Siff Review of Winter's Bone

I wanted to write a little about the movie "Winter's Bone." This was a wonderful movie and it had so many different things going on in it other than just the tracking down of her father who was a crank cooker. This movie shows a different side of class and gender roles.

The main character for one was amazing. Not only was the character female, but in my perspective, she was also the heroine in this film. Ree Dolly who was played by Jennifer Lawrence was a awesome character. She risks all including her life just to protect her home and her little sister and brother who looks up to her like a mother and the father who will protect them in a way. The sad part however is the fact Ree is only 17 and she has to play and start her adult life early. Regardless of her gender and age, the locals who are just a part of the missing of her meth cooking father as any beat her down physically and mentally. I do notice it is only a female getting beaten which could be a way of showing her submissiveness to us, but at the same time, if this role was a male, I would think the same would have happened. The main difference maybe however would be if it was a male, maybe there would not be the uncle coming to save the character just before they faced their demise. Possibly in Hollywood fashion, the male would have beaten his way out and got away unlike how Ree laid there and just took the beating and the threats. I also can look at this in a different perspective of maybe Ree is actually standing up and showing no fear which will show the gender bending of a female who needs help and cries for her life is non existent in this film. She takes the beating and never begs or pleads for her life. She still fights through words through the whole thing and I think if her uncle had not shown and she ended up being killed, she would have done this to the end. She truly is playing the stereotypical tough heroism role here.

Also, I can not watch this without seeing some class issues. You notice everyone in the film generally appear to be in a pretty low class environment with living in trailers and old broken homes that need allot of work. Most everyone drive an older beat up rusty vehicle. The people also do not seem to be the most educated individuals in my opinion. Maybe if they had the education they would not be cooking up meth. This area seem to be very poor and the people seem to be in some sort of poverty and high. This could just be how it may appear, but I think it is what we see. The drug use I believe is a way for them to not have to face their lives as it is, so they get high to avoid the truth.

I do enjoy the idea of this movie and thought it was a wonderful piece. I am happy to see such a great movie that appears to get very high ratings and this is directed by a female. We need more successful female directors and producers in Hollywood and I truly hope this video has some box office success. It deserves it and if it does not do as good as I think it could, then I will be sad and wonder if it is because of the male dominated Hollywood we know of.

The Topp Twins Siff Review

I wanted to blog about the video I seen at Siff about Topp Twins. I for one wanted to say I really enjoyed the film and thought it was well made. I also want to see a full show when and if they ever come this way to do a performance.

I think it was great that they were able to do what they have and accomplish as much as they have with the fact that the two of them are women, and lesbian. They were out and proud and much of the media would not print that word, but I still sometimes wonder however if things would have been different for them if they were from here in the states and if they would have been just as successful. Would their challenges be tougher to overcome. Unfortunately when I think of homophobic countries, I generally put us on the top of that list.

During this time we know there was lots of protesting for many civil rights as well as the LGBT rights. The Topp Twins in my opinion definitely did allot for this community in New Zealand and here in the States. The two of them lead many of the marches in these protests. I do however find it interesting when gay rights were opened and given in New Zealand and the lesbian rights were non existent at first. I wonder if this could be part of the "male privilege." I do find it odd and it just shows another way lesbian women are more oppressed than gay men in the world.

The twins also go against the stereotypical "women role" in society. They are not house wives to their partners, or pink wearing "lady like." These two are outdoors, horseback riding, farmers. The two of them seem to not mind to get dirty and dress the farmer dress style. The two also bend many gender roles in their performances from the typical lady role to playing actual men. They also mock the class difference amongst society from the low class to the higher class. These two do it all and they truly are passionate about their art. I do look forward to hear they will be in Seattle and I hope it will be sooner than later.

Rebel or lost?

When I watched Rebel Without a Cause, I could not help, but notice the rolls of masculinity of men in this film kind of lacked in the characters. It really seemed that majority of the men roles were showing softer aspects in personality. As we know, our society seems to hold this idea of man and masculinity were man should be tough, not cry, show little to no emotions, etc. I Rebel Without a Cause you can see the man not being the society "norm" for masculinity.

You see this early on in the movie were Jim Stark (Dean) is in tears about how his father is more or less being pushed around by his mother hinting that his dad Frank Stark has no spine and needs to "man up" as some would say. He wishes his dad would just stand up for himself once at least. During this, Jim is in tears and showing a lot of personal feelings and emotions about this matter which if he was a "true man" in society standards, this would not have happened and he would not be so emotional about the situation, at least in public.

Jim seems to be very disappointed with his father and wants to see his father be the "man" for once and the father he needs in his life to show him how to be a "man." We see a scene were Jim walks in on his father just after his father dropped a tray that he was bringing to Jim's mom and the father almost seemed to fear his own wife while picking up the food hoping the mom would not find out while at the same time wearing a very feminine flowery apron. I feel honestly, the only masculine male role in the film is the Juvenile detective. He even asks Jim to go to him if he ever needs to just talk to someone. The detective shows all the typical signs of masculinity and has a very alpha male feel to him compared to the others.

You later get introduced to Pluto who by all means shows everything that goes against the male gender role. He has emotion, attachment towards Jim, seems very dependent, emotional, and I can not help but feel that this character may have a very feminine personality and I wondered if he may possibly be gay. He seems way to comfortable hanging on Jim in a sense and seems to want to spend every waking moment with him just after knowing Jim for a few minutes even. He has very delicate features about him as well. I feel that all in all, this film challenges the society standards of femininity and masculinity in many ways.