James Philbrick

A good movie not only entertains someone, but it makes them think about the film and how it relates to life. An amazing movie makes viewers think about the film long after watching it and has an impact on their life. Million Dollar Baby is a spectacular example of all these factors. Million Dollar Baby is a dramatic film directed by Clint Eastwood and it stars Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald, a poor boxer who is determined to become the very best she can be. Million Dollar Baby is a perfect example of a drama film because it has a complex and engaging conflict, the characters are believable and appealing, and the conflict is constantly switching gears, taking captive of the audience’s attention and grasping it until the very end of the film, resulting in an enthusiastic viewing.  Million Dollar Baby tells the inspirational story of Maggie Fitzgerald, a hard working, dedicated, and inspired rookie boxer who will do whatever it takes to be the best. The story opens in...

   In 1999, Sam Mendes released his comedic drama film that was nominated for 8 Oscars and won 5, including Best Picture. The movie, American Beauty , is about two families whose members are all trying to achieve happiness in different ways. To achieve happiness, the characters go either with or against society’s norms.  This takes place throughout the entire movie and explores the different ways people search for happiness, along with the positive and negative results of their actions. The theme of American Beauty is that the pursuit of happiness is the driving force in everyone’s life, but is overall an impossible task to complete unless it is through death. The film explores how each character is set on achieving happiness and how it is always the most important thing to them, no matter how it affects other people around them. American Beauty was made in the very late 1990’s and was also set in the same time period.  The film reflects the time it was m...

Cooties is a horror comedy film directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion. The film revolves around Elijah Wood as Clint, a failed writer working as an elementary school teacher to pay the bills. However, on his first day at a new school, the children eat contaminated chicken nuggets and turn into child zombies. Chaos ensues as Clint and his coworkers try to survive against the zombie plague that can only be spread through children.  I had a lot of problems with this movie, so I’ll start with the extremely boring set up. We are introduced to Clint, Lucy, and Wade. Clint has a huge crush on Lucy, but her boyfriend Wade keeps getting in the way. None of the characters are likable except the main character, but he is so bland and uninteresting.  Lucy is the typical love interest and Wade is the typical asshole boyfriend while the rest of the characters are just there.  Clint begins to teach his first class and a sick girl takes a chomp out of another boy’s f...

Gender stereotypes are an ongoing conflict in modern society today and both women and men attempt to escape the generalizations that surround their everyday lives. Unfortunately, media does not help people escape these gender stereotypes. That is why it is so important to recognize when something in the media attempts to break these stereotypes.  A great example of this is the movie Million Dollar Baby that was directed by Clint Eastwood in 2004 and starred Hilary Swank. Million Dollar Baby tells the inspirational story of Maggie Fitzgerald, a hard working, dedicated, and inspired rookie boxer who will do whatever it takes to be the best. Maggie starts training in a gym and is immediately judged by others for being an older woman boxer. The men try to kick her out of the gym and discourage her, but she is determined to prove them wrong. She attempts to recruit the owner to be her trainer, but he quickly declines and states, “I don’t train girls.” After spending long hours i...

A huge part of film and how a film is made is how directors control physical elements of filming to display themes in their movies. This results in a powerful way of expression oneself through a film. This can be done in many ways, including editing. Editing is taking footage and crafting that footage together to make the film and directors can use various techniques to make the best version of a film possible.  In 2014, Damien Chazelle released his Drama film that was nominated for 5 Oscars and won 3, including Best Film Editing, Whiplash . Whiplash is about a young musician who is willing to work as hard as he possibly can to be the very best. Whiplash revolves around a young man named Andrew, who is going to school and wants to be a famous drummer. In his journey to be the best, Andrew must overcome many obstacles and give up many things in order to achieve his goals. The theme of Whiplash is that being the best at what you do comes with a price. To best display that ...

I absolutely love horror movies. My dad introduced me to horror films around 2010 and since then I’ve been a horror junkie. Some of my earliest viewings of horror included The Crazies (2010), Final Destination , Scream , Paranormal Activity , Fright Night (2011), and Legion . Legion was one of the earliest horror movies I had seen and I remember watching it more than once. I would watch it with each one of my friends and I remember it being amazing. I hadn’t seen it for a couple of years and this weekend I decided to give it a re-watch. However, I really wish that I didn’t.  Legion is a 2010 horror film directed by Scott Steward. It stars Paul Bettany as Michael and Adrianne Palicki as Charlie. The film revolves around the archangel Michael. Michael was sent to Earth to kill a baby who had the potential to save the human race from God’s destruction. God decides to kill the human race because he believes there is no hope left for them. However, Michael cuts off hi...

In 1980, Robert Redford released his dramatic coming of age film that was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and won four, including best picture and best director. Ordinary People is about a family dealing with the death of their son/brother. The film offers many perspectives on mental illnesses and how people deal with them and at the same time explores how our culture views mental illness. The film revolves around Conrad, who is the son of Beth and Calvin. Conrad’s brother died in a boating accident. Conrad, blaming himself, tries to commit suicide and is put in the hospital. Upon his release, his father encourages him to see a doctor and eventually Conrad is on the road to overcome his depression. At the same time, Beth and Calvin have to deal with the death of their first-born son and they both do it different ways. Calvin realizes he has a problem and takes care of it himself while Beth refuses to believe she needs help.  The theme of Ordinary People is mental illness is ...

               In 2004, Clint Eastwood released his dramatic sports film that was nominated for 7 Oscars and won 4 including best picture. Million Dollar Baby is about a woman who must overcome many obstacles to achieve her goals, despite when everyone is telling her that she can’t. Million Dollar Baby tells the inspirational story of Maggie Fitzgerald, a hard working, dedicated, and inspired rookie boxer who will do whatever it takes to be the best. Maggie wants to be a boxer even though she is in her 30’s, which is an unusual age for beginner boxers. The theme is of Million Dollar Baby is that life is unfair, but you have to keep working hard anyway to achieve your goals.  Million Dollar Baby is my favorite film because it has a complex, but understandable plot and has complex characters. It is important to have a complex plot because a simple conflict can often become a bore in a drama film. If the conflict is complex then the audien...