amateur review space

Natural Born Killers does not make any pretence at subtlety. From the very beginning it screams out at the audience and doesn’t relent until the end. It is a message sent to the viewer in a whirlwind of colours and violence. The main characters are Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis). They start by running away after murdering Mallory’s parents and eventually go on a murder spree across the United States. The most overt theme throughout the movie is the role the media plays in our lives. We are shown in an exaggerated fashion how excessively violent behavior is normalized by the media. The most intense and horrific example of this is when the female lead Mallory is seen to be sexually abused by her father, but the scene plays out in the style of a sitcom. This doesn’t happen in real life though, so what is the point the movie is making? Maybe it is symbolic of what was happening in the victim’s mind or it shows how something so disgusting can be packaged in a differ...

The Visiting Privilege (Written by Joy Williams)/2015 I never really saw the point of short stories nor could I see the difference between short stories and novels. I thought short-stories were just short novels. However I have recently been enlightened by reading American author Joy Williams’ work The Visiting Privilege. The Visiting Privilege is a collection of Joy Williams' new and old short stories set mostly among people living in rural America. Joy Williams stories are generally set in a humble background with simple people leading quiet lives. However they also capture the deeper and darker aspects of human mind that is drastically contrasted by peaceful and natural setting; voyeurism, domination, manipulation, abandonment – some intentionally, some driven by unconscious desires. There is often unsettling and disturbing feeling to her stories that you can’t quite comprehend; they have the eeriness of a holiday house out in the middle of nowhere. I think she achie...

What Happened, Miss Simone? (Directed by Liz Garbus)/2015 What Happened Miss Simone covers the life and work of the queen of the Blues and Soul, Nina Simone. Nina Simone got into music from an early age firstly to train as a classical pianist and later to provide income for her family. Due to her intense piano training, she had a relatively isolated life from children her age. This perhaps had a lasting impact in her figuring out her identity. Also it seemed that many of the people closest to her were white (her piano teacher and later her guitarist) and Nina came into the civil rights debate quite late in her time and did not fully grasp the concept as she was growing up. For her, engaging with the discussions on racial discrimination helped her to understand how she felt about herself and the world she was in. While she supported civil rights movement wholeheartedly she did not particularly play a leading role in it which was surprising considering her stature in the music sc...

Before Midnight (Directed by Richard Linklater)/2013 This film is the final of the trilogy by Richard Linklater. It explores the themes of love and the fading nature of a long-term relationship. Jesse and Celine are the central characters of Linklater's romantic tale that spanned over a decade. Jesse left his wife and son and chose to start a new relationship with Celine 18 years ago. Fast forward to today’s time, Jesse and Celine are on a holiday on a Greek island with their young daughters and troubled by the battle with Jesses's ex-wife for the custody of his son . Early in the film we see the quotidian grind of the long term partners: work, children, planning, logistics etc. etc as if the earlier times of their relationship have melted away into a rose-tinted past. At dinner, Jesse, Celine and their friends discuss love and relationships. We see people dancing around the topic of love: the rational human-beings at the table are unwilling to come out and openly a...

A Most Violent Year (Directed by J.C. Chandor)/2014 A Most Violent Year is set in New York during the 1980s: crime and corruption are high and it is a difficult time to engage in honest business. Abel Morales, played by Oscar Isaac, is the owner of Standard Heating Oil Co, an up-and-coming heating oil company. The company is routinely hijacked by competing businesses, and we learn that there is a mafia element involved. The movie operates on two levels. We witness the drama of Morales trying to figure out who is threatening his livelihood. His drivers are held up at gun-point and thrown out of the fuel trucks and engage in lengthy chases. People show up to his family’s house at night to threaten them and leave a gun outside as a warning. There is a bit of mystery around who is performing these acts. We also learn that his wife is the daughter of a previous mobster and at times puts pressure on him to go down the less righteous path and fight back with violence. What this movi...

The Jinx: the Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (Directed by Andrew Jarecki)/2015 This show is amazing throughout, but what happens in the last episode will make it a timeless classic. Unfortunately, as this is a review and you may not have seen the show, I cannot tell you what happens. And don't under any circumstances read about Robert Durst on the internet before watching the show! The Jinx is a documentary miniseries that was made and released by HBO. Due to the almost unbelievable content of the show, the whole thing seemed like a case of life copying art. Throughout my viewing, I thought to myself ‘how could this really happen?’ If it were a purely fictional drama, a viewer would likely dismiss it as too unrealistic. The blurring of life and art is also intensified by Jarecki’s use of classic HBO drama stylistic tools: the beautiful, abstract introduction and the clever use of music throughout. Robert Durst is an heir to a wealthy family. He was first suspected of ...

Challenging the Stigma of Mental Illness (edited by Patrick Corrigan)/2011 The debate around the stigmatisation of mentally ill people revolves around this question: is it the label of being mentally ill that leads people to be shunned by others in workplaces and housing or is it the behavior caused by the mental illness which leads people to turn away from them? This question is dealt with extensively in this unique set of essays edited by Patrick Corrigan. This review will cover a few of the ideas outlined in that book and then present Corrigan's conclusions. It is no secret that mental-health labels are often accompanied by negative stereotypes, and that the labels are at least partly the driving factor in producing stigmatisation. The label might come from a psychiatrist, from the person themselves, or be obtained through association, such as being seen coming out of a psychologist’s office. These stereotypes might not bind to the labels by necessity, but cultural history h...