Derek Jacobs

I am a molecular biologist who loves movies and wants to think about them and discuss them from the perspective of romantic realism, a reason-based school of aesthetics championed by novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand.

“I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore” Announces Macon Blair as a Burgeoning Directorial Talent

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I Don’t Feel at Home in the World Anymore captures that peculiar modern feeling that the world is a frustrating and mean place – but that ordinary folks can stand up and push back, though sometimes with hilarious and awkward results.  Writer-director Macon Blair’s film contains bleak humor, affecting drama, and a bumbling crime story.  … Read more

State of the Blog – March 2017

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Here at Plot and Theme, March promises to be an especially exciting month, especially compared to the relative doldrums of the year so far.  There have been extremely strong stand-outs so far (see Get Out), but like most Januaries and Februaries, there is much more trash than anything else.  So, for this State of the … Read more

“Alien: Covenant” Seems to Seek Cheap Alchemy

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The  marketing team over at Alien headquarters is hard at work polishing up a turd.  A teaser trailer, a Red Band trailer, a “Last Supper” prologue,  and the latest layer of varnish, a CGI-fuelled full-length trailer that apes off both Prometheus and Alien and Aliens in a vain attempt to discover the perfect way to … Read more

Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory”, the Politically Powerful, and the Absurdity of War

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The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,Awaits alike th’ inevitable hour.The paths of glory lead but to the grave. -Thomas Grey, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,1751 Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory is often celebrated as the director’s first true masterwork.  Adapting a novel of the … Read more

A Pair of Afterlife Trailers: “The Discovery” and “The Void”

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A pair of off-the-radar film released trailers recently, and both of them appear to offer something interesting for the fan of genre film.  Each also, in their own way, use concepts revolving around the afterlife as major plot elements.  These films are The Discovery and The Void.  This will be a short piece introducing each of these films and their trailers, and offering a few stray observations about what we’re seeing (and what other people have been saying).  Here we go!

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Jordan Peele’s Horror Masterpiece “Get Out” Expertly Satirizes Suburban Racists

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Writer-director Jordan Peele’s Get Out is a potent and poignant allegory about modern race relations in suburban America.  It is constructed on the skeleton of a slow-burn horror-thriller, with some awkward comedy thrown in for good measure.  Satirical to its very core, Get Out ridicules the WASP-y “post-racism” of the middle-upper class, and suggests that despite protestations to the contrary, this racism is just as nefarious as blatant hatred.  Through a deft use of genre tropes, Peele develops this allegory to its full potency, and the audience reaps the rewards.  As the pieces fall into place, we are eating out of Peele’s hand at every turn and there is only one conclusion:  Get Out is a masterpiece, harshly satiric and thoroughly creepy.

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Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden” Expresses Powerful Sexuality with Startling Style

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Weird, exciting, and vibrant, Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden is an erotic tour through a world of subjugation, trickery, and betrayal framed by a bizarre love triangle.  The story was inspired by the novel Fingersmith by Welsh writer Sarah Waters, with Park and his co-writer Chung Seo-kyung adjusting the setting from Victorian England to Japanese-occupied Korea during the 1930s.  The structure of the film is cyclical, re-telling the story three times from different viewpoints and revealing new truths with each telling.  There’s an unreliability to the narrative, as truth and facade alternate with each new perspective.  But ultimately, The Handmaiden has an fervent romanticism about it, as the heart of the story is about love, sexual exploration, and self-discovery – all with a tinge of deviancy.

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Verhoeven and Huppert Combine to Tell a Singular Story of Feminine Strength in “Elle”

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Paul Verhoeven’s Elle opens with a blank screen and the sickening sounds of sexual assault.  The first image of the film is of a cat, casually witnessing the rape.  Only after this introduction does Verhoeven confront the audience with the actual struggle:  a man clad in dark clothing and a ski mask, dominating an older woman and having his way with her.  Once he is gone, we’re introduced to Michèle Leblanc (Isabelle Huppert) wordlessly; she picks herself up, straightens her clothing, cleans up some broken glass, and then takes a bath.  The blood floats up from between her legs to color the bubbles with a crimson wisp.

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“The Founder” Allows the Spectator To Interpret the Life and Success of Ray Kroc

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It is practically impossible to create a biopic without passing judgment on some axis, but director John Lee Hancock comes pretty close to presenting an unbiased view of McDonald’s “founder” Ray Kroc in The Founder.  The film details the story of Kroc discovering the original McDonald’s restaurant, the brainchild of brothers Mac and Dick, and expanding the McDonald’s empire through an aggressive franchise model.  As McDonald’s restaurants pop up everywhere, Mac and Dick lose control of the endeavor, and Kroc eventually muscles the two away from the business.

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Classic Review – Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)

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INTRODUCTION

In 1991, dozens of happy accidents converged into one of the greatest thrillers of all time:  The Silence of the Lambs.  It is the most recent film to win Academy Awards in all five of the major categories (both leading actors, screenplay, director, and best picture).  As that distinction may suggest, practically every aspect of the film boasts superlatives.  The performances are exceptional.  Ted Tally’s adaption of the screenplay structures the film with the familiar beats of the hero’s journey, but provides enough twists to keep us on edge.  Jonathan Demme’s direction shows restraint and courage, and produces moments rife with tension, many of which do not exist on the page.  The characters, technical work, and writing all cooperate towards a single goal:  championing a theme of female strength and intellect in a world dominated by men, and the courage that it takes to confront true evil.

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