Film Studies Week 23

Good evening and welcome to week 23!

Last week we finished The Amazing Spiderman and began discussing what film(s) we’d examine and discuss in class. I gave the students the option of sticking with the superhero genre, something a little different in going back to drama or classic films, looking at large franchise works like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, or something completely different. The students, to my surprise, wanted something completely different so we’re beginning our study on dark comedy. I thought for sure they’d want to do something popular or uninspiring but it’s so refreshing to see they want to experience more difficult material.

Dark comedy is a subgenre of comedy that makes light of a subject matter considered taboo, or to serious/painful to discuss. Going through our film list from the beginning of the year, the students unanimously picked two films that take a VERY different approach to the genre.

The first film is Parasite directed by Bong Joon Ho. It won four Academy Awards for director, screenplay, best picture, and best foreign language film (Korean). The film uses social satire to explore the topics of greed and class discrimination and their threat to the symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and poor Kim family. There are instances of frisky behavior (no nudity) but cuts away quickly, and the end of the film does become violet as we see the climax of class tension towards the end of the film.

For the second film, for a good measure of juxtaposition, is Stranger than Fiction directed by Marc Foster and starring Will Ferrell. Definitely not your typical Will Ferrell film (it isn’t crass or vulgar like The Candidate or Stepbrothers, Stranger than Fiction addresses topics such as life/death, what it means to live your life, not putting off activities that you’ve wanted to do, etc. The movie aside from mild language, there are some make-out scenes and suggestive language but that’s about it.

What’s new with Mr. Dudek?
It was yet another busy weekend for me. We had another tournament on Saturday afternoon/evening for club and both Peter and Myla had activities in the morning (volleyball and dance, respectively). Sunday was just trying to keep them from tearing the house and each other apart.

Have a great week roadrunners!
Mr. Dudek
pdudek@santancs.com