Hit or Miss: Quick Movie Reviews 10 – FEMINISM!

Terminator: Stigmata

Watching Terminator: Genisys this weekend, I was perplexed at what was on the screen. I haven't really seen the first Terminator films (I saw Terminator Salvation for HBC reasons), but Sarah Connor is supposed to be one of the strongest female characters in film history. Yet, throughout the movie, her only purpose is to be the eventual mother of John Connor. Then, from there on out, he does the heavy lifting as the leader of the war against the machines. Is she the savior or merely the vessel for the savior? Is she completely defined by her ability to give birth, or can she be the master of her own fate?

Now, this problem of predestination is something that plagues time travel movies regardless of the gender of the lead, but the plight of Sarah Connor made me think more about female representation in film more generally. Not just the number of women on screen, but also how their presence shapes the narrative.

So, for this edition of Hit or Miss, I thought it best to look at the current top-grossing, female-starring movies at the box office (not counting Mad Max: Fury Road, which I loved and already reviewed). Forthwith are my reviews of the movies, paying special attention to the ladies therein:

The Office Series Finale: Some Thoughts

 A WARNING: Due to EMOTIONS, my thoughts are a little scatter-shot, 

so some of what I'm about to write might not make sense.

When Steve Carell left The Office two years ago, I was impressed with the way that the show handled his goodbye. There wasn't a lot of fanfare, there was very little crying (on-screen, that is). It was simply a wonderfully perfect episode full of honest and sweet goodbyes. I wrote then that 'the show has always succeeded in the quiet moments', and that was true once again in the series finale, which saw the return of a lot of favorite characters and the departure of even more. There were big decisions made and character revelations abounded, but it was the smaller moments that took center-stage.  

TV Review: The Office -- Michael Scott's Farewell

When will I see you again?

Tonight was the last episode for Steve Carell as Michael Scott, Manager at Dunder Mifflin, and before we watched it we were absolutely sure what would happen: tearful goodbyes, meaningful moments, and Michael Scott's car exploding as he drove away from the office he's called home for so long (okay, not really - they still have to bring him back in a year or two for Sweeps). Instead, the affair was rather small, with Michael pretending that he had another day at the office in order to keep people from being overly emotional and to quell his own feelings about the situation. It was a very non-Michael Scott moment, and it really capped off his emotional maturity arc of this season. On his last day in the place he loves the most, Michael spends a little time with each of his co-workers who are basically family