The Devil Wears Prada

            The Devil Wears Prada is an entertaining movie. It revolves around two main characters Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. This movie is designed to entertain. It is the classic story of a girl that wants to make it and tries too hard. She takes it all for the team and sacrifices her personal life for the magazine. In the end she earns the respect from the boss and is given a glowing recommendation. The classic hard work prevails is nothing new. Most of the reviews of the movie make it seem shallow, yet entertaining.

           

            The movie revolves around the conflict of the two main characters. Meryl commands attention when she is on the scene. She gives little emotion to any of the performance. But, we notice that this is a personality trait that has served her well in her chosen career. Streep’s performance is perfect with even the smallest facial expressions will determine the outcome. She did an enormous job with the role. Anne did a great job as the dolt. But, she demonstrates that with hard work and perseverance you can accomplish a lot. She sacrifices her relationships with her friends and family to succeed. The overall lesson is shown at the end of the movie where she walks away from Meryl when she is needed. She learns that the fashion world was not what she wanted in her life, because she wanted a life!

            I think this film tries to make a small social statement. It shows the extreme nature of the fashion industry. Many critics relate the Runway magazine to Vogue. The film is a personification of when people are consumed by their jobs and stuff. Fashion at this level is normally unattainable. It trickles down and comes to all of us. The performance of Streep shows the cold nature of the business. After Anne’s character leaves Streep, we see a weight lifted off of her shoulders and she starts to see life in a different light. We also are shown how the actions of Streep affect her personal life. With being consumed by work she ends in a divorce and worries what the papers will say about her. We are given a slight glimpse into the caring side of her when she talks about how the papers will not be fair to her daughters.

            I used rottentomatoes.com to look up some of the reviewers. I found many that liked and didn’t like the movie. I was actually surprised when I saw the 75% rating overall. One of the negative reviews caught my eye. Claudia Puig of USA Today gave it a rotten score. She basically liked only Meryl Streep’s character. Her review revolves around making despairing remarks against every other actor. She even goes as far as to say that too much time is spent on Anne’s character. She mainly has an issue with the watering down of Streep’s character from the book. Some of the other reviewers only liked it for its entertainment value. Many of them like that it was a movie that was entertaining in the wake of another Pirate, X-Men, and other big blockbuster movies.

            The Devil Wears Prada is an interesting movie. It makes the statement of what can happen when work is taken too far. It could even be considered a Cinderella story when she goes from geeky writer to full-on fashion persona. The story and movie itself it primarily intended for entertainment. The time of the release gave women everywhere a reprieve from the action movies of the summer. The critics were mostly kind to the movie. Meryl and Anne’s performances swayed more than one of them to recommend the movie. They mostly realize that the movie itself is pretty average in most respects. Once again though, it was a good movie against the rest of the big ones of the summer.

Crash

            The first thing I noticed when watching this movie was the blatant racism. Racism was obviously the main theme of the movie. It is interesting to note that in the very beginning, one of the characters uses the name of the title to describe the loneliness of the world right now. I think the director was trying to make a statement on how prejudice and racism lead to a lonely life. Each of the characters was by themselves even when they were interacting together. Crash showed an evolution in the characters to see that others can be good.

           

            Crash teaches a lesson through the interaction of the characters. Each of the main characters interacts with one another on some level. Every one of them displays racist attitudes and actions. The whole point of the film was to show that everyone can get along when we see past ourselves. To me, this film takes a humanistic approach to the problem. The entire film revolves around teaching that racism is not right. For instance, after the police harass the black woman and man, the police officer is the one who saves her from the car. This might seem like irony, but I think it is deeper in that it shows that she could overcome her fear and emotions of him when she had to. The other officer was the only person in the show who did not display obvious signs of racism. But, he was the only one who ultimately shot and killed another person because he was black.

           

            Irony was used in this movie. One of the black characters constantly dished on anyone who wasn’t black. He even dished on their black waitress in the restaurant. In the movie however, it was a fellow black man who beat him on the street. But, this beating and subsequent ride in the car showed him a better way and led him to free the Asians trapped instead of selling them. More irony was shown with the police officer and the medical assistant. He used racial epitaphs during a phone conversation with her. Later he went in and had to sit down and she denied him his claim because he was being racist. It was also interesting that in the end she was hit by another car setting off yet again a chain of events like the rest of the movie

            Music and lighting were used to heighten the effects of the movie. The use of racial and cursing language led us to see the amount of hatred there was going around. One of the most powerful scenes to me even went out of focus to show the emotions that were running rampant. The officer just pulled the lady from the car and she starts to cry into his chest. The color and focus go off slightly to emote the feeling of helplessness from not only her but him as well. The picture snaps into focus when the paramedics show up, but the expression on the officer’s face tells us he will no longer be so racist.

           

            Crash was an excellent movie. I don’t live in California, but I hope that racism isn’t as bad as it is portrayed in the movie. The main theme was to address the issue of racism and show that even people who were extremely racist can come together and get along. Each of the characters learns a lesson and we feel that they will never be the same again. There was a crashing of the different lives that led to this change. The director shows us that no matter our heritage, we can come together because we are all the same when and where it counts.