I recently had the pleasure of watching the film Marriage Story staring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson. While many good movies move me to happiness or sadness or many other common emotion, I was surprised to note during this movie that I actually felt, in a way, uncomfortable. Not in because the subject of the film was in some way horrifying or unfamiliar, but for precisely the opposite reason. It was so normal. To me, the brilliance of the film, and especially its primary actors, was how it showed the characters as normal people (albeit with extraordinary talents in their fields) going through a normal event but with abnormal circumstances. I was struck by how the main characters were still actual friends outside the courtroom, but vicious to each other inside (driven on by their expensive lawyers). The discomfort for me came from how believable BOTH types of interactions were, as I have experienced my own similar dichotomy of love/hate in my life, but have never seen it portrayed so well in film. Indeed, the primary motivation behind all the vitriol was in fact love, the main characters’ love for their son and their desire for custody which was manipulated for gain by the lawyers. In short, the film brilliant to me not in how it portrays or humanizes the extraordinary, as some great films do, but how it shows how extraordinary the events that regular people go through truly are, for them.
Author Archives: cg527
A modern plague: Contagion
I recently had the pleasure of seeing the film Contagion, staring Mat Damon and Gweneth Paltrow. This past month has been perhaps the most timely time ever (to make a mild exaggeration) to watch this film, with worries rising concerning the Coronavius. In particular, the film not only proposes how easily a disease could become a worldwide epidemic given today’s vastly interconnected world, but it also raises important questions concerning how society will react to such a disease. Sadly, recent events have shown these questions are far from hypothetical. The film depicts a large rise of distrust and selfishness in the wake of the initial outbreak, even by well-intentioned and good people such as Matt Damon’s character, who only wishes to protect his only surviving family member. This all eerily mirrors recent rises in racism, fueled partially by the Coronavirus’s origin in China. As the virus spreads, it sadly seems possible that these sentiments will only continue to rise alongside peoples’ fear and misunderstanding. Yet, the movie also depicts acts of extreme selflessness and heroism in many of characters (including Matt Damon’s), which gives hope for the response to the current situation. With any luck, human kindness and community will win out, and the Coronavirus will be known only as a devastating pathogen, and not as a social divisor as well.
Thumbs up for Knives Out
I recently had the pleasure of watching the movie Knives Out as part of the friday night movie series put on here at Flora Rose House. Initially, the setup of the story seemed to be the same as most other murder mystery movies and tv shows I’d seen. Someone gets killed, and their various estranged relatives all seem equally likely to have done it. A brilliant and unorthodox detective comes in and slowly pokes the sore spots until everyone’s secrets are laid bare, relationships are ruined forever, the most likely culprit is interrogated, and his brother is found guilty. At least, for the first twenty minutes. Unlike most other movies I’d seen, this one looked to have played its hand early on, telling precisely who did it, how, and why. Instead of being a hunt for a killer in the pursuit of justice, the film became about a victim of circumstance’s flight from injustice. To me, this was an extremely interesting subversion of the genre’s tropes which I came in to the movie expecting. However, I will say I was mildly disappointed with the film’s conclusion, as its main twist seemed to rely on details that needed no explanation beyond their face value, rather than tying up many loose ends that would otherwise have been left hanging.
The Trails of Cornell
I grew up in Upstate New York, twenty minutes outside Rochester. I’ve gone camping in the Adirondacks and hiking through the trails around my home. While I wouldn’t call myself “outdoorsy,” I have always been interested in exploring nature. So, during Todd Bittner’s talk, I was surprised to hear that Cornell owned literally tens of miles of trails that I have barely heard of, let alone hiked. Of course, now I think “of course, why wouldn’t we?” Especially given Cornell’s Land-Grant status and historical involvement with agriculture and the life sciences. Still, I wonder why it took until my junior year to find out just how many trails surrounded Cornell, and how much natural area we as Cornellians have access to (alongside the general Tompkins County community). Now, I wonder what other natural (and other) wonders are here that I don’t know about. I can’t wait to start exploring to find out.
Cornellians’ responsibilities to each other
I recently had the pleasure of hearing Laura Weiss discuss her important work in preventing sexual assault on campus. As a male, I’ve found it can be easy to not think about this sort of issue. Thoughts like “I’m not the problem” or “I don’t do that” serve all to well as placebos to the conscience, absolving any feeling of responsibility besides moral admonishment. But that responsibility still exists. Throughout the talk, I was reminded about the role that bystanders do have in sexual assault prevention. Yes, a bystander may not be the cause of the problem, and they likely would never perpetrate any assault themselves, but if they are silent when they notice something awry, they are contributing to it. As easy as it can be to absolve myself of responsibility in my own mind, I realize even more clearly now that it is there, that I owe it to my fellow Cornellians, of any gender, to speak up when I see something and do my part to stop sexual assault on campus.