Films 34, 35, 36 ("Argo")
This week was difficult for me. It's hard to see my students struggle when I'm not in the classroom, but also a testament to the relationship I have built with them in just the couple of months I've been with them. I always feel like the week starts off well, but still a bit shaky, and then by Wednesday the ship is running smoothly. This week I wasn't in my classroom Thursday and Friday and both days were tough for my students, which then makes me feel guilty for not being there. You see, I already feel bad for the situation they've been through this year- having a teacher leave them in mid-October and then having substitutes until I showed up at the end of November. They were like the kids from a broken home, having been kicked around a bit and left behind. They never had a chance to establish relationships with a consistent adult during the most crucial time of the year (the beginning), so when I showed up, again, they were getting used to someone new, testing grounds and pushing buttons to see what would happen. I've always considered my patience and lack of any buttons to be a great strength of mine, so I welcomed them all. I've made sure to smile and tell them all that they are wonderful individuals and I think we've done some great bonding over the past couple of months. I think they like having me as their teacher and the environment I've been trying to create of a positive, safe place to learn is reflective every day when you come into the room. I do believe that I have a rather "new style" or progressive approach to teaching, which unfortunately has not necessarily been appreciated in the other schools that I've been in, but I know that my style fits very well were I am. It's almost instinctively now and I (almost) do not spend time thinking about my techniques. Although, there have been days where I think about my day on the drive home and even at night, alone, in my apartment. I've always appreciated how I can disassociate my personal life from my professional life, but there is something about this year, something about this group of students that has reached below just the surface level. I have found myself dealing with a very emotional group of students. I have been known to describe my days as "defusing time bombs" that may or may not go off, by when they do, it's quite a scene. Sometimes I can't believe the things that these young kids say (funny at times, but also scary, to know that they may actually think these thoughts, but also that they verbalize it with no air of caution). It hurts to know these kids are obviously struggling internally and I probably won't be able to change that, as much as I want to. That's why I'm having a difficult year. I want to be the pillar of change for these kids and I know that I won't. They've been branded with a stigma of "being bad" and I've been doing my best to erase the thoughts that they developed about themselves earlier in the year. Seeing them smile and laugh with me helps me get through the day. There are internal scars that I can't erase, but I can hopefully replace them with new memories and thoughts and ideas of themselves. I was brought back to the school as a Fix-it Agent, so to speak, and I certainly love that role and I can see them growing up, but every few days we have explosions that just make me think nothing will be different for them, no matter how hard I try.
Is it that I feel bad for their living situations (most of them have hard-knock life situations, even at 6-7 years old)? Is it that I don't feel like I'm making the impact I would like to be making? Is it that I am making an impact, but that impact is cast-aside when the students go home? I don't know exactly what is going on this year, but it has been quite an emotional rollercoaster for me. By Friday, I am usually very spent. I'm glad I have an excellent outlet of friends and colleagues at school that I can share my concerns with. I love laughing and joking with them, too. We are like a big family. Seriously. And I don't think many schools (or other professional settings) can really, truly say that. And actually mean it.
Friday night I got together with my friend Chris and we hit up Portland's First Friday and had dinner/drinks at Rosie's in the Old Port. By the end of dinner we were looking for something to do and just happened to see that "Argo" was playing at 9:00 (about 15 minutes away).
"Argo" finds Ben Affleck once again in the Director's chair (and the lead role of CIA agent Tony Mendez). Affleck has had his ups and downs in his career ("Good Will Hunting" has always been the highlight for me), but then around 2007 he decided to venture into directing. He directed his brother, Casey Affleck in an unbelievably emotional "Gone, Baby Gone" and then did an excellent job with a fast-paced bank-heists film "The Town" both taking place in his native Boston-area. With "Argo" he takes the adventure global as he presents the Iran hostage case (where 6 U.S. embassy workers escaped a hostage takeover and took refuge in the Canadian embassy until the CIA hatched a classified plan to get them out of Iran.
The plan: CIA extractor, Mendez (Affleck, with an excellent 70s wardrobe and shag haircut) will enlist the help of a Hollywood producer (Alan Arkin, again using his comic genius and one-liners) as well as a cinematographer (John Goodman- where the hell has he been?) to create/fabricate a Hollywood, sci-fi thriller named "Argo." (one of the best lines in the film: "Argo, fuck yourself!") Mendez travels to Iran and trains the 6 Americans to impersonate Hollywood pros in order to convince Iranians at the airport that they have been in Iran scouting locations for them (fictitious) film. This fake-film is supposed to resemble "Star Wars" which you don't get the connection til the end of the film when Mendez goes back home and is settled in his son's bedroom, which is decorated with "Star Wars" memorabilia. I won't give away much of the film other than to say Affleck does an unbelievable job crafting a thriller that is every bit enticing and edge-of-your-seat, will-they-make-it drama. Some of the close calls were not as true, since this story is based on an actual historical event in our American history (which was declassified by Bill Clinton), but those close-calls make the movie what it is.
With his directorial eye and vision, Affleck is cementing his place in film history as my generation's Clint Eastwood and Sean Penn (both unbelievable directors, in their own rite). I think he has revitalized his career by sitting in the director's chair, much like Eastwood did. "Argo" could very possibly get him an Oscar for Best Picture and he was certainly snubbed for the Best Director Oscar (especially after receiving the Golden Globe award for Director).
This certainly was a great end of the year, in terms of Oscar-worthy films. I've enjoyed seeing all of them.
Saturday I spent the day watching some Netflix films I've found but put off for awhile, for no particular reason.
"The Burning Plain" is writer-director Guillermo Arriaga first film not working with his partner Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amore s Perros, Babel, and 21 Grams-- my favorite being 21 Grams). Both men having become masters of inter-cutting stories that work together as one film. Here, though, "The Burning Plain" involved events that are about 20 years apart, but involve pretty much the same characters (at different points in their lives and played by different actors and actresses). The main character, to me, is Jennifer Lawrence (the young version) and Charlize Theron (the older version). Her mother is having a affair that clearly affects the younger version and leads her to make choices and take certain actions that will affect her later in life. His other films worked very well because the interwoven stories involved different characters and it was clear where and why certain things were happening. With this film, though, I feel like Arriaga got caught up and lost in his own head. He creates a labyrinth that we are set to figure out for ourselves (although, it became very clear to me early in the film that Jennifer Lawrence and Charlize Theron were the same person). I consider myself a rather smart film-viewer, but I think he could have created more of an impact if perhaps the story was told in chronological order. The same would have been the same and perhaps had more of an emotional impact. I'm thinking of "21 Grams" here (that film was extremely powerful) and I would recommend watching it instead (Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are amazing in it). The actresses (Theron and Lawrence) are not done any justice with this messy screenplay, but they always seem to do a great job when on screen (at separate times).
"Swedish Auto" is an independent film that is loaded with great performances (by January Jones, I know, right-- and Lukas Haas) and good direction from a new guy that seems to get it. Here are some marginalized characters. Marginalized by life. Haas plays a young man orphaned at an early age when his parents died in a car crash and he now works as the master-hand mechanic at an auto shop. Jones plays a character who is being sexually abused by her step-father and who works at the diner that Haas and his coworkers frequent on a regular basis, which then helps develop the story further because Jones' character has a crush on Haas' character. But, Haas is delirious, to begin with, because in the meantime he is stalking a beautiful violin player (sitting/standing outside her apartment building at night to listen and watch her play). You have to be patient as the story develops through the characters emotions, but the pay-off is worth it by the end of the indie film. It is a very ethereal experience and I always thought January Jones was a mediocre actress, but here she shines with naivete.
Is it that I feel bad for their living situations (most of them have hard-knock life situations, even at 6-7 years old)? Is it that I don't feel like I'm making the impact I would like to be making? Is it that I am making an impact, but that impact is cast-aside when the students go home? I don't know exactly what is going on this year, but it has been quite an emotional rollercoaster for me. By Friday, I am usually very spent. I'm glad I have an excellent outlet of friends and colleagues at school that I can share my concerns with. I love laughing and joking with them, too. We are like a big family. Seriously. And I don't think many schools (or other professional settings) can really, truly say that. And actually mean it.
Friday night I got together with my friend Chris and we hit up Portland's First Friday and had dinner/drinks at Rosie's in the Old Port. By the end of dinner we were looking for something to do and just happened to see that "Argo" was playing at 9:00 (about 15 minutes away).
"Argo" finds Ben Affleck once again in the Director's chair (and the lead role of CIA agent Tony Mendez). Affleck has had his ups and downs in his career ("Good Will Hunting" has always been the highlight for me), but then around 2007 he decided to venture into directing. He directed his brother, Casey Affleck in an unbelievably emotional "Gone, Baby Gone" and then did an excellent job with a fast-paced bank-heists film "The Town" both taking place in his native Boston-area. With "Argo" he takes the adventure global as he presents the Iran hostage case (where 6 U.S. embassy workers escaped a hostage takeover and took refuge in the Canadian embassy until the CIA hatched a classified plan to get them out of Iran.
The plan: CIA extractor, Mendez (Affleck, with an excellent 70s wardrobe and shag haircut) will enlist the help of a Hollywood producer (Alan Arkin, again using his comic genius and one-liners) as well as a cinematographer (John Goodman- where the hell has he been?) to create/fabricate a Hollywood, sci-fi thriller named "Argo." (one of the best lines in the film: "Argo, fuck yourself!") Mendez travels to Iran and trains the 6 Americans to impersonate Hollywood pros in order to convince Iranians at the airport that they have been in Iran scouting locations for them (fictitious) film. This fake-film is supposed to resemble "Star Wars" which you don't get the connection til the end of the film when Mendez goes back home and is settled in his son's bedroom, which is decorated with "Star Wars" memorabilia. I won't give away much of the film other than to say Affleck does an unbelievable job crafting a thriller that is every bit enticing and edge-of-your-seat, will-they-make-it drama. Some of the close calls were not as true, since this story is based on an actual historical event in our American history (which was declassified by Bill Clinton), but those close-calls make the movie what it is.
With his directorial eye and vision, Affleck is cementing his place in film history as my generation's Clint Eastwood and Sean Penn (both unbelievable directors, in their own rite). I think he has revitalized his career by sitting in the director's chair, much like Eastwood did. "Argo" could very possibly get him an Oscar for Best Picture and he was certainly snubbed for the Best Director Oscar (especially after receiving the Golden Globe award for Director).
This certainly was a great end of the year, in terms of Oscar-worthy films. I've enjoyed seeing all of them.
Saturday I spent the day watching some Netflix films I've found but put off for awhile, for no particular reason.
"The Burning Plain" is writer-director Guillermo Arriaga first film not working with his partner Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amore s Perros, Babel, and 21 Grams-- my favorite being 21 Grams). Both men having become masters of inter-cutting stories that work together as one film. Here, though, "The Burning Plain" involved events that are about 20 years apart, but involve pretty much the same characters (at different points in their lives and played by different actors and actresses). The main character, to me, is Jennifer Lawrence (the young version) and Charlize Theron (the older version). Her mother is having a affair that clearly affects the younger version and leads her to make choices and take certain actions that will affect her later in life. His other films worked very well because the interwoven stories involved different characters and it was clear where and why certain things were happening. With this film, though, I feel like Arriaga got caught up and lost in his own head. He creates a labyrinth that we are set to figure out for ourselves (although, it became very clear to me early in the film that Jennifer Lawrence and Charlize Theron were the same person). I consider myself a rather smart film-viewer, but I think he could have created more of an impact if perhaps the story was told in chronological order. The same would have been the same and perhaps had more of an emotional impact. I'm thinking of "21 Grams" here (that film was extremely powerful) and I would recommend watching it instead (Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are amazing in it). The actresses (Theron and Lawrence) are not done any justice with this messy screenplay, but they always seem to do a great job when on screen (at separate times).
"Swedish Auto" is an independent film that is loaded with great performances (by January Jones, I know, right-- and Lukas Haas) and good direction from a new guy that seems to get it. Here are some marginalized characters. Marginalized by life. Haas plays a young man orphaned at an early age when his parents died in a car crash and he now works as the master-hand mechanic at an auto shop. Jones plays a character who is being sexually abused by her step-father and who works at the diner that Haas and his coworkers frequent on a regular basis, which then helps develop the story further because Jones' character has a crush on Haas' character. But, Haas is delirious, to begin with, because in the meantime he is stalking a beautiful violin player (sitting/standing outside her apartment building at night to listen and watch her play). You have to be patient as the story develops through the characters emotions, but the pay-off is worth it by the end of the indie film. It is a very ethereal experience and I always thought January Jones was a mediocre actress, but here she shines with naivete.
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