Category Archives: Media Ramblings
Do You Accept Your Partner?
A couple of weeks ago I created Familial Ramblings’ Twitter page and if you’ve ever had a Twitter account, you’ll know that one of the first steps is to find people to follow. There is a large variety of people that you can follow ranging from close friends to celebrities to magazines you read and more. I decided to follow some friends from my personal Twitter account along with fellow bloggers to see what they were up to. I also decided I wanted to follow others who were interested in the many aspects of families and relationships in order for me to be able to gain some new ideas of what I could potentially write about. I ended up following one Barbara J. Peters, a licensed Relationship Counselor and author whom I thought may be helpful in getting some ideas about possible future posts on relationships.
I must have followed the right person because maybe a day after I had followed Mrs. Peters, she had sent me a chapter from her book He Said, She Said, I Said.
I was thrilled! I’m always looking for new material to read to help me, not only, with writing my blog, but also with my journey to becoming a counselor. Due to being bogged down with other necessary readings for my classes, I was unable to read the chapter until today. After reading it, I decided that I wanted to share my opinion on the book with you, my readers. Now, do remember I’ve only read one chapter out of this book, so I can only make statements pertaining to said chapter; though, I do hope to read the rest of the book sometime soon and then will be able to write a more in-depth review. Continue reading →
Posted on March 19, 2012
You’re Probably Going to Want to Get This
*Warning: This post contains spoilers.
I saw the movie Chronicle when it was first released a few weeks ago and I have to say, I haven’t wanted to go see a movie a second time in theaters since…well, it’s been a long time. I must admit that when I first saw the trailer for the movie I was excited about its release, but when they continuously showed the same trailer over and over again, it made me very nervous. Was there really that little to the movie that they needed to repeatedly show the same thing? Despite my fresh reserves about the movie, my husband and I saw it opening day and it was better than I first thought it would be. The story was amazing; their technique for filming was fantastic and gave a twist to the shaky-cam filming. I suppose I should actually tell you what the movie’s about and how exactly it relates to family and relationships.
The movie focuses on three high school boys: Andrew, Matt and Steve. Primarily the movie focuses on Andrew who, coincidently, will also be the primary focus of this blog post. He has just gotten a new video camera upon deciding to tape everything from that point on but doesn’t give any particular reason as to why that is. Yes, this movie is another shaky-cam styled movie, but like I said, they use a bit of a different technique because instead of focusing on one camera, the audience jumps back and forth between Andrew’s camera and others. The audience quickly learns that Andrew’s family is not stable–his mother is severely ill and slowly dying while his father is a disabled, abusive drunk who often takes his anger and frustration out on his son. Andrew appears to have a strong bond with his mother who looks to adore and love him very much; it’s obvious that she only wants the best for him. If she knows about the abuse going on is unknown, but my best guess is that it is kept from her as much as possible due to not wanting to put more stress on her considering her condition.
If you think about it, Andrew’s situation really is not all that different from some other families. The details of the situation may be different than what is shown in the movie, but abuse does take place in families around the world. There are many different forms such as spousal abuse, child abuse, there’s also both mental and physical abuse. From my view it seems as if Andrew throughout the movie suffers from both physical, mental and probably some emotional abuse as well. This isn’t all due to his father, but he is the biggest part of it. Many may wonder what causes people to abuse others and really it depends on the situation. We don’t learn a lot about Andrew and his father’s relationship before his mother gets sick and before his father gets laid off from work due to his disability, so it’s hard to say if this has been ongoing for many years or if it’s only been going on since his mother got sick and his father got laid off. If I had to make a guess, however, I would guess that it may have been a long term situation just from the way Andrew acts around his father and when he’s out in public.
We continue to follow Andrew to a car waiting for him outside, which is where we meet Andrew’s cousin, Matt. We later find out that when they were younger, Matt and Andrew had a relatively close relationship, but as time went past they started to grow apart and it seems as if Matt only tolerating Andrew because they’re family. I find myself wondering if Matt knows about what happens when Andrew is at home and if he has ever done anything to try and stop it. It’s possible that Matt doesn’t know and I really wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t because often in situations where there is abuse, the victim hides the fact that it’s happening from everyone. There are many theories as to why this may be stretching from embarrassment to fear. In Andrew’s situations, I would guess that it’s both embarrassment and fear because as you’ll see as you watch the movie, he’s pretty socially awkward and being abused would, in his mind, only make things worse. The audience is driven to school while Matt sings a variety of songs on their way in–the singing was off key, might at add, but did open the door for some comic relief after seeing Andrew’s home life. We follow Andrew through his day at school where we see that he is almost constantly bullied by his peers; this poor guy just does not get a break. It quickly becomes apparent that Andrew is a loner and that the only thing close to a friend he has is his cousin and now his camera.
In attempts to get Andrew to be more social, Matt convinces him to go to a party, where he then leaves Andrew to fend for himself against the crowd. This probably is not the best situation for Andrew to be in because, let’s face it, he is obviously not well liked and it seems as if trouble follows him everywhere. Within a matter of what seems to be minutes, Andrew is threatened and has a drink spilled on him and his camera causing him to leave the party. He sits outside in the grass sobbing softly while cleaning away the mess when he is approached by a young man named Steve. Andrew quickly whips his tears away and when Steven asks if something is wrong, he quickly answers that he’s fine, which again makes me feel as if he wants to avoid embarrassment. As the movie goes on it started to appeared to me as if Steve was almost the complete opposite of Andrew: popular, good with women, comes from a good, loving family, etc. while Andrew is stuck in an abusive relationship with his father and many of his peers. Steve is able to convince Andrew to follow him to a hole that is found to lead into an unknown cavern of sorts, but never-the-less Steve, Matt and Andrew–after some resistance–enter into the dark hole where they find a glowing crystal or perhaps even a spacecraft of sorts (it’s never really explained). They approach and touch the glowing object, which seems to trigger something causing a bright light to engulf them and the screen. Continue reading →
Posted on February 21, 2012
The Awakening
*Warning: This post contains spoilers.
I went to see Underworld: Awakening a few weeks ago when it was first released into the theaters. I’ve always enjoyed the Underworld series for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they have a kick-ass leading female character. I had high hopes for the newest installment of the series and I was not disappointed. I found the movie to be engaging and it was able to keep me on the edge of my seat for the entire film. It was action-packed, full of surprises and something I didn’t expect, it included a family aspect to it. Let me start from the beginning:
The humans learned about the existence of vampires and Lycans and have decided to declare war on both sets of clans, which is referred to as “The Purge.” Selene and Michael are attempting to escape the madness of it all, but alas, they are found and chased down. An explosion leads us to wonder if the pair survived the blast or if they’ve only been severely injured. The audience is then whisked away to twelve years into the future, to a lab where a creature seems to be trying to escape. Through the eyes of what is later called “Subject 2,” the audience sees Selene is trapped in a sort of cryogenic encasement. Subject 2 frees Selene–also known as Subject 1 to Antigen (the company holding her)–before fleeing so it is not captured by the guards. Selene slowly begins to awaken to find herself in a lab and most of her clothes and equipment conveniently stored in a near-by glass cabinet.
As Selene is set to escape, she begins to have visions which she believes is a link between her and Michael. She is able to escape Antigen and continue to follow the visions until she runs into a fellow vampire, David. While being caught up as to what has happened since she had been captured, Selene has another vision which leads her to an unexpected surprise, a young girl. It is later discovered that this girl is Subject 2 or Eve, whom is also a hybrid and Selene and Michael’s daughter. It does not take long for Selene to realize who Eve really is, which is what I found interesting about the family aspect of the movie. Without ever meeting Eve, Selene was able to recognize that it was her daughter. The question I had was: would she have realized Eve was her daughter if she was not seeing visions of what Eve was seeing? My hypothesis is that she would have recognized her. Why? Because I think that mothers naturally have the ability to recognize their children regardless if they had seen them previously or not. I believe there is a natural connection between mother and child, even between father and child. My thought is that for the movie they decided to enhance this natural connection so that Selene and Eve could find one another more easily. I also found it interesting that Selene’s natural instincts were to protect Eve when they were attacked by an underground Lycan clan that continuously tries to attack them as the trio try to escape. Continue reading →
Posted on February 9, 2012
The Apocalypse is Coming
*Warning: This post may contain spoilers.
I recently watched the movie 2012 starring John Cusack with my family. At first I hadn’t thought about writing about it, but after a recent comment on another one of my blog posts, I decided that it was actually the perfect movie to write about. What’s better than talking about the approaching apocalypse and how it brings a family together?
For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, it is in fact about the apocalypse that is supposed to coming in December of 2012. The movie follows a variety of different people–from Geologists to Monks to the President of the United States and other international diplomats–but primarily concentrates on John Cusack’s character, Jackson Curtis, a (relatively) successful writer who also drives limos as a side job while trying to get more of his books published. Jackson was divorced from his wife, Kate–who took their children when she moved out–when it he begins to ignore her and their children for his writing career, or so it is implied.
Their story starts when Jackson is due to pick up his children, Noah and Lilly, for his parental visit. He decides to take them to Yellow Stone National Park where they find areas of the park to be blocked off by fences reading “Do Not Enter.” Of course when someone in a movie sees fences or other blockades that specifically say not to enter, the characters have to enter.
Once beyond the fences, the Curtis family finds that a lake that was once full of water and life has dried up. On further inspection, it seems as if the space where the lake was is giving off hot steam, which only makes Jackson more curious as to what is going on. Caught by government officials (they had to be around somewhere), Jackson is told that the government is there to find out what has happened to the lake, but from the look on his face, Jackson does not fully accept this answer. Continue reading →
Posted on January 16, 2012
My Sister’s Keeper
My family and I watched the movie My Sister’s Keeper–based off the book by Jodi Picoult–about a girl named Kate Fitzgerald who has been fighting a battle with leukemia since she was a child and her younger sister, Anna Fitzgerald, who is seeking to be granted medical emancipation. Anna was born with a purpose: to save her sister. I don’t want to spoil the story in case those reading this have not read the book or seen the movie; however, it’s a powerful story about family that I would like to disuss.
In the movie, the story is told from different peoples’ perspectives, bringing the audience into the family’s life, allowing them to better understand the emotions that each member of the Fitzgerald family is feeling and how outsiders see the situation at hand. The audience is quick to find that Sara–Anna and Kate’s mother–will do just about whatever she has to in order to save her daughter’s life. The reason that Anna is seeking medical emancipation is because since she was born, she had been poked and prodded in order to save Kate’s life; she was genetically engineered for the sole purpose to donate different parts of herself to her sister. What Sara and her husband, Brian, have done could be seen as the true meaning of what being a good parent is or could be seen as morally unethical. Who’s to say that it’s okay to create a child in a Petri dish just so that they can become a life-long donor? Until she sought out emancipation, Anna was never asked if she wanted to continue providing bone marrow, blood and so on in order to save her sister. Continue reading →
Posted on January 1, 2012
6 comments