LA VICTOIRE

I just now watched Mad Max. I know, it's practically a crime that  I haven't done so already, but hear me out...

No never mind, there's nothing to hear out. I just never got around to it, and I'm not one to watch movies on sketchy websites. Despite the plethora of tumblr posts gushing about the badassery of Imperator Furiosa,  despite all of my friends (yes, every one of them) telling me "Tori, you're gonna love this movie", and despite my love for Tom Hardy, I have only seen it just now, because HBOGo has been gracious enough to provide the film online.

So, over the last few weeks of winter break, I've been trying to figure out what makes a good movie. At least, what I find to be a good movie. I’ve watched as many “classics” and “have to see” films as I could find on Netflix/HBOGo, and until Mad Max, I only had one thing on that list, and that was solid character development, which is practically nonexistent in this film. We don't even know Max's name until the very end, but we're pretty interested in Furiosa because she's a boss and saving the lives of the Five Wives,  who are possibly the only people besides Max and Furiosa capable of comprehending a life  not in service to Immortan Joe.

The next item on my list of "Things I Look for in  Film" is an intangible goal. Maybe intangible is not the word for it. Anyway, I'm referring to the hype that they built up around "The Green Place". From the very beginning, it felt too good to be true. All of these people being enslaved, and forced to work for Immortan Joe, who "owns" the only source of water in that area, yet there's some other land, flowing with milk and honey, and Furiosa is the only one who knows about it? 

But somehow, she kept me wondering. Hope was her whole thing, and she sure provides it for us until we find out that the Green Place no longer exists. I guess it was her perseverance, and quite honestly her badassery. Like who would look at her and assume that what she’s saying is wrong? She was risking her life to take these prized women out of clutches of their power crazed leader, drove through the desert, braved the attacks of Joe and his War Boys, in addition to the armies from the Bullet Farm, Gas Town, and the Rock Riders, and of course, the epic sandstorm/supercell tornado. 

Furiosa went through all of that, so she must have been fighting for something that she believed in. And she was super believable. So it was predictable but still heartbreaking when she learns that the Green Place has degraded into a desolate murky wasteland. 

Another thing I really liked about this movie was the magnitude of things that creeped me out/ things that were hella weird.

1.       The "mother's milk"…

 The makeshift dairy farm made up of enormous women being milked as if they were cows. Immortum Joe even passed around a sample as if they were livestock. And the truck apparently had a compartment for it... but i guess that makes sense in a world where water is scarce...?

2.The fire guitar.

Ok that shit was awesome, and honestly, in any other movie it would have been an enormous fail.

3. The former "Greenplace"

... and the terrifying creatures on stilts sloshing through the muck. Apparently they were people? And all I could think of was the Swamp of Sadness in The Neverending Story. 

Anyway, this post will be way too long if I stay here any longer, and my head is starting to hurt from staring at my computer screen... I’ll end this with my favorite quote from the film. 

"Angharad used to call them 'anti-seed'. Plant one and watch something die." 

If you read my initial post, you’d know that I went on a career exploration trip with my school (which I’m currently on) to demystify Hollywood. After visiting ICM Partners, we had a surprise waiting for us. We knew a surprise was coming ahead of time, but we didn’t know what it was. We were assuming it would be DJ Khaled (a stretch, I know), because he’d posted on Snapchat that he’d be at a particular address at 5pm that day. Our meeting with ICM Partners was at that very address and finished right at 5pm. Unfortunately, they made us leave through the back door in order to avoid the throngs of crazed fans that were anticipating the arrival of the holder o the Key to (More) Success.

Fortunately, however, our group leader revealed that our surprise was, in fact, a visit to the set of How to Get Away with Murder. Three people on our bus (including myself) screamed excitedly at the top of our lungs, hoping we would be able to see Viola Davis, or even Shonda Rhimes, while almost everyone else was just excited to be on an actual set. 

So we  visited Shondaland, met and questioned one of the executive story editors, got to tour Annalise Keating’s house, Wes’ studio, and the classroom. We learned from our guide that Shonda was actually in her office on site, so we were all secretly anticipating a surprise drop in by her, or Viola Davis or Alfred Enoch. Surprisingly it took a really long time for any of us to realize that we were actually in the room where some of our favorite actors and actresses work everyday, and how “close” we were to them.

*Perusing the kitchen*

Friend: They actually spend so much time in this kitchen on the show... *opens fridge* OMG, it’s a real fridge, and it’s stocked!

ME: We should find a way to communicate with them... let’s leave a note!

Friend: Wait, that would be amazing...

ME: Quick, put one of your business cards in the fruit bowl!

Unfortunately, she left her business cards on the bus. And we’re only undergrads, so she was the only one who actually had business cards. So we missed out on that golden opportunity to catch the attention of the cast. But on the way back to the bus, we were able to see Tony Goldwyn (Fitz from Scandal)!

So there’s a reason I’m here. I’m bad at a lot of things, and one of them is taking my own advice. I’m in this program with my school where a bunch of undergrads are taken to meet alums and learn about the entertainment industry over our 5 week winter break. During a visit to a talent agency, I told my friend who’s a DJ and interested in music that he should start a music blog. 

“Bro, do you have a music blog yet?”

“What? No, I don’t”

“Well you should totally get on that. You’ve sent me so much music over the years and I’ve been so ahead of the music game because of you”

“Wow, you’re so right!”

(That was the most pointless use of play-by-play dialog, but I didn’t want this to look like one big boring chunk of text) 

So there I was, giving him advice as to how he could augment his music career by starting a music blog, but the only thing I got out of that experience at the time was that I would probably enjoy being an agent.

So here I am, approximately a week later, starting a tv/film blog, in order to augment my career as a writer of the screen.

Nobody’s probably gonna read this any time soon, but if people want to know why this blog exists, it’s right here waiting for you.

kthanxbai

<3 victoria