faced with a lot of opposition in recent years.

Throughout the movie Peter constantly behaves in a way that would make the audience question his sexuality. There are common stereotypes of gays that create the feminism in Peter including his love for the films Chocolat and The Devil Wears Prada. In our culture it is seen as very feminine for a man to openly enjoy movies under the genre of romance. Chocolat is a story about a romance between two rebellious young adults in France. Later in the movie when Peter’s love for this movie is brought up, his femininity is reinforced. His friend Sydney criticizes him, another gay man shares the same interest, and his father and gay brother both do not actually know what it is. Peter’s confession to his brother of his love for the movie The Devil Wears Prada is another example of his queer characteristics. This movie is about the fashion industry and the relationship of two women business associates. The usual extreme American sentiment is that men who are very fashionable are gay. When Peter tells his brother of his interest his body language and lack of response obviously point out that he thinks Peter has very gay qualities. Peter later realizes that his queer like behavior is the probable cause for his lack of heterosexual friends.

The behavior of Peter that leans towards the idea of him being gay falls under a category that is separate from his gender categorization. During the film there are frequent examples of him crossing over from typical heterosexual and homosexual stereotypical behaviors. In his dialogue, expressions, and interests he relays to the audience how feminine he really is. Theorist Alexander Doty explains this as the relationship between a heterosexual male and queer space. Peter’s reception to things under queer categorization in movies, songs, books, clothes, are all examples of him living in a separate margin outside of his own gender classification. During an interview with the Artisan News Service Andy Samberg (Robby Clavin) is quoted stating: “My character is super gay, but in a lot of ways is straighter than his brother” ( ANS, 2009).

One of the main themes of I Love You Man is the relationship with Peter and Zooey and their eventual marriage in the end. By this it is obvious that no matter what Peter says and does he is still a heterosexual male. And through the conflicting characteristics of Peter throughout the film it remains evident that heterosexuals behave in ways that cannot be defined through our cultural mold. Doty states “…queer reading is not confined to gays and lesbians, heterosexual, straight-identifying people can experience queer moments”( Storey,2009). The two main themes of romance of man and woman, and man and man are precisely interlaced throughout the movie to reinforce heterosexuality in queer space. The conflict in the beginning is that in order for Peter and Zooey’s relationship to get healthier he needs to develop a social life with someone other than her. During the middle of the movie Peter and Sydney become so obsessed with each other that his relationship with his wife turns sour. In the end Peter and Zooey rekindle their engagement and Sydney is pushed aside for a while until they eventually reunite during the marriage ceremony. If Zooey was not present during the movie then the audience would most likely assume Sydney and Peter are gay. The queer space is touched upon heavily during the movie but we always have the reminder of his straight relationship with Zooey. One of most intimate scenes in the movie comes at the end during the marriage ceremony when Sydney arrives late and becomes locked into a trance with Peter. During this interaction they repeatedly say they love each other with phrases such as “I love you bro Montana,” “I love you homes,” and “I love you Tycho Brohe.”  This scene ties in the two relationships by showing the public affection of these two men during a wedding ceremony of a man and woman. And the queer space of these two men is dismissed as a performance rather than a sexual preference. 

The identity of Peter and Sydney is judged a lot through their actions. The actions that are made prevalent in the movie are examples of gender performance. Judith Butler explains the idea of gender performance by stating “ Femininity and masculinity are not expressions of ‘nature’, they are ‘cultural performances in which their ‘naturalness’ [is] constituted through discursively constrained performative acts…that create the effect of the natural, the original, and the inevitable” (Storey, 2009). Peter and Sydney spend a lot of time together and provide us with examples of things that could be constituted as queer. For instance they ride on the same mo-ped, give each other hugs in public, and sit on each other’s shoulders at Rush concerts. But just because they were “Licking each other basses” at the concert does not mean they can be considered queer, they are just comfortable with it. Butler’s theory is that people create their own comfort in queer feelings and cannot be considered straight or gay. There are many examples in the film that would give the audience the idea that Peter and Sydney are gay but they need to be dismissed for us to determine their sexuality. Their preference is determined from the fact that Peter has a fiancée that he is committed to, and Sydney frequently talks about his sex life with women. Butler states “ The performance of gender creates the illusion of a prior substantiality- a core gendered self- and construes the effect of the performative ritual of gender as  necessary emanations or casual consequences of that prior substance”(Storey, 2009). Her theory introduces the fact that people are always trying to be shaped by our cultural media. The way we are shaped is reflected through our developed performances, but it cannot always be seen as something genuine. What the movies aims to do is create characters who share an identity that is honest to them. Peter and Sydney have developed such a strong bond that they need to show affection whether it is by a handshake, hug, or bass licking. Some men are afraid to open up and give another man a hug because they have a strong masculine personality formed by their lifelong experiences in being pressured by society. The pressure is from what their gender features should be and not features that they are comfortable with. There needs to be a clear separation of gender identity and performance so people can have a freedom of expression without feeling the criticism from the majority. 

This movie was released and 2009 and became a very popular film of recent years. A review of I Love You Man from Peter Travers of Rollingstone Magazine gave it 3 out of 4. And Roger Epert gave it a 3.5 out of 4. Their reviews included compliments of how humorous it is and how the actor relationships did a really good job at keeping the movie afloat. Besides the fact that this movie did what it was supposed to do in making people laugh, it also touched on a very sensitive subject of gender roles. The movie orchestrated examples of straight men doing queer things and not thinking twice about it. This movie may be funny to some people because it is odd to them that a heterosexual is acting in a queer manner. But in a deeper context this movie reveals a new definition of sexuality that more and more people are at ease with. The movie is successfully funny because the director assigns stereotypical homosexual personality traits to a heterosexual man. Hamburg plays on the idea of gender performance and identity by constantly juxtaposing Peter’s engagement with Zooey and friendship with Sydney. In order to keep the story interesting, conflicts arise in Peter’s balancing of relationships. He is pitted against a wall when he has to lose Sydney as a friend in order to maintain his engagement. This conflict reinforces his gender role because he reverts back to his wife. And when Sydney comes back into his life he once again provides the audience with an identity based on performance that he is comfortable with.

References

Easthope, A. (1990). What a Man's Gotta Do. New York: Unwin Hyman. 

Hamburg, J. (Director). (2009). I love You Man [Motion picture]. United States: Dreamworks. 

Pomerantz, D. (n.d.). Hollywood's Hottest Bromances . Retrieved from Forbes website: 

     http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/16/hollywood-hottest-bromance-media-hollywood-bromance.html 

Samberg, A. (Producer). (2009, March 19). ANDY SAMBERG PLAYS HOMOSEXUAL MAN MODEL TO PAUL RUDD  [Television broadcast]. Artisan News Service. 

Storey, J. (2009). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture  (Fifth ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Longman.

A View on The Big Lebowski- Joel Coen 1998

“The Dude Abides”

                        What is it that makes smoking a roach, listening to audio tracks of humpback whales, and laying in a bathtub so special? For The Dude, life does not get any better. He has his small house with one rug that supposedly ties the room together, and that is all he needs. In the 1998 film directed by Joel Coen The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges stars as a character known as Jeff Lebowski or more commonly known as “The Dude.” He is an unemployed middle-aged man with a beard, t-shirt, shorts, and not a care in the world. His lifestyle is portrayed as being similar to that of someone who lived in the fifties and sixties. His physical features along with his beliefs are shared with famous writers including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, and many others. These men were the forerunners of a legacy that still lives in the hearts of people today. 

            The Dude is a man who doesn’t stress about a job, an expensive home, or starting a family to fall back on. He is fine right where he is with a beer, a joint, and a robe to keep him warm. In part two of Howl by Allen Ginsberg he states “Moloch whose blood is running money!” (Ginsberg). Moloch is the ancient demonic prince that is known for stealing children from their mothers. In Howl Ginsberg uses this as a symbol for capitalism and how people are falling victim to it. This reflects the Beat hatred for any type of power, mainly in the government. When asked if he was employed, and if that is how he dresses on a weekday The Dude replied with  “Is this a… what day is this?”( Coen). He isn’t very impressed by being rich and have accomplished noble things like “The Big Lebowski” who plays the other Jeffery Lebowski in the movie. After seeing and hearing the many accolades of the Lebowski history he remains inattentive with a dull expression. Throughout this movie “The Big Lebowski” is seen as the antagonist because he is so into himself, and his yearning for the answer of his own identity. “The Dude believes that in order to be a man, you have to have a pair of testicles” (Coen). The Dude believes that why put in so much effort trying to find answers that you may never find. He just focuses on what makes him, and ignores society’s push to give him a clean shave and a brand new suit.    

             A common Beat ideal is that people should focus on living an authentic life without things that are misleading answers to happiness. By giving up a materialistic lifestyle we can see the truths that lie behind the ugliness that consumerism has produced. The poem Conversation Among Mountains by Li Po directly correlates with The Dude’s mind state. When someone asks him a question he usually responds with a simple answer and a bit of sarcasm. When the thugs break in his house and say “He looks like a fuckin’ loser”(Coen). The Dude just tilts his glasses over his nose and stares at them, as he smokes a joint of marijuana. Li Po’s lifestyle is questioned in his poem when he wrote “ You ask why I live in these green mountains, I smile, can’t answer, I am completely at peace” (Po). He and The Dude know that life isn’t what everyone sees it as because “…there are worlds beyond this one”(Po). They live without having to understand life’s complex questions. They know to appreciate the warmth of simplicity, where they can relax and observe the beauty around them.

            Charles Bukowski contemplated the beliefs of Li Po in his poem Immortal Wino. As he sips on red wine he remembers the words of a great philosopher, and describes the tragedy of the modern world. He states “the wine is still good, and in spite of all, there’s still some time to sit alone and drink plentifully”( Bukowski). He drinks the wine so he can numb the pain of having to live in a world full of filth, and stressful circumstances. In the poem he describes his cat and says “ In this drunken room, this drunken night, are these great yellow eyes staring at me”(Bukowski). The eyes draw him in because he feels that they are judging him as he sits and shares a few moments with his bottle of wine. And even if they are he doesn’t care, so he salutes Li Po and pours another glass. An important feature of the The Dude is that he also enjoys alcohol, but not so much that would put him off kilter. During the course of the movie he drinks 9 White Russians or “Caucasians” as he calls them. When he is in a stressful situation he kicks back and sips on his drink. He holds this drink so close to him because it helps him cope with the tense environment around him. Like Bukowski, he holds up a glass in the face of the arbiter.

            The Big Lebowski hollers at The Dude that he is a bum and should be more like his parents who had a job. The Dude’s mind state infers that he doesn’t care about how his parents would want him to live because they don’t know what matters to him. His parents grew up in a time where society was very restricting and conservative. It is likely that when he was younger he was kept under an orderly house that pushed him into being the poster child American. The Dude doesn’t need to pursuit anything other than what he has, so his motivation lies solely in staying within himself as The Dude. Gregory Corso wrote “We will not force ourselves into any hand-me-down- inherited straight jacket of all cast-off moral concepts mixed with beastly superstition derived from primitive mythology in its proper place. We are human”   (Corso). Corso knew just as well as The Dude knows, the human race is constantly changing. There doesn’t need to be an instruction manual on how to live life. The Dude will live his life and abide to any ridicule of the opposition. 

            At the end of movie The Dude is at a bar at a bowling alley where the actor Sam Elliot is sitting. Sam Elliot has been the narrator throughout the movie and shares his admiration for The Dude with the audience. Even though he only is a voiceover for a short amount of time, he plays a very important role in the story of The Dude. His closing lines state “It’s good to know he’s out there, taking it easy for all of us sinners”(Coen). Elliot is there to get a message across to the audience of the overlying theme of the story. The directors Joel and Ethan Coen stated in an interview that “The plot is secondary to what is actually going on”(Coen). He is hinting at the theme in being in Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski. He is an unexpected hero that Elliot insists on looking up to. Instead of selling himself to society he lives alone experiencing his own personal happiness. And instead of getting caught up in a fast-paced world, he remains idle and appreciative of the true delicacies around him.

            Sam Elliot then goes on the say “I didn’t like seeing Donny go, but I happen to know there’s a little Lebowski on the way. I guess that’s the way the whole darn human comedy keeps perpetuating itself down through the generations”(Coen). This statement makes it clear that the directors believe the Beat legacy has developed over decades and will continue to be a part of human lifestyle. It started with the comedic connotations of the Beat authors, and remains in the hearts of many people to this day.

           

References

Bukowski, Charles. “Immortal Wino.” New York Quarterly 1987: n. pag. Bukowski.net. Web. 8 Dec. 2010.

               <http://bukowski.net/database/detail.php?WorkNumber=1659>.

Coen, Joel, and Ethan Coen. The Big Lebowski. Poly Grams, Working Title Films, 1998. Film. 

Corso, Gregory. “from Variations on a Generation.” The Portable Beat Reader. Ed. Ann Charters.

New York: Penguin, 1992. 184.               

Ginsberg, Allen. Howl. pangloss. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. 

               http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/ Ramble/howl_text.html

Po, Li. "Conversation Among Mountations." Integral Options Cafe. Blogger.com, n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. 

              <http://integral-options.blogspot.com/2006/03/poem-li-po.html>.

2004: Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind - Michel Gondry

Traveling back to the year 2004:

I just recently watched this movie and it was very surprising to me how good it was. During the movie i was kind of confused because the scenes cut back from memories, unconscious thinking, and real time. The overall theme of the movie is that two people fall in love and then break up and decide to get a surgery where every memory they have of the other person is erased from their mind. Then like every good romance they realize how everything is not always going to go smoothly and they need some time to realize what they really have is special. In this movie they realize they cant live without each other by remembering the good memories they had and how they made a mistake in trying to erase them. When i was finished watching the movie i realized that there is a key lesson that needs to be recognized; whether your memories are good or bad they cannot be regretted because without them you wouldn't be who you are today. And in the last scene Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet beautifully relay this message by getting over the hurtful things they said in the past, because in their world it didn't happen yet. (One of the doctors in charge of their mind erasing gave them a pre experiment recoding on cassette of what they thought of each other and why they wanted to erase the memories they have with each other). So now after listening to the opinions they had of each other about memories they haven't had yet, they decided who cares, lets live with no regrets. Life should be lived day by day, with one small happiness at a time to be cherished. Memories are the only thing we have in life that we need to hold on to. If we cant remember then we wont learn or have a place to escape to when we are feeling happy or depressed.

Actors: 


Jim Carrey:
 
Recent Work: (I Love You Phillip Morris, Yes Man) Future Work:( Mr. Popper's Penguins).

Kate Winslet: 
   Recent Work: ( Titanic, The Holiday) Future Work: ( Americana, Contagion)


Tom Wilkinson:
  Recent Work: (Batman Begins, The Conspirator) Future Work: (The Samaritan, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)