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fearthepiff
Reviews
Community: Basic Email Security (2015)
I don't even think the writers got what they were saying.
The thing about this episode is that it's so messy because the writers were weirdly ahead of their time with this, and what I got out of it, based on the characters' inability to find a lesson themselves, may not be what the writers intended. Frankly, the politics of this entire season all seem to head in the right direction but the more nuance an idea needs, the less exact and direct the morals of any lesson, hence the ending of the episode.
"Freedom of speech" means absolutely nothing if we all take it at face value and give it no nuance and act like all speech should be allowed without any consideration for context and content. What the students of Greendale do to agree that the racist comedian should not be allowed to perform and work together to try and stop him is more noble than the blind fight for a non-existent, non-hypocritical freedom of speech that forces them to go against the will of most of society, a will that they all banded together and worked to enact.
Are we really free when the will of the few get to make decisions that affect all of us? Every student and teacher's data was leaked! And I don't think there's any lesson about data and privacy, it's just a way for our characters to have a romp and get angry at each other, 'cuz that's what our dear study...committee is best at: being horrible people. And my favorite thing about this show is that every other student at Greendale hates them.
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
Nocturnal Animals misunderstands what its focus should be.
Nocturnal Animals gets so swept up in the crime drama the lead is reading that it loses focus on the foundation of the film, which is the frame this picture resides.
The film, based off the novel Tony and Susan, by Austin Wright, starts with a beautifully crafted montage of larger, older, nude women dancing in celebratory garb as they dance along to the opening credits. These women are revealed to be the center of an art exhibit in Susan Morrow's (Amy Adams) art gallery. Adams' character is distant, sad, and you can tell she's troubled by the first shot of her eyes. The film picks up with her married to her second husband, one she suspects of cheating, and the plot starts when she receives a manuscript of her ex-husband's new novel: Nocturnal Animals.
The film chronicles Susan reading the novel, and we see into what the novel is about as we see Nocturnal Animal's main character, Tony, played by Jake Gyllenhaal (who also plays Edward, Susan's ex-husband and the writer of the novel), who is on a road trip with her wife (played by Isla Fisher in a very clever casting choice) and daughter, when something goes awry.
The film starts off beautifully shot, and is reminiscent of old film noir; it's classically shot and it helps set-up the film so well, and sets up a very interesting premise, but it loses steam more and more as the film goes on, and what you think is a set-up to for a film about a woman's past catching up with her is really about a woman reading a book, and the film mistakenly obsesses over the book's plot as if it's all we came to the theater for.
The film teases all these plot points about Susan's life through flashbacks which really don't get tied up in a nice bow, but instead they are more like the laces of a shoe that instead of being tied up they are shoved into the shoe under the foot to save time.
The book should've been a plot device the help move the film forward, and as we find out what happens to Tony, we get to piece together Susan's life. Instead, the film sets up this frame story where it's almost as if Susan only exists to be a vessel for us to read about Tony. The film forgets to care about this bigger arc that is Susan Morrow's story, and only gives us the resolution to the smaller story that takes place in the novel of Nocturnal Animals. It cares too much about this book when all I want to know about is the person who wrote it.
The worst part is, the book ends with a sputter, and you're left thinking "Really?" as the film starts to wrap up. The characters and plot of the book start to become more dumb and hammy as the film goes on, and less believable, too, which makes you care even less.
The film should've been about finding out Susan's past as we find out Tony's story, and then come back to Susan as she reacts to this book, but instead the film almost cares more about this fictitious Tony instead of caring about the real characters of Susan and Edward. The film loses so much steam because all you want to know about is Susan and Edward and all the specifics of what happened to them, when all you really get is...
...Tony and Susan.