The Importance of Rey

TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd

I know so many different bloggers, writers, and publications have written on why Daisy Ridley's character, Rey, in the latest "Star Wars" film is groundbreaking and generally amazing, but I wanted to say my piece as well. I'm a relatively new "Star Wars" fan, but I've fallen hard and fast for the film series. It's hard not to love such iconic, game-changing films with characters you feel like you've known all your life. I don't understand how someone could watch "Star Wars" and not fall completely in love with any of the characters. Personally, my obsession with Han Solo has already gotten out of hand (Hand. Ha. "Empire" reference.). So when I went to see "The Force Awakens", I got all I could have ever wanted in a "Star Wars" movie, plus, a new personal hero. I watched in total awe with the rest of the eager movie-goers as Rey changed the game for women everywhere. We're introduced to Rey on her planet of Jakku, scavenging and riding her speeder. OH AND DID I MENTION THAT SHE BUILT HER SPEEDER FROM SCRATCH?? BECAUSE SHE DID. After rescuing BB-8, we see how incredibly selfless she is, despite being alone all her life. One of Rey's greatest moment comes when she hijacks the best ship in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon, or "trash" as she calls it. Yes. A teenage girl piloting one of the most famous vehicles in pop culture history. THAT HAPPENED. Even Han was majorly impressed. Rey displays her allegiance to the light side of the force after being captured by the First Order and refusing to give up information to the powerful Kylo Ren. Finally, perhaps Rey's greatest moment: her epic lightsaber battle. The only other time we've even seen a woman use a lightsaber in the "Star Wars" film universe was a small glimpse of Aayla Secura in "Attack of the Clones". But here we get to see a young woman fight, and totally DESTROY her opponent in a lightsaber battle. Rey is here for generations of girls who will grow up believing in their own self-worth because they see women like her on movie screens. "Attack of the Clones" was released just ten years before "The Force Awakens" and in that short time, so much has changed. Ten years ago when I was a little girl, "Star Wars" wasn't marketed to me. People still thought of them as "boy movies". But ten years later, it's all about representation. "Star Wars" is for everyone regardless of race, gender, or age. Little girls are finally getting the "Star Wars" protagonist they deserve: an intelligent and confident young woman. She isn't indestructible, either. She has real feelings you can understand and relate to. She lets her emotions show, but she never lets them get the best of her. The protagonist of the biggest film franchise in the world is an engineer, a pilot, a scavenger, and, yeah, she's a woman too. That's pretty extraordinary, and I can't wait to see her legendary story as the new savior of the galaxy unfold. Help us, Rey. You're our only hope!

Simply Meant to Be: Tina Belcher and Every Boy She Sees

Bob's Burgers, let  me just say, you're the greatest. If you haven't binge-watched Bob's Burgers on Netflix yet, what the heck are you doing?! Also, I'm jealous because you get to discover the magic and wit of the show for the first time. If you've seen Bob you know the best part of the show is the kids. While Gene is full of double entendres, and Louise is  brilliantly manipulative, Tina is awesomely relatable. Tina's boy obsession distracts her at every turn. She's totally butt-crazy in love with pretty much every guy she sees. The way she falls in love everywhere she looks is pretty inspirational. She's no stranger to unrequited love (like all of us at some point, probably). No matter who turns her down, Tina knows where her true self-worth lies. You can't knock down Tina Belcher! Jimmy Jr., Turtle-Finger-Bite-Guy, Jonas, etc., none of them worked out, but Tina pushed on. She is unabashedly exactly who she is all the time. Her confidence hardly ever wavers. So, as I'm writing this I'm sort of realizing that Tina and "Every Boy She Sees" aren't meant to be, it's Tina and herself. As she once said,
"I don't need a boy to pay attention to me. I can pay attention to myself." All hail Tina Belcher, the queen of self love. 

I'm Back!!!!

Hi, I realize its been several eternities since I last posted here, and for that I apologize. I've been a little busy for the past couple of months with school and holidays and such which really isn't an excuse! So here I am again, ready to share with anyone out there my love for film and TV and whatnot. This up-coming week is exam week for me, so I'll try to post in between studying sessions! Once again, if you're reading this, thank you!

A Study in Tropes: The Blonde Sacrifice

(SPOILER WARNING: I Know What You Did Last Summer) We've seen it a thousand times. She's cute! She's blonde! She's...dead and covered in her own blood and guts! This trope was popularized, and most likely created by, Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock enjoyed killing blondes in his movies, and the audience loved to see them get killed. What is it that is so appealing to movie-goers about seeing angelic-looking young women get slashed? Maybe it's the contrast between the pure, light hair and the heavy, dark blood. But you have to love the blonde sacrifice! She's unsuspecting, she's beautiful and she's got a pretty sweet death scene, but no one takes her seriously. What many don't realize is that the blonde sacrifice can be the most interesting character in the movie. Take Helen Shivers in I Know What You Did Last Summer, played perfectly by my life-long idol, Sarah Michelle Gellar. Helen's life seems like a teenage girl's dream before the car incident. Helen is beautiful, she's fashionable, and she dates Ryan Philippe, for God's sake. Her character is shallowly written before the car incident,  but after she is forced to realize that all of her good fortune has been based entirely on her looks. She tries her hand at acting in New York City, but realizes that she lacks the depth needed to be a serious actress. When she moves back to her home town, she feels worthless. She values her looks above everything, because she thinks that her looks are the only thing she has. The killer has been observing her for a year now and knows about her insecurities. The killer knows that the way to finally destroy her is by taking away the only thing she has left, which is in her mind, her looks. The killer cuts her long, blonde hair while she sleeps, thus symbolically delivering the final blow. Poor Helen is tortured and tormented unfairly by the killer. He kills her sister, then proceeds to chase her for several terrifying minutes. Helen narrowly escapes, but is finally, brutally murdered by the hook-handed villain. Helen was a fighter, she was bright, and there was so much more to her than met the eye. Thank you, SMG for portraying perhaps the most secretly-interesting, totally-tragic, blonde sacrifice of all time. Helen Shivers, you deserved a better fate.

A Tribute to "My So-Called Life"

The year is 1994. A teenage girl finally sees a show that actually understands what she's going through. The year is 2015. A teenage girl finally sees a show that actually understands what she's going through. The show is My So-Called Life. I've only been on this planet for fifteen years, but I have watched an obscene amount of television. Probably more than most people twice my age (I'm really not bragging, I just have very few hobbies). Of all of the dozens of television shows for teenagers I've seen, My So-Called Life is the most honest and the most realistic. It has been over twenty years since it's premiere, but the issues it tackles span generations. The show was, in many ways, ahead of it's time. One of the show's main characters is a gay, Puerto Rican teenager played expertly by Wilson Cruz. I mean, look at television shows for teens even today and you won't see many LGBT+ youth. Let alone LGBT+ PoC. Wilson Cruz's character Rickie was intelligently and beautifully written. In fact, all of the characters were. A.J. Langer's troubled rebel Rayanne was apart of some of the most emotional story arcs. My So-Called Life had so many memorable characters, but none so iconic as it's star. Claire Danes' Angela was so perfectly angst-ridden, so wonderfully inquisitive. We see through high school as it truly is through the eyes of Angela, an average fifteen-year-old girl living in Pittsburgh in the mid-'90s. Angela feels everything so strongly as she attempts to make sense of her adolescent years. Angela is very smart, but kind of clueless about a lot of things (much like myself). She tries to find out who she is and where she belongs in this world. It would amaze me how I'd watch an episode of My So-Called Life that correlated directly to my life. A favorite of mine was the episode where the guys at Angela's school made a list ranking the sophomore girls in categories based on their physical appearances or personalities. Rayanne got the honor of being named the sophomore girl with the "most slut-potential". This list is so obviously ridiculous, but Angela can't help but question her own attractiveness. She feels ugly, even though she knows it's just a stupid list. This is perhaps Angela's most relatable and realistic quality: she can't help but care what other people think of her.

To Love, To Understand, and to Appreciate: Teen Movies

Teen movies have faded in and out of popular culture since James Dean became the pinnacle of all things cool in Rebel Without a Cause. Fast-forward to 2015, and teen movies are still splashed on the silver screen. Just this year we've seen The Duff, Dope, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and most recently, Paper Towns. Perhaps they are not as big of a deal as they were in the John Hughes era  of the mid-'80s, but everything comes back eventually. Things died down after John Hughes' reign, but made a comeback with Clueless in 1995. I believe that teen movies have stood the test of time because they depict the awkward, exciting, and at times, terrifying things we are all forced to go through in high school. That's not to say, however, that they're always realistic. I mean, I seriously doubt that anyone at you high school looked like Freddie Prinze Jr. or Johnny Depp. You'll very seldom see actual awkward sixteen-year-olds in teen movies, more like, ridiculously attractive almost-thirty-year-olds. These movies are full of scandal, betrayal, love, lust, temptation, humor, and new experiences. These coming-of-age movies help us to grow up and mature. Seeing these beautiful actors play teenagers makes adolescence seem so much less terrifying. They remind us that there is always humor in even the most angst-y situations. Even though teen movies aren't always terribly realistic, they have so many other great qualities. While some may  seem trite, others are classics of their genres. There are teen comedies, slasher flicks, action movies, comic book movies, dramas, and just about every genre in between. They're special and they comfort us in our confusing formative years. These movies present to us in a typically more glamorous light what we must face the day our lives begin: we all have to grow up eventually.

An Introduction

I'm Kaki and this is my blog about movies and television. I'll post here about this stuff as often as I can. If you're reading this, thank you!