Southland Tales - From April 2008

Southalnd Tales – April 2008

Review originally published in SBU’s The Statesman

(Updated and additional notes are further below.)

"In the time I have taken off to concentrate on class projects, my friends and I have discovered a movie that is not like any other recent release. Southland Tales is the latest film from Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly. The film is a doomsday sci-fi narrative that takes place in Los Angeles, and stars a collective of actors and actresses who would not otherwise be working together if not for its bizarre and amusing script. The cinematography alone is worth a second screening.

Boxer Santaros, played by Dwayne Johnson, is a famous actor married to the California senator's daughter, played by Mandy Moore. But because of amnesia he is staying with porn star actress and "social commentator" show host, Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Krysta and Boxer have written a screenplay of how the world ends and soon enough their film becomes reality.

BLOG PAUSE EXPLAINED - I Worked as a UPM on a Movie!

Dear Readers,

Unlike previous extended pauses between blog posts, this most recent one was for a very special reason.

I was working as a Unit Production Manager for a movie called Rally Caps! If all goes well, I sincerely believe that this will become a beloved classic similarly to Mighty Ducks, The Sandlot, Little Giants, etc. It stars a great cast of actors, especially the children performers! 

While I won't go into detail here, what I can say it was a very new but rewarding experience! 

I've since recovered enough sleep and started returning to my routine, LOL.

Thank You for Your Understanding! And updates about Rally Caps will be forthcoming.

Best,

AJ Shapiro

Does TV Affect Voter Turnout and Why? – From June 2005

Media Predictions Paper for Understanding Mass Media Course at NCC with Professor Martin LoMonaco. 

2021 NOTES:

Usually, I put my updated thoughts after the original work but I feel putting it first here is more appropriate given the topic. I am choosing to publish this essay because it represents the spark of the beginning of my career in entertainment. In order to graduate Nassau Community College within the desired two years, I realized that taking some summer classes would be required. In Summer Session I, I took the Communications Dept. course, Understanding Mass Media. 

Assignment #2 – Sunset Blvd. and American Beauty - From October 2005

Essay Comparing Sunset Blvd. (1950) and American Beauty (1999) for Film Appreciation Course at NCC with Professor Deirdre O’Connor 

This essay received a 50/50 and under the Works Cited, my professor wrote “Excellent”! 

(This essay has been updated with better grammar from the originally graded version. Significant changes are noted with strikethroughs and/or asterisks. Professor’s notes are in larger, capitalized Font. Updated and additional notes are further below.) 

It is obvious that American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999) was heavily influenced by Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950). The key elements of plot structure, narrative, theme, and characters are very similar. It seems that American Beauty could have been a modern remake with a twist in setting and character placement. Instead of focusing on the May/December relationship between a fading Old Hollywood star and broke screenplay writer, American Beauty is based on *upon an unraveling suburban family.

Friends With Money – From Spring 2006

Friends With Money – Spring 2006

Review originally published in NCC’s The Vignette 

(This review has been updated with better grammar from the originally published version. Significant changes are noted with strikethroughs and/or asterisks. Updated and additional notes are further below.)

"Friends With Money is a difficult movie to absorb. There are so many layers. It is not a feel-good movie. It is not a typical comedy. It does have heart and the largest dose of truth I have seen in a long time. Even though the target demographic seems to be ages 30-45, I can appreciate its messages. (Me being so young, hyperbolic, and confident but kinda wrong here. LOL.)

Three friends are rich (Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack, and Frances McDormand) and married. One friend (Jennifer Aniston) is single and a maid *house cleaner (there is a difference). Including the husbands and supporting characters, any one of these people *characters could exist in reality. The world of the rich is opened up into a new perspective. The general assumption is that those who have money should be happy. Those with money should have less problems. This movie shows that those who have money are still human. Their problems are only different and *that emotions are *still universal. It reminds us that money is only material.

Previously Published With Updates: A Walk Down Critical Lane

This is an introduction to my next series of blog posts. 

In the Spring of 2006 semester at Nassau Community College, I was The Vignette's movie critic. I continued writing reviews when I transferred to Stony Brook University for The Statesman from the Fall of 2006 semester through the Spring of 2008 (including a break while I finished writing my Senior Thesis about remakes). 

While attending the University of Miami for graduate school from 2009 to 2011, I didn't write for the school paper because I was too busy writing essays for courses and my Thesis, You Only Live Twice: The Representation of the Afterlife in Film - which was formally published in August 2011 (after an initially failed draft from May that had to be 75% rewritten and 100% restructured - inspired by a book in my closet while packing to return to New York). 

From 2012 to 2014, I was writing for my own two separate blogs. One was called You Only Live Twice: Afterlife Cinema as a way to keep building upon my graduate thesis. And the other was on the HubPages.com platform. 

Upon taking the paralegal job for the entertainment law firm in Winter of 2015, I took down all of my blog posts to prevent any conflict of interest with the firm's clients. It was heartbreaking but also helped me start this new career chapter with a fresh mindset. And I did not continue writing while working at SAG-AFTRA. 

That's 5 1/2 years without writing after having written continuously for 10 years.

When I was let go from my highly-beloved and hard-earned position at SAG-AFTRA on August 5, 2020 because of staff reductions, a bright light in that dark tunnel was realizing I can start writing again! And I did by creating this AJS Entertainment Appreciation Blog in October 2020. It's been even more so personally rewarding this time around. 

And now it is August 4, 2021. 

I am two days away from my ten year anniversary of publishing my Afterlife thesis (which has been downloaded over 2,600 times!). I am one day away from my one year anniversary of getting that devastating call from HR. And to honor these anniversaries, I will be republishing some of my choice posts from the Afterlife Cinema blog, from the HubPages blog, from my reviews at The Statesman and The Vignette, and for the first time ever to publish not only my undergraduate thesis, Western European Films and Their American Remakes, but also course papers and their grades! Any updates will be noted whether that's related to grammar or opinion.

There is no determined order for republishing posts at this time. But one in particular is set for the morning of August 11th. It will be a paper I wrote for NCC's Film Appreciation Course, taught by Professor Deirdre O'Connor. Because the previous night (Aug. 10th), her first feature film starring the late Danny Aiello will have premiered at the Long Island International Film Expo called, One Moment. Not only did I help judge the festival from 2012 to 2014, but I was the signatory business rep assigned to work with Professor O'Connor through the SAG-AFTRA clearance process. I am incredibly grateful for her class as being one of the main influences of my education and career in entertainment/film criticism. And to be honest, this blog's title of "Appreciation" is part ode to her and that course! 

I welcome you to join me along this walk down critical lane! 

CELEBRITY INTERVIEWING: CONCLUSION

This Celebrity Interviewing Series may have taken a few months more than expected to complete, but I couldn’t be prouder of the final edited posts here! 

(Unfortunately, I couldn’t get around to including more foreign examples and red-carpet interviews. This may be something to do at a later time.) 

And I couldn’t be more grateful for those who gave their time to speak and correspond with me! Mara Webster, Jenelle Riley, and Bethany Watson, you are some of my greatest heroes! You have wonderfully accomplished careers with plenty still in your futures, but also are genuinely good people who ask your celebrity guests some of the best project/career-focused questions! 

The celebrity moderator is supposed to ask questions of the guest they’d like to know answers to, act as a medium by asking questions on behalf of others (the audience, the forum/venue, the project’s producers, and the guests’ representatives), and also share the space with the guest (but usually not take away their spotlight). The best moderators are able to have a professional but also positive rapport with their guest, know when to be serious or humorous, while also actively listening and appreciating their guests’ answers by keeping the conversation going for whatever running time they’ve been given. 

Plus, a round of applause to the actors I featured in these posts: Michael B. Jordan, Dakota Johnson, Leo DiCaprio, Michelle Yeoh, Rebecca Hall, Jake Gyllenhaal, Nicole Kidman, Steven Yeun, Hilarie Burton Morgan, Sterling K. Brown, Pamela Adlon, Constance Wu, and others! You are all so talented!