It's just entertainment

I think too much about movies, books, and television. Beware: spoilers abound.

[persistent-wallflower]

Me whenever Tumblr staff releases new features and they are a barbaric imitation of tiktok

[overthinkingmedia]

Watch: Science Fiction and the Problem with the “Born Sexy Yesterday” Trope

Pop Culture Detective analyzed an SFF trope, "Born Sexy Yesterday," in which a sexualized, naive woman falls for a man who explains the world to her.

The tired trope has a new name

[overthinkingmedia]

OFFICE THOUGHTS (9th SEASON SPOILERS)

Jim's too into his "starring" role in this documentary (see: the cold open for "Lice"), yet Pam never really grew into hers because she cares about everyone in the Office - shown by her friendship with Brian (she says, "Say hi to Alyssa for me," in the cold open for "Vandalism." It's excellent writing because it alludes to the closeness of their friendship without mashing it in your face).

With Jim in Philly, Pam's having a rough time. However, she doesn't want to guilt Jim into coming back and giving up his dream - after all, he supported her through art school (even though art school always had a time limit. AthLead doesn't). Jim is having a pretty great time but he's also in the middle of some of important life decisions - if this company takes off, will he move his family to Philly? [because in The Office it is always about the man L O L ] ) - and doesn't want to put further stress on Pam.

It's also totally relieving to see this rough patch because even though they have to pull through (COME ON, THE SERIES IS NOT GOING TO END WITH A J&P DIVORCE; IT'S A COMEDY), it brings them both back to being real characters instead of mythic soulmates.

[overthinkingmedia]

Superhero movies where people want to be normal are super played out

After "The Incredibles," any superhero story about wanting to have a "normal life" became irrelevant. In "The Incredibles," you have a superhero family trying to fit in to the rest of "society," which is defined as a loyal husband, a daughter with a boyfriend, a well-behaved boy, and a non-superpowered baby.

The movie starts with all of them trying to "lay low," and the story is about (re)discovering and (re)controlling their superpowers. The message is: "be yourself, because it's better than trying to fit in."

So basically, in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" when Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman want to have a "normal life," it's completely annoying. They're not normal people and they won't have a "normal" life; they're fucking superheroes and any kids they have are going to have to deal with that some day.

[overthinkingmedia]

The movie “Sweeney Todd”s major failing isn’t having actors who can’t sing incredibly well, it’s having a director who isn’t particularly musically inclined. In “Worst Pies In London,” Helena Bonham-Carter kind of casually strolls through quick tempos and pronounced beats. “Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir” gets a lifeless child. And those are two of the most musically exciting songs in the entire show. Sascha Baron Cohen has got amazing flair, though.

[overthinkingmedia]

Let’s talk about “Regional Holiday Music” for a second.

In “Regional Holiday Music,” Annie shows up in the pictured outfit to fanservice seduce Jeff into glee club. Her whole transformation is somewhat out-of-character and it’s barely addressed.

“So what,” you might be saying. “It was a musical episode, everyone was out of character.” Wrong. Abed wanted to keep everyone together and sang last year at Christmas, too, so he naturally caved first. Troy wasn’t going to because of his religion, but Abed finds a loophole. They get Pierce by appealing to his insane egotism and his strong baby-boomer nostalgia. Shirley joins because Pierce trots out a Christian children’s choir. Jeff joins because Annie shakes her body his direction. Britta, last to be initiated, only joins because she has no other friends.

That just leaves Annie. Mr. Rad, Troy, and Abed corner Annie in the choir room. That’s it. That’s all we know. Next time we see her, she’s dragging Jeff to the costume department to try to seduce him with a pinup Santa costume*.

Why don’t we get to see what gets Annie? Why does whatever it is turn her into a weird babyish sexpot? I know part of that was definitely poking fun at 1950s Christmas music, but Community generally doesn’t sacrifice character for spoofs. So why is Annie suddenly brainwashed and baby-singing about how dumb she is?

At the beginning of her song, Jeff mentions that Annie is too intelligent for the glee club. He’s right: she is the only one who walks away when given the chance to start singing (although it was Troy and Abed inviting her to rap). Everyone else has a play-to-their-weakness moment, so why doesn’t Annie? It’s not that she has no weaknesses: she has a pretty glaring obsession with being the best. It would be easy to pander to that: “Oh Annie, you’re the only one who could be the Christmas Queen.” If that didn’t work, you could put her in direct competition with someone else. If that didn’t work, maybe Abed would guilt her into it (he would, too. Keeping the group together for Christmas is too important to him).

With all these ways to get her into the glee club, why doesn’t she get a story? The boys corner her in a room and overpower her – and I don’t even want to think about those implications. We know Abed probably didn’t guilt her in because he presumably doesn’t know about Annie breaking his DVD (she told Batman, not Abed). They don’t appeal to her sense of being the best singer or put her in competition with anyone because Shirley plays the Christmas Queen (Annie would get the part if she cared enough). Plus, her song-and-dance is all about being sexily dumbfounded, not being the best at anything.

Given the “Help Baby Understand Christmas” song, the most plausible explanation is that the boys tell Annie she’s the only one who can get Jeff to join (she is), but it still doesn’t tell us why Annie suddenly has a penchant for crawling, and I hate that all these great parts of her character get ignored because Jeff wants to bang her.

*Actually, I don’t have any problems with that costume. It’s plausible that Annie would wear it. Even though she says, “I’m comfortable being uncomfortable with my sexuality!” in “Politics of Human Sexuality,” that was two seasons ago and people are allowed to change. More recently, she’s embraced that other people find her attractive instead of being bewildered or offended by it (as seen in “Accounting for Lawyers”) and seems to enjoy dressing up sexily (she wears a unitard for her Halloween costume in Season 1 and a corset in “Fistful of Paintballs/For a Few Paintballs More.” Also, the outfit she imagines wearing in her Halloween story is pretty cleavage-tastic and she buys a cone bra for Pierce’s Gay Bash).

[overthinkingmedia]

So I'm writing this essay about how hot Alison Brie is (basically) and it's raising problems with Community. Annie started off as really smart and driven and independent, but since the show has turned from being about school to being about friendships, that part of her personality has kind of fallen off. Now she's mostly "the one Jeff wants to bang."

She still has her moments, like her, Troy, and Abed's whole story arc in "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism," but that's one episode out of ten this season where she hasn't been defined by Jeff's desire in some way. That's wrong. I forgot about "Documentary Filmmaking Redux" and "Studies in Modern Movement," two episodes where Jeff and Annie barely interact. 

Before you go talking about "Geography of Global Conflict," that's the episode where Jeff said, "You're acting like a little schoolgirl, and not in a hot way!" To her credit, she huffs off, but they resolve it by talking about Jeff's feelings instead of Annie's. No good, Harmon. Define your female characters by their attributes, which could include who they're attracted to - but we never really see why Annie likes Jeff besides that he's tall and attractive and dad-like.

[profondogiallo]

[overthinkingmedia]

I'd heard really good things about the movie American Psycho. Being a purist, I read the book first. I really liked the book but thought the adaptation was really off. The characters weren't as well-developed and it spoon-feeds the nature of Bateman's insanity to the audience. Other than that, not too bad.

This is the scene that upset me the most. I simply don't remember it happening in the book! Plus Patrick would never kill Jean (not by the end anyway) and the movie does pretty well in capturing the book's characters otherwise (though I do think movie-Bateman was too over-the-top). It was just so senseless, and book-Bateman doesn't kill people in his immediate social circles without reason.

This scene makes Patrick Bateman one-dimensional and boring. It strips him of any rhyme or reason and instead turns him into a crazed killer who mutilates bodies just because he gets off on it. While Bateman does get off on torturing and brutally killing women, he also kills homeless people because he hates poverty and murders Ted because he has to be the most perfect. The people he kills are generally ones he'll never see or never wants to see again.

Jean does not fall in to either of those categories. She makes him feel good about himself constantly and without fail. She hangs on his every word and even changes her wardrobe just because he requests it. Since Bateman is constantly seeking approval and she never thinks he does anything wrong, she validates his entire existence. It's true that she never knows about his murderous streak (not in the book and not at this point in the movie) but it's because he consciously hides it from her: he wants Jean to think well of him. At the end of the book, she becomes his escape from the vacuous, shallow, meaningless life he's living!

Bateman would never kill Jean, and the fact that they had him come this close is disappointing.