Author Archives: bwiley@uoregon.edu

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

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You have to love movies where the title doesn’t give away the narrative. That is not meant to be a sarcastic comment, honestly. It is better when the title makes sense once the movie has concluded. No film does that better than George Tillman Jr. and Michael Starburry’s, The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete. This film tells the story of two young boys, Mister and Pete, who are fighting to survive poverty in the Brooklyn projects. Although the story line only elapses over a three-month period, these two boys grow immensely, and you as the audience grow too. They cannot be older than ten or twelve but over the course of the whole movie we see these two fend for themselves and make decision no pre-teen should ever have to.

Mister is the leader of the pair, as his name implies, and he is willing to do anything to keep the two out of the hands of child services. He is determined to help his drugged addicted mother and has a strong moral compass to guide him. Pete is younger and clearly looks up to Mister. Although the two start as neighbors in an apartment building, they quickly develop a brotherly relationship. You will immediately be pulled into their connection and will be cheering for them with every struggle they encounter.

What makes this film truly unique is that regardless of your age, you can connect with Mister and Pete. You feel their struggle. The movie is filmed in a way to make you relate to each and every situation through their own eyes. The film uses low camera angles to portray the world as if you were four feet tall. The narrative is positioned in a way that makes you feel as if you are young again, and your innocence is being corrupted just as Mister and Pete’s. Simple things like making breakfast or getting clean are not as simple as you believe them to be.

The setting of the narrative further emphasizes the child perspective of the film. Mister and Pete don’t know anything about the world beyond their neighborhood. Strangers stand out. Police aren’t heros. With such limited resources it is easy to feel as if the world does not expand beyond the poverty stricken neighborhood. This only amplifies their struggle. Social mobility is near impossible. Mister and Pete and stuck in the projects and are constantly encounter new battles to survive.

Don’t let this review give off a false portrayal. This film is not sensationalized. It is not a simple Hollywood drama. What you feel for these characters is not a sense of pity but rather a shock that events such as these occur. It seems almost too real, and that’s because it is. Starburry, the writer, pulls from his childhood experiences to create every situation as real as it once was. This film is rugged and unrefined.  It is sure pull at your heartstrings and pinch a few nerves. It exposes new realities of poverty by putting a child’s perspective to the issue that will surely change the way you see social disparities and poverty within the US.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2113075/

Guido, Fellini, and The Frustrations of The Creative Process.

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Ben Wiley

Federico Fellini’s movie 8 ½ centers around a filmmaker name Guido. The narrative weaves in and out of reality and fantasies highlighting various situations occurring to Guido as well as displaying his intricate daydreams. Often the transition between reality and fantasy is blurry and difficult to distinguish. I believe Guido’s character is modeled after Fellini himself and this film is a portrayal of Fellini creative process. The majority of the film takes place at a spa where Guido is attempting to come up with his next big idea or his next film, he is at a moment where he has lost interest in his science fiction film and the progress on the film has become rather static. I will argue that the events, real and fictitious, that occur to Guido at the spa are metaphors for Fellini’s frustrating creative process.

One of the first fantasies the audience is exposed to is one of Guido’s nightmares.  Guido is floating off into the air only to be yanked back down to reality by his associates heckling him to get back to his film. This is what I would call a stress dream. Guido is at a point where he has no interest and no creative drive but is still feeling the pressure of his colleagues who, themselves, are also pressured to get the film done. This experience is certainly something that Fellini encounters. Failure and stress is a part of the creative process.

Throughout the film Guido is also constantly distracted and bombarded with random annoyances. His mind is enamored with women, both in reality and fiction, again. He is distracted by all the women around him but also drifts off into fantasies of his ideal women. However, even those fantasies end with disappointment. Part of the creative process is sporadic attention spans. When one loses interest in a project, just as Guido has, distractions come easily. This experience is also part of the creative process. When things are discouraging it is easy to let your mind wander anywhere but the project you are suppose to be working on.

Guido also seeks out advice from several people including a writer. Unfortunately, this advice only sparks negative memories in Guido. Even when he pursues positive endeavors to reignite his interest in his film it results in further discouragement. I believe this process is similar to one that Fellini himself experiences when developing his own movies.

However, despite all of these discouragements and disappointments the film ends with Guido coming up with a solution to his film, which ignites his interest yet again. Frustrations are part of the creative process. It takes severe determination to power through relentless difficulties and create a great project. 8 ½ is a film about filmmaking and Fellini has characterized the frustrations of his own creative process through Guido and his experiences while making a film.

I can relate to Fellini’s creative process. I am pursuing a job in a creative industry myself and I believe this industry is riddled with frustrations. This makes the creative industry incredibly difficult but, if you are able to overcome the frustrations, just as Guido did in the film, you will be rewarded and create something incredible.

Deception in Hollywood Showbiz

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Although Singing in the Rain takes places in the 1920s it still highlights the superficial aspects that accompany Hollywood today. Centered on the career of a theater performer, Don, Singing in the Rain is a great social commentary on Hollywood and showbiz during the 1920s.

On one of the opening scenes Don gives a speech in the middle of the red carpet as he is walking into a celebration ceremony. During his speech he recounts his career narrative explaining how he reached his success. The linguistics of his speech depict a lucrative and mainstream career path but the accompanying visuals show a rather harsh reality. Don did not attend dance recitals as a child; he performed in local bars and saloons. He did not attend a prestigious acting school; he was apart of amateur traveling group. He did not join an elite comedy venture; he joined a small slapstick performance set. Despite all this, he found tremendous success in Hollywood. His path was difficult, but now, as a successful artist, he boasts about his experiences, claiming that everything fell into place. He portrays himself in an elitist matter attempting to uphold the reputation that his career exemplifies.

This focalization shows the importance of reputation and impression within the Hollywood culture. Don struggles to mask the truth of his acting career. He glorifies his acting journey to make it into something it wasn’t. He has a legacy to uphold and does not want reality of his past to expose where he came from.

While this idea is presented in the beginning of the film, deception and illusion turn out to be a reoccurring theme. Don isn’t the only actor who has a reputation to retain and expectations to meet. Kathy must conceal her inability to sing and dance by using disguising her voice with Lina’s incredible talent.  After all, actors are performers and their job is to entertain.

If actors reveal any of their flaws the audience will respond negatively. We can see this when the audience becomes aware that Kathy cannot sing. Her reputation as an actress is diminished. Not only due to the fact that she was deceptive but also because she did not have the gorgeous voice that the audience expected. At the end of the film, just as it opened with Don on the red carpet, Kathy is put in a position where she must uphold her reputation even though she is off camera. Actors must constantly act, even when the film isn’t rolling. Hollywood is portrayed as a demanding business where actors must maintain the respect of the crowd in order to be successful.

Whether they are embellishing their life stories or fabricating their talents, Singing in the Rain shows that actors will go to great lengths to uphold their reputation in Hollywood.