Keala - Beasts of the Southern Wild Blog

In this movie Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quvenzhane Wallis plays as Hushpuppy. A girl who is taught survival and how to live off of her surroundings. She was taught to be strong and never cry. Hushpuppy is a girl who is taught how to live by her single father and the people around her. The community nurtures Hushpuppy with tough love and survival skills. Some of these skills include eating seafood, learning how to make medicine from the earth (kind of like home remedies), etc. Hushpuppy’s father Wink, played by Dwight Henry, was very stern in the way that he raised his daughter. She had her own place for living where she talked to her makeshift mother. She was told that her mother swam away and never came back but throughout the movie you can infer that  He didn’t show physical love, but he showed it emotionally, especially when Hushpuppy was in danger. In one part of the film, Hushpuppy tested her dad by not escaping her house when it caught on fire while she was cooking. You can tell how much he loved and cared for her by the way he reacted by putting himself in danger just to get her out safe and alive. Hushpuppy is different from 6 year olds I know because all of the ones I‘ve encountered are in school and still learning their rights from wrongs. Hush puppy is able to live and survive on her own after her father dies. In the movie Hushpuppy has always been told “no crying” but before he passes away they have a touching moment where they hug and cry together. The movie ends when she sets her dad’s body on fire because that was his wish.

Keala - Crooklyn Blog

In this movie so far we viewed how life was for this black family of seven living in Brooklyn. We witnessed how this family lives day to day through their issues and social surrounding. This movie by Spike Lee shows a family who fights hard but also loves hard. The movie goes in depth of the marriage of a working school teacher and a struggling jazz musician trying to provide for their five kids while owning a house but also living off of food stamps trying make ends meet. This couple, played by actors Alfre Woodard and Delroy Lindo, has complications in their marriage when it comes to the fathers job and his take on raising the kids.They are separated for a while then get back together. At the end of the movie, the main character Troy (played by Zelda Harris) has to take over the role of her mother because her mother passes away of cancer. I feel like this is a movie that a lot of young people with families can relate too. I myself have a big family of seven and I know how crazy things can get in a big family. This movie is touching and so is the music that plays. I liked this movie and it made me emotional when the mom died. This movie demonstrates a true act of  responsibility, family, and love.

Crooklyn-Julianna Migliaro

Out of all of the movies we have watched, Crooklyn has turned out to be on my list of favorites. And while I feel I have stated that in a good amount of my blog posts, this one is of different standards.

The movie itself is very real, very easy to relate to and very appropriate by means of representing culture of the time. The characters are very well developed and the story line is rather easy to keep in touch with, thanks to realistic events like financial struggles and the pains of death. I wasn't exactly ever bored.

In this post, I'd like to focus on one character in particular; Troy. The daughter of Carolyn and Woody who are struggling very much so with making ends meet. During the movie, we notice how passionate Woody is with his music, and how worried Carolyn is that maybe his music isn't enough to help keep the family afloat so to speak. The two parents go through a temporary separation, and during this time is when Troy [not Tony] really develops.

She's a very young girl, very immersed in what it is she enjoys, as all young kids are. However, when her parents temporarily separate, she really begins to grow up, as she is forced to do. While you see she intimidates her siblings and vice versa, we notice that there is nobody she cares more for. And eventually, her parents have her spend the summer with her aunt as they try to get finances together, and she comes back to deal with the death of her mother. It is here we see her struggle. How is life even fair?

The reason I wanted to focus so much on Troy is that I see her in myself. I know how it is to lose a parent young, and I know what it is to have a childhood taken away.

Thank you for showing us this film.

Crooklyn: Myles Snider

                         CROOKLYN 

After our class finally finished watching the movie Crooklyn directed by Spike Lee, I must say that this movie was an excellent piece of work. Crooklyn is mainly about a teacher and her stubborn artist husband living with their five kids [write out numbers less than ten] in 70s Brooklyn, Fort Greene specifically. The movie actually got my attention in the beginning because I was familiar with the actors in this film. As I watched the film, I was able to make a connection and realize that the movie reminds me of the TV show, Everybody Hates Chris. 

This movie reminded me of Everybody Hates Chris, because it has almost the same plot, a family living in apartment in New York, dealing with family issues, money, drug addicts in the neighborhood and etc. They're learning how to survive as a family, and I think that's the ultimate point of the movie Crooklyn, it tells the audiences how even though your family may have some hardships, you have to keep moving forward, and still stay strong as a family. 

Crooklyn is definitely a movie that I would recommend for someone to watch, especially because it's a film that many people can connect with, and I think Spike Lee did a great job incorporating [capturing? depicting?] the childhood that many black families [shift in number: childhood is singular; families is plural] have faced into a wonderful picture.  

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Director Benh Zeitlin's Academy Award-nominated first feature Beasts of the Southern Wild is an interesting movie because it has been somewhat vague about where they are, a bayou community simply referred to as "The Bathtub",  and it's use of symbolism especially that of the titular beasts [the Aurochs, ice-aged mammoth boar-like creatures] that seem to be getting closer to Hushpuppy, the five year old female protagonist of the film superbly portrayed by then unknown Quvenzhane Wallis.

What I found weird is that Hushpuppy's father Wink, even though he is sick, keeps refusing treatment even though he recognizes that he as a responsibility to take care of Hushpuppy.

Also it appears to be a very nice community; however, in the beginning of the movie Hushpuppy's father doesn't really care about her [Brigham, why do you say this? What evidence is there of this?] until after the flood. It's a good movie that shows a lot of hardships [examples?].

Not getting a very clear picture here. When revising and writing future posts assume that your reader has no prior knowledge of the film you are analyzing.

MM

Kyle W. The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club movie was an old film. It was directed in the year of 1985 directed by John Hughes.The movie was garbage bag i didn't enjoy the movie at all to be honest. I don't get why they call it The Breakfast Club if it doesn't have anything to do with breakfast. Its all about 5 students at the high school serving detention on a Saturday all day. None of these five students know each other until they were sent to detention. They knew of each other but didn't know each other to be friends. Andrew Clark witch played as Emilio Estevez. Claire Standish who played as Molly Ringwald. Brian Johnson who played as Anthony Michael Hall. Allison Reynolds who played as Ally Sheedy. Last, John Bender who played as the "Bad boy." The movie blows to be honest i didn't enjoy it from the get go. Its weird because all of them wont talk to each other they just stare at each other and hate each other than they were friends and getting along.

Comparison of Crooklyn and Beast of the Southern Wild. Alethia Moore

One thing that is very similar about both Crooklyn and Beasts of the Southern Wild is that they share the same theme by having the female playing the dominate role. The protagonists in both films are young girls who are forced to take on the roles and responsibilities of adult women.

     Both films explore the theme of gender roles, in Beasts of The Southern Wild Hushpuppie's father, Wink, always made her act out as a male whether it was eating, depending on herself or even arguing with each other. He raised her to never back down from any challenge and in some ways this has both benefited and harmed her. I say this because Wink has adapted this manly state of mind in her head so she no longer listens to things that her father tells her when it comes to her safety and protection.

     Meanwhile in the Spike Lee joint Crooklyn, the character of Troy is forced to adapt to the role of a woman by caring for her house and her brothers when her mother dies of cancer. Troy also has a rough state of mind, and it was hard for her to get along with others in the community. Both of these movies demonstrate gender roles, responsibility, and mental growth.

Alethia, 

It would be nice if you could add one more paragraph to sum up what you are saying and connect back to your introduction.

Monahan