the red turtle (2016)

PLOT: A man is stranded on an island, and each time he attempts to escape, a large red turtle wrecks his raft and he must return to the island. One day the red the turtle crawls onto the beach, and out of anger the man beats it and turns it on its back, leaving it to die. He quickly feels remorseful, and one day the turtle turns into a naked woman in a shell - the American dream! Sorry, I'll stop editorializing. They make a child together and have a happy life. The child grows into a man and leaves them to be with his turtle friends. Eventually, the father passes away peacefully, and the woman turns back into a turtle and returns to the sea.

This movie was pretty much just what I expected, except maybe even less interesting that I expected. But let me focus on the positives first: The visuals were definitely beautiful - subtle gradients of watercolor brushed across the sands of the beach and the thick grass the characters would walk through as they passed in and out of the bamboo forest. Turtles are just beautiful animals in general, and it was a pleasure seeing them depicted on screen as gentle giants that held affection for humanity. The scene in which the red turtle makes its way up the shore only to be greeted by violence from the man is saddening, and his gradually surfacing remorse at what he had done was poignantly depicted. Definitely my favorite scene. The soundtrack was also full of rolling swells of orchestral strings, which lended the film an atmosphere of wonder and immersion. The pacing also did a great job of depicting time passing as the characters all grew older.

las tortugas!

Now for the negatives. In general, the characters were all incredibly lacking in depth and personality. I understand that the film makes it obvious that it is striving for simplicity in not only storyline but in all aspects of the story, ending with many things left unexplained for the sake of acting as some kind of allegory of the universal experiences of humanity - but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Therein lies the more major problem: In depicting a very plain set of characters, it succeeds in alienating viewers who do not identify with with the everyman journey that we are taught to aspire to. What baffled me right away was that the woman, who is clearly not of this world since she appeared out of nowhere inside a turtle shell, had incredibly gendered manners of interacting with the man. In their first interaction she displays the ever-praised value of modesty, as she refuses to come out of the water until he leaves a shirt on the shore and retreats to the forest to give her privacy. Though she is a magical being, she takes on the traditionally female roles of gathering mussels from the sandbar, providing emotional support for their child, always displaying more emotion than the man does, clinging to his arm as they walk down the beach together. Even after their kid leaves the island and the couple are free to shed their clothing and modesty, I don't think her chest ever saw the light of day as there was always, of course, a chunk of hair covering her breasts up. Not sure that's how hair physics works. In general, it is almost painful to watch how uncreatively she is depicted. Even if she is meant to embody a true human being, it is still downright annoying and boring to see such a gendered depiction of a couple. Yawn.

CYOOT c:

Of course, I found the infant child delightful as I do all infant children. They should have tried for another kid when the first one left!! Would love to see The Red Turtle 2, where the red turtle woman spirit seduces yet another man, this time an Asian??, and has adorable Asian octuplets. Ya girl can dream, right?

orange is the new black S5 (2017)

The latest season of OITNB took place over the course of a 3 day riot at Litchfield Prison. The central plotline consisted of Taystee and her friends mourning Poussey's death, and trying to harness their anger into creating a set of demands for improving prison conditions in exchange for the CO they held hostage.

As the inmates enjoy their couple days of freedom, we see a comedic yet revealing role reversal - the COs, now hostages, are coerced and beaten and humiliated just as the inmates had been. We get the satisfaction of seeing the inmates act so sadistically, which was both fun and a little scary to see trauma being perpetuated by the traumatized. The "talent show" that was held was fun comedic relief, but I thought the methheads had wayyyy too much screen time. Even though I have a soft spot for Angie, the two of them didn't really add an intellectual depth to the story, and their comedy was enjoyable only sometimes - mostly just mildly disturbing. Especially when they peed in Pennsatucky's yellow juice. :(

Taystee's story was very well done! Her initial outrage at Poussey's death being put at odds with Soso, whose sadness prompted her to build an open air library in the hallways of the prison - a beautiful tribute to Poussey and her love of books. As Taystee's friends convince her to open up the list of demands to a vote from all the inmates, we see her indignity and feelings of betrayal as she realizes that most other inmates do not prioritize prosecuting CO Bailey, Poussey's killer. As she steps up as a leader and representative of the inmates, she lets her pride get in the way of accepting a deal that would have changed the lives of hundreds of inmates for the better. Her character arc was made even more compelling by the fact that the riot ended with none of their demands met, and instead, women being beaten by cruel SWAT team members and friendships being torn apart as the inmates board separate buses that are supposedly taking them to new prisons.

On that note, it was touching to see Flaca and Maritza tell each other that they found best friends in each other at prison. To see them being separated while boarding buses was heartbreaking, and it was the one time my eyes welled up with tears. The idea of families and friendships and communities being torn apart again and again seems to be a recurring theme in the history (and present) of how America treats people of color, who incidentally are given longer prison sentences for more benign crimes, and I can't help but think of how that parallels the way black families were torn apart through the slave economy the second this country was established. This is what happens when one is seen as less than human.

Overall, I enjoyed the tight storyline of this season and a couple of moving character developments. Interested in seeing what becomes of our beloved characters!