The Caucasian Report - "Contagion" (2011)

~Mutating Viruses and Moldering Corpses~
It was a Tuesday night at dinner, and two of my friends and I were discussing what we could do to avoid homework. That’s when one of them said that she had to see “Contagion” for a class, as she was supposed to report on five inaccuracies in the film. So, we decided, what better time than the present? We were looking for an excuse to get away from our studies anyway. So, a few hours later, we were headed to the theatre. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the movie, but the fact that there were at least five inaccuracies did not help me form a positive impression. But hey, at least we accomplished the goal of evading our homework for the evening. That is, two of us did.

As the title describes, the movie is about the spread of disease. It starts off by depicting the story of the first victim of a new virus, Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow). She is on her trip back home when she starts to feel ill. By the time she gets home, she is so sick that there is nothing doctors can do for her. Her husband, Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon), receives the news of his wife’s passing in a fit of denial and rage. Soon, people in the area start dying at an alarming rate, but Mitch finds himself immune. At this point the CDC starts to get concerned, and we meet Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet), an epidemiologist. She starts tracing the source of the disease by researching how victims are related and travels the country to set up clinics. Despite the efforts of the CDC to contain the disease, the epidemic becomes so serious that millions die in a matter of weeks. People desperately try to find home remedies for the disease, as the development of a vaccine turns out to be trickier than anticipated. The rest of the film follows Mitch, Dr. Mears, and the CDC in the race to stop the devastating virus.

This movie is very pretty to watch. What do I mean by that? I mean that it gets an A+ for cinematography, specifically with camera angles and movement. The movie was able to tell a story just with the filming technique employed. Most movies just film people, and therefore rely on people to tell the story. However, this film relied on people and places to tell the story along with seamless transitions and unique shots of inanimate objects. This technique worked very well with the theme of the movie, as we all know how important inanimate objects are in the story of the spread of disease. The parts where this technique is the most salient is at the beginning and the end of the film.

Storytelling is all well and good, but you must be dying to know what the five inaccuracies were. We actually found six! The first inaccuracy is the film explains that half of your immune system comes from your mother, and the other half comes from your father. This is not true, as genetics have nothing to do with immunity. Your immune system develops by coming into contact with foreign things, such as viruses, and creating antibodies to be employed in future defenses. The second inaccuracy is that the movie leads you to believe that a vaccine will work almost instantly, where in reality it takes about 26 days to incubate in your system before you acquire immunity. The third inaccuracy is that doctors tell Mitch he is immune to the virus before they knew what the virus really was. Therefore, they really had no way of testing for the presence of antibodies against the virus in his system. Fourthly, the incubation time for the virus was 24 hours in the film (to make it more threatening) which is a little too short. It usually takes 7-21 days for a virus to incubate and that’s why viruses are so difficult to detect. People can carry the virus without symptoms for awhile and unintentionally infect others. Fifth, the CDC said that the virus mutated and no one mentioned the need to develop another vaccine against the new strain of the virus. The last inaccuracy was the film employed the term pleomorphic to describe the virus, which is a little strange because this term is usually used to describe bigger cells, such as cells belonging to bacteria.

Now that the inaccuracies are out of the way, and that your inner nerd is satisfied, I have one more thing to give you a heads up about: you will wash your hands excessively for a few days after watching this movie, and will probably slightly panic if you sneeze or get a sore throat. This movie is like watching the journey of a tiny spec of paint as it grows and transforms into an unbelievable masterpiece.


By WhiteChick

The Minority Report - "50/50" (2011)

“50/50” does its name justice. It is a brilliant balance of humor and complete sadness. It does what most movies can't—capture the essence of life and how, in tragedy, there is great pain and yet someone can still find glistening hope and, yes, still laugh. It is a tale of pushing through hard times with the support of family and friends, finding out who you really are, and discovering the true character of the people around you. It can easily be said that this is one of the best movies of the year and should definitely be watched.

Do you remember the Adam sandier film "Funny People"? It tried to create a sense of juxtaposition between sadness and comedy—a dramedy, so to speak. But it failed miserably with a piss poor passing, a hard to love main character, and a multitude of other issues. It is almost as if “50/50” took all the mistakes of that film and reversed them. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a character who anyone can easily relate to; he is not in your face, and plays back on acting. He is a normal 27 year old, unsure of where he is and wants to be in life and is trying to figure everything out, but in this tempest, he finds out he has a rare form of cancer. The story follows him through the slow realization that cancer has highs of optimism and lows of hopelessness. It is a complicated affair and shows just how severely an occurrence like this can take a toll on a person. Seth Rogen plays his best friend, who at times can be hard to like, but at others melts your heart with his charm and humor. Anna Kendrick also has what is possibly her best acting debut to date, as an inexperienced psychologist that accompanies Gordon-Levitt throughout his emotional rollercoaster.

Cancer can inspire a multitude of effects. It can leave an individual weak and hopeless. Near death can truly bring out who you really are, but it also causes ripples of emotions to the ones around you. This is what this movie is about. Sure, the main character is suffering from an illness, but it is a true observation on how an illness can make the others around you sick, and how to rise above everything even if faced with death, and look towards life and live. In short, I laughed, I cried, and came out of the theater still bogged with the feelings the movie inspired in me. This movie is not like watching paint dry.


By V-Dawg

The Caucasian Report - "Crazy, Stupid, Love." (2011)

~One Night Stand Leads to Love Unplanned~
After watching the trailer for this movie, I said to myself, “That doesn’t even look good.” It appeared like another hopelessly cheesy romantic comedy. So why did I decide to go see it? Well, I thought that there was a chance that my first impression was wrong or that the trailer was misleading. The cast (Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling) was also pretty convincing. When I left the theater, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. If you are if-y about seeing this movie like I was, then I say see it because you will be pleasantly surprised.

The movie starts off with a middle-aged man named Cal (Carell) who finds out that his wife, Emily (Moore), wants a divorce. Devastated, he moves out and starts going to a local bar where he meets Jacob (Gosling), a seasoned womanizer. Jacob takes Cal under his wing and proceeds to give him all the “tricks of the trade.” Cal attempts to pick up women night after night to no avail, and is shocked once it finally works. Soon thereafter Jacob meets a girl, Hannah (Stone), that he is interested in getting to know outside of the bedroom. Finding himself in uncharted territory, Jacob now turns to Cal for advice on relationships. During all of this, Cal’s babysitter, Jessica (Tipton), falls in love with him, despite the fact that she is only a teenager. To make things even more complicated, Cal’s son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo), falls in love with Jessica. Tensions and hormones rise between characters, making the rest of the movie pretty crazy and, at times, stupid.

Some romantic comedies go way overboard on emotional content, making them more characteristic of a chick flick, and others lean so far on the comedy side that they shouldn’t even be labeled as a “romcom.” However, this film balanced legitimate humor and heart-felt fuzzies in such a way that is characteristic of a reputable romantic comedy. For that reason, I would not put this film in the “cheesy” category like I thought I would. Also, the fact that there were so many love stories going on simultaneously really keeps you engaged, and it is done in such a way that is not too hard to follow everything that’s going on. Gosling’s performance stood out as it was basically the exact opposite of roles I am used to seeing him in (i.e. “The Notebook”), and it was an impressive transformation. I was also impressed with the twist that happens towards the end. When you watch it, you will know what I’m referring to. I was absolutely not expecting it, and I know most people in my audience weren’t either as I heard several gasps. If you saw it coming then let me know because I want to give you a high five. This movie is like watching different colors of paint drying at once, and realizing that the colors complement each other perfectly.


By WhiteChick