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One of my all-time favorite music videos is the video that goes with J. Cole’s song crooked smile. It has an amazing message. The music video is actually more like a short film by Sheldon Candis. In the short film, we are shown the lives of two men both raising young daughters. We also see the unfortunate moment that the two men cross paths. 

The video opens and we see J. Cole tears running down his face in the back of a police car. At this point it is night. It is a very sudden and shocking opening the leaves the watcher curious about how Cole found himself there. Also judging by it opening in a night setting it sets up the reader to prepare for an explanation. In the rest of the video, we are shown two different perspectives. On one hand, we have J. Cole the African American in a small home in a small home in what appears to be a small suburban neighborhood. On the other hand, we see a white male who has a much larger house and more things. What I like about the video is that we see both of these men start their day exactly the same. The next scene in the video opens with J. Cole splashing water on his face he then looks up at himself in the mirror. This is when we get our first perspective switch. Suddenly with no explanation, we see a white male also staring himself in the mirror. This portion of the video goes on back-and-forth if J. Cole brushes his teeth the other man does too they both swish water in their mouth the same way and they both look at their teeth when they’re done. Later on, we find out that these men, even though they are portrayed as being so similar, are very different. We soon realized that Cole is a drug dealer and the other man works for the DEA. As I mentioned before both of them are raising young daughters. It happens to be J. Cole‘s daughter‘s birthday in the video and they are celebrating. At one point when they sing happy birthday it drowns out the actual song and we flip to the white man who is in the back of the van and planning the rest of Cole. The next scene is probably the most heart-wrenching in any music video I’ve ever seen. When the DEA bust through the door we get a huge perspective switch. Now we can see things from the perspective of J. Cole‘s daughter who was asleep in bed. She walks to her door that was cracked open to find her father being arrested. There are officers walking around the house searching for drugs with their weapons drawn. And as young Leslie slowly opens the door we watch as if though from her eyes as one of the officers raises his weapon and shoots her. Now once again we are looking into the cop car at a destroyed J. Cole. The video ends but not before it shows that the officer’s daughter in the drug dealer’s daughter are in the same class and are actually friends.

The video shows the viewer that no matter what life you lead none of us are that different. These men are about the same in every way except for their profession. They get ready in the morning. They both put on their one leg at a time.

It is well known that super bowl commercials are the things of legend. Every year as a child I would run around and play games with my cousins but when it was commercial time during Super Bowl parties I always sat in front of the TV and watched. One commercial sticks out in particular is it 2005 Heineken commercial featuring popular actor Brad Pitt. I only vaguely remember this commercial until I was older and saw it pop up again on YouTube here are some of the reasons why I found it so compelling.

The commercial opens with Brad Pitt sitting in his fancy rooftop home he looks out his window across to another building and sees a giant room full of cameras and paparazzi. Cool as a cucumber Pitt gets up and goes to the fridge to grab a beer, this is where the conflict begins when he finds an empty six pack box. Now much like any of his action movies he realizes that there’s a mission at hand. Next we see Brad in the lobby of his building. They chauffeur offers to grab his car, but instead Brad opts for the back door. The paparazzi notices movement and are immediately on the move. In a smooth sneaky way that only calm and cool action heroes could Brad manages to outsmart the paparazzi on his tale and makes it to a local convenience store. This scene is important because he is a big celebrity so placing him in a local tiny convenience store is an attempt to make him seem more relatable. It makes you realize this high-intensity beer run isn’t so far out of the question for joe schmo. He makes it back to his apartment managing to avoid all of the cameramen once again and right before the ad ends we get a small scene of Brad on the phone. He’s talking to somebody about plans that they had made and right before he takes a sip of his beer he asks “can you come pick me up?”.

One reason it’s important that they use Brad Pitt for this role is because what young man doesn’t want to be Brad Pitt. Also, the use of a male actor also targets the audience of Heinekens’ choice. There are two specific scenes that I want to go into depth on. The first being a quick scene between when Pitt leaves the store and gets back to his apartment. He acknowledges one of the people chasing him for the first time. He walks very closely behind someone and without stopping or turning he just says “hey Bob”. In an attempt to get his camera out in time Bob drops the camera and we hear a very unsettling crunch. This is strange because as an audience we have no idea who this guy is but you have to have some sympathy towards him for being so close and blowing it. The second scene is right before the commercial ends and Brad is about to take a drink of his beer and asks the person on the other end of the phone if they could pick him up in a very subtle version of the often bolded and blurted out “DRINK RESPONSIBLY”.

This Heineken commercial is one of my favorites and I think it’s because they fit so much into a two-minute slot without having to use any cheesy gimmicks. They simply got to the point. The point being Brad Pitt is cool and if you drink Heineken beer you will be cool too, but don’t drink and drive.

The late 1970’s teen romance flick “Grease” is a lighthearted attempt to depict how hard it is to fit in during high school when you have conflicting friend groups. The film ended up giving a much darker message to conform and be who those around you want. I do actually like the movie on a surface level but now when I watch it, I can only see it as a story that tells people to do whatever it takes to make people like you. 

One very telling scene is the ending when our main character Danny is conforming for love. He has completely transformed and compromised who he is to win the love of Sandy, his love interest from the summer. Danny is pictured at a school activity fair in a brand new letterman jacket that he earned after he discovered Sandy went out with a “jock”. Next Danny is spotted by his greaser friends and they immediately show disappointment in his decision to change who he is. His response to their reaction is “Come on you guys you know you mean a lot to me it’s just Sandy does too and I’m gonna do anything I can to get her.” In this quote that appears romantic, Danny, in reality, uses the word “get” as if he is trying to obtain an object rather than win over a girl. No sooner after he finishes this sentence does Sandy enter the scene. She is seen surrounded by a crowd of men and easily attracts the attention of Danny’s friends clearly because her appearance has been changed. Sandy is pictured with an all-black leather outfit that is skin-tight, red lipstick, and a cigarette. This is when we are shown a misogynistic side of the film where as soon as Danny sees Sandy’s new attitude and the outfit he immediately forgets about the changes he made to his life and all his surroundings, he immediately focuses in on Sandy and her new appearance. Sandy comes prepped to sing a song that says “you’re the one that I want”. After that they go around the activity fair singing to each other, Sandy is welcomed to one of the greasers now that she has become a new person entirely. 

Grease tells us that if you really want something or someone that you should completely change yourself. This movie is so dangerous in a world where we are surrounded by media. This movie also is focused on a younger age range. It is even featured on ABC Family. It is very detrimental to young women who are just being introduced to love and they may see Sandy who is older than them or near their age and mirror her actions. The film also dangerously focuses in on Sandy’s body that is wrapped in leather at the closing scene. By doing this, the movie focuses yet again on an impossibly skinny girl, fueling unrealistic body expectations for young women. 

After truly analyzing the film, I completely disagree with its harmful message. I believe you should stand for who you are and if someone doesn’t accept you, they don’t deserve your company. Although this movie is considered a classic, it is outdated in its inclusivity. It only shows heterosexual, caucasian love, and how to fit in.

The show River Monster is a nin-season documentary TV series starring Jeremy Wade. The show shows Jeremy Wade traveling the world in an attempt to catch monstrous fish that have been known to or have actually attacked people. 

In an attempt to be educational show Jeremy Wade would explain the different type of fish he would be targeting. This show was very prominent because I am an avid fisherman so the show raised great interest. Wade would travel the world to different indigenous people and tell the audience of different engaging folklore behind the sometimes sacred fish. A Lot of the reason that this show would raise fear was the terrifying lore that different cultures developed over the years of having people disappear. 

The creators in an attempt of raising suspense would use very mysterious reenactments of attacks. These scenes often include an unsuspecting person swimming in a cloudy river or lake. They are always shown having a very good time where nothing could go wrong. Then enters suspenseful background music. We are shown a shot from under the water looking up at the bottom half of our unsuspecting swimmer. After this brief shot chaos ensues. Blood clouds the water and screams are muffled by water pouring into the victim’s lungs.

As an eight-year-old who spent a lot of time out on the water fishing, this show instilled a fear of what lies beneath the boat.

When I was younger, my parents were super parents. They wanted to shield me from
things that could rot my brain such as too much tv or violence. They did a fantastic job all
through my childhood they would get me action figures and take away the microscopic violent
accessories that the toy would come with. When I was about eight years old, my life was
changed.
I was introduced to the Star Wars saga. One scene that I could never forget is at the end
of the first prequel. Spoiler Alert. In the scene the movie is very rapidly reaching its climax. We
are fed three different conflicts all happening at the same time. There is a ground war going on
off in the distance a political war going on in the city and a fight between good and evil that is
our main focus.
The fight between good and evil is a lightsaber battle to the death between two Jedi (Obi
Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn) and one sith (Darth Maul). This scene struck me as a child
because I think it is a great piece of film. This fight scene is packed of emotion evoking music
suspense and the end that will leave anyone expecting a happy ending speechless.
The film uses heavily suspenseful music that gets a watcher on the edge of their seat. In
fact, in the middle of the fight scene it literally just pauses when the fighters are separated by a
force field. Also the underlying subliminal message is one familiar to us. Qui-Gon Jinn holds an
eerie resemblance to Jesus and Darth Maul with his red face and horns could easily be
interpreted as the devil. The thing is we have heard that story and good rises above the evil. The
thing that makes this scene stick out to me is they flip the script and just kill Qui-Gon.
As a heavily guarded child who had grown up on disney and G movies this shocking
death had me upset I found myself yelling at the screen over a character who I had known for
two hours. From then on I was hooked

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