Blog Feed

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (more commonly known as Star Wars: Rogue One) is a space opera and war story starring Felicity Jones. Taking place between the events of Episode III and Episode IV, former imperial scientist Galen Erso is taken away from his by Orson Krennic to help design and build a superweapon called the Death Star for the Empire. Years later, his daughter, Jyn Erso, is sought out by the Rebel Alliance to find her father to retrieve the plans for the Death Star so the Rebels can have an edge in the fight against the Empire. The movie acts as a bridge to both the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy while also tying up the loose ends that appeared in Episode IV as well. It also fleshes out many different elements of the story that were not touched on before.

Jyn Erso plays a very strong role in the film as it’s leading role. It fleshes out her character arc from the beginning where she was separated from her father to helping the Rebels in the present. Because of this, it passes the Mako Mori test with flying colors. She has her own character arc that not only does not support anyone else’s arc but, has other story arcs supporting hers. One example being the arc of Galen Erso’s involvement in the Death Star’s construction being a story element that supports Jyn’s story arc.

It passes the Bechdel Test by a slim margin as there are at least three conversations that female characters have with each other in the whole film. One of which being Mon Mothma where she briefs Jyn on her mission to find her father. All of the other ones are with extras and side character that are not too relevant. Even so, the movie still passes the test in a satisfying manner.

My test wanted to focus on something that this movie does not necessarily excel at: represent of women of color. My test is called the diversity pass test because I feel like casting director will throw a person of color into the film but, will not put in the work to flesh their character out or just make them a side character. Their only objective seems to be to fill some very shallow quota they have in their mind. My test requires at least non-white woman who has her own fleshed out character arc that does not support a man’s story and if there is more than one non-white woman in the film, then they cannot be similar in terms of character and personality. They must be wholly original characters that are not a product of stereotypes.

Personajes (characters)

Casey - Christina

Gabriela - Dasia

Carrie - Michaela

On November 14, 2014 the movie “Beyond the Lights was released in theatres in the US. The Pg-13 drama film was advertised everywhere on billboards and the trailers were almost on everything. The film stars main characters actress Gugu Mbatha- Raw as Noni, and actor Nate Parker as Kaz/ Officer Nicol. Both have very different careers, but the influences of their parents comes between and the love affair that develops between the two. Noni is a heartthrob singer who everyone loves, and her mother is the manager of the her. Her mother also played by Minnie Driver, only wants her daughter to match what society’s choices of her talent. Noni wear minimal amounts of clothing throughout the movie, and her mother encourages it and makes her think it is okay to be sexual. With the amount of fame that she has, Noni feeds into the light of fame given to her. On the other hand we have a police officer named Kaz Nicol who has a father who wants him to walk in the same shoes as he did, and Kaz has a few disagreements with it after meeting Noni.

The film does a great job in terms of meeting the mako mori test, because Noni the superstar has her own storyline of her life as growing up with a talent of singing and a single mother as a manager. If anything, the police officer was supporting Noni’s story as the movie goes on. It includes multiple women throughout the movie who illustrate that they serve an importance without the idea of backing up or being beside a man. On the other hand the movie does not meet up to the expectations of the Bechdel test, because Noni and her mother discussed the issues with boys intervening with her career as a superstar. The rationale behind the Bechdel Test and the Mako Mori test is to focus on the typical stereotypical roles women are given throughout tons of films that are not that popular, because men play bigger roles than the women.

An anti- gender bias film test that I would like to see pop up in some films, is more movies about single dad. A lot of movies emphasize the women always being left with the child/children and exploring their journey with that amount of responsibility on their lives. The men are typically categorized as leaving the mom with her kids, when their should be more focus on the dad’s who are forced to play both parent roles when the mother leaves or passes away. For instance, the movie Jump In emphasized what is was like for the dad being forced to play both parent roles for the two children he was raising. Not every situation should fit the stereotype of the dad leaving the mom to raise the kids they both had.

The Mako Mori test is a test that analyzes films based off of gender-bias. It was created to show that movies can sometimes have the same archetype and   In order for a film to pass the Mako Mori test, there needs to be at least one female character, who has her own narrative arc that doesn’t support a male’s story. The Mako Mori test is quite important because sometimes the Bechdel Test can be an insufficient way to measure female representation in films. We need the Mako Mori test to add a twist to films, because in most popular films, if there even is a woman in it, have the woman’s backstory dependent to the male. It’s also important to have tests like these so that movies aren’t repetitive. Many directors use these tests because they want their movies to actually be more representative to women.

Things begin to shake up in the quaint little town of Woodsborough as a killer is on the loose. But this killer is quite different than your ordinary horror movie slasher, because this killer knows his scary movies and is set out on stalking and taunting his victims with trivia questions.  In the horror-suspense film “Scream” (1996), you’ll begin to find out that no one is safe. In the beginning of the film, we meet Casey Becker (played by Drew Barrymore), a girl who receives a somewhat flirtatious phone call from someone unknown. At first, everything seems perfectly normal as the caller and Casey are talking about films. The situation soon turns gory as the caller grows more sadistic and begins to threaten Casey, and her boyfriend Steve.

After news arises of what happened to Casey, the town grows on edge and the police start an investigation. Here is when we meet the main protagonist, Sidney Prescott (played by Neve Campbell), a reserved highschool girl who is still coping with the recent loss of her mother. It is then revealed that the killer has a personal vendetta against Sidney when she receives a phone call at home while waiting for a friend. Sidney is then attacked within her own house. This is when she realizes that the killer has been trying to torment her by attempting to kill the people that she cares for.  

As the police investigation goes on, people begin to suspect that it’s Neil Prescott (Sidney’s Father) doing all the killings,since he hasn’t been seen since, and all recent calls have been tracked to his phone. But Sidney defends her father, and says that he’s gone away on a business trip, even though the police still don’t think that that is the case.

As more murders occur, school gets suspended. Stu, a fun loving party animal, throws a get together and invites most of the students from school. Sidney, fearing that the killer might strike again, and at the party specifically, shows up to put a stop to it, but to no avail. The killer ends up attacking a lot of people, inevitably leaving Sidney alone in the house to fend for herself. Can our tragic heroine survive? But the main question to this mind-bending mystery is, who is the killer?

Although the movie can have it’s funny moments, it’s quite intellectual nonetheless. If you've ever watched a horror movie and grew frustrated with the main protagonist’s antics, then this film is for you. “Scream” delivers a clever horror film by ripping on/critiquing past horror cliches. The characters themselves even have a conversation about movie cliches and address slasher movie stereotypes. “Horror movies are always about some big-breasted blond who runs upstairs so the slasher can corner her…” says one character in the film. “Scream” gives a unique twist to the horror genre, as it is almost as if this movie is self-aware that it’s a horror movie. The film also coves aspect of trust. As you go on watching the film, you begin to learn that those who may seem honest, might not have the purest intentions. With a killer on the loose only targeting those who are close to you, can you really believe your family and so-called friends?

“Scream” meets the criteria for the Mako Mori test because the protagonist is a girl named Sidney Prescott and she has her own backstory. Although there are many males throughout the film, Sidney’s backstory doesn’t draw any correlation to theirs. Towards the end of the film, it is proven that Sidney is quite strong and independent as she dukes it out with the killer all on her own, thus saving the lives of her remaining family and friends.

An anti-gender bias film test that I came up with was the Pregnant Betty Test. Within the Emmy Award winning show “Mad Men”, the main protagonist’s wife Betty, gets pregnant, but in my opinion, it wasn’t a fair portrayal of women during pregnancy. She seemed very calm and reserved in her pregnancy, and she had no significant changes to her body, besides the fact that she had a larger belly, I feel like a lot of times, Hollywood doesn’t really have accurate portrayals of pregnant woman, and it’s just overly glamorized actresses wearing pregnancy suits. This test is called The Pregnant Betty test to give film/television directors a more accurate way to portray expecting mothers, and not just make her out to be a pregnant Betty Draper. The criteria for this test is 1) have the mother to be show weight gain or any bodily change 2) show the mother having morning sickness 3) have the mother to be show mood swings (besides crying) and an optional one is 4) have a scene where the mother to be isn’t wearing makeup or dressed up extravagantly or 5) the woman having an form of difficulty in her pregnancy or miscarriage.

The Bechdel Test is a test used to indicate the presence of women in films and to point out gender-inequality. The Bechdel Test consists of three important rules:

1. There needs to be at least 2 women in it

2. The women have to be talking to each other

3. The topic being talked about can’t be about a man.

I think that the Bechdel Test is put in place because it’s trying to bring attention to the fact that many women aren’t given the bigger part, and when they are featured, it’s mainly them talking about their feelings towards a man. As a female, I think it’s unfair to be watching a movie and the only woman is talking about a guy she likes, because this makes me think of the gender-stereotypes that women only gossip, and women are always falling in love. What’s so wrong with a woman playing the hero and the man being the one to fall in love with her?

The Mako Mori test is a test used to depict when women play the leading role, or at least have a very important role, with their own backstory. The Mako Mori consists of three rules:

1. There needs to be at least 1 female character

2. The female character needs to get their own narrative arc/backstory

3. The backstory can’t be about a man’s story

From the great minds of Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel, the movie Hush receiving an average rating of 60% creates a new method when it comes to pulling the viewers into the eyes of the victim in thriller/horror. The film was first premiered at the SXSW Film Festival a month before its release on netflix where it grew in popularity by those who wanted a new style in the art of thriller and hopped to receive it through only independent cinema. The 82 minute film felt longer as they successfully kept myself and others to the edge of their seat wanting the movie to never end as we watched this seemingly helpless woman fight for her life. The movie stayed interesting as the use of loud music cues to shock the audiences stayed to a minimum and the use of jump scare tactics seemed nonexist

The movie sticked to an old fashioned feelings with modernizing technology such as iphones and mac pro laptops to bring the playing field to an even level for our victim who was both mute and deaf while our murder stayed true to an old timed weapon, a bow and arrow with a small modernization of it being in the form of a cross bow. I use the word “was” to describe the main character, Maddie played by the co-writer Kate Siegel due to what I believed to be an open ended interpretation of the ending of the movie, where they leave the viewers to decide how exactly the cops arrived to her home when all she had was a cell phone with the telephone feature opened the very last time we see her with the phone in her hand.

The main character/victim Maddie (Kate Siegel) is a deaf-mute writer, living in small home secluded in the words with one couple as neighbors who live right down the road but too far for hear shot. Some may say the setting is too convenient and is a set-up following the arts of Stephen King, I how ever feel the movie’s location makes the most sense due to Maddie’s intentions of finishing her book that she spent a good 20 minutes trying to overcome procrastination to do while the murder who hasn’t been named, sets up and and checks out the area.

The films work of using the senses to immerse us into the story through Maddie's POV surely kept me locked in my seat and amplified my enjoyment of the ride. We mainly focus on touch and hearing as the movie starts with the gained volume sounds of eggs cracking, onions being sliced, asparagus sizzling on the stove as Maddie cooks diner. When the camera draws to her face, the sounds then balance bringing us back to the way we would hear things. The movie continues these acts where the killer stands outside her window in his introduction where he knocks and scratches her glass door with his knife and we don't get to hear anything but a high pitch noises as we release we are back in Maddie’s POV as the killer stands confused trying to get her attention by banging on the glass.

As we learn more about Maddie, we find out that when she writes, she explores multiple endings with her mother’s voice coaching her in her mind as she makes a decision. So as she tries to survive her attacker, by thinking about each action and choice wisely by examining the outcome where almost everything she chooses her mother tells her will lead to death. At some point, I believe she began to make decisions blindly or that from the point in the movie where she she stops examining possible future is where she was living a future at which I mean, the ending wasn't really the ending but just a vision due to one of her decisions which would explain the absurdity I explained in the beginning of this review where she somehow called the police even though she is mute [and must I add, one minute prior to the “call”, she was being dramatically strangled by the murder].

On a standards or morals and political lenses. I can say the movie Hush passes The famous Bechdel test and my own test, The Mayhem Background Check. In the beginning of the movie Maddie has two different conversations. She has one with her neighbor sitting on the step and one with her sister via facetime. The conversation she has with her neighbor consisted of book talk, Maddie’s cat, and sign language. The conversation starts with the neighbor raising Maddie over her book and praising her. She then ask for the location of Maddie’s cat causing Maddie to sign the cat’s name, “Bitch”. The rest of the conversation consist of Maddie teaching her how to say “Bitch” in sign language. This exchange passes the Bechdel Test. As for The Mayhem Background Check I created, the test is to eliminate the constant twist of the male or female victim on stalking/murder to be an ex from the past. The Mayhem Background check ensures that the constant stereotype of a male killer who is unmasked is an ex boyfriend. However if the killer stays masked throughout the whole movie it's an automatic pass. In the movie Hush, the kill does unmask himself. The killer’s name remained a mystery as it is revealed to us that there is no real motive of the killer because there is no present or past relations between the two when these events unfold. So the movie is considered a pass when the test of The Mayhem Background Check is applied.

The movie “Moana” is Disney's newest Princess to grace the silver screen and there has been a lot of excitement drawn to her movie due to it being placed in the islands of Polynesia and having another woman POC. Historically, Disney princesses main goals have gravitated towards having a prince charming and living happily ever after, but Disney has had a good track record as of recent of allowing their princesses to have their own story arc that isn’t solely about having a prince or man to be loved by. Will they continue that trend? The main question here is does the movie pass the two feminist tests? We are here to find that out.

“Moana” is not only the name of our movie but also the name of our character and we find ourselves in the middle of a conflict not too long after the movie has started. Moana loves the ocean but her father wants her to stay focused on taking over the throne once it’s her time to become the first woman chief of her Polynesian tribe. A conflict that fuels the movie all the way to its peak. She finds her island to be slowly dying and has decided to find out why after a touching moment with her grandmother, the main person who has encouraged her love of water and venturing out of the reef. A rule that hasn’t been broken by the tribe up until now.

In her adventure past the reef she meets Maui, a historical demigod to her people who is responsible for her island dying because he stole the heart of a god. Maui has an interesting backstory that is usually more than that meets the eye but it isn’t thrown at you right away. He matches that of a person who is slow to trust and reveal their past, so to stay true to his character it is like he slowly trusts the audience to reveal who he truly is. The two have not quite an instant connection but grow to have chemistry that is hard to match in this movue.

From the stunning visuals that this movie proudly shows to the interesting story it tells, “Moana” is a must see for everyone. Not only does the Mako Mori test not stand a chance towards it with there being a lot more than one female character, this is also a movie that is centered around a woman who never gives up but has a male partner and isn’t just in the movie to support his cause. It is actually her who is determined to get him to support the cause and adventure they both share. One of the historically harder feminist movie tests the “Bechdel test” can barely ride “Moanas” coat tails either because of the many scenes of women empowering Moana to take her adventure, to not be afraid and to never give up. Her conversations with her grandmother were always my favorite part because she always had no hint of negativity for her. She always encouraged her to be great, and do what she was destined to do. When Moana was ready to give up it was her grandmother who was there to turn her around. And with the new feminist test the “Saa test”, Moana smashes that test with the evidence shown above that it is also no match. “Moana” has been a hit in the box office, has smashed even the hardest of feminist movie tests, has an amazing story, and some of the best animation of the year to boot. There is little to no reason to not see this movie and I recommend it to everyone and thing who can either hear, see or both.

Storks is a disney movie that tackles the topic of babies and answers the question of where they come from. As presumed from the title you can see that the movie is focusing on the idea that storks deliver babies. This movie is very well animated and highly entertaining. Across numerous review sites it has scored very high with a 7/10 on IMBD, a 63% on rotten tomatoes, and a 89% from Google users. These ratings are well deserved by the movies comedy that is able to not attract children but also able to keep the adult audience interested. However it is 2017 and movies cannot be looked at on the surface anymore. We need to analyze them on a deeper more conscious level. This is why there are tests such as the Bechdel and Mako Mori test exist. For those of you that are not aware the Bechdel texts proposes the question if a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The Mako Mori test analyzes to see if there is at least one female character, this female character must also get her own narrative, and this narrative is not about supporting a man’s story. For this review of the movie Storks I will be using the Mako Mori test.

In short sense the movie Storks does pass the Mako Mori test. One of the two main characters is a female dubbed Tulip. Tulip is in search of her home as to her being a failed Stork delivery, and she is also on a mission to deliver a newborn baby to a home. This narrative arc given to Tulip allows her to pass the Mako Mori test and in the eyes of the Mako Mori test be considered a non gender social stigma conforming movie. However I feel as though the Mako Mori test is not the best way to test a movie on this level, therefore I have created my own test. The Social Stereotypes test.

The Social Stereotype test analyzes the main female characters in a movie and to pass this test they must be able to go against the stereotypes that have been assigned to females. When Storks is looked at through these eyes the movie fails horribly. Throughout the movie the main female character Tulip is deemed unfit for a real job, that is done by men, and is given the job of managing mail, because it is a simple task which she cannot mess up. This aligns with the stereotype that a woman cannot correctly do the job that a man will do. However this is not the main thing that causes Storks to fail this test. Tulip’s constant emotional instability and breakdowns cause her to conform to the stereotype that females are weak and unstable. However this doesn’t make this movie a bad movie. It must be kept in mind that the target audience is small children that most likely do not even know what sexism is and for that audience the movie does a superb job.

INTRODUCCIÓN

Ellos son tres chicos y una chica. Ella acepta invitaciones from all tres chicos at the same time and same place. Selena needs to figure out who to chose. Who will be successful in getting la chica. Stay tuned for the special premiere episode of ¿Tres Novios?

PERSONAJES

Charles como Carlitos

Alex como Juan

Sal como Jesús

Michaela como Selena

What I’m really trying to say is  I feel like high school was a big burst of freedom in my life, but I have problems adapting to the amount of freedom. It's like going from prison to a beach in hawaii. I was so amazed at the simple fact that I could have my phone out during lunch, because at my old school, it was run by a bunch of strict catholics and I wasn't even catholic and as soon as something happened, they all tried to blame me for it. We had lunch for 20 minutes then a 20 minute recess, and sometimes recess before lunch. Never could we have our phones out, not even during the after school program where they babysat us. It was so strict, they had this fake holiday every year called mercy day AND IT WAS ON MY BIRTHDAY EVERY YEAR. I swear they made it up just to piss me off. Some kid wrote graffiti on the bathroom walls, and the teachers called every boy in the school up to the office and told them to write who they thought it was and why on a piece of paper. 5 out of 60 kids wrote that it was me, because they wanted to get me in trouble, not because i did it, but because they didn't like me. The teachers called me in the office and said that they knew it was me because 5 FRICKIN KIDS SAID SO. We had strict rules. Detentions were given out for anything.

Here's where the real story starts from my point of view.I'm in Language Arts class, and my teacher is lecturing us on something, but i'm not paying attention. I start zoning out and falling asleep when I hear a loud announcement over the P.A. system. “ Will every boy from 5th to 8th grade please report to the conference room NOW!” “This can't be good”, I say to my friend myles as we all head for the conference room. “No it can’t.”, he says back. We all arrive at the conference room confused and we see out principal and 4 staff members looking very upset as they usher us in. We take up the entire room with no space to spare, most of us are sitting on the floor, and then the principal starts showing us some pictures. They are pictures of the bathroom stalls, but they have graffiti on them. “Good god”, I think to myself someone wrote F*** the principal. We all look around. Me and my friend Vaughn exchange concerned looks. The room starts to hum as we all talk to each other about how dumb we all thought this was. “QUIET!”, Our principal yells. We all snapped back to the quiet and we are all edge. The staff members start handing out index cards to all of us and when everyone had one, the Principal yelled for silence. “Now , I want everybody to write the following on their index card, Dear Principal, I am deeply sorry about what has happened. Then we had to write if we saw anyone do this, or who we thought was the culprit. We all took out our pens and wrote. I thought to myself about how stupid this was.

“People could literally lie and blame the kids they don't like, and sure enough, I was called to the office 20 minutes after we were dismissed. It rang out in L.A. class while I was mid nap. I woke up to the loud words of, “David Williams report to the office NOW”, this made me regret not telling the teachers why this was a bad idea. “Maybe my enemies had all decided to report me like that”, I thought to myself, “maybe they're doing this to every student. “Maybe they're calling me in to tell me who really did it. When I got there, I was about 8 teachers sitting at a round table. “Grab a seat”, one of them said. “This doesn't feel right”, I think to myself. “Why are they all looking at me like this?”. Then the Principal held up a picture of the graffiti and said, “I have 5 papers that put you here”. “You’ve gotta be frickin joking”, I said in my head, careful to keep my cool. I said to the teachers, “how does 5 kids saying that I did this mean I did anything. They probably just want to get me in trouble.” “this is no form of real proof, and I don’t think it’s fair to accuse me like this.”, I said, “and I'm not the type of kid who writes these kinds of things. Now here's the part of the story that hasn't been relevant until now. You see, earlier that day, me and a few kids happened to be in the bathroom and we were all bored, so we started throwing a washable marker at the mirror, making small blue dots on it.  We found it fun compared to class. Now the graffiti was written in red permanent marker, so obviously us and the person who wrote it had very different intentions. But that's now the point.

The point is that the teachers tried to use that against me, just because I was reluctant to tell them about it, and of course my friends ratted me out. So basically my teachers didn't trust me and I didn't trust anyone, except for my only 2 friends. I really hated my middle school for 2 main reasons: I could barely trust anyone, and my teachers never trusted me. It took the help of my parents for me to win what my teachers turned into a whole court case.