Everything Everywhere All At Once

Storytelling

    The storytelling of the film is kind of an overused trope about a mom not understanding her child, but the directors dive much deeper into that concept and expand on it. Not only does the mom (Evelyn) not understand her daughter Joy, but Evelyn is so consumed by all the business of life that she doesn't ever take the time to understand herself. She is living the worst version of herself that never followed any of her dreams, which is the reason why she doesn't pay attention to or get along with Joy. I like the message of the film, where in the end nothing matters so you should just do what fulfills you in life.

Cinematography

    After watching Everything Everywhere All at Once a second time I can definitely say that it is one of my favorite movies. I think the fact that it is complete chaos and all over the place is what makes it so different from other films. The setting/environment is constantly changing so you can't focus on anything for longer than a minute before it changes. Personally, this keeps my eyes on the screen because I won't ever get bored of a scene. I also really like the fight choreography because it reminded me of a cross between Doctor Strange and the John Wick movies but with more humor than blood and gore. Another part I liked about the cinematography was the close-up shots. In a lot of the scenes/shots where the camera was focused on a single character's face, it was either extreme close-up or everything but their face was out of focus. I think this aspect of cinematography gave it that fast-paced action movie feel.

Cultural Significance

    This is one of the largest films to date that features, represents, and celebrates both Asian American culture and the LGBTQ+ community. The film is from the perspective of an Asian American immigrant woman, and her daughter who is part of the LGBTQ+ community. One of the main plots of the film is the relationship between them. Evelyn is hesitent to accept that Joy has a girlfriend because that is not traditionaly accepted in their culture. Evelyn doesn't want to explain this to her father (Joy's grandfather) because she feels he won't accept it. By the end of the film Evelyn finally accepts Joy for who she is and proudly and sternly tells her father that Joy and Becky are together, not just good friends. It shows the growth that Evelyn went through and that culture and traditions can change with time.

Our Film

 

     With the short amount of time that the groups were given to make our short film there is definitely some aspects that could use more explanation and techniques. One of the biggest for our film was there isn't any background or explanations as to why anything is happening. Once our film begins there is just a cut to instantly finding people. To remedy this if we had time we could use some black-and-white scenes to explain everything that is happening sort of in a flashback kind of style.

    Another portion that could use work would be the audio in the film. When recording the audio for the clips was not good so we had to cut it and put music over it. So if we had more either equipment or focused more on the audio it would add much more to the film. Or if we had more resources we could use some better sounds to cover it up and make the feel of the film higher quality than what we were able to gather from our short time. 

    Some of the cuts also looked choppy which could be patched up as well. Possibly being able to reshoot some scenes would have been helpful because after meshing all the clips together we found that some portions were not needed and felt like filler. 

Moonrise Kingdom

 

Storytelling

    The basic story of Moonrise Kingdom (2012) is that two kids who each have problems at home, fall in love and run away together. The boy, Sam, is a 12-year-old "Khaki Scout" which is meant to mock Boy Scouts by giving them a more militaristic manner, and he is the hero in this story that rescues the 12-year-old girl, Suzy, who has problems with her family at home. The way the story is told makes it seem like Suzy's family doesn't care about her and that Sam is going AWOL from his "very serious" service in the Kahki Scouts. Sam is the hero that convinces Suzy to escape with him as they run away and have to avoid the evil police, who are just trying to find the missing girl, and the evil Khaki Scouts, who are just trying to find the missing boy. The comedy of it all is that the Police and Kahki Scouts take their job very seriously, even though they do it in the most ridiculous way. The Police enlist the help of the Kahki Scouts which is made up of one adult troop leader, and several children between the ages of 6-12. The kids make weapons such as clubs, bows, and spears as if Sam was this dangerous war fugitive. All while Sam and Suzy have their awkward but romantic escape.

Cinematography

    As in any Wes Anderson film, the cinematography makes the movie. He uses a specific color pallet in all his films including Moonrise Kingdom. The pallet has very whimsical shades of yellows, blues, greens, and reds. These colors are meant to reflect the child-like adventure story that the film tells. In every shot in this film, everything is symmetrical. Wherever the characters are on screen, they are always centered and/or framed by the background they are standing in. Moonrise Kingdom was shot on 16mm film to give it a grainy older look to it to match the time period the film is meant to take place.

Cultural Relevance

    The cultural relevance of Moonrise Kingdom is that it shows childhood innocence and the desire to escape the 'real world'. Wes Anderson uses this escapism trope as the two kids go on an adventure of self-discovery and love. Both Sam and Suzy are going through rough times emotionally as Sam is stuck in a military-like Khaki Scout Camp, and Suzy is having troubles at home with her family not caring about her or letting her be a kid. This film plays into that desire as a young and reckless kid, to just run away from all your home problems and be free with someone you love. What I like most about this film is the absurdity of the whole situation. In the real world, the police would just find the missing kids and bring them home. But in this story, we have the bad guys and the heroes. It is kind of like how I imagine a kid would dramatize running away, where the kids are going AWOL and the military and police are after them, so they must protect themselves.

Swiss Army Man

 

Storytelling

    The way that the Daniels tell this story makes it seem like any other cast-away movie at first but as it continues we see just how abnormal and strange this film really is. It starts with a very dark scene of a man about to hang himself from inside a cave on the beach when the man (Hank) sees a person laying in the water. As he yells to get the person's attention, he slips and accidentally hangs himself until the rope breaks. This sets an extremely dark tone right away but is immediately followed by comedic relief as the person turns out to be a dead body, and begins to fart. This tells the audience that this is not going to be a normal cast-away film, but more of a comedy as it lightens the mood. The rest of the film depicts the cast-away Hank using a now alive-dead body named Manny as a tool to survive out in the woods. Manny becomes Hank's best friend as Hank tries to teach Manny what life is like in the real world. During the entire duration of the film, we think that Manny might just be in Hank's head but Manny seems so real. At the climax of the film, Manny actually carries Hank instead of the other way around, onto Sarah's property (the woman who Hank has seemingly been stalking). Sarah's little girl sees the two men and talks with both of them, making us think that Manny really can talk and is real before he drops to the ground and "dies" again. The audience is meant to think that Hank really is crazy and has been right outside Sarah's home this whole time talking to a dead body, but all of our expectations are reversed when we see Manny come alive again and speed off into the ocean in front of everyone, including the police, Sarah, and Hank's father.

Cinematography

    The cinematography of this film makes it feel like everything we see on screen is actually a dream. The saturation of color in many of the scenes has kind of an unnatural hue that could make us think that maybe what we're seeing isn't real. I think one of the main reasons it feels like a dream to me though, is the stop motion-esk videography. In some scenes, particularly when Hank uses Manny as the Swiss Army Man, everything kind of slows down and zooms out making it look more like Manny is a puppet or just not real. It almost reminds me of some scenes shot in the Where the Wild Things Are (2009) movie. I think I have also seen similar dream-like sequences in movies like JoJo Rabbit (2019), where you feel like what you are seeing is not real, but the movie reminds you that you are watching a movie and it is real for the characters in the film.

Examples of how the directors use wide angle shots and either slow down or speed up the video whenever Manny is being used as the Swiss Army Man, shown in the trailer.

Cultural Relevance

    The cultural relevance of this film shows through the emotions of two men. Normally we see men in movies as physically strong, mentally strong, and masculine. But this movie shows the vulnerability of men and how they express their emotions. The relationship between Hank and Manny starts off with Hank just needing Manny to survive but as Hank teaches Manny more and more about the real world, they become best friends. At one point during the movie, Hank pretends to be a love interest to teach Manny what it is like to love someone and that is when their relationship could be perceived as much more intimate. I think we really see this come into play when Hank tries to save Manny with a rescue breath underwater, but both Hank and Manny are smiling and it ends up being more of a life-saving kiss.

Helen: Believe

 

Storytelling

Helen: Believe (2023) is a wrestling documentary about the rise, fall, and resurgence of World Champion and Olympian Helen Maroulis. She is the first woman from the USA to win gold in wrestling. This film was produced by Chris Pratt as he worked hand in hand with Helen Maroulis herself. The film is sectioned into 6 parts, which follow her journey from being the only girl wrestling on youth teams back in 2004, to her Olympic gold in Rio in 2016. Then how her career-ending injury gave her very real self-doubt, PTSD, and depression. It shows the heartbreaks and struggles that a woman athlete competing in a male-dominated sport as she climbs back out of rock bottom to resurge as a two-time Olympic medalist. It's insane how fast a person can go from the top of the world to the lowest point in their life in the span of a few months.

Cinematography

    This film uses both clips and footage from real matches and interviews, as well as some scenes that were shot during the production of the film (as most documentaries do). What I thought was special about this documentary is that it dives deep into the mental health aspect of high-level athletics in a way that no other documentary has. Helen Maroulis was not afraid to talk about her struggles and having to get help and some of the scenes depict just how bad it got. One scene that really got to me is when she was working out to try to recover from her injury and she just started breaking down completely defeated. It shows just how much pressure athletes put on themselves to perform at 110% all the time. Throughout the film they constantly repeat the fact that no other kind of athlete could even attempt to come back from rock bottom, only a wrestler has the mindset to never quit. 

Cultural Relevance

    This film is extremely relevant to the women's athletics community. Never before has such a raw and emotional documentary been released. Myself and my other teammates felt like this film portrayed exactly how it feels to compete in the sport of wrestling and it was reassuring to know that even the best in the world go through rough experiences. With women's wrestling being the number one fasted growing sport in the U.S., I feel like this film was needed to accelerate that growth and show girls all around the country that they too can compete in a male-dominated sport. I hope that other women are just as inspired by this film as I was.

Mid 90's

    Introducing the film that got me into skateboarding. Mid 90's is a coming-of-age film about a boy (Stevie) with a troubled home life finding a passion for skateboarding through a group of older boys that treat him like family. The film was written and directed by Jonah Hill and although it is not about his own life he took inspiration from where he grew up. The story takes place in Los Angles in the mid-1990s where people of lower incomes reside. The boys' main hangout is Motor Avene Skate Shop where one of the older boys (Ray) works, and they often go to new areas to skate the streets. Most of the older boys have accepted that they don't have anywhere to go in life and they will just live in the slums, but a couple have aspirations of making it out. One of the older boys wants to become a pro skater, and another wants to become a filmmaker. In the end, it is revealed that the whole movie is actually all the film from that boy.

    Storytelling

    Mid 90's starts off with a scene of Stevie looking at his body in the mirror to see all the bruises and injuries that his older brother (Ian) inflicted on him. When Ian leaves, Stevie sneaks into Ian's room to look at all of Ian's things including skateboards, shoes, jerseys, hats, and music CDs. It is clear that Stevie admires his older brother and wishes he could grow up and be "cool" like his brother, even though Ian abuses him. Stevie actually tries to make Ian like him by getting him a CD he didn't have for his 18th birthday, which Ian pretends not to care about to not "show weakness". Later that day Stevie is riding his bike in town and sees a group of skaters. He ends up trading Ian for an old trashy cruiser board and begins practicing skateboarding through the day and night until he can finally push and ride around on it. 

    Stevie goes into the skate shop and meets the skaters, it's clear that Stevie doesn't fit in with them since he's never hung out with people like that. Even though the skaters think Stevie is weird they admire his desire to skate and tell him to come skate with them. Ray talks with Stevie about his past and bonds with him over time, Stevie is like a little brother figure to Ray since Ray lost his little brother. Ray even gives Stevie a new real board to ride. Stevie hangs out with the boys even though they are not a good influence on him, they are like a family to him and teach him important lessons like not caring what other people think, and doing what makes you happy. Stevie and the boys love skateboarding because it takes them out of their troubled home lives and gives them freedom. Even though Stevie's mother originally disapproves of the boys he hangs out with, by the end of the movie, she realizes how much the boys care about each other when they all show up to support Stevie in the hospital after their car accident.

Cultural Relevance

    This movie portrays growing up around street and skate culture extremely well. Everything is perfect from the language the boys use, the humor, and the things they like to do for fun. It was really easy to connect to all the characters in this movie because of how real the characters are on screen. The entire time I was watching I kept thinking, "That's exactly how my friend group was growing up!".

Cinematography

    One element of this film that I think ties the whole thing together is how the entire movie is meant to be clips of one of the boys' (nick-named "Fourth Grade") films that he put together. The movie is shot on Super 16mm film and in 4:3 aspect ratio to replicate the VHS-watching experience of the 90s. You don't find this out till the end because it doesn't have that handheld camera point of view, and Fourth Grade is in the movie himself.

The Last Of Us (Show)

 

    I recently just finished the new show The Last of Us (2023) based on the videogame that came out in 2013, which I have played. Without spoiling too much, the main plot of  Season 1 is that after a deadly mind-controlling zombie fungus breaks out across the world overnight, society is forced to try and rebuild but the government is overcontrolling. A man named Joel, who lost his daughter at the beginning of the outbreak, has to become a smuggler to get the items he needs to escape, find and 'save' his brother Tommy. He is forced to smuggle a girl named Ellie in order to get a vehicle but when things turn bad, he ends up having to become her protector as they try to make their way to the west where doctors are working on a cure.

    What separates this show from other typical Zombie apocalypse films is that it is more about what is happing with the people and less about slashing zombies. The cinematography of the film is focused on keeping everything natural and raw looking. There's no perfect lighting or close-ups of the actors. During filming they opted to use natural ambient lighting or as few sources as possible. This added a much dingier and scarier atmosphere. For example in a scene where Ellie is looking for supplies in an empty gas station, the only light is coming from a small hole in the ceiling of the basement.

    The lighting in this scene exhilarates the intensity of the scene as we feel like something bad is going to happen to Ellie. As an infected is revealed to be trapped under rubble, we expect Ellie to run away but the show plays with our expectations as Ellie approaches the infected with her knife. She cuts the infected revealing the fungus underneath before violently stabbing the infected person to death. What I like about this scene is that it shows that Ellie is not a scared little girl, and wants to be able to defend herself (and others as her past trauma haunts her).

    An element of storytelling that I think is very important is the fact that both main characters Ellie and Joel are both hesitant to trust each other in the beginning, but over time they realize they both need each other. Joel is dealing with the trauma of not being able to protect his daughter 20 years ago when the outbreak began. Ellie is dealing with survivor's guilt and loss after she and her best friend were bitten, but because Ellie is immune she survived. Essentially both characters are dealing with past traumas and they are unknowingly helping each other overcome those feelings of guilt.

In this clip, we can see the trauma of Joel losing his daughter causing him to protect Ellie at all costs.

    Overall I think the directors of this show did an amazing job with both the cinematography and storytelling as it tells the story just as the game did or maybe even better. I have to recommend this show to everyone because it's not some clique zombie show, it portrays themes of overcoming trauma, and father-daughter relationships, and it does it perfectly.