Mira Nair - The Perez Family

Overall, I thought Mira Nair was a pretty good director. Her history of filming documentaries really did make her films seem more original. I also liked the fact that different languages were pretty equally used throughout her film, that is the first time I had ever seen a movie do that. My favorite movie probably had to be The Namesake, followed by the other two (which I thought to be near the same level of enjoyment). It was just interesting to see how the life cycle worked. There were a lot of different conflicts in her films, including those that involved the clashing of different cultures.

She grew up with two different cultures, so she knows the conflicts go that goes along with that. I actually also grew up with two different cultures, but I have yet to see the type of conflicts that she expresses, such as lost of identity. Some of the things she displayed made it seem like everyone that grew up with two cultures would have those problems. Personally, I think it was a bit dramatized. But I guess the movies would be a lot less interesting if those problems weren't exaggerated. I enjoyed watching Mira Nair's films and would recommend it to anyone that likes a mix of culture.

The film I watched was called The Perez Family, it is a comedy about a couple of Cuban immigrants that just happen to have the same last name, Perez. They realized that by pretending to be an actual family, they had a better chance of staying within the United States. This film was actually based off a book by Christine Bell. I chose this film randomly, I literally found a list of films that Mira Nair directed at the nearest video store and ran my finger down the list with my eyes closed. I think that was a bad choice, this movie wasn't all that great. Mira Nair was never shy about showing sexuality and swear words within her films. this film was not an exception. I didn't think that was really necessary for the film. This film does however have her signature theme of clashing cultures and how people cope with a new culture, as well as keep their own. I found it surprising that the film was about Cubans, and not Indians. All the films we had watched in class were about the culture of India in some way or another. There were some interesting things in the movie, such as the romance and some parts of the comedy. Watching the two main characters, the "husband", Juan Raul Perez and the "Wife", Dorita Evita Perez, was the way they interacted was very interesting. Even in this weird situation, love still seems to exist. Between a former aristocrat and former prostitute. This shows another one of Mira Nair's signature themes, a cross between class barriers. Christine Bell's book really had a lot of the themes that Mira Nair tended to have in her films, which is probably why she turned the book into a film. Overall I thought I should probably have chosen a better film to watch, but it had some good moments.

Coen Brothers

In my opinion, the Coen Brothers have been one of the best directors that we have studied in class. Their witty style has been very enjoyable to watch. One of the favorite things that I have seen in their movies, are the complete "badass" antagonists. They all seem to be larger than the average man in stature, and are willing to do anything to get what they want. For example, Sugure uses his "badass" shotgun with a silencer to kill so many people to look for the case of money. Then there is the protagonist, they always seem to be running away from something or someone. The Coen Brothers don't seem to be afraid of violence, they used guns in every film we watched in class. Even if it was a comedic part of the film, an example would be when Hi was running from the police after his failed attempt to steal some money and diapers. There were some things that I didn't find to be important, or add much to the film.

I don't really understand why they like the use of dreams in their movies. I guess it gives it a mysterious feeling to it, or maybe the idea that dreams can give you insight on things you wouldn't normally think about when awake. Personally, I didn't particularly like this aspect of their films. But overall, I thought the films created by the Coen Brothers were great, and very enjoyable to watch.