The Giver

The Giver (Phillip Noyce, 2014)

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Rating: Q=6, P=5 / Average OJ

Scale 1=3, Scale 2=3, Scale 3=3, Scale 4=2

Coming of Age, Dystopian/Utopian, Philosophical, Based on Book

I read The Giver when I was in sixth grade and it had an enormous impact on me as a young person. The narrative structure of Lois Lowry's story was almost like a mystery, the reader "waking up" along the main character, learning all the truths and lies and memories along with. And it's a powerful way to explain the concepts of society, culture, free will, right and wrong, etc. to a young person starting to think of his or herself.

This film version gets some of that right, but most of that effective structure is missing and so the power of the story is off--it feels limp. I'm not sure my younger self would have been impacted in the same way after watching this as I was after reading. So, I guess, this is a good example of an adaptation that didn't quite hit the mark. The Truman Show, a story in a similar vein, does a much much better job. But I still enjoyed The Giver and my hope is that it will get more kids to read the book.

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Mustang

Mustang ( Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)

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Rating: Q=6, P=6 / Average OJ

Scale 1=3, Scale 2=3, Scale 3=3, Scale 4=3

Turkey, Coming of Age, Gender, Thriller, Complex Relationships

I went into this film not really knowing what to expect. Oh my, it really delivered a punch. This is one of the few stories I've watched that really made my soul feel sick. A powerful display of how young women are sometimes treated in rural, conservative areas of our world--imprisoned and physically and mentally controlled by their own families.

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Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi, 2016)

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Rating: Q=7, P=6 / Can't Get Enough

Scale 1=3, Scale 2=4, Scale 3=3, Scale 4=3

1960s, Space Program, Race, Gender, Civil Rights

This movie is great in so many ways--it is thoughtful, funny, difficult, important, and true. I think the following scene in the script sums it up well:

Karl Zielinski: Mary, a person with an engineer's mind should be an engineer. You can't be a computer the rest of your life.

Mary Jackson: Mr. Zielinski, I'm a negro woman. I'm not gonna entertain the impossible.

Karl Zielinski: And I'm a Polish Jew whose parents died in a Nazi prison camp. Now I'm standing beneath a spaceship that's going to carry an astronaut to the stars. I think we can say we are living the impossible. Let me ask you, if you were a white male, would you wish to be an engineer?

Mary Jackson: I wouldn't have to. I'd already be one.

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