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eyndita · 5 years

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POP CULTUREE??? However, we cannot just push away the fact that pop culture has negative influences as well. The depiction of violence, blood and gore can have serious psychological repercussions especially on young children. Some people can get so immersed into the fictional universes that it becomes difficult for them to distinguish between what is real and what is not. It can also be heavily distracting for people. In some ways, pop culture can discourage intelligence and learning as is seen in the way Ross and Ted’s friends react to them acting ‘smart’ on various instances in F.R.I.E.N.D.S and How I Met Your Mother respectively which can produce a harmful effect on the youth. With the advent of social media, it has become easier to disseminate culture across the globe transforming the world into one global society. This has also seen the penetration of pop culture into various aspects of society.

To understand the impact of pop culture, we first need to understand what pop culture is. The simplest definition of pop culture is “Modern popular culture transmitted via the mass media and aimed particularly at younger people.” It has been noted across various surveys conducted that the youth is most influenced and is the biggest consumer of pop culture.

Pop culture affects society in many ways. The first and most rudimentary effect of pop culture is how it builds and strengthens interactions with people who are also into the same kind of things. Events to celebrate pop culture such as Comic-con help foster bonds among people of different background. Pop culture thus acts as a unifying agent for youth across the globe. As Shreyash, a student of BITS says, “It is amazing to see how people gel at Comic-con.” Pixie, a student of Liberal Arts from Delhi says, “Comic- Con helped me make friends and gave me more topics to talk about in social settings.” Mukund, the manager of Blossoms, a bookstore in Bangalore talks about his observations about people getting into intense discussions based on a comic, or a book especially something like Game of Thrones that is quite current. He says that he has also seen people recommend each other different books and make friends.

On a more personal level, pop culture helps people grow and be more accepting considering the vast amount of representation throughout the various genres in pop cultures. There have been instances and reports about students taking an interest in Chemistry because of Breaking Bad or history because of Dr. Who.(for a more detailed study:) It is even speculated that the Motorola flip phone was inspired by Star Trek. As said by Pixie and his friends, pop culture icons even influence them on stage while portraying a character because they tend to draw similarities between the two characters. It also helps the actors to connect with the audience because of the lasting influence of pop culture icons/characters. Shreyas also says, “It helps people become more creative and expands their imaginative horizons.”

With pop culture taking over the large and small screen, merchandise based on these fandoms has experienced a boom in sales. Earlier, it was just hardcore fans of a particular genre buying merch related to it but now fandom merch is flooding the streets. From stores like Forever21 or Zara to the street shops, you can find band t-shirts, superhero t-shirts, wrist bands etc. Zain, the owner of a small store that sells fandom merch on Brigade road in Bangalore says that he has seen an increase in sales since the mass media saw an increase in the adaptations of comics, book series etc. He says he sees a boom in anime merch now that a lot of people are taking to it. He predicts that the hype would persist for at least the next decade. An Iron Man fan, Zain talks about how the character helped him get more confident as he tried to imitate the Tony Stark swagger. He even talks about the more obscure characters such as Iron Fist, Luke Cage etc. are now gaining ground because of the TV shows which can further help boost sales.

However, apart from the mainstream merchandise, there are various small shops that sell customised merchandise commissioned to local artists. Case in point: Hysteria, a small grungy store in Church Street, Bangalore. It is managed by four people- Selvin, Theja, Ryan and Anita who themselves are self-confessed fans of various aspects of pop culture. The store sells only customised merch that is “out of the ordinary” and is designed by the owner, Theja, who then outsources her concept ideas to local artists. This is not only helping people earn money but is also giving local artists a chance to showcase their work. All because of pop culture.

There are websites on the internet that just sell fandom merch and posters and customised collectibles such as “Batarangs” etc.

In terms of generating business, there has also been a growth of themed restaurants and cafes throughout the country. There is a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. themed café in pretty much every big city in India. In some places across the globe, Starbucks has been known to sell Harry Potter themed drinks (Butterbeer Latte). Bars and restaurants have been known to craft drinks and cocktails based on food preferences of a character or based on the character themselves. In fact, pop culture has influenced food so much that there is a site that has recipes solely of dishes inspired from popular books. “Two friends Cauldron” is a Harry Potter themed café that is located in J.P. Nagar in Bangalore.

Not least, the influence of pop culture as tools of protest can be seen in reference signs in various protest marches and these are the signs that go viral [Images below]. Also, pop culture has evolved into a tool for propagating dissent and bringing to light various social issues that run rampant but are ignored. Even though it is said that “These things are made for kids”, they are rife with social and moral messages. It is largely attributed to pop culture that the present generation is more accepting and dynamic and vocal about injustice and issues that plague the society. Even to spread awareness, pop culture icons are used so as to be more relatable and fun to the youth and children. For example, for child cancer awareness week, cartoon characters were used.Possibly, the most interesting and entertaining impact of pop culture is pop culture references in other pieces of pop culture. For example, J.R.R.Tolkien’s work being referenced in Led zeppelin songs or when Iron tells Hawkeye “Pipe it down, Legolas” in ‘The Avengers’ or The Big Bang Theory which is rife with references to pop culture or Ted and Marshall from How I Met Your Mother being obsessive fans of Star Wars or Dean and Sam from Supernatural listening to classic rock and referencing Star Trek, Harry Potter and Disney; the list is endless.Mainly the youth? Well, it is partly because the youth is more attuned with social media which in today’s age is the most powerful tool in disseminating culture in general. An interesting observation made by Mr. Himanshu, a product manager is that usually the youth is driven towards or attracted to pop culture because it makes them stand against the crowd. He says that he himself was highly influenced by star wars growing up, especially the Jedi code of conduct and attributes that are now humanitarian to him. Also, pop culture gives the youth a lot many avenues to explore. It helps people express their identity better. For someone who may experience difficulty in figuring out their own identity, can express themselves in terms of a character or icon they relate to. Social media and blogs are full of people who have spoken about pop culture icons and characters helping them accept themselves and come out of the closet. However, we cannot just push away the fact that pop culture has negative influences as well. The depiction of violence, blood and gore can have serious psychological repercussions especially on young children. Some people can get so immersed into the fictional universes that it becomes difficult for them to distinguish between what is real and what is not. It can also be heavily distracting for people. In some ways, pop culture can discourage intelligence and learning as is seen in the way Ross and Ted’s friends react to them acting ‘smart’ on various instances in F.R.I.E.N.D.S and How I Met Your Mother respectively which can produce a harmful effect on the youth.

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nellie-elizabeth · 6 years

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Supernatural: Scoobynatural (13x16)

I can't believe how good this was.

Cons:

So... the Dean and Daphne thing. I know a lot of people were really grossed out because apparently Daphne is supposed to be sixteen. For my money, I'll tell you that as someone who never watched any of the cartoon, I had no idea what age they were all supposed to be. They're sort of... ageless. Stuck forever in the same animated stage of their lives. But, hey, if she's sixteen, then she's sixteen, whether I was aware of it or not. So. Yeah. That's creepy. But even beyond that aspect of it, I just didn't find Dean's constant flirting to be all that compelling. I really liked the stuff where he was in competition with Fred, but I didn't think that competition had to be so centered on wanting to get the girl. It just didn't lead to any laughs for me, and was a bit cringe-y.

Pros:

Literally I was so scared for this episode. I was terrified it was going to be an awkward, cringe-worthy flop. But from the very first moments, even before they become animated, I could tell this was going to be one of the instant comedy classics of Supernatural's long reign. I loved the opening scenes, with the seemingly possessed giant stuffed dinosaur. What an absurd image. There was this great moment when Dean said something kind of stupid and Sam gave him the patented bitch face and I thought... ah yes. Here were are.

The animation was excellent. The detail, the motion, all of the meta jokes (the newspaper has no words, the books are all painted into the background except for the one that Dean needs to pull out), the way Sam, Dean, and Cas are all animated not only to look like their live-action selves, but also to move like them? Excellent.

As I said, I've never really watched the cartoon, but I know enough through osmosis to pick up on a lot of the references being made. I loved the part where they all did the classic running-around bit, with the theme song playing, and everybody popping out of different doors. So great. And Fred's plans never working, and Velma being the pragmatic one, and Scooby and Shaggy always hiding from danger. The real brilliance of the episode comes in the way it breaks down slowly over time. The Scooby gang stays pure for a good chunk of the episode, but when real people start showing up actually dead, and when they start getting actually injured, Sam, Dean, and Cas are forced to tell them the truth. I loved the fact that Shaggy actually broke his arm and was just totally flabbergasted by that, because he just fell out of a window. He's done so many outrageous things and never suffered any actual physical consequences before! Watching the Scooby gang have a nervous breakdown was everything I never knew I needed, but of course the Winchesters are there to buck up their spirits.

Sam and Dean had such interesting reactions to being transported into this cartoon world. Dean is obviously elated, and as often happens when Dean shows unrestrained enthusiasm for something, Sam is there to be a bit of a downer about it. I love the fact that when it gets down to it, Sam reveals that he remembers details from episodes of Scooby-Doo as well, and he's able to help Dean bolster everybody's spirits so they can win the day. Suddenly, the gang is adapting their tried and true methods to catch a real ghost instead of just a guy wearing a mask, and it's a glorious fusion of these two worlds. I love the fact that while Sam can be a bit jaded, he's actually mostly on board with the plan of not corrupting the Scooby gang. He knows this is important to Dean, and by the end he's willing to join in on the fun.

Another great element of this episode is the resolution - I always love it when we can see the Winchesters helping the "monsters" as much as they help the humans. In this case, the ghost is a scared little kid who has been forced to hurt people by an evil real estate developer back in the real world. Sam and Dean enlist the ghost's help to trick the Scooby gang into thinking that the whole thing was just a guy in a mask, so their innocence won't be ruined, and then the ghost sends them back to their live-action world. They are able to set the ghost free, and get rid of the evil real estate developer by catching him on tax evasion. I love the fact that the throw-away line from Velma about it always being shady real estate developers ends up being true, and how much delight Dean gets from that fact.

We should also talk about Cas. He was wholly unnecessary to this episode, but absolutely delightful in it. I'm so glad. Apparently, he was off getting fruit from the tree of life (the one hint we got of A-plot in this episode) when he returned to the bunker to find Sam and Dean animated on the TV. He gets sucked in as well, and from there he adds so much comic relief. While Dean is paired up mostly with Fred and Daphne, and Sam is paired with Velma, Cas ends up with Scooby and Shaggy, and it delights me to no end. I loved his delivery on: "Sam, Dean, this dog is talking," and the way that by the end of the episode he has really grown fond of them. I'm just really pleased that they decided to include Cas in a concept episode like this. Most of the time, these types of C-plot comedy episodes are a brothers-only affair, but Misha Collins is hilarious, and he deserves to be a part of something like this.

So... there you have it! This episode was, against all odds, actually quite the success! I wasn't sure what I thought was going to happen, but what I got was absolutely delightful.

9/10

#review #supernatural #supernatural review #spn

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avanneman · 6 years

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James Franco’s The Disaster Artist: Hollywood Caught In The Act Of Kissing Its Own Ass

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Greg Sestero’s now reasonably famous book The Disaster Artist, co-written by Tom Bissell, is much better than Producer/Director/Star James Franco’s quite famous movie The Disaster Artist, each telling the story of the making of Tommy Wiseau's all-conquering cult classic, The Room. Book beats film! Book beats film! Book beats film!

Well, not necessarily, but the supposedly non-commercial Franco1 has taken a remarkable piece of material, the only in La La Land partnership of Tommy and Greg (played by James Franco and his brother Dave), and turned it into an unremarkable piece of Hollywood schmaltz, though it’s still pretty funny. Because anyone who could make an unfunny film about Tommy Wiseau would be—okay, I’ll go for it—would be less talented than Tommy Wiseau.

For Hollywood winners like Franco—and virtually anyone else who’s really “in the business”—both Sestero and Wiseau are “touching”—or would be touching if The Room had never reached the screen and, almost as important, if The Disaster Artist had never been written. If these things had not happened, Greg and Tommy would have stumbled through Hollywood like a latter-day George and Lennie2, so not getting it—Tommy the gigantic, misunderstood genius whose problem is that everyone does understand him, understands that he has utterly no talent, and Greg the buff, vacuous pretty boy whose career peaks when he gets the lead in Retro Puppet Master—shot in Romania, direct to video and seventh in the series—an actor so bad and so unknown that he can’t even be used as a punchline. “Gary Busey called. He wants his je ne sais quoi back”? Funny! “Greg Sestero called. He wants his je ne sais quoi back”? Say what?

No one of any importance would have known either man, but they all would have known “a Tommy Wiseau”, “a Greg Sestero,” that pathetic kid in acting class who would never shut up, who woke up every morning thinking “next year I’ll be a star!”, who never realized how achingly terrible he was, how utterly unsuited for the Hollywood shark tank, who never got eaten because he was never worth the eating.

Franco’s film gets about half of that, in particular when we see Tommy and Greg genuflecting at the scene of James Dean’s death. Dean is their Christ. He suffered for them! He died for them! Through His death they are transfigured! They must suffer as He did, and if they do, if they suffer as Christ, they will become as Christ, or rather, as James Dean. They will become stars! They will move others as He moved them! But only if they are worthy! Only if they dedicate their lives to the holy craft of acting!3

And so they did, and so The Room did get made, thanks both to Wiseau’s bizarrely bottomless bank account and his bizarrely bottomless ambition to make a film—the story of an utterly good man surrounded by betrayers and ultimately crucified by them4—which overcame even his almost bottomless ability to sabotage every aspect of his life, constantly driving people away with his naïve, unrestrained egotism but pulling them back in with his naïve, unrestrained neediness—and his naïve, unrestrained bank account.5

As I say, Franco gets about half of this, but he constantly interlards it with self-congratulatory Hollywood schmaltz. There’s an utterly gratuitous bit when one of the actresses asks the old lady playing Lisa’s mother why she gets up at five in the morning and drives across town so that she can spend hours waiting for Tommy to show up. “Because the worst day on a movie set is better than the best day not on a movie set,” she says, and everyone sighs in agreement. We’re making a movie! We’re in heaven! We are the stuff that dreams are made of! We are our dreams!6

It gets worse, naturally, at the premiere of The Room. In “real life,” as Franco tells us via text, The Room cleared $1800 over a showing that lasted two weeks (Tommy paid to keep the film in the theater for two weeks so that it would qualify for the Academy Awards), which means an average audience of about 50 a day, though Tommy paid for a full house for the premiere.

Rather remarkably, Sestero doesn’t tell us how the premiere went, but Franco isn’t so shy. He shows us the crowd roaring in delight at the film's badness, though in real life, since they had been paid to be there, one can wonder if that’s what happened. But Franco isn’t interested in what happened in real life. He’s channeling Hollywood’s vision of itself—as shown, for example, in Sullivan’s Travels, Preston Surges’ tongue in cheek take on the “genius” Hollywood director who wants to “make a statement” only to discover, while watching a rapt audience dissolve into happiness while watching a “Pluto” cartoon, that what counts is helping people forget their troubles. We make people happy, gosh darn it! And that’s pretty gosh darn good thing to do!7

Of course, Tommy’s not pleased to see the crowd laughing at his own crucifixion—that’s me up there on the cross, goddamn it!—but Greg rather remarkably, and unconvincingly, talks him down. They love it, Tommy! They love your film! You’re a star now, big boy, and everybody knows it! So go out there and enjoy it! And so, of course, the film ends with a delighted Tommy standing up there and proudly acknowledging the crowd’s standing ovation.8

The conclusion of The Disaster Artist is reminiscent of that of several other biopics of show biz outsiders, Tim Burton’s Ed Wood and Miloš Forman’s tribute to Andy Kaufman, Man on the Moon. Ed Wood, of course, is long dead, and so are the people who knew him. Tommy Wiseau, and his friends, are all very much alive. But Andy was dead when Man on the Moon was made, while those who knew him were living. Andy, unlike both Ed and Tommy, was talented—his early reading of The Great Gatsby was one of the greatest bits I’ve ever seen—but everyone who knew him, it seems, hated him. Yeah, Hollywood loves its oddballs. But, you know, Hollywood oddballs are like everything else in Hollywood. Don’t look too close.

Afterwords Woody Allen, not often accused of sentimentality, except about himself, pays tribute, in Broadway Danny Rose, to show biz losers, those sweetly but completely untalented misfits he met on the way up. Much of BDR is very funny, but Woody naturally has to “explain” to us at the end that all women are lying, betraying sluts—um, sort of like the message of The Room. Rent BDR and stop watching about ten minutes from the end. You’ll enjoy it much more.

See the movies, read the book Half the fun of The Disaster Artist is the lovingly recreated bad scenes from The Room, so why not just cut to the chase and see The Room itself? Also, read the book! Sestero may look like an original cast member of The Real Poolboys of Beverly Hills, but his book gives a remarkable portrait of a man whose longing to express his passion was at once utterly false and utterly real, a real-life Don Quixote who drew Greg's Sancho Panza along in a mixture of both admiration and pity.9 There's so much in the book that it should have been a mini-series, six to ten hours, to allow audiences to really marinate in Tommy's manifold weirdnesses, though, of course, the real story of Tommy's weirdnesses would not always be funny. As Sestero tells it, for both Greg and Tommy, the "key" film for interpreting Tommy's life is not Rebel Without A Cause but Anthony Minghella's 1999 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's ode to a homicidal shape-shifter, The Talented Mr. Riply.

Franco has directed short films and presented a variety of multimedia projects, including “Collage”, featuring live dance, theater, music, and poetry. He directed a 90-minute documentary on the early 20th-century American poet Hart Crane, which I haven’t seen. He’s published a book of short stories, has exhibited “installations” at art museums, has done just about anything and everything guaranteed not to turn a buck. ↩︎

Dunno if kids still have to read Of Mice and Men. Wiseau is an interesting combination of George and Lennie, both monster and mastermind. Fortunately, Greg never had to blow Tommy's brains out. ↩︎

The “center” of The Room comes when Johnny/Tommy cries out “You’re tearing me apart!” in explicit homage to Dean in Rebel Without A Cause. ↩︎

Tommy’s arms outstretched death scene is clearly intended as such, though Franco doesn’t emphasize it. ↩︎

Particularly touching is Sestero’s description of the famous rooftop scene that Tommy keeps bungling over and over again. He reaches out desperately to Greg for support. His whole life has been leading up to this point! If he can’t nail this scene, if were better he had never been born! Miraculously (as Sestero tells it), Greg saves him! “Thanks, man! I owe you! [beat] Your check bounced? You think I’m Santa Claus? Hey, bro! Go fuck a reindeer!” [Laughs] ↩︎

Anyone who’s read “the making of” accounts of classic films, ranging from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (unpaid cast and crew sweating through 14-hour days in the Texas sun while the one actress with tits sits in an air-conditioned limo) to Apocalypse Now (unpaid extras and crew starving amidst filth while enduring tropical monsoons) can doubt this. A lot of people got fired by Tommy and one can wonder if they ever got paid. Of course, anyone connected with a “classic shoot” will want to tell stories, but are the stories true? Truth in Hollywood? Say what? ↩︎

Other nits I'd like to pick: Franco's use of stirring, "Chariots of Fire" music whenever Greg and Tommy talk about their dreams. You don't have to tell us they're talking about their dreams, Jim! We can hear the dialogue! Also, some "star" perogatives: In the book, it's Greg who suggests driving to the site of James Dean's fatal crash. In the movie, it's Tommy. Also, Tommy does all the driving, though in the book it's almost always Greg at the wheel, with Tommy, a handkerchief over his face, zonked out in the passenger seat. ↩︎

Lots of films show the leads receiving a standing ovation. I’ve never believed in any of them. ↩︎

However irrational it is—and Greg can see how irrational it is—Tommy's boundless self-confidence always energizes Greg. Hey, maybe I can make it after all! And when Tommy's self-confidence flags, Greg panics. Say it ain't so, Tommy! Say it ain't so! ↩︎

#the disaster artist #The Room #tommy wiseau #greg sestero #James Franco

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