Tag: self-loathing

2023 RAZZIES: “Blonde”, “Elvis”

Film Review by Marlene Ardoin

The Razzie phenomenon began in 1980, but with as much as we now know about bullying and harrassment, I think it is time to pop the razzie balloon.

Recently, the films they make fun of, are also up for major film awards like “Blonde” and “Elvis.”

It is so easy to hurl insults at a vulnerable individual.

In the past, The Razzies have picked on easy, publically vulnerable targets.

They love to make fun of couples who are in love, ” Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Breaking Dawn,” and “Gigli,” come to mind.

Their picks are also cruelly sexist, racist, and even make fun of the newbie and the underage target, like Macaulay Culkin.

Why don’t they go after films, that are unapologetically violent, racist, sexist or cause irredeemable harm?

If they cannot do this, then this should be the last year of the Golden Raspberry Awards, as their powerful enemies keep getting heftier and heftier.

The Razzie winners will be announced on Oscar’s eve on March 11, 2023.

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Full list of 2023 Razzie award nominations:

https://en.as.com/entertainment/2023-razzie-award-nominations-the-full-list-n/

Every Razzie Worst Picture winner by year:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/every-razzie-worst-picture-winner-by-year/ss-AA160Iud?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=94de560834cc42ea8523dc0a808c23a7#image=1

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BLONDE

BLONDE - Marilyn & husband

Netflix's Blonde Has 2022's Scariest Movie Scene - Gamerstail BLONDE - Marilyn in bed

BLONDE

Film Review by Marlene Ardoin

It seems that no matter how many times Marilyn Monroe’s story is attempted, she gets a Razzie nomination, because everyone just sees one thing, Marilyn’s naked body.

Producer, Brad Pitt, tries to illustrate the pathos of her situation in multiple ways, from childhood to her last breathe, but we still just see Marilyn’s naked body.

The film script for “Blonde” skips over her years in foster care and her first marriage to James Dougherty at age sixteen.

The Fictional novel, Blonde, by Joyce Carol Oates (The Ecco Press/HarperCollins) was a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize, but the story in this film is wildly fictional and scantily symbolic.

Nowhere in Marilyn’s biography does she get involved with the eldest son of Charlie Chaplin.

Though Marilyn is compared to Charlie Chaplin in her “ability to blend comedy and tragedy.”

Marilyn was looking for the missing father figure in her life, which explains her attraction to and idolatry of men in authority positions, which “Blonde” does point out correctly.

Unfortunately, men in authority positions at that time, did take advantage of beautiful women and used their lack of money as leverage.

The real Marilyn Monroe had to fight for her opportunities and for her money, until she just did not have the ability to fight anymore.

Ana de Armas does a great job of capturing Marilyn’s perception, innocence, and emotional nakedness.

This time, the Razzie creators do not get to exploit her in the cruelest way yet.

They do not get to pin her up for ridicule as a symbol of their own desire and self-loathing.

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Trailer: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Blonde+2022&docid=608005135920276919&mid=7838116A78C119B8E35B7838116A78C119B8E35B&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe

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ELVIS

Image result for elvis movie 2022 Elvis (2022) Full Movie | Free HD To Watch

Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” with Tom Hanks and Austin Butler Opens to Muted Praise from Critics at ... Image result for elvis movie 2022 tom hanks

ELVIS

Film Review by Marlene Ardoin

The Razzies go after Tom Hanks, of all people, for playing Elvis’s manager. why?

I think Hanks should be congratulated for having the courage to play what appears to be an unattractive, flawed character in the film.

The Colonel had secrets, but on the other hand, he stood beside Elvis during the good times and the bad. He was not a fair weather friend.

Even Elvis’s family felt Colonel Tom Parker deserved every penny for his services.

I feel this is a clear Razzie case of a younger generation bullying and making fun of the values of an older generation as depicted in the film,”Elvis.”

Elvis clearly respected the Colonel as a manager and as a friend.

Elvis did not judge people by their age or appearance, which was part of his appeal to the masses.

And, that is why Elvis was loved and why the Razzies are not loved.

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Trailer: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x87zl7

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Tom_Parker

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2/25/23 # 2023 RAZZIES: “Blonde”, “Elvis”

Demolition, with father-in-law

Father-in-law (Chris Cooper), Phil, pressures Davis (Jake Gyllenhaal) to pull it together

Demolition, with teen

Jake Gyllenhaal, Davis, and Judah Lewis, Chris, learn how to use tools together.

DEMOLITION

By Marlene Ardoin

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Davis, a man dealing with his wife’s sudden death. He can’t quite put his finger on it, but something is off about the event.

He feels that he was married to a stranger. Her last words to him were about using his tools. This triggers a psychosis in him to take everything apart with his tools. He didn’t even know he had tools. His main way of making a living is in big finance, not using tools.

Both physically and psychologically, he begins to examine his life and his marriage relationship.

He communicates his discoveries and frustrations in a series of complaint letters to a vending machine company. While he was waiting in the trauma floor of the hospital, he tries to purchase some peanut M & M’s, but they get stuck in the vending machine.

His series of letters reveal a surprising effort on his part. He is frustrated that he was not able to get his M & M’s, because, we discover that almost everything else in his life was obtained easily and effortlessly.

He discovers in his process, that not only did he not know who his wife was, but her well-to-do parents had even less of a clue than he did.

His wife was their only child, so they wanted to create some kind of a legacy to keep her memory alive. What they come up with as a legacy had no relationship to what their daughter really cared about.

Meanwhile, a female customer service rep, Karen (Naomi Watts), at the vending machine company responds to his letters. She is pulled into his struggle and web of exploration out of curiosity and concern.

She is a single mom with a rebellious teen son (Judah Lewis), who has some questions about his sexual orientation. Clearly, she has a lot on her plate, but her heart goes out to Davis. She is on a different social status, and her life is even more desperate and unexamined than his. He has a lot more money than she, and she does not have any money to waste.

What this film triggers in me is the old adage that an unexamined life is not worth living.

How can one raise a child without having some kind of understanding of who they are? And, the same goes for a marital partner. How can you be married to someone without learning anything about them?

Like, what do they really care about? What makes them come alive? And, what can you do to nurture the best in them?

Davis is open to these questions in himself and proves to be very non-judgmental in his discovery of others.

I have the sense that this is just the beginning of his self-discovery. So far, he has just done what was easy, without much effort on his part. Like Karen’s teen, he is full of self-loathing. He feels dead, without goals, excitement, striving or challenge. He is in the process of rejecting the easy way, which did not serve him, or do him any real favors.

This film concerns itself with truth and love, as each character serves to reveal and nurture one another in surprising ways.

Why just include ones children or ones marital partner, why not extend it to teachers, neighbors, employers, spiritual leaders and political leaders, to name a few possibilities?

4/21/2016 # Demolition