Stardust

Fellow MIPA-ers (sorry, I wanted to think of a weird term and that was the best I could do),

I don't know about you, but I've really enjoyed my experience at MIPA. I've played pool for hours with strangers, I've discovered amazing music down at Flat, Black & Circular, and I've also had a little run-in with a bat (no joke). But all of that doesn't have anything to do with this blog, so I'll move on. As I'm sure you guessed the moment you read my title, I'm here to give my thoughts on last night's screening of Stardust (that voice fadeout at the beginning... Best. Sound Loss. Ever.). I went into the screening as a very skeptical observer; movies like Stardust aren't usually what I get excited over. The one thing that kept me slightly optimistic was the fact that Robert Deniro was in it. Ironically, that turned out to be the one aspect of Stardust that I absolutely hated. Don't get me wrong, the initial reveal of his character's "orientation" was brilliant, and I thought that you couldn't have chosen a better actor to use for that joke. However, I quickly grew disenchanted with the way that they kept pounding this joke into your head, with more and more stereotypes flying at you. All that being said, I think that Stardust was very funny as a whole, which I was not expecting. I just think that they should have toned this joke down a little bit because, honestly, we have enough homophobia circulated through our country right now. We don't need stars of the screen reinforcing it.

Yours truly,

Justin Pung