ENGL 227.1 Spring 2021 Class Discussion Blog

 I thought this movie was amazing. Maybe it's because we usually watch movies that are older and this one was more recent, but it was great. Firstly, I loved the art. When the film started it was one of the first things I realized. Especially when they showed the scent-sight that wolves have and that wolfwalkers have while they're in transition. Being able to see each others scent and the scents of everything around them was interesting and looked complicated to execute given the medium of the film. It was also a good indicator because I couldn't really tell if Mebh's mother, Mav had bitten Goodfellow, but when he started to see the scent-sight, it was a clear marker that he was turning into a wolfwalker. Being in this class, has showed me the clear signs of queerness between Robyn and Mebh. It was a genuine connection between them off the bat. Some may call this 'love at first sight' (even though it isn't a romantic love) because Mebh was automatically intr...

      I really enjoyed this film.  I mean it has a beautiful portrayal of the blossoming love between two girls and anti-christian sentiment.  What more could I want as a godless queer myself?  I think that it's wonderful that young children are seeing such a positive representation of found family and accepting those who are different.  Even before she is turned into a wolfwalker, Mebh treats Robyn with nothing but curiosity and kindness.  Robyn finds love an acceptance not only with her relationship with Mebh, but Mebh's mother also takes Robyn is as her own.  She also rebuilds her relationship and gains acceptance from her disapproving father.  This strained relationship and eventual reconciliation only plays further into the queer subtext.  Also, even if you choose to ignore the queer subtext this is still a wonderful story about two brave little girls fighting together to defeat the bad guys.  This breaking ...

  After taking this class for a semester I can easily tell the who the queer characters are. I really enjoyed this movie and it’s story. Probably because it’s a modern day made movie. In Wolf Walkers I could see the relationship Robyn and Mebh had instantly. Right from the first interaction they had together. Robyn is caught in a trap and Mebh, as a wolf, first reaction was curiosity. Not attack. She free’s Robyn from the trap and in the process accidently bites her. This bite eventually turns her into a wolf walker, a half human, half wolf. The transformation process closely resembled coming out. Robyn is a young kid who has a creative imagination who loves to talk about fairytales. In this movie any talk about wolf walkers is forbidden because it scares the townsfolk. But Robyn knows wolf walkers are not what they are perceived as. Mebh acts as Robyn’s queer guide because she persuades Robyn to defy her father’s wishes to come and hang out with her in the woods. When Mebh bit R...

 https://www.norwichfilmfestival.co.uk/blog/why-tangerine-2015-is-more-relevant-than-ever-this-international-womens-day/#:~:text=The%20reason%20that%20not%20only,screen%20and%20within%20the%20film

 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/03/sean-baker-trans-film-tangerine

https://theconversation.com/tangerine-the-film-that-takes-trans-issues-mainstream-on-an-iphone-50427  

 https://www.thewrap.com/tangerine-director-transgender-stars-deserve-recognition-oscars-spirit-awards/ Aside from the whole spiel about how Tangerine was shot on an iPhone, it touches upon unique topics such as the actual title of the film, the importance of setting the film during Christmas Eve, and the kind of category it should be recognized for, should it campaign for an Oscar nomination. 

 https://www.them.us/story/how-tangerine-taught-hollywood-to-tell-trans-stories

 https://www.them.us/story/how-tangerine-taught-hollywood-to-tell-trans-stories

https://nofilmschool.com/2016/02/how-sean-bakers-tangerine-shines-light-hollywoods-diversity-problems Donovan W. Gale :) 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/10/tangerine-film-iphone-buddy-comedy-transgender-prostitutes This article is a short but effective read about the creation of Tangerine and how significant it is that it's about transgender women. It talks about how there was no mention of the transgender identity of the movie before release, how the cast and characters came to be, and how the director and actresses wanted transgenderism to be portrayed. Here's a great quote from the article that I wanted to include here: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before signing on, however, Rodriguez (Actress) made one request of Baker (Director). “She said: ‘I trust you, I want to make this movie with you, but you have to promise to show the harsh reality of what goes on out here. These women are here because they have to be, and I want you make it hilarious and entertaining for us and the women who are ac...

 https://www.vogue.com/article/tangerine-sean-baker-mya-taylor-interview

 https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tangerine-2015

 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/10/tangerine-film-iphone-buddy-comedy-transgender-prostitutes 

 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/10/tangerine-film-iphone-buddy-comedy-transgender-prostitutes

 https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/film-week-tangerine

  https://sojo.net/articles/why-transgender-representation-tangerine-important

        

     This was by far my favorite movie we have watched this semester and I would 100% watch it again. I absolutely loved the main characters and how they all kind of bounced off of one and another. They were all different it their own ways and at different points throughout the movie you found out more and more about their personal lives and sort of the "demons" that they face outside of the world of being a drag queen and as a performer. Bernadette was a character that really spoke with me throughout this film. She is seen as an aging transgender woman who in her previous life she went by Ralph and is seen to be the one who is the most out spoken. She does speak her mind and lashes back at anyone who throws prejudice and bullying in their way. I also really enjoyed the character Bob who first comes out as a stereotypical male character and ends up being very excepting and respectful to these three individuals. He even stuck up for them when a group of guys that he was wi...

Jared Lestenkof I think I’ve seen “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert” before or at least I’ve seen scenes from it because I recognized a lot of it. It got to the point where I was trying to guess what was going to happen next and I was right half the time. I’ve seen my mom watch this movie before, I’m pretty sure that’s how I recognize it.  Anyways, I thought this movie was unique, it wasn’t my type of movie, but I enjoyed the story and the plot of it. While watching this movie it made me sad and feel bad for the characters the way they were treated for just being themselves.  What I really liked about this movie was the fact that they were just being themselves. They didn’t care what other people thought about them, all they wanted was to be treated like everyone else. My favorite scene was when Adam got chased by the homophobes and Tic, Robert, and Ralph came to his aid. It really shows the unity they have with each other and that no matter how much they...

Before watching this movie I decided to look it up to see what to expect. When I did this it set my expectations pretty high and this movie did not disappoint. Something about Drag Queens always just gets me- the hair, the makeup, the drama, the exaggerated personalities. I just love all of it.  My main focus for this blog post is going to be on the characters. I loved how each character was portrayed so much differently but at the same time they meshed together so well. The reading for this week did a great job summarizing this. Bernadette was by far my favorite character in the film. There's no other word that I think can describe her better than a queen. My favorite scene in the film was when the lady at the bar tried to kick out the trio because they "don't accept their kind there". Bernadette kept her composure as the strong woman she is while also standing her ground. Winning the shot competition was also just the cherry on top. I could see her confidence grow a...

      I thoroughly enjoyed The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert for so many reasons. I had never seen the movie before and I wasn't expecting it to have so much depth to it. I was assuming it was going to just be a campy, fun and slightly shallow movie that was just going to be a celebration and warm feel good film about queer identities. It was actually a movie with a lot of character and a lot of heart in it. It was especially refreshing to see a queer story on screen without having to analyze any characters to decipher whether or not they were queer. My only upset with the film was that they failed to cast actual queer people in the main roles.     The plot of the movie was deeply rooted in the fact that the three main characters were clearly queer identifying, although they all had their own unique relationships with gender identity and sexual orientation, which the assigned reading dived deeply into. Bernadette was a trans woman in life and...

 The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert was actually a pretty interesting movie to me. I thought it was interesting to see how Stephan Elliot used the story for the portrayal of masculine and feminine roles within these three characters, Tick, Adam, and Bernadette. The character that stood out the most to me was Adam. He was constantly doing things purposely to incite people to rage. He went too far however with the gang of townsmen. Bernadette had told Adam to stay home because they were in a new town and were trying, for the most part to stay low. Adam decided instead to go out instead and cause of group of townsmen to almost kill him, and would have castrated him, if it wasn't for Bob who stepped in and got them off him, but it was Bernadette who actually fought them in order for the rest to back off. I agree with the reading that this scene was indicative of her using her feminine personality and the strength she's obtained from the years of being ridiculed by a ...

 I have heard so much about this movie over the years and never really knew what it was about until watching it this week in class.  I actually really enjoyed this movie.  I liked that it was a mix of drama, comedy, and musical in a way.  I liked how this movie was very queer.  These are the type of queer movies that I am used to watching and I love that we are getting to those types of movies in this class.  I loved seeing how being transgender back then was. It was definitely a different life then what we see today but in some ways with all the recent news about transgender people it kind of is similar.  People didn't really understand back them and its very similar today, where people still don't get transgender individuals.  It was really cool and interesting to see a trans individual so confident in themselves especially for the time period and area this movie takes place in and where and when it was made.  I loved getting to watch how o...

I found the movie more interesting than the others though not as entertaining. It felt just as campy as the others but took a lot more time to go into the characters which presented a new amount of depth than our previous films. The lead trio of characters did not seek what other characters in our previous films sought. They did not care what people thought and at the negative opinions of the word all of them had the view of "I am who I am and you can't change that." the most interesting bond in the movie for my was between Adam and his son. The son had a very different outlook than the rest of the world towards them. He actively wants to know his father's job and while he is has mixed feelings on what he is, his son sees nothing wrong with his profession. the gender roles of the movie are a little mixed but still very defined. Bernadette as a transwoman and tick as a more feminine between he and Adam shows that there are still gender rolls being taken in the group. o...

Pricilla is my new favorite movie. Not any form of exaggeration is in that sentence. I feel like this is what I’ve been looking for for so long and I can only read Angels in America so many times (although that play has its own issues I won't get into). I state this love because there is such depth in all of Priscilla. The characters actually feel like real people, the script supports them so well, and the actors support this even further. The article also helps view these characters and their dynamics in a closer lens of female and male gender roles in society. One of the main things it highlights that I was trying to place in my head was how the power dynamics were controlled by these gender roles. Adam and Ticks conflict throughout the movie is directly caused by Ticks wavering masculinity/femininity and Adam’s self-loathing about his own identity. The same goes for Bernadette and Adam, her femininity is almost a challenge to Adam and the conflict directly unfolds through that. ...