Jonathon Levine’s The Night Before is a raunchy holiday comedy headed by Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anthony Mackie. The film opens with the funeral of the parents of Gordon-Levitt’s Ethan, where he’s surrounded by his two best friends: Rogen’s Isaac and Mackie’s Chris. The grief over losing both his parents gives way to a new holiday tradition: for the next fourteen years, the three go out every Christmas Eve and party it up by performing karaoke, playing a Kanye song on a giant piano in the floor (a la Tom Hanks in Big) and search for an invite to the holy grail of holiday parties: the Nutcracker Ball. On what is supposed to be their last night out (considering that Chris is now a famous football player and Isaac is about to welcome a baby with his wife, hilariously portrayed by Jillian Bell), Ethan finds himself in possession of three tickets to the Ball. What ensues is hilarious, vulgar, and …show more content…
endearing night that involves drugs, drinking, reconnection with an ex-lover, and a cameo from Miley Cyrus that takes the three men on a journey they’re likely never to forget. The Night Before leaves the viewer with a surprisingly warm feeling by the time the movie ends. What is expected to be a bawdy comedy (no different than any of Rogen’s previous works) turns into quite a poignant and heartfelt tale of three different men who have been friends most of their lives and are now at different crosswords. Isaac’s expectant wife Betsy (Bell) procures a hilariously set of drugs (off Craigslist, no less) that she gifts to him for being such a great husband during her pregnancy. Isaac is the doting husband secretly on the verge of a full breakdown over his impending fatherhood. Chris has become a star football player at 34 years old, though with the help of steroids (a fact that does not elude Ethan.) His hilarious antics, including filming their going-ons in a Red Bull sponsored Hummer for his fans and his need to be accepted by his teammates, introduces us to Michael Shannon’s Mr. Green, a weed dealer the three have been buying from since high school. And finally, Ethan is a relationship-phobic, musician who can’t seem to finish his songs. He’s recently broken up with his girlfriend, Diana (Lizzy Caplan) who he later runs into during their ridiculous night about in New York City. These three men have to learn to grow and face their issues as the film progresses. It’s all in the spirit of Christmas. The movie is full of crass jokes.
Depending on what type of sense of humor a viewer has, it might not sit well with everyone. There’s crotch shots sent through text when Rogen’s character accidentally switches phones with Mindy Kaling’s Sarah. There’s a ridiculous scene where Isaac, who is Jewish, is high on drugs that were provided to him by his expectant wife Betsy (that she bought off Craigslist, no less) attends a Catholic Midnight Mass with Betsy and her family. Chris hilariously and raunchily sleeps with a supposed fan in the bathroom of a bar. What ensues are a slew of 80’s and 90’s references, including Mackie exclaiming at one point, “She Home Alone’d me!” The film works for a nostalgic, older viewer. There is cameos left and right from Hollywood performers, including Miley, James Franco, and Tracy Morgan. I personally enjoyed the film. It’s enough to make you laugh yet give you that warm fuzzy feeling that are accustomed to holiday films. It’s not an Oscar-baiter by any means but Rogen, Mackie, and Gordon-Levitt certainly hold up their
own.
A statement from the nonfiction novella Night –a personal account of Elie Wiesel’s experience during the Holocaust—reads as follows: “How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou. Almighty, Master of the universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end up in the furnaces” (67). War is a concept that is greatly looked down upon in most major religions and cultures, yet it has become an inevitable adversity of human nature. Due to war’s inhumane circumstances and the mass destruction it creates, it has been a major cause for many followers of Christianity, Judaism, and other religions to turn from their faith. Followers of religion cannot comprehend how their loving god could allow them to suffer and many devout
Rachel Perkins hybrid musical drama One Night the Moon set in the 1930’s Australian outback and Malala Yousafzai’s ‘speech to the UN’ in 2013 were composed to raise awareness and reveal truths of multiple perspectives, representing the voice of the unheard and disempowered in juxtaposition to the dominant and powerful. Both Perkins and Yousafzai challenge societal expectations of their context, advocating for all voices to be heard and for the potential unity between cultures and races through education and shifts in paradigm.
1 It was a cold March night in 1980 in China. There was only Tyler Day, TJ Paul, 2 and Lauren Day at the movie. It was late at night, when Tyler, TJ, and, Lauren were 3 leaving from the movies. They decided to play hide n seek after watching the movie 4 Friday The 13th. The three of them split up, and they all had night vision goggles so 5 they didn't hit any trees. Lauren volunteered as tribute to be it, but that was kinda 6 weird because she is never it first in any game they played with people.
Overall the film was a very informative film for a more homophobic audience. The content was relatable and connected well with the information and discussions that have been within our society for a long time. It was a well-done film that really questions the homophobic opinions and while this is still a very real debate in today’s society the film does a great job at arguing the homophobic opinions.
In the first chapter of his book “The Midnight Hour: American Studies in a Moment of Danger” American Studies author George Lipsitz offers a critique of nationalistic political nature from a Marxist perspective . In this essay, I will offer my own critique of the arguments raised by him throughout the chapter. Furthermore, I will also offer insight regarding my thoughts of how the ideas of Lipsitz are pertinent to the practice of American Studies. Lipsitz's central argument in the first chapter of his book asserts that the globalization of various economic aspects (transportation, distribution, consumption etc.) transform the political nature and culture of the nations involved. The transformation in question here is from a nationalistic
Judd Apatow (‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’, ‘Knocked Up’) is known for his contained and loveable comedies, but this marks the first time he’s directed a film that he didn’t write or co-write himself. He co-wrote ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ with his leading man Steve Carell, but he’s never not taken part in the screenplay of one of his films, at least not until this film. I personally walked into this film with a lot of hesitation, I’m not well-versed in Amy Schumer’s particular brand of humor thus I’m not sure how much I can trust her, but the trailers worked for me and Judd Apatow has never made a bad film in my eyes, and this is definitely not a slipup.
... things up to the worst of it all. The readers can take away that just because you believe something different then somebody else, doesn’t make them or you a bad person or different in any way. This topic shows that long before the concentration camps, Jews were being singled out and treated terribly. The study of the Holocaust matters to show people what happened so that others can learn from it and learn to accept people no matter what their religion. It must not be forgotten because the people who suffered in it should be remembered. It was a terrible time that should never happen again. All of the laws passed leading up to the Night of the Broken kept increasing Hitler's power and ability to persecute the Jews because there was little reaction to his actions; the violence and persecution increased leading to the final solution because of this indifference.
This is a response to the video The Thousand and One Nights. The Thousand and One Nights is a book of stories. One of the main characters in the story was Scheherazade. Scheherazade is queen, storyteller, the wife of Shahryar, and the daughter of Vizier. The premise of the story is when faced with a challenge, for things to change sometimes someone has to step up and do something different.
“August 2002: a night meeting” is a story by Ray Bradbury The story begins by a character named Thomas stopping on the way to a party for gas. He talks to an attendant about living on mars and discusses how living on mars is terrible. He stops again at a martian town that is deserted. At this point a martian ship approaches and its driver Muhe Ca gets out. He states that he is on his way to a festival in a martian city. Muhe Ca is able to talk to the Tomas through telepathic communications, which makes the communication more easy. Tomas offers the martian a drink, but finds that he cannot touch each other or even anything belonging to each other. They are both convinced that the other is a ghost. Muhe Ca does not know of humans landing on mars and is sure that his way of life and people are still alive. They stop arguing and realize that life is worth too much to enjoy to argue. They part ways and resume there respective journeys.
I also think that most of the jokes in the movie were hit-or-miss. The good funny jokes balanced out the less successful ones. Basically, the parodies of The Ring and Signs were hilarious, but I definitely could have dealt without anything pertaining to 8 Mile or The President. These jokes just were not funny; they did not seem to blend very well with the other movies. In the first two of the series, the jokes were coming at you constantly.
I have to disagree with both these reviews. I believed that the story was brilliantly written and the cinematography was beautiful. This movie touched me and had me in tears which believe me is hard to do. I do agree with the New York Times and New Yorker that it was a little dragged out and that Kiera Knightly acting was over rated. Other than that I would defiantly recommend this movie.
In addition, the intended audience is identical twins and can also be related to brother and sister siblings. Furthermore, there are two types of humor that are portrayed throughout the film, Slapstick and sophomoric humor. Moreover, the plot of the movie was not bad; however, the cheap jokes and themes portrayed such as the role of female character being offended and dishonored, various stereotypes were seen throughout the film, and inequality to gender role made the film more offensive and distasteful instead of humorous and fun. This being said, Jack and Jill is a film not worth time or money and I would not recommend
Perhaps of the greatest fears possessed by humanity is the fear of death. There is no real idea of what happens when one dies, and that terrifying uncertainty leads most to avoid even the thought of it at all costs. With an invisible clock ticking human existence away, there remains the question of what is the meaning of life? Ray Bradbury’s short story The Last Night of the World not only forces its audience to reflect on the hypothetical of today being the last day, it offers an idea of what is important about the time people have on Earth. Through clever ambiguity, subtle mood building, and reflective dialogue, Bradbury suggests that it isn’t from the world on the grand scale that the answer is found, nor is it in personal grandeur or fast
I view this as one of the few truly great movies of all time. I say this because it carries all of the basic cinematic elements that compose a great film. These elements begin with the characters. You can hardly expect to enjoy a movie if the characters are not believable. In this particular movie the characters were not only believable but you could identify yourself a little in one or all of the characters. One thing that can have an unfortunate detraction from even a good movie is anachronisms. The only one I found was a halogen bulb in a light fixture. However, I doubt anyone would notice were they not looking for one. This movie can be enjoyed by even the most mentally devoid of audiences. The reason for this is that most people do not like being bossed around or forced to do anything. It did make me think about how little freedom we actually have in life and how we all need to live just a little bit more.