The Annunciation (EXC)
The Annunciation by Jan Van Eyck is a 15th Century painting which depicts the angel Gabriel appearing before Mary to announce and ask her if she would have God’s son. Here, we see rays of light as symbols for God’s love.
Month: February 2021
Remember the Titans 2000
Remember the Titans was a film based off a true story covering a high school football team divided by race and prejudice. As black head coach Herman Boone was hired in 1971, the team must learn how to come together despite their differences. It’s been one of my favorite movies growing up and it has…
“Brokeback Mountain” (2005)
It challenges ideas of masculinity especially in the American west as well as the stereotypes of a gay man “should be” or “act like”.
Progressive Picture: Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
Shaka King’s historical dramatization of the betrayal of Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton by FBI informant Bill O’Neill is a progressive masterpiece. King’s depicts the war between the revolutionary Black Panthers and the inherently racist FBI led by paranoid J. Edgar Hoover. The Panther’s programs to bring the community out of poverty (free healthcare, breakfast,…
Borat (2006) and Borat 2 (2020)
Sacha Baron Cohen has now produced two satyr driven comedy mockumentaries in which Cohen uses this Borat character to explore an idea that is strongly held and challenge it. Borat (the first film) is about American society and attempting to identify what makes the US so “great.” An extension of this is Borat 2, which…
Your Laws, Not Mine
Throughout Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe uses the examples of supposedly kind and good-natured white men to show that structural, rather than solely individual, change is needed to dismantle the institution of slavery. Furthermore, Stowe uses these characters to show how religion, when misinterpreted and treated as a series of laws can contribute to…
“The Politician” (2019)
Ryan Murphy’s political satire “The Politician” follows Payton Hobert’s quest to become the future president of the United States. The first season, which follows his running for student body president at a Santa Barbra preparatory school, focuses on the sheer ridiculousness and incivility of recent politics. Running against the class favorite River Barkley, Payton decides…
Promising Young Woman (2020)
Promising Young Woman is a film about a woman in her thirties who spends her weekends going out to bars, alone, acting as though she is black-out drunk. In this state, she gets many men to bring her home. She waits for them to take advantage of her, and at that moment she teaches them…
It all falls down
In Chapter XVI, Stowe delves into the mind of Marie St. Clare. In contrast to other white female characters in the novel–Mrs. Shelby, Ophelia St. Clare, and even little Eva–Marie does not stand as a moral or compassionate figure. In fact, Marie is racist and self-centered. Her character represents the stereotype of wealthy southerners, living…
Schitt’s Creek
When the extremely rich Rose family loses all of their wealth and possessions due to the actions of a fraudulent business manager, they are left with one possession that the government deemed worthless: the remote town of Schitt’s Creek, which the Rose’s had purchased in the past as a joke due to its comical name.…