Hidden Figures Review

On Saturday night, me and Harry went to see Hidden Figures at the Broadway in Nottingham. I've been wanting to see it for ages but had never got round to it, so having Harry up for the weekend seemed like the perfect time.

Hidden Figures is based on a true story about three black women, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P Henderson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae), all mathematicians who worked for NASA during some of the most vital years in the US space program. During the film, you see how each of them work their arses off to get where they want to be, despite racial segregation and sexism, and how they experience life outside of work in a world of white hegemony.

I thought this film was really refreshing. Especially as we've been hearing a lot more of the Black Lives Matter campaign in the last couple of years. Taraji P. Henderson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae play their roles with such emotion and integrity, they really have portrayed the honesty and feelings within the story. You begin to understand how these women must have felt when they were constantly being told to leave public places because the whites "didn't want any trouble" and having to walk half a mile to go to the coloured bathroom. Honestly, you see "coloured" this, "coloured" that so many times during the film you almost have to laugh, it seems so unrealistic, yet that's how it was. It's shocking.

It also makes you realise that you can achieve anything. I got this feeling when I watched Eddie the Eagle too the other day. It sounds so cliche, I know, but these ladies pushed and pushed to achieve more than they ever thought they could. After Mary Jackson was told that she couldn't apply for an Engineering job at NASA, because she didn't have the qualifications, she went to court and persuaded the judge to let her attend an all-white school, even if it was just night school. Katherine Johnson was told that she was no longer needed because of a new IBM computer system, which could work 100 times faster than any human brain could, yet they eventually realised they needed her when the IBM was giving out incorrect co-ordinates for John Glenn's launch (the first American to orbit the Earth). She then went on to help calculate the trajectory for the Apollo 11 flight to the moon in 1969.

If you haven't seen this film already then I really recommend that you should. Not only is it motivational and educational, but it's also a really good watch in general!

Georgia.xo

Nocturnal Animals

Interesting, sophisticated, intense, aggressive, violent, lust, intertwined and romantic. Without sounding too much like Shay Mitchell in her PLL farewell video, that's the only way I can describe Nocturnal Animals - the second film from designer Tom Ford.

The film is basically about a wealthy yet troubled art gallery owner, Susan (Amy Adams), who reads a manuscript sent from her ex-husband, which is dedicated to her. The story follows a middle-class white male, Tony, who finds himself in a struggle with a gang in Texas (starring Aaron Taylor Johnson) during a road trip with his family (Isla Fisher and Ellie Bamber). The gang take his wife and daughter, rape them and kill them, before Tony goes on a quest to find the gang and make them pay. During the film you see Susan come to terms with her troubled relationship and her lust for her ex-husband.

It was a very complex and non-linear story-line with a stellar. The beginning of the film was interesting to say the least. It doesn't leave much to the imagination, however it did create a number of enigmas. The middle then starts to make sense as the three narratives (the present, past and the book) intertwine and relate to each other in an arrangement that I think worked beautifully. However, the ending was very sudden and left very open! I suppose it left the audience in a position where they could use their own imagination and decide for themselves what happened. Personally, I'm not a fan because it reminds me of those reading tasks you had to do at primary school when you had to write an alternate ending or another chapter!

I think Amy Adams did a fantastic job at portraying a lead female protagonist who appeared to be strong and empowering on the outside - a lot like a lot of women in the creative industry - however, on the inside she was struggling and was easily influenced by the men in her life.

Tom Ford has also done a fantastic job alongside producer Robert Salerno, who also produced Tom Ford's first film 'A Single Man'. His signature dark hues and linear lines are evident in the film, and it's quite the stellar cast. Would totally recommend watching it!

Georgia.xo

The True Cost | Fashion Sustainability Part 1

The true cost of the fashion industry is fairly unknown. Many don’t know that the fashion industry is the 2^nd most harming industry to the environment, after oil. I didn’t know this until I watched The True Cost – a documentary highlighting the negative elements within garment production, directed by Andrew Morgan.

“Greed and fear, power over poverty”

Watching The True Cost gave me an insight into areas of the fashion industry that we will call the ‘dark side’. For example, the Indian city of Punjab is the largest user of pesticides in India, which they use on the cotton crop. Effects of the large pesticide use include cancer and “physical retardation”, yet many people can’t afford treatment. This isn’t just a case of “don’t use so many pesticides” however, because when a farmer can’t produce the right amount of cotton, the companies can buy the land off of the farmers leaving them jobless. This results in over 250,000 farmers taking their own lives each year. That’s 1 farmer every 30 minutes. I know this is a lot to take in, but this was only the start of my journey through discovering the ‘dark side’ of the fashion industry.

It’s hard to comprehend how many deaths happen in order to make your outfit. In 2013, the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh collapsed after factory owners ignored cracks in the building pointed out by workers. 1,129 people died. They were manufacturing clothes for Primark. In the same year, factory fires killed over 100 people. Imagine that being a member of your family, or one of your friends.

Long story short, this is basically because we, the consumers, want cheaper prices, and the only way our favourite brands can satisfy our needs and make a profit at the same time is by finding cheap labour in developing countries. Workers are only paid $2 a day for a 12 hour working day. Maybe it’s time we changed our spending habits.

Georgia.xo