He said and she said: their love was tanking. The romance was a struggle. Could they ever move forward together with the baggage they carried unpacked? Or was this the time to part ways- while things were still relatively amicable? He said and she said they should go by what their therapist said, and so…
Month: February 2015
The Quiet Lineage of Class War: ‘Little Accidents’
America, “the land of the free”, is a vast space with two borders that bleed drinkable prosperity and a center that struggles to keep the so-called American Dream alive. I hesitate not to explore the ways in which America is impoverished educationally, intellectually, morally, and spiritually. As an American woman, I cannot afford to withhold…
‘Appropriate Behavior’: The Importance of Unromantic Comedy
In an awards season teeming with adorable, quirky romantic comedies, Desiree Akhavan’s decidedly unromantic comedy is a nice departure from average depictions of relationship woes. In ‘Appropriate Behavior’ protagonist Shirin (played by writer/director Akhavan) struggles with finding her way in the world, stuck between her traditional Iranian family’s expectations and her own desires after a…
‘Obvious Child’: A Continuation of Last Year’s Brilliant Feminist Rom-Com Magic
Back in 2014, I wrote that ‘In a World‘ was the first truly feminist romantic comedy I’d ever seen. The fact that there was a female protagonist with sexual and career-oriented agency, who’s main focus was not how her hair looked when her crush walked by, but that she liked him…and he liked her. There’s…
‘Marnie’: The Complexities of a ” Sex Mystery”
“One might call ‘Marnie’ a ‘sex mystery’, if one used such words.” – Alfred Hitchcock ‘Marnie’ is by far the most extreme vision of frigidity Hitchcock ever explored. Adapted by Jay Presson Allen from Winston Graham’s novel of the same name, it serves as an oddly seductive screen commentary about the origins of psychosis in…
Conservation as Documentary: ‘Virunga’
When I told three different friends that I’d seen Orlando van Einsiedel’s documentary, ‘Virunga’, their reactions were similar. They knew the film was about a park where gorillas live, but they didn’t know where in Africa the film was made or what the situation was in that country. I was with them before I saw…
