Punched By the Phoenix

Graduate Student at the University of Michigan. Check out the blog for what I'm currently obsessed with in film, television, and culture.

[heykmart]

Hi, I’m a researcher and PhD student studying unwanted sexual experiences on campus.  I am seeking research participants for a study for my dissertation. 

More info here http://bit.ly/signupSIS

[heykmart]

Golden Globe Picks 2018

Awards season is in full swing.  Here are my picks for film awards for the Golden Globes. 

Best Original Song

I’m kind of torn between my obsession with the Greatest Showman soundtrack and love for Coco.  But I’m going with “Remember Me” for this one. 

Best Animated Feature

Coco

Best Screenplay

This is a tough one.  Molly’s Game was so great, but I would love Lady Bird to get recognition.  (also feeling mad that Get Out isn’t nominated here.) I’m going with Greta Gerwig for this one. 

Best Director

It’s an idea whose time has come.  Christopher Nolan for all the awards.  Dunkirk is an incredible achievement of storytelling, action, and drama.

Supporting Actor

Willem Dafoe is the frontrunner for Florida Project, but I could see Christopher Plummer sneaking in there for All the Money in the World. 

Supporting Actress

This is a really tough one.  I would love to see any of these great actresses win.  Mary J. Blige and Allison Janney make powerful transformations.  I also would be great for Hong Chau to win.  I’m just going to see what happens. 

Best Actor- Musical or Comedy

James Franco is mesmerizing in the Disaster Artist.  An incredible achievement as an actor and filmmaker. I would also love to see Danial Kaluya get some recognition here, but I have to go with Franco for the win. 

Best Actress- Musical or Comedy

Lots of good choices here.  For me it’s between Margo Robbie and Saoirse Ronan.  Robbie brings a pathos and relatable context to a media villain in I, Tonya.  Also the physical demands of those ice skating scenes puts her in the lead for me. But I’ve been a fan of Saoirse Ronan since Atonement.  Would be happy if either win.  I could also see a Dame Judi Dench surprise for her second turn as Queen Victoria. 

Best Actor- Drama

Gary Oldman or bust!  He soars as Winston Churchill.  I was totally fired up by Darkest Hour and impressed by his transformation. 

Best Actress

My pick is Jessica Chastain for Molly’s Game.  She was born to say Sorkin dialogue. I could also see a Meryl Streep win.  I wouldn’t mind another barn-burner speech.  

Best Comedy

Even though it’s not a comedy, I think Get Out should win.  This movie captured the mood of the year perfectly.  Jordan Peele directed the hell out of it, it has a perfect cast, and it’s the movie that has stayed with me the most over the course of the year.  

Best Drama

DUNKIRK!!!! This is an incredible film about a compelling moment in history.  The experience of the film puts you on the beach, the sea, and air with those fighting for survival.  

[vikander]

Viola Davis, winner of Best Supporting Performance in a Motion Picture for ‘Fences’, poses in the press room during the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 8, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California.

[vikander]

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna attend the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 8, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. 

[heykmart]

Leonardo DiCaprio at Golden Globes 2016

Yes, 2016 was generally awful, but awards season was THE BEST EVER.  Seeing Leo win everything made my LIFE.

[heykmart]

Golden Globe Predictions: Movies

The only season that matters begins tonight: Awards Season.  Critics groups have been wavering between Moonlight and La La Land.  Tonight Oscar hopefuls gain momentum and try out for giving a great speech.  Here are my picks.

Best Motion Picture — Drama

Moonlight - I’m firmly on #TeamMoonlight. This film excels on every level.  The cinematography and editing create movement, intimacy, and urgency without being distracting.  The performances of Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and  Trevante Rhodes as Little, Chiron, and Black seamlessly create a whole person who feels as close as a family member at the end of the film. Mahershala Ali is fantastic and nuanced as Juan. 

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

La La Land- Well made and shot, Hollywood lovers of all ages will be supporting this film.  

Best Director — Motion Picture

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)- See Above.  

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama

Amy Adams (Arrival)- Great category.  Natalie Portman may walk away with this, but Adams transforms the film’s complicated ideas of time and language into real emotion and stakes.  

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama

Denzel Washington (Fences)- So far Casey Affleck has racked up all the accolades, but Washington gives one of his best performances as Troy in August Wilson’s play. His imposing, wounded, and electric performance lingers long after his character exits.  

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)- As a huge fan of Ali in “House of Cards,” I’m so happy to see him get the recognition he deserves.  I hope a substantive leading role is in his near future.  

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

Viola Davis (Fences)- It’s Viola’s year and she better win.  She’s always great and in Fences holds her own and even gets the upper hand on Denzel.  

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical

No real stake in this race.  Would love to see Colin Farrell win for The Lobster.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical

Emma Stone will probably win for La La Land, but I’d like to see Hailee Steinfeld win for The Edge of Seventeen.  

Best Motion Picture — Animated

Zootopia- I’m obsessed with this movie.  A clever and surprisingly powerful statement on privilege, power, and prejudice.   

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture

Barry Jenkins- Moonlight for all the awards. Although, I wouldn’t mind seeing Tom Ford win for Nocturnal Animals.  

Best Original Score — Motion Picture

Really torn.  Moonlight has a fantastic, broody, and classical score, while Hidden Figures delivers the inspirational musical backdrop with a R&B kick. Either would be great.  

[heykmart]

Day 41: Election Day- Favorite Political Movies

It’s Election Day in Chicago and since I voted early I thought I would highlight some films that make my hopeful, labor loving, democratic heart skip a beat.  These are all fictional because the list of historical dramas and documentaries would be too long. Each looks at the nay-saying cynical crowd square in the face a declares it’s love for service and public life. 

MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939): You could not celebrate political cinema without a big helping of Capra-corn.  Jimmy Stewart stars as Jefferson Smith, a humble boy scout leader selected to fill a vacant US Senate Seat.  He’s plucky, eager to learn, and committed to justice.  One of the many pleasures of the film is Capra’s unabashed love for the character of Jeff Smith and the America he represents.  Jeff takes a tour of DC’s monuments and it is shot in a heightened ecstasy for democracy and history.  I also love Jean Arthur as Jeff’s chief of staff Saunders.  She’s been around Washington too long to share Jeff’s hopes, but becomes a fervent supporter of his cause and coach as he filibusters a corrupt bill.  Stewart conveys the deep anger we feel when our leaders betray the principles they ought to uphold, while bringing a hopeful enthusiasm for politics and service.

THE CONTENDER (2000): Like one of the exotic sandwiches ordered by the quirky President Jackson Evans, THE CONTENDER is a mash-up of a hopeful political story, a cynical  profile of underhanded Washington deal-makers, and an intriguing mystery.  Joan Allen stars as the savvy and fierce Sen. Laine Hanson tapped to be the first female vice-president by Jeff Bridges’ Jackson Evans.  She quickly becomes the subject of a sex scandal which dominates and distracts the public from her credentials.  The firing squad against Sen. Hanson is led by a scaly villainous Gary Oldman as Rep. Shelly Runyon, the representative from Illinois (HAHA).  He takes shots at Laine’s character in public and private determined to sink her appointment and prop up a personal friend.  THE CONTENDER excels for pithy walk-and-talk scenes and rousing public speeches.  Jeff Bridges is both the president you would want to have a beer with (or shark steak sandwich) and an inspiring leader.  Joan Allen delivers a great portrait of the dignity and grace found in public life in a final beautiful speech.

DAVE (1993): What would you do if you could be president?  Dave Kovic (Kevin Klien) gets a chance when he is asked to play President Mitchell in a power grabbing scheme by the chief of staff Bob Alexander played by Frank Langella.  Dave starts out luxuriating in the perks of being president: personal body guards, diverse food choices, having people adore you, and getting to do quirky things in public.  Yet, being in the White House and growing closer to the smart First Lady Ellen Mitchell (Sigourney Weaver), Dave longs to make change and begins a campaign of reform.  In a funny, but powerful scene, Dave brings his cabinet together to prune the budget of wasteful spending to make possible to fund a homeless program for children. I also love a scene between Dave and his straight-laced and embattled Vice President Nance.  Nance tells Dave of his modest beginnings in politics.  Dave begins to see that public life is sacred and something you need to earn through hard work from the bottom up.  He gives up his assumed power and runs for office as himself. 

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT (1995): This romantic dramedy features Michael Douglas as the popular President Andrew Sheppard and the hard charging but awkward environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade played by a resplendent Annette Bening. This film makes politics fun, sexy, and profound.  Written by Aaron Sorkin, there is a great mix of speedy, pithy walk-and-talks with scenes of deep explorations on the complications of having a private life as a public figure. Political junkies can appreciate Sorkin’s ability to create attraction and sexual tension amidst legislation and White House history talk.  Andy and Sydney’s equal abilities of political prowess and cleverness begin their courtship. I also love the squad of smart, capable, and committed West Wing staff around Shepherd.  Martin Sheen plays the wise chief of staff AJ MacInerney who tacitly reminds Andy that as president he can never be truly private.  Michael J. Fox plays a manic, yet forceful aid that challenges and implores the president to stand up against character attacks.  His staff and Sydney can see in more ways than his dating life, Andy has hidden his true feelings in the name of political gains.  He rebounds making an eloquent speech on the greatness of America in its contradictions and freedoms.  He chooses to fight for the bold pieces of legislation and gets his political legs back. 

[heykmart]

Throwback(log) Thursday

In honor of Weiner, here’s a list of my favorite political movies.  The optimism and hope of these movies and my admiration shines through.  I’ll now be re-watching them to survive the next four years.  

[heykmart]

“Sweet/Vicious”

After seeing this show pop up in Best of 2016 lists and Maureen Ryan’s comprehensive essay on the many pitfalls of television’s depiction of sexual assault, I checked out MTV’s new drama “Sweet/Vicious” and became instantly hooked.  The show focuses on Jules and Ophelia, two college women taking the problem of sexual assault into their own hands.  In the pilot, Ophelia stumbles upon a masked figure beating the crap out of a guy in an alley, who we later learn sexually assaulted another student.  Using her cyber sleuthing skills, Ophelia discovers the masked figure is Jules, a blond, bubbly, sorority woman.  The two team up and exact brutal and direct punishment to men and women who have gotten away with sexual assault.  The vigilante aspect hits you right away, but the depictions of the day-to-day experiences of survivors make this show amazing.   

As we learn in the pilot, Jules is a survivor of sexual assault and Ophelia is the only one who knows what happened to her, besides her attacker.  Seeing Jules struggle with nightmares, try to date without flinching from her new boyfriend, go about activities that used to be normal, and try to hide her trauma from her best friend Kennedy demonstrates the significant barriers and pain survivors face daily.  In episode 3, Jules says, “the only time I feel like myself is when I’m wearing that black suit.  i can barely remember the girl I was before I got raped, I just know that I miss her.”  Like Emma Sulkowicz’s Mattress Performance, “Sweet/Vicious” shows how sexual assault affects survivors and how this experience of trauma weighs on daily life, including and especially trying to get your college degree.   

“Sweet/Vicious” deftly translates statistics of campus sexual assault into vivid story points.  In one scene Ophelia talks to a woman who wants to report her assault, but has been waiting for hours, being shifted from room to room, and can’t get any assistance. Jules also hasn’t reported her assault, for reasons I won’t spoil here.  Instead of saying 30% of assaults are even reported, “Sweet/Vicious” shows some of the reasons, personal and institutional, of why more people don’t come forward.  

I also appreciate how “Sweet/Vicious” deals with multiple campus issues, including racial profiling, tokenization, Greek life, hazing, and social status.  It subverts stereotypes and uses trends to forward character development. Beyond sexual assault, “Sweet/Vicious” could be a useful media text to discuss a host of higher education issues. 

[heykmart]

The blog is BACK, at least for now.  In these dark and uncertain times, I only know I was happiest when I was being weird on the internet, writing about movies and television.  I’m going to try to make it to the Oscars and see how this goes.  

[heykmart]

Weiner (2016)

`Timing is everything.

In their excellent documentary, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg document the grueling reality of high profile political campaigning and media frenzy through the comeback-turned-downfall of Anthony Weiner’s mayoral run. Like Client 9 detailing Eliot Spitzer’s fall, Weiner muses whether political figures are more prone to misdeeds and sexual impropriety.  But mostly as a function of when I saw it, Weiner already feels sadly outdated.  Sundance audiences nearly a year ago celebrated the film a triumph of access and political storytelling. After the New York Post revealed the worst of Weiner’s sexting sprees, summer audiences probably felt zero sympathy for the fallen politician and felt his conflicted wife, Huma Abedin, should have left him during the film’s events. 

Now, in the post election reality of a president elect who both boasted about and committed sexual assault, the disgust at consensual sexual messaging (except for the picture with his son- ugh) strikes me as quaint and incredibly depressing. The media and NY voters nailed Weiner at every public appearance about who, when, and how often he messaged with women, lampooned his nickname, and in the best scene, Lawrence O’Donnell asked him “What is wrong with you?”  Our next president, whose scandals were so many and much worse, seems invincible to the forces that disciplined Weiner.  Certainly a campaign coverage culture that treats emails and sexual assault as equally harmful didn’t help.  I’m both longing for the days of wanting moral behavior in candidates for public office and enraged Anthony Weiner got buried under his sins when he seems to have actual positions and plans for making New York city better.  

Weiner now feels like an artifact.  A simpler time when Hillary Clinton was going to be president and sexual impropriety was still a deal killer in politics.  

[the-bluespirit]

YOU SIT THERE AND YOU DONT TELL ME THAT THIS IS THE MOMENT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE BIRTH.

[heykmart]

This is the greatest day of my life. I can finally listen to the soundtrack to one of my favorite films from Norway. I've been waiting for this for 3 years.

[lindae]

Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream, it takes over as the number one hormone; it bosses the enzymes; directs the pineal gland; plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to film is more film.

Frank Capra (via robetrdowneyjr)

[vintageblackglamour]

Happy 86th Birthday to Dr. Maya Angelou! Dr. Angelou avoided celebrating her birthday for years after her friend, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on her 40th birthday in 1968. Instead, she and her friend Coretta Scott King would “meet or talk or send each other flowers.” She is shown here doing a little reading in her room before performing at New York’s Village Vanguard in the late 1950s. Photo: G. Marshall Wilson, Art.com.

[digitalia-regalia]

[heykmart]

LOL.  E Portfolio inspiration 

[theatlantic]

Zach Galifianakis Grills Barack Obama on Healthcare, Disconcerting Diagnosis

[heykmart]

Amazing

[a-torv]

[heykmart]

GPOY