Another Movie About Sex

Over Fall break, I saw the movie Don Jon, and I have to say, I wasn't too impressed. This movie was written by Joseph Gordon Levitt and depicts a character who is addicted to porn and ultimately prefers pornography over sex. Although there is definitely character development, I found some serious plot holes in this film. For example, Scarlett Johansson's character, Barbara is greatly emphasized in the beginning of the movie and the trailer, but by the end she is somewhat irrelevant to the plot line as a whole. From their initial introduction, Jon feels very attracted to her in the way that he has never been to anyone before. She represents a beautiful, seductive girl that everyone thinks is perfect for him (especially his family). Although he is falling in love with her, he still finds pornography to be more fulfilling. He tries to quit, but can't bring himself to do it. Ultimately, Barbara catches him watching pornography and accuses him of being addicted. They eventually break up, and that's the end of that. Totally independent of his situation with Barbara, Don starts talking to an older women in his night class named Esther (Julianne Moore).

Esther is very different from Barbara, as when she catches Jon watching porn on his phone, she surprises him with a 70s porn DVD during their next class. They start to hit it off and the relationship he forms with her is very different from his relationship with Barbara. After getting to know her and spending more time with her, he learns that Esther lost her son and husband in a car accident. She explains to him that the reason he is so addicted to porn over sex is because it is a one-sided affair. He has to be willing to let go with another person to let it be a two sided street. Therefore, because they are both somewhat disconnected, they form a pretty strong relationship. The other problem I had with this movie however, is that there doesn't really seem to be a conclusion in the end. It is never clarified if Jon gets over his addiction to sex or if he is just okay with it and continues to date Esther. Ultimately, I don't really think this movie has much of a point. The progression is somewhat disoriented and Esther isn't introduced until about halfway through the film. The two girls are completely unrelated and I'm not sure if or how they are supposed to connect. By the end of the film, Jon realizes some things about himself from Esther, but he doesn't really change as a person. I guess that's the biggest point I got out of it, that Esther accepts him for who he is, while Barbara was trying to change him. He says from the very beginning, "there are only a few things I really care about in life: my body, my pad, my ride, my family, my church, my boys, my girls and my porn."

All American Pie

Starting back in high school, the American Pie movie series became one of my favorites. From the first film that was released in 1999 to the most recent American Reunion film in 2012, the raunchy jokes and hilarious characters never seize to impress. To give a quick rundown, there are five main characters: Jim, Oz, Kevin, Finch and Stifler. All of the main characters are virgins except for Stifler who is a lacrosse player who frequently throws parties that all the boys are invited to. The four guys make a pact at the beginning of their senior year of high school to lose their virginity by the end. The characters are all very different as Jim is the socially awkward one, Oz is very relaxed, Finch is the intellect, Kevin is the charming one with an attractive girlfriend, and Stifler is the ridiculous party animal. Their conflicting personalities and distraction of their goal from everyday life makes for some really unique comedy.

What's unique about this series is that each American Pie film is known for an outrageous drawn-out scene. It's usually a situation where something goes incredibly wrong in some kind of sexual way. For example, in the first film, the crazy scene is between Jim and his foreign crush Nadia. She shows interest in him which takes him off guard, and his friends convince him to set up a webcam in his room in order to capture their sexual encounters. The rest of the gang ends up watching the stream, but the video of their sexy time ends up going viral. Unfortunately for Jim, he ejaculates very quickly and ends up as the laughing stock of the entire high school the next day. In the second movie, there is a lesbian scene where the boys do crazy dares in order to get the girls to sexually interact. In the third movie, Jim uses super glue instead of lube while watching porn and ends up getting attached to himself and going to the emergency room. As you can see, this movie has little to no filters, but the sexual commentary provides for an excellent and unique form of comedy. The scenes are well-thought out and incredibly witty. I highly recommend this series if you haven't seen it especially if you are a fan of light-hearted, raunchy comedies.

Better Late Than Never

Last Saturday night, while everyone was getting ready to go out for their first weekend back at IC, I was sitting in my room, alone, in the dark, eating Chinese food (from Wegmans, because why not?), watching Friends.

I had been told since I was--I don't know--born to watch Friends by many people in my life. My friends reference the show all the time and I play along as if I know what they're talking about. Just last week, Taylor Swift performed in Los Angeles as part of her 1989 World Tour and brought Lisa Kudrow out to perform a song that her character, Phoebe Buffay, wrote on Friends called "Smelly Cat." My roommate Ali freaked out and showed me a video. I didn't really know how to respond.

This weekend I decided to give it a shot and Netflix made it very easy by putting all 10 seasons up (YAY). Also, each episode is only 22 minutes long, so it was very easy for me to get right into the show.

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't like the first episode. It seemed like every other cut was a jump cut, I couldn't see why everyone loooooves Rachel, and it just felt the same as every other sitcom I've ever watched. Then I realized that most of the sitcoms I watched growing up were based off the success of Friends; once I let this fact go, it started getting better.

By the fourth episode, I caught myself laughing out loud (literally) at one of Chandler's lines.  

By the fifth, I was invested in the characters. By the seventh, I remembered something important that one of my professors abroad had said about the show. 

Dr. Richard Weight taught my British Youth Culture class, and he often brought up the reasons why youth culture exists. Basically, young adults suddenly had more time to be young. They were going to school, living and learning with people of the opposite sex, and most importantly, not having children. He always put this into fancy terminology and called it "pre-marital cohabitation" and used Friends as the biggest example of this in the media. 

Friends is not just the sitcom that influenced all other sitcoms--it shows a drastic shift in youth culture. People did not go straight from being children to having children. Young people took their time in life and learned to be independent. In the pilot episode of the show, Rachel moves in with Monica when she runs away from her own wedding.

The show is also culturally important because it is one of the first shows where the characters openly discuss dating, childbirth, sex, and sexual orientation. (And I'm only 10 episodes in). Samantha Allen writes in an article for Arts.Mic that, "There would be no New Girl, no Mindy Project, no Sex in the City without Friends."

After reading her this blog, Ali says that she's "proud of me." I don't know how much more of Friends I'll watch, solely because there are many other TV shows I want to see, but I don't regret a minute of it.