Blog Post 8: Pan's Labyrinth

Welcome to the Blogging Brooke,

Today I will be talking about a 2006 film directed by Guillermo del Toro called Pan's Labyrinth. I enjoyed watching this film, however, the only critique I have is that we watched the Spanish Version with English subtitles, and I feel like the subtitles are a little distracting to the film. Pan's Labyrinth reminded me and my roommate both of the film Spirited Away.

It reminded me of Spirited Away because in this film, Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi), leaves her hometown and ends up in a world totally unfamiliar with the one she has known. This ties into the film Pans' Labyrinth because Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), ends up in the Labyrinth world. In this world, she is a completely different person who faces obstacles and lives a different life.

Side note: thing that is interesting to me is the movie covers. They look very similar, and they have a similar story line. It makes me wonder if Guillermo had used Spirited away as inspiration in some way.

Continuing to the film, it was interesting to see how Ofelia was told that she was the reincarnation of Princess Moanna. Not a lot of characters in films that I have seen get this plot twist towards the beginning of the movie. Ofelia has to face many obstacles, much like that of Chihiro. However, Ofelia had a goal in mind and would not stop till that goal was completed. Sadly, Ofelia ended up dying because of it, but she was able to return home as Princess Moana.

I think that Guillermo did a good job of foreshadowing in the film. In the beginning scenes where we saw Ofelia and the fawn, we as an audience, knew what we were getting into and prepared for the films many plots' twists. I have never seen any of his films before, but after having the pleasure of watching Pan's Labyrinth, I will say that he is one director I will be watching more now.

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Blog Post 14: The Social Dilemma

Welcome to the Blogging Brooke, Today I would like to talk about the Netflix film called The Social Dilemma. I had already watched this documentary prior to this film class earlier on in the semester for my social media class. In this blog post, I will define my key takeaways from the film. First I will start off with how many dilemmas I was able to count in the film. At minute 6:40, Tristan Harris, a former Google design enthusiast and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, names 7 dilemmas. These seven include a cacophony of grievances and scandals, data stealing, tech addiction, fake news, political polarization, elections getting hacked. Cynthia Wong named a few more offline harm dilemmas including hate speech, manipulating public opinion, and inciting violence. There is also populism, mass chaos, and lack of trust. In total, I counted thirteen dilemmas. One in detail would be fake news. Fake news is always harmful to society. It causes p...

Blog Post 1: My Interest in Film

Welcome to the Blogging Brooke Today I would like to share with you how my interest in film came to be. My first experiences with film began at a young age. I was always sitting by the television mesmerized by all of the colors on the screen. As I got older and learned to understand the storylines, my interest in film sky-rocketed. The first film that I can recall watching and understanding is The Little Mermaid. I remember this because I had an obsession with mermaids and the ocean. I loved going to the beach with my family and pretending that I was a mermaid, so this is the movie that really stuck out to me. Additionally, my favorite show at the time was H2O, and to no surprise, it is a show about girls who grow mermaid tails when they touch water. The Little Mermaid is making a live-action film, the trailer for it was just released a couple of days ago. I was ecstatic after I watched it and cannot wait for the fil...

Blog Post 11: You, Me, and Everyone We Know

Welcome to the Blogging Brooke, This week in class we watched the 2005 Drama/Romance film, You, Me, and Everyone We Know. I enjoyed watching this film. The biggest takeaway I got from this was the importance that human connection has in people's lives. It focuses on how separation has a bad impact on human connection. In this blog I talk about how humans' thirst for some sort of connection in their lives, both human and electronic. In the beginning of the film, we are introduced to Richard Swersey. He has just gone through a breakup with the mother of his two children, Peter and Robby. He is now a single father who struggles in his job as a shoe-salesman to support and provide for his kids. He finds himself alone, stressed, and tired. However, he is doing everything he can to rebuild a connection with both Peter and Robby. Then one day while Richard was working, a young lady walked into his shop in search of shoes. This young lady is introduced as Christine. She is a l...

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