Bhuchar: Beyond Bechdel
The underrepresentation of women and minorities in the entertainment industry is a large problem that needs to be addressed.
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The underrepresentation of women and minorities in the entertainment industry is a large problem that needs to be addressed.
Hollywood’s most reliable cash cow, the superhero film, has returned this summer. From A-listers like Spider Man to the obscure Ant Man, each will get its time on the silver screen. While sometimes exhausting, many of us will watch these movies anyway — they’re just so much fun.
Women have a representation problem in film. There simply aren’t enough women in movies, and when they are, the characters seem to be hideous caricatures of what two middle-aged white guys think women act like. As someone who loves movies, this saddens me. As much as I love watching men struggle through conflict in movies, I like seeing films with women front and center because it’s a nice change of pace. Women deserve better representation in the media, and as of late, there have been several television shows and movies working to promote that trend.
Before he was known for playing wizened, old British men, Michael Caine got his start playing young and fiery gangster characters in British films. Armed with a Cockney accent, Caine often played lovable rogues who tried to navigate London’s seedy underbelly.
In “Under the Skin” (2013), Scarlett Johansson drives a large white van around Scotland picking up young men for the time of their lives. She’s as beautiful and enchanting as ever, and these lads can’t resist her charms. When she takes them home, she leads them to her room, disrobes, puts them in a preserving fluid and sucks out their organs.
It’s impossible to talk about Wes Anderson without describing his aesthetic. Ever since his second full-length film, “Rushmore” (1998), Anderson has created a fantastical style that looks like it was ripped from the pages of a storybook. Though his aesthetic has evolved throughout the years to become even more stylized, it has remained distinctly “Wes,” rendering many of his films instantly recognizable to viewers.
After years and years of watching Indian movies with my parents, I’ve come to the conclusion that 99 percent of Indian cinema is not very good. Movies that shouldn’t last more than 80 minutes get drawn out to three-hour musical extravaganzas complete with an army of backup dancers, a multitude of European locations and strategically blowing wind. Add in clichés, musical cues that attempt to tell you how to feel, horrifically bad acting, dialogue that makes it sound like the writer hasn’t contacted human beings for 20 years and editing done by someone who just discovered Windows Movie Maker, and you’ve got to wonder how on Earth this industry stays financially solvent.
The fourth season of “Arrested Development” was a pivotal one for its protagonist, Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman). Since the show began, Michael played the straight man, the only sane person in a family of mess-ups and thieves. Yet as the show continued, Michael’s façade slowly began to crack, and the latest season showed him as about as unlikable as the other members of his family.
The Muppets puppet characters, a mainstay of American pop culture long before current Dartmouth students were born, were effectively rebooted with “The Muppets” (2011). Infused with meta-humor and modern sensibilities, the film brought the lovable scamps back into the cultural zeitgeist.
One of the closest Oscar races in history concluded last night with “Gravity” (2013) as the overall winner with seven total awards, including best director and best visual effects. “12 Years a Slave” (2013) garnered three prizes and nabbed the most coveted best picture award.
Not too far into “3 Days to Kill” (2014), recently retired CIA hit man Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner) returns to his apartment in Paris. As he puts his key into the door, a young boy opens it, and Ethan realizes his apartment has been taken over by squatters from Mali. After threatening the leader with a gun, the first of many minorities Ethan intimidates and beats in the film, he leaves his apartment to advance the plot, but I really wish he hadn’t.
Books will be written on the awfulness of “Winter’s Tale” (2014). The odd decisions, stale lines and questionable career choices will keep film scholars and BuzzFeed writers at bay for decades. If you were dragged to this movie on a Valentine’s Day date, rethink your relationship. If a relative decides a few months from now to give this movie as a gift, cut off all contact and disown him or her. If you’re on a plane and this is the in-flight movie, fake a heart attack. The resulting legal proceedings and hospital bills will be better than subjecting yourself to two hours of “Winter’s Tale.”
Bad things happen to good people. It’s an inevitable fact of life and one that we are loath to confront when things do not go our way. This was not the message I was expecting when I walked into “Philomena” (2013), a film marketed as a comedy that unexpectedly ends as an uplifting tearjerker.
America is big. Like, really big. You might think it’s a long way to the pharmacy, but that trip is peanuts compared to traveling across America. That’s why you get so many road trip movies; they’re all about the journey, and with a country as large and varied as the United States, you get lots of journeys.
I counted 15 people walking out mid-screening from “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013). Included in that group were some older people, a couple on a date and an enterprising gentleman who took his children to see the film in lieu of “Frozen” (2013) or “A Madea Christmas” (2013). While I applaud him for introducing his children to the works of director Martin Scorsese, “The Wolf of Wall Street” is a balls-to-the-wall exercise in extravagance and debauchery that would make Caligula blush.
When it comes to movies, I have a viewing policy comparable to that of a mountain goat: I consume everything I can. When I go home for breaks, I head on down to the local library and grab films I haven’t seen off its well-stocked shelves. Most of the time, I get clunkers and time-passers, but it’s the rare gems that make my indiscriminate watching habits worthwhile.
Years from now, I think people will ask the same of "Gravity," and I would be inclined to agree with them.
Born in Germany to an American father and a French mother, Watts moved around a lot as a child before settling in Montana. He remarked in an interview on the podcast "Employee of the Month" that he got into music by listening to Ray Charles.
What is the meaning of life? Is it to seek a higher purpose than ourselves? Is it simply to exist? Is it to make the most of our short time on Earth? Is it 42? Who knows for sure; I certainly am not in a position to give a definitive answer to that question. Ron Howard's new film, "Rush," seeks not to answer this ultimate question, but to give an example of what it meant personally to Formula One racers and rivals Niki Lauda and James Hunt.
There is an argument to be made that the terrorists won on Sept. 11. To support this theory, one would only need to point to the various security measures and broad powers that our law enforcement agencies enjoy, often at the expense of our personal liberties. But as Americans, do we really have it so bad? Across the pond, London is littered with enough cameras to track nearly every movement of British citizens. It's a situation that would make George Orwell perpetually spin in his grave.