Grade: D

What’s It About? Alien creatures made of pure energy attack Moscow. For some reason, the movie follows some dumbass American kids trying to escape.

Bechdel Test: 2/3. There’s one cool girl character but she’s really not worth the rest of this garbage.

Minorities: No. There’s barely even any Russians!

Review after the jump:

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Why I am Going to Occupy Vancouver – my personal reasons

1. Because I believe in an economic system where good ethics, compassion, and creation are more important than unlimited profit.

2. Because I believe that an economic system that values unlimited profit before all else ultimately results in poor treatment of workers, wage slavery, destruction of the environment, and expensive goods of poor quality. I believe this system is especially dangerous when applied to the basics of life – increasingly frequent food recalls are an example of this.

3. Because I am sickened that high-priced clothing and electronics are made by overseas slave labour simply to raise profits, not out of any need to break even. There is no reason for sweatshops to exist, but they do, because of the model of unlimited growth and profit, which is only possible with terrible working conditions.

4. Because I believe corporatocracy leads to a growing divide of rich and poor, as the middle class and small businesses disappear. The end result of complete corporatocracy is the destruction of the middle class and huge class divides within countries, and between countries.

5. Because I believe that corporate welfare is unjust. I think corporations should not have the same rights as people. I believe corporations should pay much more in taxes.

6. Because I believe the class warfare has been waged long before any of us were born, and it will continue to be fought with mounting casualties of the poor and disenfranchised until we start implementing real solutions. The first step is acknowledging that it exists, and that the rich started it.

7. Because as my father, an oilman, put it: “There is no question that the oil will run out. The question is, will we still be able to breathe the air by the time that happens?” We need new solutions.

8. Because I want to stand in solidarity with my Native friends upon whose land this country is illegally built. Because I want an end to all oppression everywhere.

9. Because every “special interest” group, region, and city has its own complex and unique struggles, but together we can rise up against corporate rule in favour of a true democratic economy.

(Because in my heart of hearts, I believe in a united socialist Earth, but I don’t think we can wait around for the Vulcans to help us build it.)

I’m not keen on the “We are the 99%” slogan and will not be embracing it. It might have fit within an American context, but globally I do not think it is true. While I, my family, and everyone I know and work with, do not ~own capital~ and control the wealth of the nation, by living and thriving within a Western country we do help with the oppression of foreign slave labour and the squandering of foreign resources. While I can only start out by helping locally, we need a global solution.

Grade: C+

What’s it About?: Three teenagers in rehab re-live one day over and over – the day they are released to make amends with family members.

What’s its Bechdel Test Score?: 1/3

What About Minorities?: None.

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Grade: A

What’s it About? A young girl raised in the Finnish wilderness as an assassin travels across Europe, tracked by a determined and ruthless CIA agent.

What’s Its Bechdel Test Score?
3/3

What About Minorities?
While Europe is refreshingly real, graffiti-covered and famous landmark-free, the cast is very white. Supporting characters, like a Moroccan innkeeper, are treated as real people but still remain largely in the background.

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Wow! Look how long I’ve neglected this poor little blog.

I have good reason for neglecting it – back in the fall of last year my internship at the Characters Talent Agency turned into a full-time job, which was both sorely wanted and a huge lifestyle shift for me, having worked several part-time jobs at a time since college to keep things going. Switching to a full-time schedule is pretty difficult! But I love my job, where I assist two agents in the literary department, and I get to do script coverage on a regular basis, so it’s very good experience. I’ve also been getting over my talking-on-the-phone anxiety, the result of too many jobs in call centres. Now I’m on the receiving end of people trying to sell scripts and it’s really putting things in perspective!

I have also spending a day a week, since last summer, volunteering at the local animal shelter to socialize adoptable kitties. I was sharing kitty stories over on my personal journal and people have told me I should take these stories public, but perhaps Van City Kitty and Happy Tails are satisfying the market for local cat profiles. I’m currently taking some time off from the SPCA to get ready to move apartments (which is another lifestyle shift a long time in the making!) but when I go back, perhaps that will be a regular feature here.

Because, you see, I’m not sure what to do with the ol’ blog! I got mostly bored of doing movie reviews, and I’ll probably only do them for movies I really want to talk about from now on in. I saw tons of movies in the past months, including big hitters Black Swan and True Grit (I give both a fairly solid B), but I just didn’t really care enough to talk about any of them. I haven’t been working long enough to give any special insight into the film or television industry (yet), and frankly, while I’ve found lots of screenwriting and tv writing blogs, I rarely read them continuously.

But everybody seems to think a writer should also be a blogger. After all, Diablo Cody got her opportunity off the back of her blog. There are several writers who blog every day. But I don’t think that a good blogger is necessarily a good fiction writer, and vice versa. For every writer that gets “discovered” via their blog, there’s probably a hundred others that don’t have a web presence at all.

And I’ll be honest with you, I mostly use the internet to look at gossip and other less savoury pursuits. So I think I’m going to step back, stop stressing about it, and let the blog be a work in progress. And perhaps I will check in on time to time with my writing progress and see where that leads me. In the time away from the blog, I have entered a contest or two, and I am gearing up for the next round of Scriptapalooza, this time with a Community spec. Wish me luck!