A Decade with 'The Dojo': Ten Years, Top Ten Essays.

 

On June 19^th 2023, The Sociologist’s Dojo blog will celebrate its 10^th anniversary. In this brief paper, I will look back on the last ten years of Sociological film analysis, and give “The Dojo’s: Ten years, Top Ten essays.”  The criterion for this curated list is eclectic; some essays are chosen for their significance to the blog, others are selected because they are connected to specific historical events at the time, while others are selected because of personal interest, they are well written, or haven’t been viewed/read by many people.  

 

ORIGINS

The following story also recounted in Episode 1 of the Podcast, and the Episode 312: Zen and the White Male Savior in Film from The Social Breakdown Podcast

            The start of the blog began with my first viewing of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel in June of 2013. Being such a Superman fan since I was a young child, and growing up on the Richard Donner/Christopher Reeve Superman, I could not believe that this paragon of goodness, the best reflection of humanity, was a bleakly morose brooding child whose parents tell them to let people die, including themselves, and that secrets, above everything else, are worth keeping. In addition to the now typical criticisms of wanton destruction, civilian deaths, and Superman murdering Zod…Krypton’s Sun was Yellow!!!

 

Zack Snyder's 'Man of Steel' is such a bloated, shaky, incoherent mess, it robs Superman of his majesty, grace, morality, and above all...hope. Snyder "accomplishes" this through a disjointed plot, two- dimensional/underdeveloped characters, poorly written dialogue, and sloppy direction. (Man of Steel Review)

 

The film was an abysmal mess, and I could not let it go. My rage did not subside as I started to think about the many ways that the film misrepresented the character of Superman. I began to think about what Superman was as a cultural product, and what the imagery of Superman represented in the public consciousness. Initially, I was doing this to provide some “evidence” and justification for my hatred of the film (not good research, to be certain). Yet, as I started to breakdown the character, applying concepts that I had learned from my expertise and training about masculinity and religion, I really got into thinking about film and popular culture in an academic way. So, I started a blog.

Externally, I told myself that the reason I chose the blog as the initial format for my content is because I wanted to be like Sociologist C. Wright Mills; to be a public intellectual and engage in “Public Sociology”. Public Sociology is a style of sociology that seeks to engage directly with the public to help foster more immediate and (possibly) greater social change. Internally, not unlike many of the egoistic fascist-like douche bag overtly masculine directors I despise, I wanted to keep “my vision” of the blog pure. Truthfully, I did not want to deal with the anxiety and feelings of rejection that come with academic publishing because I was afraid of rejection, and I did not want to deal with criticism. A self-published blog was the easiest way to achieve that.

What’s in a Name?

I chose the name “The Sociologist’s Dojo” for a couple of reasons. The first is that the name and the content represent my three main life passions: Sociology, the martial arts, and film and popular culture. All these things represent me, and my interests. Secondarily, aside from sounding cool, I asked the question: “Where is the Sociologist’s Dojo?” Where do they learn and train to hone their skills? We would traditionally see this to be in the ivory tower of academia, but in practice, it is within society. Sociologists are different than any other type of scientist in that we constantly participate in the very things that we study. Even we cannot escape cultural and social norms that we have been socialized to follow. The name is intended to reflect all of this.  

The Shifts in Focus

At the onset, the beginning of the blog had a much broader focus to cover comics, and martial arts. While some of the early essays reflect this broader scope, it was more so a starting point, raw materials that needed to be refined.

Trivia: The first post on the blog wasn’t an essay, it was a ‘Welcome’:

   Greetings all,

 

I created this blog as a space to discuss the things that I love: Sociology, Martial Arts, Superheroes, Books and Cinema.  This blog will focus on the social analysis of popular culture, Martial Arts and anything that I feel is "Geek" worthy.  Essentially, the posts that are to follow are going to be rants and/or raves about society, culture, social theory, martial arts, movies, and virtually anything else that comes into my head.

 

Enjoy :)

 

As I continued to refine my writing skills and find the voice of the blog, I began to narrow my focus to specifically film and popular culture. In that, I started to think about in-depth analysis of film from a Sociological Perspective which led to a shedding of a lot of comics and martial arts content, though it does come up again sporadically. One of the biggest shifts, early on, was the development of my ongoing series on a director’s filmography. In the ten years of the blog, I have covered the films of Christopher Nolan, Hayao Miyazaki, Karyn Kusama and The Chambara films of Akira Kurosawa. As this feature continues, I will attempt to do more Avant Garde and less mainstream directors, while trying to include as many women and people of color as possible. Also, I will not be covering the white male darlings of 70’s new Hollywood (Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg, Cameron, Kubrick).

Conversely, there were things that I have written about in the early days, that I will not do anymore or have moved away from. Early on, there were straight reviews for films with little Sociological analysis, such as the reviews for Guardians of the Galaxy, Gravity, or Transcendence (yeesh!). I eventually ended my straight reviews, without a specific Sociological bent to it with X-Men: Days of Future Past when I began to develop the (now) typical structure for the film review that can be found in the Analytical essay for James Mangold’s Logan.     Additionally, where I used to write a lot about the character of Batman, given “The Dark Knight Trilogy”, as of my essay on police brutality and popular culture during the 2020 protests (see below), I will no longer writing about Batman.

 

TEN YEARS, TOP TEN ESSAYS IN ‘THE SOCIOOLOGIST’S DOJO’

With each of the essays that I will highlight in this section I will give some greater context of the blog:

 

2013: Man of Steel Review Part II Analysis of an Icon

            Where it all started. This year saw the most essays written for the blog in a single year and started the director series with The Films of Christopher Nolan. This year, the essay that really stands out for me is the essay “’Man of Steel’ Review part II: Analysis of an Icon” the second part of my evisceration of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. This essay was the first breath of what the blog would eventually become. I also came back to this subject years later with the second Podcast episode “Sparring with Superman.”

2014: TFCN: The Dark Knight Rises

            During the second year of the blog the structure of the essays and the focus of the blog began to crystallize. But still there were less analytical essays and pieces on current pop cultural news that became too difficult to keep up with. This year also saw essays on the Michael Brown murder in Ferguson and an early review of Bong Joon Ho’s  Snowpiercer. The essay that is important out of this sophomore year is the essay on The Dark Knight Rises which signifies the solidification of the structure of the blogs essay analysis.     

 

2015: The Furious Age of Feminism: The Mad Max and Avengers' Gender Controversy

            The third year of the blog saw some misfires with the soft commitment to writing a “Comics Character Profile” This idea was later scrapped when I realized that I just wanted to write on one of my favorite characters: John Constantine. I later repeat this mistake in 2017. 2015 also had several “Sociological Alert essays on the Paris attacks, and Marriage Equality  as well as Rachel Dolezal and the Domestic Terrorism of Dylan Roof. I would often use the phrase “Sociology Alert” to convey that the essays would be more societal/current event focus and not localized to films (Last used in 2021). However, there was an intersection of current events and film with the very different blowback felt by Avengers: Age of Ultron and Mad Max: Fury Road each sexist and anti-feminist in nature. This is what let to that essay getting the spotlight.   

2016: The Machete Cut and the Diminishing Margin Utility of Star Wars

        Year four of the blog begins the lean years. This was a period of 3 years where I was building new curriculum, writing new degrees/courses and going through a personal crisis or two, that did not leave a lot of room for non-work-related fun essay writing. However, I still managed to write my “Trump Analysis Trilogy” three interlocking essays which served as my process for working through the events of the 2016 election.

 Part I: “Donald Trump and the Rise of Reality Politics”

 Part II: A ‘Trumped up’ Future: The Shaping of the 45^th Presidency

 Part III: Racism, Donald Trump and the Price of Nostalgia  

Additionally, in the space of film and popular culture, we were amidst a new Star Wars Trilogy, and I decided to watch the original trilogy in the famed “Machete” order and realized that perhaps, I do not like Star Wars as much as I thought I did.  

2017: The Distilled and Sterilized Feminism of Wonder Woman

The beginning of the fifth year of the blog saw another awkwardly introduced, but never followed through, segment spotlighting Social theorists when all I really wanted to talk about was C. Wright Mills. I also wrote a bonus essay not included in the  “Trump Analysis Trilogy” discussing “Trump, Propaganda and Linguistic Imperialism” This year also saw the first essay of a new film by a director I had already covered (Nolan’s Dunkirk). Yet, the essay I chose to spotlight here, goes back to the misfire of Patty Jenkin’s Wonder Woman and how the character in the Zack Snyder DCEU did not work.  

2018: The Feminism of “Suspiria” terrifies the Patriarchy

            In 2018, the blog had a lot of firsts. It saw the beginning of the series on The Films of Hayao Miyazaki (that lasts for 2 and ½ years). This year was the first time something I wrote, “Zen and the Death of the White Male Savior.” got outside attention (From The Social Breakdown Podcast). This year also saw the first of the blog’s “Top Ten” lists, and the first time I saw Panos Cosmatoes’ Mandy  I have talked about Mandy a lot since that initial review. I have done a Bonus Commentary episode on the Podcast about it, and most recently, I was a guest on “Who’s There: A Horror Movie Fan Podcast talking about Mandy. So, I think it a bit self-indulgent to put this review, yet again, front and center. Instead, I am choosing Luca Guadagnino’s remake of “Suspiria” because anything that terrifies the Patriarchy that much, I. Absolutely. Love.   

   

2019: TFHM: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

            This year saw the continuation of analyzing Miyazaki films, and a look into the sociological relevance of the villain motivation in The Legend of Korra  Few essays were published during the calendar year 2019. I was experiencing the lead up to, and onset of, a personal crisis that lingered for years afterwards. I had to find out who I was again and what I wanted. Turns out, I wanted to analyze film and Popular culture by using the Sociological Perspective.  

2020: BLM, Batman and Police Militarization

            With my personal crisis in full swing, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and I like most people, was under lockdown beginning in March of that year. I ended up not going back to my office and teaching in person for almost 2 years. However, with that time, I decided to recommit myself to the blog, promising myself to provide one essay a month, or at least 12 essays a year. This is a commitment I still hold to three years later. To that end, this year saw essays on a Comparison between Kurosawa’s High and Low and Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, as well as the bulk of Miyazaki essays on Castle in the Sky, Totoro, Kiki’s, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. I also wrote a “scathing” critique of the comic book film genre in defense of M. Night Shyamalan’s “Eastrail 177 Trilogy” as well as reviews of Birds of Prey and Akira.

In October of 2020, I started The Sociologist’s Dojo Podcast, with an equal commitment to one episode a month. As of this writing, I have published 31 episodes, 4 episodes recorded yet to be published and 3 episodes planned but still to be recorded. I have had the fortune to have great guests, many of them turning into friendships. Those that want to be on the Podcast contact me on Twitter or email me at thesociologistsdojo@gmail.com. Yet, given the context of the hellscape that was 2020, the essay I chose to highlight above reflects a part of that disruption.

2021: Vader’s Flesh is Sacred: Disability Personhood and Victimhood Through 80's Representations of Robots and Cyborgs

            The beginning of 2021 was a scramble to write something relevant to the Jan 6^th Insurrection. After which, I finished up the Miyazaki series with Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo and The Wind Rises, Continuation of The films of Christopher Nolan with Tenet, and the start of “The Chambara Films of Akira Kurosawa”. This year I began to dip my toe in the academic publishing waters with a review of the documentary Crip Camp for the American Sociological Journal Teaching Sociology. I also wrote an article that was featured at the North East MLA conference on Disability and Capitalism among Horror Antagonists, and a essay on the brilliance of Nicolas Cage which I used as the basis for Episode 20 of the Podcast aptly titled “The Nic Cage Episode.”. The essay I chose to feature was inspired out of discussions with friend of the podcast Dr. Liz W. Faber, as they developed their ideas for their new book Robot Suicide: Death, Identity and AI. in Science Fiction.    

2022: A Gender Analysis Gemini: When Gender Socialization met the RomCom… / Police, ‘The Punisher’ and Performative Masculinity

The boon of recognition continued in 2022 as an essay I wrote in January of that year was reworked and published in the anthology Global Perspectives on the Liminality of the Supernatural From Animus to Zombi edited by the fantastic Dr. Rebecca Gibson, friend and frequent collaborator on the podcast. This year saw the finishing and bulk of The Chambara films of Akira Kurosawa ( Throne of Blood, Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, Kagemusha and Ran) and the Start of the Films of Karyn Kusama (with Girlfight and Aeon Flux). The two essays that I chose to highlight were essays that were a long time coming, some brewing for years (The romcom essay) others needing a catalyst (Uvalde school shooting) to provide enough motivation to write the essay.     

2023: Best so far: Death, Taxes, and Bureaucracy a Weberian Analysis of Kurosawa’s Ikiru  

2023 has been consumed by the completion of The Films of Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation, Destroyer and a bonus essay on Season 1 of “YellowJackets”). The remainder of this year will see an essay analyzing Thema and Louise to commemorate the recent 4k Criterion release, and the start of “The Films of Ana Lilly Amirpour”. The essay I chose to highlight this year is my long gestating essay trying to talk about the aspect of Weberian theory in Kurosawa’s Ikiru.    

 

CONCLUSION

            Part of finding purpose in life is in the pursuit of marrying your work with your passions. I have dedicated my life to the study of society, and I love to write and discuss film and popular culture. I hope that my obsession and life’s mission has brought both my readers and my listeners some perspective and entertainment in equal measure. Late in my graduate study, a good friend of mine astutely professed that to know me, to talk to me, is both parts wisdom and absurdity in equal measure. I hope I have brought those qualities to my readers over these last ten years. For those who have stuck with me over the decade, I hope you can say that both the blog and my style have refined and gotten better. If not, thank you for riding the wave of quality over the years. Looking forward, I have no plans on ending this site or its mission. If life creeps and affects the frequency of publication, please be patient. Lastly, if you have only read my written work, please check out my Podcast. It is a lot of fun, and I talk to interesting people about film, popular culture, and their work.  Here’s to another 10 years of Sociological analysis of film and popular culture. Please join me, it will be an adventure. 😊     

The Dojo's Top Ten Films that Encapsulate 2022

 

INTRODUCTION

            As another year ends, it is time for The Sociologist’s Dojo to rattle off the top ten Sociological films of the year. As with the last two years, I’ve decided to once again, give readers a list of 10 events of the year that can be encapsulated in film. Again, this is not an exhaustive list of events, nor even the ones that are “The Most Sociological.”  Instead, this is to provide an accounting of some of the noteworthy happenings of 2022 and the films that epitomize their essence; either directly or tangentially. With each event, I will provide a brief explanation, followed by how the film(s) relate to each incident. This list is obviously limited by personal bias, the films I have seen, and my own specialties in Sociology.

            2022 saw a lot of violence and death, whether by assassination, old age, war, or mass murder. There was also a rise of new plagues, economic destabilization, inept police, even more inept billionaires, the sustained assault of inflation, and the elimination of federal protections on women’s bodies. It has been a heck of a year, and upon this yearly retrospective, may this curated list provide thought provoking pause and wry/gallous humor simultaneously. Watch these films if you haven’t already, and if you are feeling nostalgic for 2022, watch these films in this curated order with the context provided. Enjoy!

 

10)   James Webb Telescope: Triple Feature: 

Contact (1997)

Gravity (2013) 

and Interstellar (2014)

 

Importantly renamed “The Jelliscope, Welliscope, Space Telescope” by Dr. Liz Faber in a recent episode of The Sociologist’s Dojo Podcast due to James Webb’s known support of anti LGBTQ+ policies, the first images of the space telescope were widely circulated in 2022. These images gave us a greater since of our own futility and the vastness of space beyond our borders, while having the potential to have an equalizing effect on human rights. With such detailed images, the possibility of making everyone realize how precious life is, and how fleetingly insignificant humans are in the face of the sheer expanse of space, was possible. However, like a lot of other events that pass through social media, it gets experienced and then forgotten. We did not consider the magnitude of these images before they were shuffled aside to be commodified by placing them on posters, T-shirts, and other merchandise.

The triple feature of Contact, Gravity, and Interstellar truly encapsulates the dangers and the grandness of space itself. Each film looks at the dangers of space in a different way: from Contact’s relationship with Extraterrestrial life, which the government “sort of” confirmed was real in 2020, to the hazardous work environment of being in Space, with Alfonso Curron’s Gravity, due to a spectacular amount of space trash that surrounds our planet becoming so large that industry seems to be capitalizing on it.  Rounding out the three is Nolan’s Interstellar, a film I have already written about. The characters in that film look to the stars for their own survival without really knowing how they will achieve it. When you couple this narrative with the images of the space telescope reinvigorating talk of going to mars,  you can hopefully see the parallels. Finally, the films in this triple feature are also known to be “hard science” fiction, that treats space through a plausibly scientific lens, becoming an important prism of motivation if we continue exploring space, and possibly leading to space travel.  

 

9)   The assassination of Shinzo Abe:

The Master (2012)

 

 The assassination of Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe in July of 2022 shocked the world, but quickly moved in and out of the US media cycle. The alleged perpetrator, Tetsuya Yamagami shot Abe because of Abe’s ties to the Unification Church run by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and its policies of extreme tithing, which caused his mother to go into bankruptcy. The assassination caused the Japanese government to renounce the Church and threaten to expel any member of government that did not do the same.  The Church is anti-communist and for Korean unification. It has been supported by the US political right, with Former President Trump speaking to them in 2021.

There are many films that I considered to represent this 2022 event. First, I thought a political angle would be most important. Yet, the more I dug into the story, the more I realized that the actual story was about cults. To that end, I could have picked any number of fantastic films about cults: Wild Country, Martha Marcy Mae Marlene, and The Invitation; the latter being a part of the Blog’s Films of Karyn Kusama retrospective. I chose The Master, given the similarities with some of the rhetoric with the Unification Church, the Church of Scientology, and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere. Scientology founder David Miscavige being one of the models for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character. Additionally, the devotion cult followers feel often leads to a set of behaviors and practices that have a very big wake. One of those waves can be bankruptcy and the giving up of worldly possessions. Those that are left behind, can be obviously upset, distraught and angry which can lead them to extremes. 

8)   The Death of Queen Elizabeth II:

The Queen (2006)

 

On Sept 8^th 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96. One of the longest rules in modern history, the Reign of Queen Elizabeth went platinum, ruling for 70 years. Quiet and a fierce defender of her family’s perception by the public, Queen Elizabeth was a complexity. She, in her title and parentage, was a part of, and continued to oversee the maintenance of British colonialism and the segregated class of the Monarchy’s systemic spirit. Yet not only did she promote gender equality by being a jeep mechanic in WWII, but she oversaw elements of the decolonization movement in Africa and Australia. However, little is known how she truly felt about these matters as Queen Elizabeth usually kept her political and religious beliefs relatively secret.

The Queen, featuring Helen Mirren in her Oscar winning role, takes place over the weeks just after the death of Diana Princess of Wales in 1997. The film places particular emphasis over Elizabeth’s reaction to the news, and the social and political fallout of the events afterward. The dramatization takes specific care and attention to justify the Queen’s reluctance to join the public in the mourning of Diana, a point for which Queen Elizabeth was harshly criticized. While a lot of the humanizing of Elizabeth in The Queen was due to Mirren’s remarkable transformation and portrayal, the specific emphasis on Elizabeth’s justification for her reticence to grieve publicly, was steeped in the legacy of the Royal Family, a historical and cultural norm that she held based in her generation’s ideals of British privacy, emotional reservation, and stoicism; which, in both the film and reality, were no longer shared by her subjects, ultimately pointing to just how out of touch she was with her people.  
  

 

7)   Inflation Rate Hike:

Money For Nothing (2013)

 

            From the end of 2021- 2022 the overall costs of goods and services have increased by nearly 8 %. Almost all goods and services cost more now than it did a few years ago, with energy and food being the highest increases. Basic staples, like eggs and milk, are up between 14.5-43% while smart phones are down 22%. Over the last 18 months, the inflation rate has shot up by over half a percent. This means that middle income Americans are paying an average additional cost of $445 for the same goods they purchased last year. The Fed desires to keep inflation at a rate of 2%.

            The Global economy is one of the clearest indicators of the interconnected nature of all people. What happens in one part of the world, impacts everywhere else. The increase in energy costs is exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine (more on that later). While this is true, the way this cost is distributed, and whom it impacts the most, is largely out of consumers hands; left at the mercy of corporations and countries that set their prices to maintain profits, thereby passing the cost of inflation on to consumers, rather than eat the cost themselves. “That’s Capitalism!” In many sectors of the food industry, the hike in consumer products seem to have killed “the one-dollar deal”. However, one company, Arizona Tea, stands above the fray and shouts “We will hold the line at 99c.”. Yet, as a comic book fan I know these declarations can change pretty quickly.  

            The Film Money for Nothing is an intimate look at the workings of the federal reserve and their ability to set prices. The film takes people through the decisions and indecisions that led up to the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath by which the fed was consumed. This documentary investigates the control of inflation and the overall mechanisms of the economy that need to be understood if we are going to try and change it.

 

 6)   Monkey Pox:

How to Survive a Plague (2012)

 

            Monkey Pox is a viral disease that is found in animals and can be transmitted to humans. First found in Monkeys in the Congo was the first cases of the virus being transmitted to humans in the 1970’s. Spread through bodily fluids or vigorous skin to skin contact, Monkey pox has become a second pandemic in as many years.  While the 2022 Monkey Pox outbreak was the second to hit the US (the first in 2003), it was the first incidence of widespread transmission out of Africa. In July 2022, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency with 53,000 cases in 75 countries and territories.

            The film How to Survive a Plague chronicles the early days of the AIDS epidemic and the fight to transform an AIDS diagnosis from a death sentence to a manageable condition. This film is relevant because of the similarities in the social response between Monkey Pox and AIDS. Both diseases are used in the scapegoating of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly gay men, as its source. While this is false, it is an echo of the violence and bigotry steeped in homophobia that the community has a long history with (as indicated by this film choice). Because of this dehumanization in both crises,  the LGBTQ+ community has remained ever vigilant and developed information and practices to protect themselves, often being more informed than local authorities and other community groups. This is because history taught them that no one will help save them if they don’t save themselves.

 

5)   Musk Buys Twitter: Cosmopolis (2012)

            The saga of Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform Twitter is too long to go into in its entirety. However, the process ran from April 2022- October 2022, Beginning with Musk’s use of twitter, and criticizing its operation. Musk decided to buy Twitter because of a false consciousness about free speech on the platform that he perceives should be a freedom of consequences, (erroneously believing those are the same thing) in addition to getting more followers and attention. But when the Twitter board introduced a “poison pill” provision to prevent a hostile takeover by Musk (so that he couldn’t just dismantle and sell off the parts of the company to other buyers), Musk tried to get out of the deal by threatening to walk away. However, when he realized he couldn’t walk away without severe financial losses, ultimately acquiesced, and completed the deal. The fallout of Musk buying Twitter is still ongoing. Upon hearing of his taking control of Twitter both users and advertisers have begun to flee to other social networks like Mastodon and Hive. Since Musk became CEO, Twitter has lost more than a million users, and half of its top 100 advertisers.

            The movie parallel for this dumpster fire is the David Cronenberg neo noir, Cosmopolis starring Robert Pattinson. Set in one “location” the film follows a young billionaire in the back of a limousine as he drives round town, meeting with people after having made a poor financial decision. The slow unraveling of Pattinson’s world as the day progresses, fits the delicious turmoil that Musk finds himself in now; firing half of the workforce (including ones who criticized him) and pitching various schemes to be able to pay the 1 billion dollars in interest he owes every year, henceforth.

 

4)   The 2022 Midterms: Man of the Year (2006)

            The events leading up to the 2022 midterms were dire for Democrats and the political left. Often considered a referendum on the current administration, the expectations for the Midterms in the beginning were decidedly bleak with many conservative pundits and elected officials prophesizing a “red wave” or “red tsunami” that would take back control in the Senate and further solidify their dominance in the House. This did not happen. Many on the right blamed the unwillingness to distance themselves from Donald Trump, while others believed that it was the inclusion of Gen Z voters and the overturning of Roe (more on that later) that calmed the tide.

            Our politics have become a circus clown show (and not the fun kind where we get Lord Buckethead). There is an eerie quality to the way that Barry Sonnenfeld’s political satire, Man of the Year starring Robin Williams mirrors real life: Lack of Confidence in voting machines, and a celebrity host wins the presidency. Yet, where our political reality tests the levels of hell of Dante’s Inferno, Sonnenfeld’s film is far more benevolent, dismantling the circus before it does real damage. We need to always speak truth to power, unfortunately that voice gets muzzled the minute that power is achieved.

3)   Mass Shootings Uvalde and Club Q:Double Feature: 

Newtown (2016) 

 Licensed to Kill (1997)

On May 24, 2022, a gunmen entered Robb Elementary school unimpeded, with an AR style rifle. He shut himself in two adjoining classrooms and was not engaged with for over an hour. In that time, the shooter was able to kill 19 children and 2 teachers. Off duty border patrol agents bypassed the local police, entered the room, and killed the suspect.  In the intervening hour plus, when the gunman was not engaged, the Uvalde police department cordoned off the area, kept civilian parents back from entering the building to rescue their children, and then waited for more personnel, and military style weapons, before the breach was made.

            On Nov 10-11, 2022, a mass shooting took place at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ bar. The gunman killed 5 people and injured 25 others. This comes on the heels of a rise in anti- LGBTQ+ rhetoric and violence, specifically occurring in the Colorado Springs area where Club Q was considered a safe haven. The act was perpetrated on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance when the names and lives of those Trans identified people who’ve died (many by murder or suicide) are honored.    

I’ve already written about the Uvalde shooting and the cowardice, lack of communication, and overall incompetence of the Uvalde police department in my recent essay on Masculinity and violence.  The same analysis can be used on the Club Q shooting because of the ties our society makes between heterosexuality and masculinity. The perpetrator having experienced their own masculine reinforced homophobic bullying continued the cycle of violence at Club Q.

The two films that stand out that can give the audience some semblance of the atmosphere of these two mass shootings are the documentary about the Sandyhook school shooting titled Newtown (2016), and the documentary about LGBTQAI+ murders, Licensed to Kill (1997).[1] Both of these films show that these conditions and events in 2022 are not novel. It is important to remember that history does not repeat itself…but it rhymes.

 

 2)   Russian invasion of Ukraine: 

Come and See (1985)

            On Feb 22^nd, 2022, Russian forces invaded the sovereign State of Ukraine in an escalation of their conflict that began in 2014. Since the occupation and resistance has begun, tens of thousands on both sides have died, communities bombed, and global economies have been disrupted. Putin originally stating that the invasion was to “De-nazify” Ukraine in a thinly veiled, impossibly transparent attempt at disguising these war crimes as just and heroic. The act has received wide international condemnation and The International Criminal Court has begun an investigation into these Russian actions.

            Elem Kilmov’s brutal vision of the Russian resistance against the Nazi’s in WWII, Come and See, follows a young Belarusian boy as he witnesses the horrors of war. The film is remarkable in the way that it takes the initial enthusiasm the protagonist has for war and violence, (having been romanticized by masculine propaganda), but through his experiences, has his whole worldview on war completely upended. We the audience, are surrogate bystanders to the death of his childhood, as we watch him become a hollowed out emotionless husk of a person by films end.

    

1)      Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade: Happening (2021)

The political gridlock of the last 15 years has made legislating difficult for either party. Yet, due to court packing practices of Goblin King Mitch McConnell, the Conservative Republican agenda can now be pushed forward through the Judicial system. This was made clear when, in May of 2022, a leaked draft memo of the upcoming Dobbs decision indicated that the Conservative majority court was going to overturn Roe on the basis that the privacy distinction (that was used to identify access) was no longer valid. This would lead to immediate implementation of 15 state “trigger bans” that were put in conservative states once Federal protections were lifted on June 24^th, 2022. Rather than codify access into federal law or allow for abortions to still take place on protected federal lands, the Democratic party used this as a political weapon to help them in the mid-terms and presumably 2024. Additionally, because the dismantling of Roe was done through the privacy provision, many other social justice protections could now be threatened, such as gay and interracial Marriage, and access to contraception. However, yesterday as of this writing, the Congress has codified Interracial Marriages into law. Though, prior to that, we all knew this protection was not in danger so long as Clarence Thomas still sits upon the Court.      

Happening, set in anti- abortion 1960’s France, follows the story of a woman’s Odyssey to acquire an abortion. Secret meetings, traveling long distances, and back-alley rendezvouses pepper this harrowing journey of reclaiming one’s identity after what could very well be a death sentence. This is the situation millions of women now find themselves in 60 years later in the US. The film really ratchets up the tension forcing the audience to sit with the protagonist’s increasing desperation as the time limit to get the procedure approaches. The film conveys the protagonist’s feelings of simultaneous relief and horror when the procedure is complete with such empathy, that it feels like an Oracle.

 

CONCLUSION       

Thus, I look out, on the precipice of another year on the horizon, with a minor sense of personal hope that absolutely, positively… does not extend to the mezzo or macro level(s). Our institutions are crumbling, there is an acrimonious stalemate in Congress while the current “Yolo Supreme Court” is eroding federal protections and undermining constitutional rights. There is not much to be thankful for on that level, which is why it is essential for us to find love and joy wherever we find it. Whether that be among our family, friends, spouses, partners and ‘others of significance’, we cannot count on happiness coming from anyone other than inside and around all of us. I leave you with the regeneration of the 13^th Doctor into their 14^th incarnation. May we all transform ourselves for the coming celebrations and challenges ahead. See you all in 2023!   

  

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[1] This is not a Steven Segal film. I REPEAT THIS IS NOT THE STEVEN SEGAL FILM OF THE SAME NAME