HOLLER

 Jessica Barden     Gus Halper     Austin Amelio     Becky Ann Baker

 

            A tale of a midwestern city in the U.S. today.  Blaze (Halper) and Ruth (Barden) are on their own after their mother becomes addicted to opioids and sent to jail.  Blaze is older and takes his responsibility for Ruth very seriously.  He recognizes that she is very bright, and pressures her to fill out a college application.  But things are bleak.  Even after we hear President Trump predicting “jobs, jobs, jobs” on the radio, there are rumblings that the local food manufacturing plant, where Blaze and their good friend Linda (Baker) are employed, is going to close.  

            Blaze and Ruth carry on, trying to collect enough metal to sell to the local scrap shop to survive, but their rent is past-due and their water has been cut off because they haven’t paid the bill.  The man to whom they have been selling cans and whatever metal they can find, Hark (Amelio) offers them a deal.  He is a self-made man (and proud of it) supposedly making thousands of dollars selling metal to China.  He offers to bring the two into his business with even a place to live—at his house with multiple boarders—and the extra perks of games to play in their spare time.

            One big happy family.  Right.  It’s not long before Blaze and Ruth learn that they are expected to participate in extracurricular activities.  It’s a crossroads for them, as they must make a decision about surviving here, compromising their principles, vs. fleeing to unknown places to make a living.

            The story written and directed by Nicole Riegel is chillingly realistic, partly because it is partially autobiographical.  Her account illustrates the binds people get into when the world around them doesn’t offer the expected, e.g., a lasting job at a respected manufacturing plant and honorable health care.  How many times has this happened, as U.S. corporations have taken their operations elsewhere, and the medical industry willingly over-prescribes opioids?  Too many to count.

            Riegel points out all too well how her characters are hardworking, honest, and adaptable; yet, they are caught in a global crunch far beyond their control.  What do they do then?

            This is a fine movie for those who maybe haven’t quite understood the global changes that have been taking place or for those who will benefit from affirmation of their own experience in which expectations of permanence were unmet.  It’s not a profound story as told, but one in which basic truths are well illustrated.

 

A “Modern Times” story in which young people are presented with choices they may not realize are “do or die.”

 

Grade:  B                              By Donna R. Copeland

GOAT

Ben Schnetzer     Nick Jonas     Gus Halper     Danny Flaherty   Jake Picking     James Franco

          This is an unfortunate movie in some ways; that is, because it’s so sadistic, and I believe it’s not good for people to watch/enjoy such pictures.  In addition, hazing as rough as the Phi Sigma Mu Fraternity dishes out in the film Goat is illegal in most states.  Goat is based on Brad Land’s memoir published in 2004.  Much to my surprise, however, even though “hazing has been banned by 44 states and virtually all colleges and universities”, it is still a problem on college campuses, as shown by a recent comprehensive study (http://diverseeducation.com/article/10811/ reported on by the Associated Press, “Study: Hazing Still a Problem on Campus”, March 12, 2008).  “The study found the highest rates of hazing (74 percent) among members of varsity athletic teams and fraternities and sororities (73 percent). But rates also were high for participants in club sports (64 percent) and performing arts organizations (56 percent).”

          After reading this, it partially answered my question as to why Director and co-writer Andrew Neel and screenwriters David Gordon Green and Mike Roberts might have wanted to adapt Brad Land’s memoir about his experience of hazing at college into film.  Perhaps it is to make the public aware that despite the efforts to get rid of hazing, it’s still a problem on many campuses.  Neel also says in an interview at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival that “I’m just interested in the darker side of who we are” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkYiMSoEuVA - Interviewer, Micah van Hove of No Film School).  And his film is about the darker side of masculinity, despite its appearance in a setting of fraternal “brotherly love.”

          Land’s memoir not only describes the brutality of the hazing, but before that, he had been approached by two strangers after a party to give them a ride.   Unfortunately, they were up to no good and beat him severely, leaving him by the side of a country road and stealing his car.  He may have experienced post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result, but his own personality of passivity and denial and family issues kept him from getting help.  Instead, he followed his older, more socially competent brother Brett to college and pledged his fraternity. 

         The film opens at a raucous fraternity party to which Brett (Jonas) talked his brother into coming, hoping that he will impress the members so they will accept Brad (Schnetzer) into their chapter.  But Brad is more of a loner and leaves the party to go home.  It is just outside the door as he is nearing his car that he is approached to give the two strangers a ride.  After he recovers, as much as he’s going to, he pledges his brother’s fraternity, and goes through the hellacious week of pledging, where he and the other pledges undergo unspeakable tortures.  The Phi Sigma Mu members are shown to be champions of masculinity, but of the kind that is uncontrollably aggressive, brutal, foul-mouthed, and sadistic. 

          Needless to say, women hardly appear in the film, and when they do, they’re pictured primarily as sex objects.  In this and in other aspects—such as Brad’s personality weaknesses and ethical dilemmas faced only by Brett and the college—the film is one-dimensional.  Hence, not much time is given to insights about or rationale against hazing.  Shock value appears to be the intent here.

A shallow and purposeless look at hazing on college campuses.

Grade:  F                        By Donna R. Copeland