I can tell when I’m in a depressive episode, because all I want to do is watch YouTube series that I’ve already seen one thousand times.
But! I did manage to scrounge up a couple things to talk about (including one that I forgot I watched like two weeks ago- sorry Sarah!).
Let’s start with that one. Two weeks ago (and once more this week, for good measure) I watched Miss Americana (2020) the infamous Taylor Swift documentary. Now, I’ve been relatively vocal about this recently, but I’m a fan of Taylor Swift. Not necessarily a super-fan, but definitely a fan. So, I’m gonna be biased on this one (at least, more-so than normal). I think it’s hard to say I “enjoyed” it, because it deals with such serious topics and I cried at least twice watching it, but I definitely would consider it worthwhile viewing. For so long, she had built up an image of herself in an attempt to never make waves or share controversial viewpoints, so more than anything I appreciated the fact that she speaks more openly about things that had happened to her. It was like sitting in on a therapy session of hers, but it felt less voyeuristic, and more healing. Ultimately, I think what’s going to happen with this documentary is what’s going to happen to her albums; if you like Taylor Swift, you’ll like this documentary. And if you don’t like Taylor Swift, you’ll use this as an opportunity to pick out any little thing that can be used to criticize her. Just sayin’.
Also Brendon Urie has a cameo in this which in all honesty just felt like major pandering to me, Sydney, and no one else. I’m perfectly fine with that.
After that, I had to watch Left Behind (2020). And yes, I do mean “had”. It was assigned viewing for my Honors class, Apocalypse & US Values. No, I am not making this up. This movie… it was something. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be, considering it had a 1% on Rotten Tomatoes. But at the same time… these people have absolutely no idea how to write normal, non-religious people. Literally the second the rapture happened, everyone began looting, and assaulting, and murdering, before even stopping to figure out why there were piles of clothes where there used to be people. And that’s another thing; not a single goddamn character in this film that wasn’t devout had ever seemed to have heard about the Rapture. Not a one of them. Now, I’m not what you would call “religious”, but I’ve known of the Rapture since I was in middle school (thanks, pop culture! And by pop culture, I specifically mean that one American Dad! episode that’s about the Rapture). It was literally 2/3 of the way through the movie, before the concept of ascencion into Heaven had even begun to be mentioned.
Side note: half of this movie takes place on a plane flying in the air. At one point, a distraught mother whose young child had been forcibly removed by God pleads with the pilot to “go back” in order to “look for the baby”. I understand fear and grief, but lady, I don’t know how to tell you this: you’re on a plane 10,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. Where exactly do you want to “go back” to look for this kid?
I really wish I had watched this with someone. Not because it’s so-bad-it’s-good (which is what I thought it would going to be going into this thing), but because so few of the characters actions made any goddamn sense. Nic Cage stabs a styrofoam cup with a pencil while he’s flying a plane in order to explain how liquid works. A woman pulls a gun on her fellow passengers because she thinks they’re in cahoots with her husband to steal their daughter. The main character, Chloe, goes to the hospital to look for her brother who literally vanished as she was hugging him. Did she think he disintegrated and was taken to the ER? It makes no sense!
I finished up the week with two shorts: the recent Academy Award winner, Hair Love (2019) and The Present (2014). The Present is about a kid who becomes friends with a puppy and learns to accepts his disability as a part of him, rather than trying to ignore it. Hair Love “tells the heartfelt story of an African American father learning to do his daughter’s hair for the first time”, and boy does it ever. I may have shed a tear or two. I’m a sucker for dads taking good care of their daughters- please don’t read into that. Ha ha. Uhh. Moving on-
Unofficial Ratings
Miss Americana
Considering how badly they wanted to hype up this documentary and the song that was released with it, you’d think they’d’ve spent more than $5 on the lyric video for “Only the Young”.
Left Behind
Vizzy was way too into this movie and now I’m afraid that he’s one of those Christians who is looking forward to the Rapture.
The Present
That dog is one of the cutest things that has ever been animated and I wanted to kill this kid before I realized he was just projecting.
Hair Love
I loved Kitbull (2019), but I’m very very glad that this won over it (I still would recommend watching Kitbull though, it’s phenomenal).
Film Student Watchlist 