Prof Thuggy's Movie Reviews

I have written some movie reviews on this blog over the years and it's always fun, and I've always meant to do more, or at the very least, write personal journals or notes about movies, but I never motivated myself to do it. I generally watch movies for enjoyment, a way to relax, and although reviewing movies is fun, it's also a chore. Sometimes motivation needs to come from an outside source; money is a big motivator, but that's not happening for online movie reviews. Sometimes, the necessary motivation can come from something even simpler, like new technology or an app on your phone.

Letterboxd is an app that lets you easily rate and review any movie, and connects you with other people doing the same. Since I downloaded it in October, I've reviewed every movie I've watched. I hope people are enjoying reading the reviews as much as I enjoy writing them, but honestly I'm gonna keep doing them either way, you can't stop me!

I don't know why the app has motivated me so much. I could have easily logged into this site or opened the Notes app on my phone and reviewed any movie. I think a lot of little elements came together perfectly to finally overcome my laziness.

There's the social aspect of Letterboxd. There's a sense of "community" and it's easy to share reviews and find other people's reviews (although the interface could be a lot better). A lot of comedians and historians or just funny, knowledgeable people share their takes on movies. It's an easy to use writing app with a comprehensive movie database. Cast and crew, ratings, reviews, anything you want to know about a movie.

I love the simple 5 Star rating system that lets you easily compare your feelings about a movie to the public's. There's also a "like" button, which is an important distinction from a rating. My ratings aren't based completely on whether I "like" a movie or not. I don't like some very well made movies, but I like some very shitty movies. The "like" button gives a simpler yet more absolute take on the film. Did you enjoy the thing or not? I don't enjoy most 1-2 star movies, but I can definitely appreciate an over the top terrible 1-2 star movie with objectively horrible special effects, a dumb story, and awful acting (like Halloween 3). I may give a well made movie a 3 but I might not "like" it because it's dull or derivative or directed by Woody Allen. Or maybe it's not a genre that I overly enjoy; a beautifully made romantic period piece probably won't get more than a 3 and a half stars from me at best. Then again, I can appreciate most types of movies, from Citizen Kane to Road House (the Citizen Kane of redneck bar brawl movies) and I take into consideration the genre and the purpose of a movie when rating. There are different scales for different genres. I won't rate Dumb and Dumber on the same scale as Dunkirk because they have vastly different purposes. If a comedy succeeds at being funny, it gets a good rating. If a psychedelic mystery thriller succeeds at being trippy and mysterious and fun, it gets a good rating. Then there's horror. The quality of a horror film isn't just based on whether it's scary. A Nightmare on Elm Street is undoubtedly a classic and it's not scary at all. It's uniquely absurd. A horror movie can be considered a classic if it's really scary or creepy, or if it creates an interesting, unique mythos, or if it's extra gory, or if the special effects are really good, or if the special effects are reallly bad, or if it's purposely funny, or non-purposely funny. Horror is the most subjective of all genres. I think originality is the most important thing for a horror movie. It doesn't even need to be a completely original story, sometimes just an original spin on a story, or even an original spin on one part of a story, is enough. Shit, even if it's completely unoriginal but the story is told well, that can be a solid horror movie. Like the remake of Texas Chainsaw in 2003. Horror fans don't ask for much, and sadly, Hollywood still barely meets expectations.

Ultimately, I try to take in to account my personal feelings about the movie as well as the technical achievements of the film, like the acting, writing, special effects, cinematography, soundtrack, what have you, so I would never give something a 4 or 5 that I don't actually "like."

I put a lot of thought into my reviews and ratings. I agonize over a half star. But I'm doing that for myself. I don't care if I'm "right" or if anyone agrees. I try to use my knowledge of films and film history and the fundamentals of storytelling to inform my reviews and ratings, but I am mainly trying to clarify and document my own feelings for each movie I watch, so I rate movies by simply trying to compare each one to every other movie I've ever seen.

And let's be honest, I'm getting to that age where I don't remember every detail of every movie I've ever seen, and sometimes even main aspects of a movie, so this also serves as a reminder. Now to be fair, it's not all age, I've also seen a lot of movies in the last 40 years. I've read a lot of books, watched a lot of shows...it's hard to keep all this shit straight!

I also like the thought of having these reviews to read in the future. If I rewatch a movie I want to reread my review because something I love now might seem shitty in 10-20 years, like most 80's comedies. 

Most of all, reviewing movies is plain old fun. It's just talking movies, man! Show your appreciation, repeat your favorite lines, make fun of the actors, acknowledge some little unimportant but cool thing one of the actors did or maybe some little special effect failure that ruined the whole movie, try to figure out deeper meanings of the story, point out connections between other movies. I love telling people about good movies. The only thing I like more is telling people about bad movies. I also love arguing about movies. It's fun to disagree about whether a movie is good or shitty or The Best Movie of The Decade or The Worst Thing I've Ever Seen because...it literally doesn't matter. It's all entertainment. It's all opinion. It's the best type of argument because there can be no right or wrong. We can watch the exact same thing and even have the exact same understanding of it, and yet we can come to the exact opposite conclusion as far as whether it was "good" or not. I know some things about cinema and history and literature that help me appreciate and understand movies, but my opinion doesn't mean more than anyone else's. When it comes down to it, you like what you like, I like what I like and it doesn't matter, and we're both right. People get upset sometimes because we often identify closely with the entertainment we enjoy, so someone calling your favorite show garbage feels like someone calling you garbage. I assure you, it's not the same. Unless we're talking about the Big Bang Theory. That's a garbage show for garbage people.

But I'm thankful for Letterboxd, another technological innovation that has improved my life. We focus so much on the negative when it comes to technology. We either fantasize about technology taking over society and enslaving, or we complain about every new invention rotting the brains of the younger generation, even as adults use the same things. Think about what different technologies have allowed us to do throughout the ages, and think abut the backlash to each new invention. Internet and smartphones are "ruining" the youth now, but typewriters, calculators, even watches were all going to bring about the end of civilization. And while there certainly can be harmful elements to any technology (hello, guns!) most technology has served its purpose to vastly improve practical functions. I can write a lot more effectively and efficiently on a computer than with a pen or on a type writer. Hell, even guns keep getting better at their main function: killing.

Technology also gets blamed for influencing bad behavior because of ease of access. Again, that certainly holds true for guns, but think about porn as well (guns and porn, this is my most American post yet!). While porn was always huge, more people than ever can watch it or participate in it because the internet. Now, there's the whole argument about whether porn is "bad behavior" or not, but that's for another time. Regardless, I think technology influences behavior in positive ways more so than negative. Technology can provide a stimulant to act because of the ease of function, and while that may lead to more porn, it can lead to more creative writing or research or even healthier living. I'm doing these reviews now because it's easier than it's ever been, and I started exercising more recently because I found a cheap yet quality stationary bike that I can easily ride while watching movies on Netflix on the big screen in my living room . Thanks, scientists and engineers!

If you want to join the fun, download Letterboxd or visit their website. Follow me, Prof Thuggy, at https://letterboxd.com/realearl13/

I Love You All...Class Dismissed. 

Prof Thug's Books Review

In literacy education, there is often a heavy focus on finding books that kids can relate to in order to encourage them to read. I understand the thinking behind it, and it can help kids get into reading. I certainly enjoy some books (or movies/shows/music/etc.) in which I can relate to the characters or the situations. But I also love to read about things and people I can't relate to. That's what got me into reading: learning about other people, places, and times I wasn't familiar with. Of course, I didn't view it as learning, it was just interesting. Reading about people just like yourself gets old.

When I was a kid I read "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret." It's about a little girl getting her period. I read it when I was 12. I was fascinated because I didn't know anything about that. At all. Yet it gave me valuable insight into many important aspects of life. It also prepared me for watching Carrie.

I find that when stories are different from my own, I tend to search out the similarities. How can I relate to this young girl going through puberty? How can I relate to this woman who left an arranged marriage in India and started a new life in Iowa? Answering those questions helps to build a connection with people who don't look or act like you. It helps build empathy.

So here are two books I recently read that I enjoyed a great deal. The first one involved a story that most people, especially myself, can not relate to, which makes it interesting and even important. The second book centered on a character who I could relate to almost too much.

Maus

This is a long-form comic/graphic novel. Art Spiegelman tells the tale of his father's life before, during, and after World War II. In the story, Jews are represented as mice, Nazis as dogs, Poles as pigs, and Americans as dogs. His father is a Polish Jew who spent part of the war as a prisoner in Auschwitz and Birkenau. Fortunately, he (and his wife) survived and eventually move to New York.

The story is told from the perspective of the son (Art) who is interviewing his father. We get a personal perspective of Poland before the Nazis came as well as an inside view of the concentration camps. We also get the perspective of a son who has to endure the almost unbearable personality of his Holocaust Survivor father.

The self awareness of the author puts the reader in his shoes, and he addresses most of the issues or questions readers may have. Nothing is taboo; there is no other way to tell a story of the Holocaust.

The fact that it is told in comic form makes some of the events and complex themes easier to take, but it doesn't lessen the impact of the story. In fact, it  magnifies the impact because it's such an unfamiliar way to tell a familiar story. The contrast between the medium (usually reserved for children or light-hearted comedy) and the horror which it depicts heightens the feelings of discomfort. We have all seen Schindler's List or similar movies and we have become desensitized to the tragedies of the past. This book makes us look at the horror in a new light.

It is impossible to truly comprehend the atrocities of the Holocaust. We know people starved and were worked to death or put in gas chambers. Many were forced to dig their own graves or the graves of their loved ones. There's no way to truly understand the psyche these experiences must have created in survivors. Spiegelman was able to give a glimpse into that psyche when his father talked about Jews who turned over other Jews to the Nazis, hoping for preferential treatment. Even within the concentration camps, some Jews would sell out others in order to get in good with the guards. That is the corrosive mentality created living under an oppressive regime.

Because of the weight of their oppression, some Jews started to believe that Jewish people as a whole were inferior. Except for themselves of course. It's similar to Samuel Jackson's character in Django Unchained. This is another effect of being oppressed for long periods of time: the tendency to take on the mentality of the oppressor. It is impossible for me to truly comprehend that mentality, but Maus captured how prevalent it was and helped me understand how and why that mentality existed.

Long after the war, in New York, Art and his wife take their father for a car ride. They see a hitchhiker and decide to pick him up. The father loses his mind and starts yelling at them. His problem? The hitchhiker is black. Surely, this black man will hurt them or steal from them.

Art and his wife are dumbfounded. The wife asks how he can be racist after all that he went through. Art tells his father he sounds like a Nazi talking about Jews. The father is outraged that he would compare Jews to blacks. As bad as Jews could be, they are never as bad as blacks!

It's an upsetting scene that perfectly illustrates the lasting, damaging effects of systemic racism and mental/physical trauma. The realities of the Holocaust are almost inconceivable, so its effects are unimaginable. The book was depressing, but only because life can be depressing. We shouldn't hide from the horrors of the past. However, we can not let the past control us either. The father served as a reminder that letting the past dictate the present can be detrimental to our health and the health of those around us.

The book tells an important story without being pedantic. It's educational and entertaining. I honestly believe it should be taught in school. This is a work of art in which children can learn about the atrocities of the war without having the visceral brutality of it shoved in their faces.


Lucky Jim

The other book is far more light-hearted, despite the fact that it doesn't have cartoon mice.  I could relate (sometimes scarily so) to much of the protagonists' thoughts, feelings, and desires. His actions were much more outrageous than mine, though. Mostly. It reminded me of Confederacy of Dunces in that way.

The titular Lucky Jim is a professor in England a few years after World War II. He doesn't particularly enjoy the subject he teaches, or teaching at all. More importantly, he doesn't appreciate the stuffiness and the pretentiousness that he sees in university life. He is an anti-academic academic.

He avoids his students and most of his responsibilities. He pisses off other instructors, especially Professor Welch, the department head. Jim woos Welch's son's girlfriend. He gets drunk and ornery at Welch's house during an employee function.  And when he finally is required to perform something resembling his job, he mocks Welch in front of a full auditorium before passing out drunk.

After all that, he ends up with the girl and the job he wants because of his honesty and his disdain for the establishment. The story is basically everything I want my life to be.

This book was enjoyable because the main character was so relatable, and not just for me because he was an ornery professor; he is the "everyman". Moderately successful but not very hard working. Charming at times, awkward at others. Friendly when he wants but not overly outgoing. Several vices, but nothing crippling or unusual. Although it takes place in England in the 1950s, his anti-establishment stance is a trait individuals of any era and area can appreciate.

It's written in proper British English, which makes the insults and shenanigans even funnier to me. Since I mostly just read tweets and articles on Cracked  nowadays, it took a little while to adapt to the style, but it paid off. The contrast between the writing style and the ridiculous actions of the main character is hilarious in itself. It's very much British humor. A middle class man working in academia ridiculing upper class elites in their own homes? Yeah. Peak British humor. I don't always love it, but when it's done right, it can be brilliant. Kingsley Amis nails it, which, considering his name, isn't that surprising.


I Love You All...Class Dismissed. 

A New Day

Mobb Deep - The Start of Your Ending

Hello you beautiful people. As you probably noticed, there have been a few changes to the blog. It was a great run for Of Intersections and Strange Things Told, but the time has come for a new blog to emerge. 

It was only a matter of time that Spoven Weedle Presents... took over the internet. 

If you've been paying attention to the blog for the past year, you know a little bit about SWP. You may even recall that my partner-in-weedle actually had a blog called Spoven Weedle Presents... However, we decided that we should merge our creative forces, since that was the basis of SWP in the first place. 

So there will be three authors to this blog: myself (Prof Thug); Nick Jake; and the hound, the myth, the legend, Stoned Willy Poonhound. It's the Holy Trinity, the foundation of SWP. 

Not too much will change, except for the amount of awesomeness. You'll still read my random thoughts and stories, you'll still be treated to the words of wisdom from Stoned Willy, and now you'll also be privy to the mental musings of the other founder of SWP, Nick Jake. 

I hope you enjoy the new layout and continue to enjoy my ramblings. I sincerely appreciate anybody taking the time to read this crap in the midst of the literally millions of other things you could be reading.

I Love You All...Class Disissed.

The Name Game of Life

There are many people who believe that a name can greatly influence a person's character. We have all at one time or another said something like, "He doesn't look like a Thurgood," or, "He doesn't look like a Theresa," or whatever, because we assign certain characteristics to different names. Knowing that, does each person subconsciously identify with the given characteristics of his or her name? That's a good question. Thank you. You're welcome.

Names help define who we are. They help differentiate us from others, but oftentimes they esablish connections to others, such as when we name a newborn after a family member. Last names also establish a connection to your lineage, obviously. They also can reflect your ethnicity. You may not look Polish, but when people hear the "ski" at the end of your name, or see a "cz" somewhere, they know to start making pollack jokes.

The significance of names can really be seen with nicknames. A first name is bestowed upon you without your input and many times it means nothing more than your parents liked the sound of it; but nicknames are based on something about you, be it your freckles and red hair, your raggedy clothes, where you grew up, your huge glasses, or your tendency to throw up in the hallway in 3rd grade. A nickname can really say a lot about you.

I've had many names. My actual first name is somewhat unique, and I think it has influenced my character and personality. Most people say I'm very unique. When they say it, it sounds more like "odd", but I know what they mean.

Geoff. I love the letter "G". It has a lot of symbology to it, religious, numerical, and so forth.

Illuminati? Of course it is.

I love writing the letter; it's very loopy and circular. It was one of my first nicknames, G. I had to choose a nickname for the 8th grade yearbook, and that's what I chose. Which doesn't really count as a nickname because I chose it, but a few people somewhere had called me that, a few times at least. And it wasn't a cool thing, like "I'm a 'G'", it was just that my name started with "g". That's just lazy. Like when people call me "Jeff with a G". It shows a lack of creativity, but I still like both.

I love the fact that "G" has many different sounds to it. I love that my name confuses most people. They either look at the first letter and assume my name is Greg, or they pronounce it "Gee-off". That's what most of the kids at my day job call me now. I kinda like the sound of it. It's a nice change from "Jeff", and I love the fact that my name changes from situation to situation, because I often feel that I do the same thing. My name and I are dynamic.

A few of my past co-workers called me Mr. G. That has a nice ring to it. Professional, but you don't know if it's a legal profession or not, so there's an edge to it. I was called Mr. E when I was a substitute teacher. I'm a sucker for puns, and I like thinking of myself as mysterious rather than just weird, so that one was cool, too.

When I moved from Hartford to West Hartford after 8th grade, I was given the name "Hayofredo" by my freshman Spanish teacher. I have no idea if that's how you spell it, but it was pronounced "Hay-yo-fray-doe". Supposedly that was how you pronounced Geoff in Spanish, but I think there was a mistake in his translation because I haven't heard that before or since. My friend in the class soon shortened it to Hayo and that spread to the basketball team, and then to most of my friends back in Hartford. That was my original rapper name (classics all day, son). I even had 13 volumes of "Hayo Mixtapes" with nothing but the best hip-hop songs in the world all expertly mixed on 90 minute cassettes (still got 'em).

Then I went off to UConn, where I befriended a crew of people on the 3rd floor of Batterson Hall in the Northwest dorms. This group came to be known collectively as "EAD", a mock fraternity of sorts; the initials were not greek, however. Everybody was given nicknames, and one person, who came to be know as Barf, bestowed upon me the name of Thug. This name, like Geoff before it, has gone through, and continues to go through, many changes. Some of the names that the original "Thug" has morphed into include, but are not limited to: HayoThug, Thuggy, ThugNug, ThugNig, Thuggery, Mr. Thug, Thug Life, Thuggeriffic, Thugyeezy, Thugnology, T.H., T.H'er, T.H.U.G., T.H.U.G. Nuh!, Thugnificent, Thuggernator, Thugnuts, Thuggalugg, Thuggish Ruggish Bone, and Thugnugget, to name a few.

Many people ask me how I got the name, and I try to be as vague and elusive as possible, but I'll try to give a decent explanation now.

Basically, it's the same story as 'Pac's, except more real.

As I said, the name was bestowed upon me by my then-soon-to-be college roommate during my freshman year. I visited Batterson dorms one Thursday night (as per tradition) and the guys were all saying "What's up Thug!" After I finally realized it was me they were talking to, I asked what it was all about. I was told Barf gave it to me because I was a white boy from West Hartford that knew a lot about rap (paraphrasing, but pretty accurate). Now, despite the fact that it was 1998 and rap was very mainstream at the time, with white people making up the majority of rap sales (even pre-Eminem), and despite my dislike for the automatic association of rap with criminality, and despite the fact that I was not technically "from" West Hartford, it was true that I listened to mostly rap and had an expansive knowledge of the genre. As a rap fan, how could I not like the name? It was ironic and un-ironic at the same time. It's like a paradox (my favorite word, and situation). From then on, most people I met in college did not know my real name. Many still don't.

Now to get back to my point from the introduction (circle, circle); has my name influenced my character? I think that it has, and I also think I have influenced the name, and its many variations.

The name obviously has very negative connotations; therefore, I can attempt to change the image of a "thug" by possessing positive energy and spreading love. I may do things that people stereotypically categorize as things that "thugs" might do, like listen to rap and sell crack, but that doesn't mean all of the stereotypes are true. I can listen to rap and spread love (and crack) at the same time.

There are also connotations of the word "thug" that I do like. It implies a possession of street knowledge, and I certainly learned a lot on the mean street of Ansonia in Hartford's South End and then the mean road of Brookmoor in West Hartford. It also implies a person who lives his or her life without concern for society's rules and standards, someone resistant to the judgmental views of the common folk. It was that aspect of the persona many rappers attempted to portray that was so interesting to me; it's not that I particularly like guns and drugs and wild sex (I LOVE those things) but I admired and enjoyed the fact that rappers were living however they wanted to live, or at least pretending to live that way. Living like that takes courage, and that's the courage of a thug, and that's what I try to embody. In fact, I wish I was more thuggish at times.

I believe I influenced the name, too, and by that I mean the name has adapted to me. It started off as Thug, then morphed into Thuggy, which is what most people call me. Thuggy is like a more friendly version of Thug. When I first meet people, they are a little put off by calling me Thug, but Thuggy takes the edge off a bit.

Something like this, only not as corny or as likely to ruin your childhood.

The name reflects my view of myself as a sort of anti-hero, like The Punisher, or Walt White. I'm the guy that lives outside of society's rules, but ultimately fights for good. And this song plays whenever I enter a room.

Or maybe I just like it because it's funny. A pretty normal looking white guy named Thug. That's funny.

But why is it funny? Because when most people hear the word "thug", the image that immediately comes to mind is a young, black man. That's fucked up. All those negative connotations of a "thug" are automatically transferred to young black men. Any time you hear someone make a reference to "thugs", what are they actually saying? Listen closely. "Thug" has become code for "black male", just like "urban culture" has become a euphemism for "black culture". Some people have even said to me, "You're name is Thug? But, you're white!?" or something to that effect. That says a lot about our society and the preconceived notions, and straight up racism, that still exist. "Thug" has basically become the accepted form of "nigger". Now that would be a hell of a nickname. Hmmmmm....

So what's in a name? Well, everything that you want to be in a name. My nickname could have very well died in college, as Barf's did, but the fact that I embraced it, and in some sense embodied it (in whatever way possible, be it ironic or otherwise) helped it stick with me throughout the years. And like any good nickname, I did not come up with it or attempt to prolong the use of the name, which I really think is the key to longevity with any nickname.

And now my name has taken on another life, in the form of Prof. Thug., short for Professor Thuggy. I love it because it represents the yin and yang of my persona, a balance that exists in us all, some of us simply embrace it more openly than others.

And, once again, everything comes back around full circle. My born name starts with a G, and my socially bestowed name, Thug, ends with a g. That's some circle ish right there.

I Love You All...Class Dismissed.