The Perfect Guy: My first impression

Over the weekend I was persuaded by my friends to go see the film, The Perfect Guy. I was hesitant because I know how cliched these films can get, but I am a fan of Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut! The film follows the traditional plot of a woman who breaks up with her longtime boyfriend Dave (played by Morris Chestnut), and ends up dating another man (Ealy) that seems all too good to be true. The film had a lot of promotion and I was a little surprised to see that it was rated PG-13, but then again that does explain the minimum amount of sex scenes and foul language. However, I have very mix feelings about this film.

The Bad

• Extremely cliche and no originality or plot twist. 
• If I fell asleep during the movie I would still know everything that happened when i woke up. 
• Predictable climax
• Time
• The beginning of the movie was extremely fast paced, I wasn't able to connect with the characters or even establish an understanding of any of the relationships. 
• The ending was too dragged out, for better words, Carter (played by Michael Ealy) could have died a lot faster, and didn't need all the suspense or hype.
• The feeling of "I've seen this movie before..."
• Enough starring Jennifer Lopez and directed by Michael Apted
• Obsession directed by Brian De Palma

The Good

• Empowered heroine, with no need of rescue
• I appreciated that for once in a thriller the men did not do the saving, in fact it was interesting that both males died as a result of loving this woman. 
• Cinematography
• One thing that struck me from the beginning was how well the cinematography in the film was. It was extremely good looking and Peter Simonite (cinematographer) did a great job at highlighting the casts dark skin tones without creating shadows, even in night scenes.




• Wardrobe 
• deserves a credit as well because they dressed their cast in suitable colors that weren't outrageously bright or dark. The lightening has to thank wardrobe for making there job slightly easier.  
• Casting
• Michael Ealy (Carter) was so calm and poised throughout the film that it made him scary. To physically know how dangerous he is throughout the film and to visually witness him be calm, and tactical is enough to sends chills down your spine. So for that performance he definitely deserves credit. 
• Sanaa Lathan (Leah) had attitude and never backed down throughout the film, I believe she embodied the character fully and may have possible recognized a familiar personality trait she and her character possessed.

Once again this film may have been cliche but it was shot beautifully.

Post Research... 

I came across an interesting article by Clayton Dillard about The Perfect Guy that really resonated with me. I do agree with the article in the essence that this film has illusions to film history(i.e. Birth of A Nation), and makes an extremely risky but daring argument- I appreciate that.  The argument is interesting and for the most part I believe of it to be true. And if the allegations that Dillard is making are true, then I commend the director David M. Rosenthal and writer Tyger Williams on creating a film that was so creative in the way they sent a message to the audience. 

Shots!

Alright! Let's do some Shots! NO, not those kinds of shots, Films shots! (It's not the weekend yet kids!)

Today, in class we spoke about the importance of shots and frame. Ever since we discussed this in fiction field 1, a year ago (time flies), I've payed closer attention to the films I watch and I note the placement of the characters. Sometimes, it helps me understand a little better of what's going on in the film. Have you ever watched a film where you were completely lost? Most people at that point shut it off and never return. I try harder to understand, I like to give em' a chance! They could explain everything later! Anyways, I found sometimes I'll try to interoperate the choice of the camera position, movement or even the placement of props, or the placement of the character's themselves.
In the shot above, The camera frame shows you exactly what the character is looking at, it also shows through camera angle how much bigger this creature is in comparison to the character, possibly imposing a threat. The fact that it's raining makes it harder for the character to run and hide, it gives us a symbolic sense of nature's wrath, unfortunate events etc.

This shot is much less distressing! I would interpret this shot to mean that these character's are getting closer either as friends or as lovers. Judging by the closeness of their bodies and given other cliche shots like this, I would bet that their next action is that they look at each other intimately.

For this shot I suppose you could say the same. Again it's very close and intimate. There's a feeling of safety even in a dangerous position. The expressions of the characters are a combination of amazement and admiration.


Another concept we were touching upon when talking about the way people used to watch film and the way we progressed from where we came from, is the concept that Hitchcock called the Kuleshov effect!

There is also an importance to not letting anything foreign be in the photograph. Set decorating is VERY important. Last year on the Market our art department team made a character who was a religious freak and very uptight person with very intense secrets. We transformed a girl's room from a girly bed room in to a dark, organized, bedroom with a ton of religious symbols everywhere. It looked like an ENTIRELY different place when we got through with it and if you pick the right people to do it, it really doesn't take too long. Here's an example of a set that was designed in the french film OSS 117: Lost in Rio:

The film takes place in the 60's and as you can see, nothing here is out of place or misrepresenting even though the movie was made in 2009! Not one thing in this frame is out of context nor is it distracting. You want things (props, set dec., etc.) to be appropriate but not distracting. I think this room sets up a mood of the scene as well as being absorbing/ believable. 

I have more to talk about but I'll save it for next week! Hope you all enjoy the rest of the week! 

Ta Ta for now!

-Lucy Lynne' Hall