Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy (2011)

Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy Trailer HD

Director: Thomas Alfredson

Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy Promotional Poster

Winter's Bone (2010)

 Director: Debra Granik
 External Review: (Rotten Tomatoes)

Bleak, haunting, and yet still somehow hopeful, Winter's Bone is writer-director Debra Granik's best work yet -- and it boasts an incredible, starmaking performance from Jennifer Lawrence.

External review: (The New York Times)

Even before the real trouble starts — with suspicious lawmen on one side and a clan of violent drug dealers on the other — Ree Dolly faces more than the usual litany of adolescent worries. Her father, locally renowned for his skill at cooking methamphetamine, has vanished, and her emotionally hollowed-out mother has long since abandoned basic parental duties, leaving Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) to run the household and care for her two younger siblings. The family lives in southwestern Missouri, a stretch of the Ozarks that is both desolate and picturesque, words that might also suit “Winter’s Bone,” Debra Granik’s tender and flinty adaptation of a novel of the same title by Daniel Woodrell.

“Winter’s Bone,” warmly embraced at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, belongs, at least at first glance, to one of that festival’s familiar genres: the regional-realist morality tale. These days, American independent cinema abounds in earnest stories of hard-bitten people living in impoverished corners of the country, their moral and emotional struggles accompanied by acoustic guitars and evocative landscape shots and generally uninflected by humor.

The faces in “Winter’s Bone” are certainly mirthless — not only Ree’s, but also those of the relatives she turns to for advice and protection when her predicament becomes desperate. The topography of chilly hollows and ragged forests is filmed in a way that emphasizes its bleakness. There are banjos and fiddles, as well as guitars, and some beautiful old mountain ballads are performed on camera. Some of the cast members are nonprofessional actors, and nearly all are wary, watchful and taciturn, speaking their few words in faultless regional accents.
What distinguishes Ms. Granik’s film from, say, Courtney Hunt’s “Frozen River” — to cite another recent Sundance favorite with cold weather in its title and grim Americana on its mind — is that this harshness is not there to illuminate a sociological condition. Something more primal, almost Greek in its archaic power, is at stake in “Winter’s Bone,” and its visual and emotional starkness do no not feel like simple badges of authenticity.
This is not a story about drugs and family life in a particular region of the United States, even though it displays some impressive local knowledge (much of it derived from Mr. Woodrell’s book). It is more deeply about tribal ties and individual choices, about a stubborn girl’s sense of justice coming into sharp and dangerous conflict with deep and intractable customs.
In Ms. Lawrence’s watchful, precise and quietly heroic performance, Ree is like a modern-day Antigone, making ethical demands that are at once entirely coherent and potentially fatal. After his last arrest, her father, Jessup, put up the family property — including the house where his wife and children live — as bond, and if he does not surrender soon, it will all be taken away.
Jessup, however, is nowhere to be found, and Ree’s efforts to locate him leave her in a terrible dilemma. She must either betray the code of silence that keeps her extended family firmly and proudly on the wrong side of the law, or else face destitution.
“Aren’t we all supposed to be kin?” she asks, more than once, as she tramps through the backwoods from house to house, demanding information, help or just a scrap of elementary kindness. The kinfolk next door grudgingly offer food and monitor Ree’s encounters with the nervous deputies from the sheriff’s office who stop by from time to time. Jessup’s brother, Teardrop (John Hawkes), greets her with silent menace that erupts into violence, though he turns out to harbor more compassion than most.
“Are you going to kill me?” Ree asks, after a group of women led by the wife of the clan patriarch has beaten her and thrown her in a barn.
“That idea was talked about,” is the matter-of-fact reply.
Anxious sympathy for this young woman in peril — at 17, barely more than a child herself and forced to respond to challenges that would terrify most adults — is the prevailing emotion you are likely to feel when watching “Winter’s Bone.” It is straightforward and suspenseful but also surprising and subtle. Ree is torn between loyalty to her brother and sister and a desire to escape her ancestral home, to join the Army and make a new life for herself. But an interview with a military recruiter reveals just how deeply she is embedded in a way of life that has defined her family for generations.
The soldier, who patiently and kindly demolishes Ree’s dream of running away, belongs to a world governed by reasonable options and practical considerations. Ree lives somewhere else, in a universe ruled by ancient grudges and elaborate, inflexible notions of obligation, honor and shame. “Winter’s Bone” is about her discovery of how cruel her native habitat can be and also about her initiation into its ways — a coming-of-age story that is not entirely about breaking free.
Whether Ree’s world exists in quite the way Ms. Granik and Mr. Woodrell depict it is not really the issue; the film’s realism is a point of entry rather than the whole point of the exercise. Its setting is finally subordinate to the main character, as memorable and vivid a heroine as you are likely to see on screen this season.
“Winter’s Bone” is rated R. It has drug dealing, drug use and profanity.

Questionnaire

Year 12 Media Studies Student Questionnaire

Name:  Mandy Edmondson

GCSE Results: -

English Literature:  B

English Language:  A

Mathematics: B

Physics: B

Biology: B

Chemistry: B

French: A*

ICT: A*

Business and communication systems: B

Business studies: B

Hobbies

I like drawing and painting in my spare time, I also enjoy outdoor activities such as kayaking and surfing.  I like revamping jewellery to make it my own or sell on. 

Print Media

I like reading ‘The Guardian.’ I enjoy reading this newspaper because it lets me know what is currently occurring around the world. It not only includes culture, business and money but also life and style which I enjoy reading about because it is something I am interested in. I also enjoy the section that people write in their problems and ask for advice; I can relate to this sometimes and therefore find it funny and occasionally helpful.  It also contains what time TV programmes I watch are on during the week. 

Cosmopolitan is the magazine I enjoy reading the most; I enjoy it due to it having a lot of things women can relate to, It also updates me on new products that I may want to purchase and gives me ideas that I can use for inspiration towards my fashion sense.  I also like it because it contains embarrassing stories people have sent in that make me laugh. The magazine also regularly comes with free products such as makeup, a bag or a book. I find this persuades me even more to buy the magazine because I know I enjoy the magazine but I will also gain a free product. 

Radio Media

I like listening to Radio 1, I like the variety of music it puts on the show, and it gives me a chance to listen to recent tracks that have entered the charts. Although I don’t listen to the music broadcasted on this radio channel I still enjoy being aware of what the songs are. I Find knowing what they are helps me when I am in a conversation with friends who do like music of this type.

Music Industry

My favourite genres of music are dub step, drum step, Hip-Hop, and Rock.

I do access my music through the internet, I think it’s easier to access; you can make it louder, and also watch the music video at the same time. I can also access my music when using the internet for social networking or doing homework as I find it helps me concentrate.

My opinion of illegal downloading is that it is bad for the music industry and people should avoid it due to the artist losing out on money, viruses being very easy to download onto your computer along with the music and also the quality sometimes lacks. However I also think that CD’s and records are slightly overpriced and the artists are already rich and therefore aren’t going to miss any money.

The music industry does influence my attitude, depending on which genre im listening to. I find particular songs do affect my aspirations and make me want to do well for myself. The industry also influences my dress sense, in that I find I wear particular clothes that reflect certain music types that also influence certain styles.

Video Games

My favourite video game is called ‘The Hobbit’ it is the prelude to Lord of The Rings. It is a game in which a hobbit is sent on loads of quests where you collect jewels and complete puzzles that are set for you throughout the game. The player also acquires a lot of items to collect that help you on your journey. Each level contains a series of quest, some are optional and some are required quests such as saving the dwarves from the spiders.

Video games may have a negative effect on the on the attitudes to gender and attitude to the solution of conflicts due to the violence and tendency for men to be the main characters or women to have small roles in the game.  This may influence some people to think that females should have smaller roles in the real world –when this is most definitely not the case. It could also have a negative attitude towards the way we deal with conflict as individuals may consider the way that a problem is resolved in a game would be appropriate even though we should not resort to violence when a conflict arises.

New Technology

I think technology has increased my understanding of the world as I can research the things I don’t understand on the internet, and cameras allow me to see things that I haven’t seen before whether it is of a country I have not yet visited or a new species that has just been discovered, it is now easier to discover and learn new things about the world around us with the technology that has been created.

Technology has dramatically increased my ability to communicate with others; there are so many ways of communicating with friends and family whether they live nearby or across the world. Social networking, Texts, Phone calls and Emails are just some of the things I use to communicate with the people I wish to and I think if this weren’t possible I’d find it very hard and expensive to send them ways of communication.  It would also take much longer if we didn’t have technology to communicate and therefore means of communication would be slow and impractical in todays’ modern world.

My ability to access to films, television programmes and the music industry has been made very simple with technology. It’s very easy and simple to access, with help of internet, games consoles and televisions as well as cinemas. I don’t have to hesitate about how I want to consume media.

Technology has made my ability to create my own media texts simple,  I can make them in a matter of minutes, they can be made on so many programmes are easy to go out and purchase and most already come when you buy a computer and therefore making a newspaper article, poster, or advertisement is simple and takes minimal time.

Television

My favourite television channels are BBC 1, ITV, and E4. I prefer BBC 1 because when a film is showing; there are no advertisements throughout the film.  I also like these channels due to the programmes that show on them tend to be the ones I enjoy.

My favourite television genre is soaps, because I’ve watched them for years and I like keeping up to date with the story line, through the magazines and spoilers.

Personally I consider Eastenders, 90210 and Desperate Housewives  the most memorable television programmes because of their dramatic storylines and the cliff hangers at the end of the programme that leaves me urging to watch the next!

Feature film

My favourite genre of film is horror and comedy; I love both of these genre’s because they make me laugh, and intrigue me.

The three films I find outstanding are;

I prefer to consume films via the cinema or DVD, the cinema for the reason of surround sound and huge screen, and DVD because I can enjoy a film in the comfort of my own home and enjoy my own food while doing so,  I prefer to watch a movie at home due to the reason that I save money this way and can eat hot food without it costing me a bomb.

My favourite cinema is Vue. I chose this cinema over others because it’s easy to access; it’s in the centre of the town. I also prefer this cinema due to film tickets being cheaper; they offer teenage tickets that are cheaper than an adult. When I purchase a ticket there I also get a discount on the next visit. Although the seats may not be the most comfortable I still prefer to pay less and use my money elsewhere.

The genre of the movie determines if I prefer to watch it by myself, If it’s a thriller I prefer to watch it alone, whether than a romance tends to make me want to watch it with another person. I love to watch comedies with other people and in groups as you can laugh together and have fun whilst also watching the film. A serious film is something I like to watch solely to enjoy it to the full potential and understand the story line.

Are you a media producer?

I have never contributed to the construction of a media production before.  I volunteered to be the model for my best friend’s art piece, in which I had to cover my face in sweets as the theme was set around childish behaviours 

 

Conclusion

The most offensive media text that I have consumed was a film about the deaths of terrorists, and although terrorists are bad people the footage made me feel quite sick. I wouldn’t advise anyone to watch it.

The most interesting media text I have seen and remember was the tsunami in Thailand. I found this very interesting, also horrifying, but I found it quite fascinating.  It was the main story in the media at the time and I couldn’t stop reading about it, I kept reading about the aftermath and how the people affected would build their country again and how they would build their houses and have to replant their land and get new livestock. I find stories to do with natural disasters fascinating.

This video about a man who has no arms or legs altered my attitude to life generally, towards myself, my family and friends, my community and country and my inspirations and values. It had a very large affect on me and made me realise what I should value in life and appreciate that I have more than some other people who wish they had the simple things that I don’t think about.  Nick Vujicic inspired me in this video a great deal and I hope it inspires you too.

I have chosen media studies as an option because I am interested in the media a great deal. Media has also affected my life a great deal and affects my everyday life. It also inspires me and helps me view things from different angles and perspectives, which helps me understand things better.