The Movie Review

The Real Story: Personality and Family Dynamics.

The Story Line.

This is a “slice of life” movie. It takes place over a couple of months or so in the lives of two lesbian women, Nic and Jules. Each of these women was impregnated by the same anonymous sperm donor and each bore a child. The eldest kid, Joannie, is finishing her senior year in high school as a National Merit Scholar. The younger boy, Laser, is still in high school but bored with it, into sports and, unfortunately, has a loser friend.

First, I think we, as moviegoers, were misled by the movie’s label, “comedy.” I saw the movie twice, thinking I missed the comedy parts but found that “No” I hadn’t missed them; I just couldn’t find any. This is a serious study in personality and family dynamics.

On the surface, Nic and Jules deal with a crisis in their partnership that occurs because Laser convinces Joannie to find their biological father. When she does, Joannie, Laser and Paul meet and become friends. A little later, Nic and Jules learn about and meet Paul, a successful restaurant owner.

Paul is attracted to Jules. When he offers her a landscaping job at his restaurant, she takes it and, soon, they fall into an affair. Nic discovers the betrayal and the kids are told. Paul urges Jules to leave Nic and come with him but she rejects him. Instead, she rides out the emotional separation she’s created with Nic and the kids and on the day they all drop Joannie off at her university dorm, there’s a thaw in Nic’s icy demeanor. Jules and Nic’s relationship begins to heal.

Now, for A Deeper Look.

(1) Opposites Attract. It’s true that most of us are attracted to our opposite personality. It’s also true that while we may love, commit to and/or marry our opposites, often the very traits that we’re attracted to begin to annoy us over time. That’s true here with Nic and Jules.

Nic is a combination of the Superiority (Achieving) and Control personalities. She’s smart, driven, perfectionistic, and cares intensely about rules and order. She’s strung pretty tightly and to handle herself, she drinks too much. She’s also a “head” person meaning that she’s unaware of most of her feelings or pooh-poohs them. She treats life as a problem to be solved. She looks at people negatively, critically and judgmentally.

Nic gives mixed messages to Jules. She likes the fact that Jules leans on her strength and sureness. Of course, a resulting bonus is that Nic is “in control.” But, she’s quickly critical of Jules for not “making something of herself.”

Jules is a Comfort personality, meaning that she’s passive and hates any kind of pressure, which is why she shows so little direction in her life. She’s started 3 or 4 careers; all have amounted to nothing. At middle-age, she’s still uncertain and hasn’t “found” herself. The result? Low self-esteem.

She’s a high-maintenance partner for Nic but seems unaware of it. On a better note, she’s also the couple’s “feeling” and “relationship” person, always trying for a deeper connection with Nic and the kids. This need for deeper connection in her is one of the reasons she responds to Paul so quickly. He gives her the encouragement, attention and understanding that Nic doesn’t.

(2) The other deeper concept here is: children unconsciously decide their personalities by the age of five, though most adults are unaware that it’s happening. Usually the oldest child will “follow,” that is, will take on more personality traits of the parent that she or he perceives to be the strongest. The second child takes the traits of the other parent. Why? Seldom will a child compete with the sibling above. So here, Joannie is much more like Nic, Laser much more like Jules. (We’ll only hope that Laser can grow more confidence earlier rather than later in his

life, unlike his mother, Jules.)

The saddest person in this group of five turns out to be Paul. When we first meet him, he’s content with his life as a successful bachelor restaurant owner. He seems to like living a surface personal life with various attractive women. In the short space of 3 or 4 months, he meets his two biological children, wants to commit to Jules but is rejected by both Jules and Nic, as well as the kids, for their own various reasons. At the movie’s end it’s uncertain whether any of the relationships he came to value will ever be part of his life again. Sad.

If you’re interested in studying personalities and relationships, you’ll want to see “The Kids are All Right.” Even without seeing it, though, I hope these ideas interest you enough to take a deeper look at your own family or other families you know. Give it a try. The more we understand about ourselves and our families, the more happiness and peace we have.

Thanks for stopping by.

Warmest regards until next time,

Joan

Joan Chamberlain is an author, therapist, and life coach with over 30 years of experience helping adults, couples, and teens. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Finance, a Bachelor’s in education, and a Masters in individuals, couples, and family counseling. Her book, Smart Relationships, has helped many people achieve the self-awareness needed to see themselves honestly. Its wisdom has helped them work toward improving their relationships with themselves, their friends, and their families.

Showbiz is a multibillion dollar industry, and there are countless numbers of people who would like to join the industry. Every country has its own cinema culture and the worldly recognized movie industry is Hollywood. Every actor hopes to reach the heights of Hollywood fame at some point in their career, and it all starts with making great strides in local TV and movie scenes. If you are an actor hoping to make it big in the TV scene, you can keep up with new show auditions by following this guide.

Visit your local theater

Most countries have national theaters, where plays and other related performances are staged. It is important to visit your local theater regularly, because most auditions announcements are first posted on the notice boards found in these theaters. You can also talk to the performing artists based at the theater to find out if they know of any upcoming auditions.

Join a talent agency

As an actor, it is important to get representation whether through an independent manager or a local talent agent. Represented actors have better chances of finding out if there are new movies to audition for. The work of talent agencies or managers is to make sure that the artist they represent attends as many auditions as possible, in order to increase their chances of getting cast for a movie or a TV show. The agencies go a step further and ensure that the artists they represent attend acting classes and any other relevant training; required to increase their chances of getting cast for the parts they audition for.

Sign up with online audition database websites

Several audition database websites have come up to help actors find new show auditions around their locations. These websites provide location services, and when an actor keys in their particular zip code in the system the website sends them weekly information about the auditions held around their region. These websites also have forums and communities which are structured to help actors to enhance their talents. They provide tips on how to prepare for auditions and they also hold contests geared towards helping actors to get discovered by talent scouts. The forums and blogs provide a platform for actors to share their experiences with the auditioning process, and to give each other support and tips on how to get through auditions.

Look out for audition advertisements in newspapers and television stations

Usually when big budget movies are looking for certain characters to cast they will make national announcements on local TV stations and newspapers. You should keep up with the latest news about your local TV and film industry, so that you can find out about new movies to audition for. Once you find out about upcoming TV show or movie auditions, share the information with friends. Friends and family members involved in the showbiz industry are also resourceful when it comes to finding out about upcoming auditions in your region.

Although gas powered chainsaw’s are most commonly associated as a tool in woodworking. Its impact has also been felt in the movie industry, most notably affecting the horror genre.

The gas powered chainsaw and the horror genre could qualify as a match made in heaven. However these two forces did not come together until the 1960′s. But the gas powered chainsaw literally cut its way in to the movie scene in a big way with the Tobe Hooper’s release, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

What made this movie so successful in this writer’s opinion is due to two very large things. That combination consisted of a truly frightening weapon and a uniquely scary villain. Up until this point the weapon of choice in horror films was the knife. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre introduced millions of viewers into another illegal use for the chainsaw. Compared to a knife the gas powered chain saw is large loud and much more intimidating than a mere butcher knife. I can almost hear that buzzing sound and smell gasoline in the air while writing this and that sound took fear to a whole new level. Up until this point we had always associated that sound with cutting down trees now it took on a completely different meaning. Before, the only people who had something to fear from the chainsaw were the operator and the tree. Now imagine being chased by a madman and hearing that sound we all can associate with the chainsaw is truly terrifying. Secondly, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre successfully created a uniquely scary villain with a uniquely scary name, Leatherface. Leatherface was not your normal movie villain. His character was loosely based off an actually serial killer Ed Gein, and he happened to be a rather large man wielding a rather large chainsaw wearing a mask made of human flesh. The Chainsaw literally took the term slasher films to a whole new gas operated level. Although the movie only contained one scene depicting the gruesome violence and terror in which the chainsaw is used to cut something other than wood, and that other something happened to be human flesh, one scene happened to be enough. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre spawned multiple sequels as well as began a relationship that indelibly linked the gas powered Chainsaw to the horror genre.

There has been some serious controversy recently about a major change to the Fresh Beat Band cast, where the actress playing Marina was changed with no explanation whatsoever. This led to a lot of the viewers demanding a reason for the change, because it’s obvious that it’s not the same person playing the role. Clearly, the network writers did not think this change through, and now this is causing a fair amount of outcry among the bands or TV shows fans.

A Brief Background On Cast Members

Currently, the show is in its third season, and in the past two seasons the Fresh Beat Band cast members have stayed constant. They have cast Jon Beavers as Twist, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer as Kiki, Thomas Hobson as Shout and Shayna Rose as Marina from the beginning. These four characters make up the show and their adventures center around their daily lives in music school and the smoothie shop. Every episode will feature a “problem of the day” that they will sing about and ultimately solve at the end of each episode.

The Controversial Change To The Fresh Beat Band Cast

In the third season of the show, the network decided to replace Shayna Rose with Tara Perry to play the role of Marina. Surprisingly enough, this change happened without any kind of explanation from the network or the show, meaning that kids encountered a totally different Marina than the member of the Fresh Beat Band cast that they were used to. Obviously, the network just assumed that the kids wouldn’t notice, but they have and they did not like the sudden change at all.

Believe it or not, this is not the first time that the Fresh Beat Band cast has been changed without any explanation at all, but in the previous case it was a minor character (Reed) that was replaced and the owner of the smoothie shop (Melody) that was dropped altogether. The firing of Melody was another very odd decision as she was a firm favourite of the viewers of the show. I can’t help feeling that the show is going downhill from here, which is a shame because it was a very popular show for my kids to watch before all the unexplained changes to the Fresh Beat Band cast. Hopefully the network will learn from their mistakes and keep on the regulars in the future! What do you think?

In the past, dealing with a cable TV company could be a pleasant experience, or it could turn out to be a complete nightmare. One never knew if a company was going to have a good day, a bad day, or a downright terrible day. It seemed like that was determined by who showed up to work that day and how well trained they were. Fortunately for all of their clients, most of these firms have greatly improved their performance in the past decade or so.

When cable TV was first introduced to the American audience, the price for the basic package could be less than $10 per month. Regrettably, that low cost option is no longer available in most locations today. But, it really is not the fault of the cable TV companies. Instead, it is because the most popular TV stations that are on these systems, like ESPN, MTV, and CNN, have drastically increased the fees that the charge the cable TV firms to carry their entertainment.

Of course, when a cable TV company’s cost to provide a station to their subscriber’s increases, those expenses must be passed along to the consumer. If not, there would not be any cable TV companies, and the only options we would have, would be the three giant TV networks.

The reason the cable TV stations fees have increased so much, is that their cost have also escalated greatly. If you are a news provider like CNN, and you want to have reporters, cameramen, producers, and sound engineers in every country on earth, your firm needs to pay their salaries, and all the other expenses that go along with maintaining that type of operation.

Essentially, it all just comes down to providing the consumer what they want. When Ted Turner first started CNN, he did it on a shoestring budget and never expected it to grow into anything like it is today. Once he was able to determine that there was a huge demand for 24 hour a day, 7 days a week news, he greatly expanded their operations so that he could provide the general public the product that they were craving.

So, the next time you get your monthly bill from any cable TV company and begin to wonder why it cost so much, you now know a few of the reasons. After all, if the vast majority of the consumers were not willing to pay these fees, they would be reduced overtime, as would the quality of the entertainment that is available to you and your family.