Link: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/eng110spring2014/

Side Effects is a new crime-filled thriller released February 8, 2013. It stars a couple of Hollywood’s heartthrobs, with Channing Tatum and Jude Law, and the star of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Rooney Mara, along with Catherine Zeta-Jones. This film has so many twists and turns it almost seems as though it was made to be a metaphysical detective film, meaning that questions are only answered with more questions, and it continually stumps the viewer. While watching it, you may think you have all the right answers, but at the end you may have it all wrong.

This is a film that makes the viewer have to really think to try to figure out what is going on and what the character’s motives are. You never know what is real and what is fake (Having a background with how stocks work can help you too.) It is Rated R for nudity, violence, and language and the run time is 106 minutes.

Side Effects is a film about a woman, Emily Taylor, who’s world is turned upside down when she begins to take a drug prescribed by her psychiatrist that has “unexpected side effects” . The movie is about Emily Taylor, a young woman who becomes severely depressed when her husband is taken to prison, and even after he returns. She goes through suicide attempts and emotional breakdowns. She is prescribed Ablixa, a new anti-depressant that has just hit the market. The side effects of the drug lead Emily to do an unforgivable deed in a “sleepwalking” state and sent to a mental hospital. Dr. Banks, Emily’s psychiatrist, takes the fall for the incident and his practice begins to crumble, even though he is not responsible for the drug. But there is a twist that the doctor will soon find out.

Steven Soderbergh creates a twist-filled plot that deals with several morally ambiguous characters all revolving around one horrible incident. He seems to convey quiet chaos with his frequent close-ups, and shifting in-and-out of focus throughout the screen, he draws attention to many small, but important details.The real strength of this film is how it is presented. Information is released one by one at different times, and we are kept waiting through interviews, court hearings, false trails, and many psychiatrist visits until, finally, everything comes together at the end.

I did not want to give away a lot of the plot because this movie is so interesting and one small detail could ruin a part of the film, but i recommend everyone to see this movie! You definitely won’t regret it, and it has become one of my favorites.

Perfumed Nightmare is a semi-autobiographical third cinema film by Filipino director Kidlat Tahimik. It focuses on his journey from his small poor village in the Philippines to flying to Paris, and seeing the industrialized parts of the world that he has never experienced before. This film was interesting but at the same time very confusing. It didn’t seem to have a story line that viewers could easily pinpoint. You never knew what was gonna happen next. There was no clear goal or path in the story, but the viewer has to decide for themselves what they think the main focus of the film is.

One thing that really stood out to me about this film was that it was a Third Cinema film. Third Cinema was first coined as a way to influence revolutionary activism and it goes against the capitalist system and neocolonialism. It also goes against the Hollywood genre of film making for revenue purposes. I was confused about Kidlat’s purpose of Third Cinema until after seeing the movie. It took a while to figure out what his exact focus or purpose was, but I think I understand his vision a little more now. The movie made me feel many emotions throughout each scene. I felt sadness for Kidlat when he shows his village and how he and his people are very poor. One of the most important scenes to me is when he shows the ritual that little boys in his village must go through when they turn 8 or 9 to become “men.” The boys must be circumcised, but because they live in a third world country, they do not have doctors and medicines and the many things we have in industrialized countries. The boys are circumcised without any medical attention or medicine to aide with the pain. The whole time I was watching that gruesome scene, all I could think about was how much we take for granted in first world countries. We do not all fully understand the privileges we have and how easy a lot of things are for us. It made me realize that I need to take a step back in my life and stop acting so spoiled sometimes and really be thankful for what I have and what is provided to me. If I ever have any types of injuries I can easily go to a doctor’s office and get help and I am provided any medicine I may need. But they do not get that option in these countries. It saddens me that I get to sleep in a comfortable bed while small children have to sleep on a dirt ground every night somewhere else in the world.

To me, the meaning of Kidlat’s work was to show that the industrialized countries aren’t as great as it is made out to be. When he gets to Paris, he is so happy and is enjoying seeing all the technology and discovering things he has never seen or heard of before. The honeymoon phase ends when he starts working for the delivery business and goes to the large Supermarket. He sees the market with all of this food and supplies and he thinks of how much that one store could benefit and help feed his entire village and he becomes angry with the industrialized countries and how much we waste and take for granted. I interpreted the meaning of his work as his journey of discovering first world countries and realizing that they are very corrupt and selfish.