Weekly tv and movie reviews
November 2024:
Tv Review
The best reality show of All time is Pretty Wild!
Never do anything you don’t want on the front page of LA Times Andrea Arlington told her daughters in the 2010 reality TV show E’s“Pretty Wild” a series celebrating their 15th anniversary next year is entertainment for the times. I watched many reality series “Laguna Beach”, “The Hills, “Punk’d”, “Siesta Key”, etc but none of them were interesting and memorable as “Pretty Wild.”
The series (originally titled “Homeschooled with Arlington’s”) chronicles the Arlington family's struggle to deal with a tragedy. It aired on the E network on March 14th, 2010, and is historic, humorous, and has several relatable moments.
The reality series is memorable for having one of the sisters be involved in the Hollywood Hills burglaries that had celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox, Lindsay Lohan, and Rachel Bilson's homes broken into. Alexis Neiers (one of the three sisters in the series) was arrested on the first day of filming the reality series for robbing actor Orlando Bloom’s home.
The reality series was originally about a mother Andrea Arlington helping her three daughters 19-year-old Tess Taylor, 18-year-old Alexis Neiers, and 15-year-old Gabby Neiers live in Los Angeles. The series' plot was changed following Alexis Neiers' arrest hours into filming about a family coping with their daughter potentially getting time in jail for breaking into an actor’s home.
The series' most memorable moments are the family one-liners (one of is after the family prays together they say “And so it is”) and how Alexis Neiers handles“Vanity Fair” journalist Nacy Jo twisting her words when interviewing her about the situation for the article “The Suspects Wore Louboutins” in the late 2000s.” Pretty Wild” became historic and different from many reality series that came before it had a shocking moment in every episode, one Obvious moment being Alexis Neiers' arrest.
The show has many laughable moments unlike any other reality series, including Gabby talking to her crush at her birthday party, Tess losing her dog minutes before Gabby’s first day of school, and Andrea waking the girls up to start their day. Despite having a child be arrested for robbing a celebrity’s home, the series had many scenes that reminded people of their insane family.
The series is more than Alexis Neiers' arrest; it showcases many relatable moments for young girls. One scene in particular shows how Tess handles a crush (singer Ryan Cabrera) who doesn’t like her back, and another scene of Gabby looking for an after-school job around Los Angeles. Everyone had the feeling that when a crush doesn’t feel the same way, and looking for a job. The show does a terrific job of showcasing what it feels like to be a young girl doesn’t matter where your from.
The series may have only one season due to Alexis Neiers' drug problem behind the scenes. Still, it will forever be significant in pop culture not only for the plot but the many memorable scenes. The series will always be a part of the 2000s what an era moment. “And so it is” the family always says after praying.
Movie reviews
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Movie reviews *
November 2024: movie review
“The film that represented the Me Too” movement (a no spoiler review) of Jennifer’s Body!
The many years of struggling to believe women are felt and shown in the 2009 film “Jennifer’s Body” about a bisexual high school cheerleader named Jennifer Check who turns into a demon and has to eat boys to survive. The film is brave for showing in 2009 the handling of mental health in high school, representing how teen girls act and the abusive power celebrities have towards women.
The writer of the film Diablo Cody and director Karyn Kusama does a stunning job of leaving an important message for the audience. Throughout the film, many scenes left me with many questions, not about the movie about the the world and myself. One of them is at the beginning of the film when Jennifer Check (the protagonist) gets into the rock stars' band Low Shoulder van after a horrible fire at a bar where the band was performing. The scene left me with, why as young women we get judged and laughed at for going with an older guy somewhere we don’t know or do know? Why is it never a protection for us? Why isn’t a conversation being had on how terrible this can end up being?
All of those questions pop into my head watching Jennifer Check getting into that van and her best friend Needy not doing her best to try to stop her.
Karyn Kusama and Diablo Cody magnificently capture the struggles of being a teenage girl and a woman. Not being believed, getting constantly told you are insane (this didn’t happen), getting constantly ridiculed for every little thing how you dress, being a virgin.
The women behind the scenes working on the film capture it all so well. The film like many women didn’t get a chance to get listened to with a Rotten Tomato (a movie and TV critic site) score of 46 percent out of 100% and it bombing at the box office in 2009 grossing 16 million dollars around the world with a 32 million dollar budget (IMDB.com reported about the film) due to the poor marketing by the studio focusing on actress Megan Fox (who plays Jennifer Check) show off her body and attitude in ads for the movie. Actress Megan talked about in an “Entertainment Tonight” interview celebrating the 10th anniversary of the film titled “Jennifer's Body Reunion: Megan Fox and Diablo Cody Get Candid About Hollywood (Exclusive)”.
“Jennifer’s Body” should have been marketed as a tale for women that your not alone, the majority of men are the problem. The film not based on a true story but as a similar tale to the 1995 killing of teenage girl Elyse Pahler (a teen who was killed by a teen band who sacrificed her body to become famous the same way as the protagonist Jennifer Check.
Similar to Elyse the main character didn’t get justice and was hardly talked about by the media with Elyse’s killers not even getting sent to death row instead only getting life in prison with the possibility of parole. In the reporting from the Meduim.com article“The Satanic Torture-Murder of Elyse Pahler.”
The film and the court case of Elyse Pahler detail why justice is so important when it comes to the mistreatment of not only women but underage girls who don’t even know any better. Girls who don’t even know how to live in society.
“Jennifer’s Body” showed why we as human beings act the way we do. When it comes to being a man it's the constant need for power to always be right. “Jennifer’s Body” wasn’t only ahead of its time it sparked a conversation on the mistreatment girls and women face daily. “Jennifer’s Body is a thriller about how a teenage girl feels on the inside tired of being taken advantage of and feeling unloved.