MOVIE REVIEW: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Amidst the clusterfwagh (sic) that has been finals week in law school, I deservedly take my evening off to watch movies. Although I'm only one down, and three to go, I feel pretty good right now (although it's probably because Criminal Procedure is depressing, and I'm just happy to be done). What you ask was on my docket this evening? None other than 2012's rom-com Oscar darling Silver Linings Playbook. A rather ordinary by-the-books story, but one that's populated with some extraordinary characters and stellar production values.

Former high-school teacher Pat Solitano is fresh out of a Baltimore mental hospital for a violent incident involving his less-than-faithful wife. As a result, he's lost his job, his home, and is estranged from his wife. Moving back in with his hapless mother and overly-superstitious, Eagles-superfan father, Pat sets out to find the "silver linings" in life's difficulties as he makes it his mission to reconcile with his wife. Although a generally optimistic guy, Pat struggles to cope with his bipolar disorder; throwing fits over trivialities like the endings of Hemingway novels, dealing anger management, and his biggest pet peeve: Stevie Wonder's "Ma Cherie Amour". A chance dinner-date at an old friend's house introduces Pat to his friend's sister-in-law, Tiffany, a young, widow suffering from clinical depression and recently-unemployed due to her chronic nymphomania with co-workers. She agrees to help Pat re-connect with his wife, in exchange for entering a dance competition as her partner. Things are further complicated though, by Pat's family obligations.

Playbook is one of those films that falls comfortably in the "quirky" category, but all the characters come off so naturally thanks to David O. Russell's stellar, and improvisation-fueled direction. The leads are irresistibly charismatic. Bradley Cooper, is finally given a chance to show some dramatic range, and allows the audience to establish strong empathy with Pat. It's a great career milestone for a trained actor who was originally known for going to Vegas, stealing Mike Tyson's tiger, and kidnapping a naked Ken Jeong.

And then there's Jennifer Lawrence. Ladies and gentleman, America has a new "sweetheart", and it's come in the form of a curvy, husky-voiced blonde from Kentucky with a hint of social-awkwardness that only makes her verisimilitude shine through her newfound Hollywood trappings. As the film's sole Oscar win, I guess it's fairly deserved for a then-21 year-old who was given a role, several years more mature than her. Still, Lawrence carries Tiffany with great deadpan comic timing and amazing vulnerability that she almost flips like a switch. Her brash, assertive attitude with moments of unanticipated intelligence evoke memories of Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny. For the record, I was originally rooting for Jessica Chastain with an upset by Emmanuelle Riva, but after watching, I can see why she became the award-season favorite.

Playbook has touches of melodrama that may potentially annoy some more hardened viewers, such as it's ending. Compared to the book, it also deviates quite a bit from the source material, as far as I can tell. Other than that, I enjoyed Playbook; it's nothing we haven't seen before in terms of the general story, but rather a rare instance of a romantic comedy that doesn't insult my intelligence by demonstrating enough realism, honesty and humor to come off as credible. Could I possibly nitpick anything else? Well...there's the Philadelphia Eagles...haha. Sorry, I'm actually a New York Giants fan. But, whatever...

8/10

Peace,
- Jon

MOVIE REVIEW: The Paper Chase (1973)

From the moment I made it clear I wanted to go to law school, to the countless times my LSAT practice course instructor made references and quotes to this film, it became clear that seeing The Paper Chase was a mandatory rite of passage for law students and unavoidable out of my own curiosity. For many 1Ls, Paper Chase is the first thing to scare them as far as what to expect out of law school, based on it's candid, honest apporach to the classroom environment, grounded in the difficult and often humiliating Socratic Method. But since the film is technically a dramatic work, I took these things with a grain of salt, albeit, with some slight unease. Above all though, Paper Chase is a good movie.

James Hart is a clueless, first year law student at Harvard. Hailing from Minnesota, Hart is unprepared to deal with the rigors and intense studying at his fingertips. He also has to deal with vying for recognition from his professor; the stern, authoritarian Charles Kingsfield. Hart retreats from the stress rather easily by partying, or sleeping with the local school socialite, who has become the object of his affection and reluctant psychological distress receptacle. What changes things for Hart however, is when he realizes his new sweetheart is actually Kingsfield's daughter.

Films like these have a knack for keeping my interest, because they deal directly with events going on at large in my life and speak in a way that art so brilliantly does by creating characters that one instantly relates to. While Hart is somewhat of a man-child, he gradually grows into what the school expects of him, and his will to succeede is a very admirable quality. Likewise, Kingsfield, for all his thorns is an intriguing figure, in spite of his imposing presence. The pacing is very strong, and the film has a wicked sense of humor; whose strongest source is at the taut verbal sparring between Hart and Kingsfield. Perhaps, this is a fairly apt viewpoint of the Socratic Method in action. For a 1L-to-be like myself, Paper Chase didn't fully intimidate me, because that Harvard isn't representative of every law school in the US, but it gave me some good, emotional insight from an entertaining, fictional angle.

8/10

Peace,
- Jon

A Simple Introduction

Hello,

This is one of what I hope is to become many posts on this internet sensation we've come to know lately as a "blog". Part of the reason why I've chosen to create one in the first place is because I've grown tired of reducing my thoughts to confining little blurbs on Facebook. That and the so-called "News-Feed" makes things feel a little..."spam"-y to me, in my honest opinion. I've figured, if people really give two cents about what I'm going to write, I want to have that luxury of being able to share my thoughts unlimitedly (and without the confines of a puny HTML box). So that's why I bring you "Culturally Competent", today (or...tonight, if you want to be technical about it...).

Now, I'm sure you're wondering "Why the heck are you starting a blog in the first place?".

Well, I guess it all starts with me, really. I'm a writer at heart, I always have been. It's probably one of those things as a child you take off and run with, like sports or art; writing was one of my first hobbies...and as kid, that probably started for me in kindergarten when my teacher commended me in front of the whole classroom for spelling the alphabet in capital letters correctly. See what wonders positive reinforcement can bring about in someone's life?

Naturally, as life would hit you in the face, other things came my way: soccer, swimming, chess, theatre, basketball, singing, tae kwon do, etc. But somehow, the "writing" thing always bounced back every now and then. Kind of like "Charlie Brown" specials on television, if you were to allegorize that with real life. I wrote, directed and starred in a one-act play my senior year of high school. In college, I tutored writing to undergraduate, graduate, and theology students, as well as helped them edit their papers. I tried getting a stint with my college newspaper, doing "Arts & Leisure", but that never really worked out. My college newspaper was never the most organized or, heck, professional thing on the planet. My apologies to anyone who worked on that paper, but a little quality control would have definitely improved your reputation among the student body. I can certainly vouch for that.

Anyway, writing has pretty much led me to a hazy but honest philosophy I have that basically dictates the need to express whatever is on your mind for those who want to know. But with that philosophy comes a price - words are weapons - especially in 2011. What you say and write to people really does label who you are. So, "choose wisely", as I always say, or at least in my case; have an outlet to express these thoughts in as clearly and eruditely as you possibly can. That is where the need for me to have a blog originates. I intended to start this blog a lot earlier, as I graduated college last May (BAs - Psychology, Spanish). But of course, a relief trip to Honduras, and summer prep courses for the LSAT popped up. For those of you who don't know what the LSAT is, it's this little slice of Hell; the Law School Admission Test, published annually by the Law School Admission Council in the form of a three-and-a-half hour-long standardized test, basically designed to make law school admissions' lives easier (for more information, in case you were that curious: http://www.lsac.org/). After that ordeal was over, and my applications to law school were squared away, I got a job, and finally revisited my plans for a blog once the holiday madness of 2010 was over.

So, now you're probably wondering "What's up with the name of your blog?" "Culturally Competent? Are you like, some kind of crazy hipster or something?"

I'll start with the answers to the second question: "Yes, that is the name of my blog, and no, I'm not a hipster, I don't exclusively associate with groups"...but I will make fun of them from time to time for their idiosyncracies, and hipsters, in my opinion, have a lot of idiosyncracies.

"Culturally Competent" is an actual definition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_competence) and comes from another summation of my personality: I'm like a sponge when it comes to this world we live in - I've learned it's okay to take more risks, try more new things, and try to live more in the moment. So in a sense, I'm "Un-Culturally Challenged" (the original name of my blog) from being close-minded, coy, or averse to exploring the world. A lot of what I will post about has to do with basically anything in the news, media, what have you, that crosses my path. Pretty much anything I feel like I want to write about will go on here. I'm not setting out to become the next Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist or anything like that, I'm simply doing this for fun. And after all, there's people out there who I'm sure will enjoy reading this.

I hope you do, too.

Goodnight,
- Jon