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Sunday, June 10, 2012

"Mad Men on the Couch" (Analysis of the main characters)

“You are the product. You feeling something. That’s what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can’t do what we do, and they hate us for it.” -Don Draper in the episode "For Those Who Think Youn" (Season two, episode 1)

"Mad Men" has captured the imaginations of millions of viewers, winning fifteen golden globes and four Emmys.

Perhaps more than the gorgeously stylized visuals and impeccably re-created history, it’s the show’s richly drawn characters stumbling through their personal and professional lives that get under our skin and keep us invested. In "Mad Men on the Couch", Dr. Stephanie Newman analyzes the show’s primary characters through the lens of modern psychology. Lending her trained professional eye, she poses and expertly answers pressing questions such as:

Why does Don constantly sabotage himself? Why is Betty such a cold mother and desperately unhappy housewife? (Hint: It’s not just because her "people are Nordic.")

Why does Pete prevail in adversity when Roger crumbles?

Why is Peggy able to rise profesionally in the male jungle of Madison Avenue when Joan can't? Can these characters ever really change?

"Things are looking up for the men and women of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP) in 1964. Don has managed to extricate himself from an unhappy marriage and has made a fresh start with Megan, his gorgeous secretary. The admen have freed themselves from the British agency that had taken over their company.

And Joan and Peggy have each been promoted. But, as always, appearances do not tell the whole story. Sure, the office and the people within it look great. The new agency’s sleek lines and design are in the style of Mies van der Rohe, and evoke an open atmosphere. But while the ever-so-modern glass partitions may be transparent, the characters within remain closed off, their relationships complex and opaque. Don’s true identity; Roger’s most recent dalliance with the firm’s office manager, Joan, and her resulting pregnancy; as well as Peggy’s history with Pete and the birth of their child all remain closely guarded secrets.

Don’s office romps with Faye, Megan, and others are also kept secret—until he can no longer conceal them. And while the fledgling firm gives the appearance of prosperity—with 1960s op art and abstract prints adorning the walls, a C. Jeré sculpture in the entranceway, and Danish modern furniture at every turn—what lies within the modern, stylized rooms is pure turmoil: Lucky Strike, which generates the lion’s share of revenue for the partnership, has announced that the agency’s services will no longer be needed. Glo-Coat Floor Wax defects soon after, despite the shiny Clio Don was awarded for his work on their campaign.

After this one-two punch, SCDP’s finances become so precarious, it is unclear whether the agency will survive. With business so tough, the stakes are financially, professionally, and personally high for the agency’s employees. They have all bet big on the firm’s success—and on one another—leaving the stability of Sterling Cooper for this fledgling agency. Peggy thrives at the office; the workplace provides a major source of gratification for her. Pete bets big on his partner; he loses a $4 million government contract, a huge portion of the business he has brought in, to protect Don from a routine background check (Season 4, Episode 10, “Hands and Knees”).

And Don needs SCDP to survive, perhaps more than the others. The agency is his home, professionally and psychologically. At least three of Don’s partners (Roger, Bert, and Pete) know that Don has a secret past—and they accept him despite his deception.

Without the agency, Don might have fewer opportunities for employment. He is hiding a fake identity, after all, and not every agency would let that slide. He needs this job; without colleagues like Roger and Peggy to look over his shoulder, and a home to go to at the end of the day, he might fall apart. In psychological terms, Don is someone who desperately needs outside supports like rules, conventions, deadlines, and tough-love confrontations to function. His life becomes especially difficult after his wife, Betty, insists on a divorce and quickly remarries, for example. At his nadir, Don’s solace is whiskey, his companions outside the office mostly waitresses and prostitutes, and his life nearly spirals out of control. Just what would happen to Don without a professional setting on which to hang his hat and define his place in the world?

DON DRAPER, MADISON AVENUE’S MARLBORO MAN: Tall, dark, and handsome, stoic and macho—Don is a silver-tongued image-maker who is himself a creation, having stolen the identity of the real Don Draper, a soldier who died serving in Korea. Like the Marlboro Man, the iconic brainchild of admen, the “new” Don exudes confidence, self-assurance, and masculine strength. But for him and the cigarette icon, the machismo is merely a veneer; what lies beneath is darker and more complicated. The actor who played the Marlboro Man is ultimately killed by the very product he hawks, and serves as a cautionary tale and a metaphor for Don’s life. Draper and his colleagues suffer under the brutal pace and nature of the advertising game —a ruthless pressure cooker that threatens to destroy those who earn their living making images.

Duck and Freddy develop crushing alcoholism. Roger has two heart attacks at the office. Though Don seems to thrive under work pressures when we first meet him, he begins to fold as his unhappy home environment and secret past close in on him. As his true identity and extramarital affairs become known to his wife, cracks begin to show in Don’s refined and competent veneer.

BETTY DRAPER, THE ORIGINAL DESPERATE HOUSEWIFE: A classic beauty from a privileged background, Betty receives a top-of-the-line education and goes on to marry a rising and talented adman, Don Draper, with whom she lives in a picture-perfect house in a wealthy Westchester community. But her glamorous veneer unravels in tandem with her husband’s emotional struggles. Soon after Don and Betty set up their beautiful home with their 2.2 children, we see the Drapers begin to grow apart. Don buries himself in his work, seems unable to give much emotionally or communicate with his wife, and has many lovers. Betty fantasizes about cheating with an air-conditioning salesman but remains loyal to Don, though she ultimately does have a one-night stand and an emotional affair with Henry Francis, the man she will marry a short time after the Drapers divorce. Though Betty has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, she has become increasingly desperate and lonely throughout the series thus far.

Being married to a man like Don Draper might explain some of Betty’s emotional difficulties, but fans of the show are frequently puzzled by the way in which she grows angrier and angrier, even after her marriage to Don has ended. Some participants in a recent online vote on a popular Web site have even urged Matthew Weiner to kill off her character entirely. Why is she so reviled? Is she merely the angry, rejecting woman fans love to vilify? Like all the others on the show, Betty is more complicated. Her actions are in large part a result of living during an era in which women had few choices, while her psychology reflects her family of origin. We learn, in fact, that what has prevailed is a “like daughter, like mother” scenario; when Betty was a child, her own mother was very much like her, if not worse.

PEGGY OLSON, THE CAREER WOMAN: Peggy, buoyed by her ambition, refuses to be stymied by convention or traditional gender roles. Single-minded in her pursuit of a career, she gets ahead at work and breaks free of traditional male-female boundaries in ways other woman of her time, like Betty and Joan, do not.

Traditional sex roles held that women were subservient and complementary to men —they served as “looking-glasses” for them, as Virginia Woolf famously decried in "A Room of One’s Own". Women were not supposed to compete with or challenge men by taking away jobs and entering the workforce. Sociologist Helena Lopata noted in "Occupation: Housewife" in 1971: “Women [were] expected to move from birth and home-centered childhood into school attendance for a time sufficient to find a husband, but not so long as to waste valuable youth on knowledge used only for a short time. The next appropriate stages [were] work … [marriage], giving birth to a limited number of children, rearing children, caring for the retired husband, widowhood, and death.”

It was not easy to stray from the social script. Though Peggy refuses to adhere to the rigid constraints of the era, she risks being stigmatized by her refusal to marry or devote her primary energies to the care of men and children.

PETE CAMPBELL, THE BULLDOG: While Pete may be one of the boys when it comes to his devaluing attitudes toward women, he ultimately undergoes a bit of personal development that allows him to break from the group and move ahead of them in his attitudes. We see him become a father and get closer to Trudy. These relationships seem to help mature him and allow him to develop more of an awareness of the needs of others. Likewise, Pete distinguishes himself from the others in terms of his professional standing within the agency.

He urges his reluctant wife to compromise her ethics and induce a former flame to publish one of Pete’s short stories in a national magazine. He cheats on her multiple times. At work Pete is also cutthroat and devious. He takes a confidential report out of Don’s trash and shares the results with a client in the first of many attempts to go head-to-head with Don at the agency. And though Pete strives to be one of the gang, he does not seem to fit in. He tries to befriend Don, but to no avail. Though his manner is initially off-putting (Don wants to fire him for attempting to break the chain of command but cannot because of Pete’s name and connections), Pete ultimately finds a place for himself and learns how to blend in. He and Don forge an alliance that works, as long as Pete does not challenge his authority.

ROGER STERLING, THE BLUE BLOOD: Roger is cocky, full of bravado, and an elitist. He laughs his way through serious situations, quipping about Miss Blankenship, “She died like she lived, surrounded by the people she answered phones for”. -from "Mad Men on the Couch: Analyzing the Minds of the Men and Women of the Hit TV Show" (2012) by Stephanie Newman

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Christina Hendricks explains the Arc of Joan Holloway in "Mad Men"

"In a series long driven by the exploits of Jon Hamm's Don Draper, Hendricks' Joan suddenly has found herself Topic A among the TV-viewing intelligentsia (the AMC show has averaged 2.6 million viewers this season).

In an era where great female roles are few and far between, a character that brims with sexuality (and just plain sex) is far from that of a bimbo. Instead, as a lightning rod for discussion about power, business, office politics, sacrifice and, frankly, every other complicated issue of the day, Joan is a Rorschach for our own deepest meditations on morality and ambition.

"The question is, what would you do to protect your family? Joan is raising her son all on her own. She has no help from anybody. So is it noble? Is it slutty? I don't know," says Hendricks, 37, who admits she has felt compelled to justify Joan's actions to the many friends and family who reached out after the show. Softer and gentler than the character she plays onscreen, she acknowledges she's still deeply conflicted about her character's decision

On her role of Joan on 'Mad Men': “I thought [she] was such a b**ch [at first], and I struggled sometimes trying to make her as real as possible because I thought, who would be so mean?

People always ask me if I’m worried about being pigeonholed as Joan, but there isn’t another character like her. The show takes place in the 1960s and has such a specific mood and quality to it.”"People always ask me if I'm worried about being pigeonholed as Joan, but there isn't another character like her," says Hendricks. "The show takes place in the 1960s and has such a specific mood and quality to it."

Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway and Jon Hamm as Don Draper in "Mad Men" (2007-2012)

Christina Hendricks (Behind the Scenes of "Mad Men")

So there's life after Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce? In her mind, absolutely. "Once you're out of it and modern Christina is in jeans and a T-shirt, you don't see Joan," she adds. "It's easy to imagine me as someone else." Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Christina Hendricks and Robert Morse (Bertram Cooper in "Mad Men")

Joel Murray (Freddy Rumsen in "Mad Men") with Christina Hendricks at "Mad Men Live Musical" Revue during "A Night on the Town with Mad Men" at the Hollywood Theatre, in Las Vegas

January Jones, Christina Hendricks and Elisabeth Moss (Betty Draper, Joan Holloway and Peggy Olson in "Mad Men")

Friday, June 08, 2012

Jake Gyllenhaal & Michael Peña (Posters of "End of Watch")

Posters of "End of Watch" (2012) directed by David Ayer

A drama centered on the long-term friendship and partnership between two cops.

Director: David Ayer
Writer: David Ayer
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña and Anna Kendrick

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Happy 24th birthday, Michael Cera! ("The End of the Wordl")

Happy 24th birthday, Michael Cera!



Michael Cera impaled by a street light A stunt scene in the Seth Rogen film The End of the World where Michael Cera gets it!

Rihanna, Paul Rudd, James Franco, Jonah Hill and Emma Watson) play themselves on the set of Seth Rogen's new film "The End of the World" in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 31, 2012.

The End of the World, which marks the directorial debut of Superbad screenwriting team Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, may have one of the biggest casts in the history of comedies. A throw-back to the star-studded disaster films of the late 60s, early 70s, like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Airport, The End of the World follows the aftermath of an apocalyptic event that happens while a number of famous guests attend a party thrown by James Franco. Among the recognizable faces at this soiree are Jonah Hill, Emma Watson, Martin Starr, and director/writer Seth Rogen Source: www.movieweb.com

"God Bless America" DVD/Blu-ray Bonus Features

Bobcat Goldthwait, as a writer and director, illustrates a sharp mind, keen debating skills and an actual wit that makes the occasionally gory God Bless America never unpleasant to watch.

Following his divorce, Frank (Joel Murray) is forced to live in an apartment in Syracuse, New York, with paper-thin walls through which he can hear his neighbors’ baby crying and their inane conversations. He fantasizes about breaking into their apartment, shooting the obnoxious man who blocks his car in each morning and blowing away their screaming baby. The day he is fired from his job at the insurance company because a secretary he befriended took his friendly gesture the wrong way, Frank finds himself truly distraught. Frank is diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor and wants nothing more than to reconnect with his daughter.

God Bless America is a black comedy, a satire, that is both very funny and a sharp expose on what is wrong in United States culture. What is truly genius about the film is that it manages to accomplish all that it does without ever oversimplifying the problems and characters or becoming the very thing it rails against. For the first aspect, God Bless America is rich in way it looks at all aspects of American culture. Writer and director Bobcat Goldthwait calls out reality television, hate-mongering Conservative media, and – perhaps too briefly – religious hypocrisy whereby those supposedly believing in love and forgiveness rage with the most venom.

What also truly works is that Frank and Roxy use their sudden empowerment and guns with a sense of real restraint and some people they encounter it respond positively. Following the pair shooting four people in a movie theater, the one person they did not kill in the screening tells the news that the killers just wanted people to stop talking, texting and being rude while watching the film. So, while the media still has the problem of trying to attribute a ridiculous motive – violence in the movie on the Vietnam war and the effects of war that was playing where the murders occurred – some people (like the audience) clearly get what is going on in Frank’s head and can actually appreciate what he and Roxy are doing.

Frank is engaging, both from his daydreams of killing to his simple, generally cheerful demeanor. It is clear Frank wants to be happy, he just finds himself trapped in a world very much outside his control. He does something nice and thoughtful – sending a coworker flowers because she is complaining she is having a bad day – and he gets fired. He is diagnosed with a brain tumor by a doctor who does not actually care or empathize with him. Frank, ultimately, gets outraged because the youth of the nation come together to ridicule Steve Clark, an American Superstarz applicant whose audition suggests that he is mentally retarded and launches him into superstardom much like William Hung enjoyed.

And Frank is, believe it or not, deeply moral. He does not want to kill just anyone, he just wants people to be nicer to one another. He establishes firm boundaries with Roxy and refuses to objectify her and goes out of his way to avoid physical contact with her. But even when such things change and evolve over the course of God Bless America, Bobcat Goldthwaith is smart enough to keep Frank morally absolute in several important ways. So, after much of the movie where Frank is clearly uncomfortable by the proximity of Roxy, he finally allows her to touch him. With his migraine headaches getting worse and worse and medicine no longer having any effect, Frank lets Roxy rub the pressure point on his hand that, surprisingly enough, helps relieve the pain.

Early on in God Bless America, Frank complains about how children are fetishized and viewed in a sexual manner and how he is not a pedophile and how gross he finds that practice. It might seem like Frank is boxed in, that Bobcat Goldthwait has created an absolutist protagonist who has nowhere he can truly develop . . . unless he goes in the predictable direction which would ultimately make him into the thing he hates. But Goldthwait manages to find a new direction, one that allows Frank to develop without ever betraying his core beliefs, Roxy, or the audience.

And for as much credit as Goldthwait deserves for the writing and directing, it is Joel Murray who ultimately lands it. Murray does it with his final line to Roxy and it is what seals the movie as truly, undeniably, great. Joel Murray is such a fabulous actor in God Bless America that I had no idea he was the same performer who played the buffoon sidekick to Greg on Dharma And Greg. He is so divorced from the goofy, idiotic character that is arguably what he is best known for that he completely redefines himself in God Bless America.

And when he says the final line his character speaks to Roxy, he delivers it in such a way that through the sheer force of his eyes and the way he performs the simple line that he is saying it to her in a parental way, not a romantic one. Joel Murray takes a line that, on the page, could be interpreted many different ways and makes it conform to the character of Frank to deliver as one of the most loving, parental-type lines in all of cinema in a way that cannot be denied or misconstrued as creepy or romantic and it is Murray who absolutely lands the film.

To get Murray, Frank and God Bless America where they are going would not have been possible without Tara Lynne Barr. Barr defies the old adage about not working with children or animals in film as she appears on screen as both a disturbingly mature sixteen year-old and a frighteningly childish girl with enthusiasm and anger. Barr sells the role completely by eagerly delivering some of the movie’s most disturbing lines and also playing Roxy as genuinely outside the social norms. When her character lies, the audience believes her as much as Frank does.

She plays vulnerable, without ever being kittenish and in one of the film’s most subtle commentaries, Barr as Roxy responds to Frank’s setting boundaries, which is what most of the film’s antagonists lack, making them into horrible people. Source: wlswarts.blogspot.com.es

Joel Murray, who is so fine as Freddie Rumson on TV’s Mad Men, stars in the over-the-top independent dark comedy film God Bless America, written and directed for maximum scathing impact by bizarro comedian/filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait (World’s Greatest Dad).

"God Bless America"
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 3, 2012
Studio:Magnolia

Bonus features on the discs include the following:


audio commentary
deleted scenes
outtakes
featurette
interviews with cast and crew
music video

Source: www.discdish.com