Jaws

Jaws Review

1975 proved a big year for Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Peter Benchley’s novel. Jaws is about a peaceful town by the coast that becomes disturbed by a surprising shark attack. After that attack, it’s the sheriff’s (Roy Scheider) job to have the beast killed in order to restore peace and safety back to the town before the whole population ends up in the shark’s jaws.

As a naïve filmmaker, Spielberg’s film debut was Jaws. With such a basic plot, it’s hard to believe he would make it would create such a buzz. The reason it made such an impact was mostly because of the scare factor of not knowing what’s attacking (yes, it’s a shark, but how big? Why? When?) and the suspense of if they were ever going to catch it, or die trying.

The movie starts off with a suspenseful feel and it sets the mood for the rest of the movie because a woman disappears while in the water but the townspeople don’t know why. In fact, we don’t really see the shark until later in the film when we only see a fin. Spielberg even takes us to the point-of-view of the shark when he’s underwater. Even the sound goes numb when underwater and all one hears is the faint splashing and playing of people, but he makes you feel like the shark when he’s about to attack his prey. Later in the story when they set out to hunt the shark, you it’s suspenseful to wonder if when the shark is going to come or how it’s going to attack. I even noticed that most of the scenes where the shark could be seen, it would be at night or low lighting until the end. And when the shark would be seen, you could only see half of it so one still doesn’t know how big it really is. That may have been an accident because of an animatronic mishap, but it added on to the suspense. Spielberg accidents and purposive actions made for a terror film that came out on top and paved the way for his future films.

The Help

The Help Review

The bestselling book by Kathryn Stockett was adapted into a film in 2011 by Tate Taylor. The film is about a young writer who tries to get her big break in the journalism business by writing a story from the point of view from the maids around town. In 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, sharing her life experiences and secrets, as a black maid, was the last thing on Aibileen’s mind. But as a driven journalist, Skeeter was determined to get the story. They both knew that this book meant risky business but they didn’t know what consequences the future would hold for them, and the town.

As Taylor’s first box office hit, he did not disappoint. Having been friends with Stockett since kindergarten, you could tell he knew what elements would capture the essence of the book. Not only did Viola Davis (Aibileen) and Emma Stone (Skeeter) act in such a way to make you feel like you wanted to speak your mind and change the world, but the technical components collaborated with the actors that contributed to this feel.

The opening scene gives the audience a sense of secret, or containment. There is no music, just the sound of something sizzling on the stove while a quiet Aibileen is answering personal questions given by a voice at night in a rackety old house. This set the mood by letting us know we weren’t watching the lives of the prestigious “white people”. The use of lighting in the movie mirrors how society was back then: seemingly perfect and sunny during the day but the ugly truth comes out at night. It then jump cuts to a narrative by Aibileen, where the audience gets a chance to walk in her shoes. I think this is important because the audience won’t know how important the actions are until they know what Aibileen’s witnessed. From there the story meets up with the opening scene and travels through Aibileen’s journey, now with us. Taylor’s close-ups throughout the movie show the audience how the characters are truly feeling despite how they say they are feeling. The soundscape of the movie required little music as the sound environment put you in that place. A phenomenal job by Taylor was done to capture the story about the point of view of “the help”, while putting the audience ourselves in that same point of view.

(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer Review

Having worked mostly on music videos, Marc Webb takes a leap by putting a twist on romantic comedies with this 2009 flick. The story of Tom and Summer is not your usual love story as it takes you on the ups and downs of a seemingly more real relationship.  The audience is taken on a journey of the 500 days that their off-beat relationship gets tested.

Marc Webb leaves the stereotypical Hollywood view of romance in a creative way. The movie starts halfway through it… the audience can be confused as to what’s going on because, not only does it not seem like a beginning but, you have a narrator telling you “this is not a love story”. This “confusion” left in the audience is a very unique way of foreshadowing what’s going to happen between Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his girlfriend, who we later find out is Summer (Zooey Deschanel), but still leaving the mystery of how it’s going to end.

A series of jump cuts with numbers in parenthesis are used throughout the movie as the audience catches on that it’s the days that Tom has known Summer. The background of the parenthetical numbers also use symbolism as to show what kind of day it will be for the couple, good or bad, and sequentially what kind of lighting you will expect to see. The gaze comes in handy to Gordon-Levitt as he shows Tom’s admiration for Summer throughout the story. Music is used widely throughout the movie as it is the way Tom and Summer first really connect and it, later, illustrates Tom’s mood. A narrator that comes in occasionally or a cartoon/musical sequence that pops out of nowhere are great ways to keep the audience intrigued. Though it can technically be out-of-place, it helps elucidate the mood of whatever is happening at that moment. Like the drama or comedy one was not expecting to see, Webb used a unique collaboration of many techniques to create a story about love that will not be forgotten.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Review

Having written the screenplay to the popular musical film, Rent, it was no surprise that in 2012 Stephen Chbosky would come to direct the film adaptation of his 1999 novel. Perks is about Charlie, a teenager, going through the roller coaster that is high school and dealing with all the challenges that come with it such as dealing with drugs, sexuality, and just trying to fit in.

Considering the author of the bestselling novel wrote the screenplay, the film adaptation did not disillusion the lovers of the novel, which is usually a concern for such situations. Logan Lerman portrays the shy, soft-spoken Charlie to a tee along his co-stars Emma Watson (Sam) and Ezra Miller (Patrick).

The starting point of the movie has Charlie typing a letter to a “friend”. From what he writes to his “friend” one can instantly get the feeling that he has gone through some traumatic experience. Throughout the movie, the audience gets bits and pieces of what had happened through flashbacks and Charlie’s narration, but it all doesn’t really connect until the end. This technique along with the occasional intra-diegetic gaze puts the audience into Charlie’s head. I think this is important because it lets the audience relate and connect to the main character, and most of the story plot is happening through the eyes of Charlie, not so much through the external happenings. The soundscape of this film, from the soundtrack, to the blurred sound when a fight happens, helps move the story along because it’s how Charlie connects with his new friends at school; how he deals with his problem; later on we learn it plays an important role in Charlie’s past. Chbosky’s novel shows the life through a lonely wallflower’s eyes and the movie exemplifies exactly that.