Maria Molino: A Quick Chat – We had the opportunity to chat with New Jersey-based stylist and blogger Maria Molino! By Eleanor Klein.
Where are you based?
Rumson, NJ
Do you have any siblings?
Yes. Two younger brothers.
How did you get into blogging?
I grew up loving to read, write and draw. When I graduated high school, I was torn between going to college for fashion vs. going for literature. I ended up going to Rutgers for Literature. After years of struggling on how to best combine all of my interests, I realized blogging and being a full-time Instagrammer were the answers I had been looking for.
What was your first paid collaboration?
My first paid collaboration was with a local lingerie boutique, Sweetest Sin.
What is your most memorable career moment?
Getting to run the Instagram account for Pretty Woman: The Musical after being recognized by their creative execs after I posted photos of myself in costumes inspired by the show.
Documentaries About Alternative Medicine. By Frankie Wallace.
No doubt about it: hospital dramas are the best. There’s nothing like medicine to ratchet up the emotion in a film or television series. There are few storylines able to capture an audience’s attention or pull at their heartstrings like that of a young hero battling the odds to overcome a devastating injury or a beautiful heroine bravely waging war against an incurable disease.
But life is not the movies. And confronting illness or injury is often far different in the real world than it is in fictional films. If you want proof, then you need look no further than the myriad eye-opening, mind-changing documentaries on alternative medicine that have emerged in recent years.
These masterworks will have you questioning everything you thought you knew about health, wellness, disease, and death. And they may just change forever the way you look at and engage with the modern healthcare industry.
A Leaf of Faith (2018)
A Leaf of Faith takes on the modern pharmaceutical industry and the (some would say intentional) complicity of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in instigating or at least perpetuating the opioid crisis. The film is about the healthcare industry’s efforts to quash the use of kratom, a plant widely used worldwide for its pain-relieving properties.
Juxtaposing the stories of chronic pain sufferers who have been helped by kratom with the brutal reality of the thousands of lives lost each year to synthetic opioids, the film raises a lot of disturbing questions, similar to those raised in the documentary How to Survive a Plague, which chronicles the FDA’s efforts to delay or deny the approval of HIV/AIDs drugs at the height of the epidemic.
A Leaf of Faith raises troubling questions about the power of the healthcare industry. And among the most significant of those questions may well be whether government regulations are, in fact, denying a potentially life-saving medication to people in pain, just for the sake of profit?
Take Your Pills (2018)
Take Your Pills is another documentary that casts a critical eye on the pharmaceutical industry in particular and the modern healthcare system in general. The award-winning film examines the advent of Adderall, its prolific use to “control” disruptive behavior in children, and its even greater ubiquity on college campuses and in the modern workplace.
The film argues that in today’s hypercompetitive environment, Adderall has become the drug of choice for those seeking a performance advantage. Rather than cultivating a lifestyle that promotes success through wellness, such as getting replenishing sleep, healthy exercise, and good nutrition,we’re trained to “take our pills” to get what we need.
This is the disease model that makes, and keeps, us dependent on drugs and doctors. And that’s the model that keeps the pharmaceutical industry in business and the execs in their mansions.
The Business of Disease (2014)
If the documentaries described take a critical view of the healthcare industry, then The Business of Disease is downright subversive. The film features some of the most acclaimed voices in alternative and naturopathic medicine, who make compelling, if disheartening, arguments that modern medicine is not, in fact, in the business of helping people. Rather, it’s in the business of making money.
And to do that, they suggest, they’re waging war on alternative medicine. Above all, the film suggests, alternative and naturopathic medicines give patients the power of choice and that threatens the authority — and, consequently, the money-making ability — of the modern healthcare industry. Modern healthcare, the film implies, sustains itself by keeping patients compliant, uninformed, and lacking in confidence in order to keep its hold over their health and their wallets.
The C Word (2016)
No question about it, cancer is a fear that haunts us all. But the documentary, The C Word, looks at this menace in a new way, challenging our most deeply held beliefs about the role of modern science and medicine in preventing and treating cancer. Above all, it examines the role of holistic medicine and an approach that combines alternative and modern practices, in combating the disease. It suggests that adopting a lifestyle inspired by alternative medicine, including stress management and toxin avoidance, can be a powerful weapon in this ancient fight.
The Takeaway
Health is perhaps our greatest wealth, the most important blessing we can wish for ourselves and our loved ones. In fictional films and television series, the fight to overcome sickness and injury makes for fantastic drama and irresistible stories. In real life, however, the stories are much different. Documentaries on alternative medicine have illuminated the power of the modern healthcare industry.
They have cast into stark relief the impact that the pharmaceutical industry has had on people’s lives — and their deaths. And they have explored the complex, often conflicted relationship between alternative and modern medicine, seeking to restore, perhaps, the power of patients and families looking for solutions beyond the traditional healthcare system.
Considering the world’s dire straights, contemplative science fiction films hold more relevance than ever, taking to task several critical facets that are often overlooked in society. Writer/director Seth Larney’s debut film 2067 sets its sights on our degenerative environment, though its so-so follow-through can’t convey the weight of its ambitions.
Set in a dystopian world where air has become a commodity, 2067 follows Ethan Whyte (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a grunt worker who is thrust into a vital role to save the world. As the son of an acclaimed scientist, Ethan is sent forward in time to bring back a cure for their ongoing pandemic, though his task may not be as straight-forward as it seems.
For his debut feature, Larney makes a relatively strong impression. His visceral direction aptly works to construct a lived-in science fiction landscape, depicting a society teetering towards destruction (seeing “air” as a higher-quality privilege has a painful relevance to our COVID-world). The Blade-Runner inspired visuals present enough inventive details to stand out from 2067’s science fiction peers. It’s also easy to appreciate the thematic bones of Larney’s material, with the film occasionally touching on how governments look for cheap solutions to environmental problems and how the poor are viewed as negligible sacrifices towards the world’s survival.
While 2067 presents engaging ideas, Larney’s script lacks proper follow-through. Instead of slowly building these conceits throughout the narrative, much of the focus goes towards the narrative’s mechanical design, fixating on plot details over the intriguing ideas simmering under the surface. The film ends up making these pertinent values feel more like window dressing, as they are appealing at first glance but ultimately hollow under full examanation.
If the film can’t deliver substantive ruminations, does it least satisfy that genre movie itch? Not quite. While the story does get off to a promising start, most of the narrative travels down well-trudged territory. There’s little on paper that surprises audiences, with the script setting up plot twists that could be predicted by most. Larney’s character work also comes off as thin. Kodi Smit-McPhee’s central protagonist is little more than a pleasant everyman, lacking the dimension or humanity to connect with audiences.
2067 can’t quite reinvent its familiar sci-fi trappings. That being said, Seth Larney’s debut does show promise, with his pertinent ideas and assured craftsmanship displaying his bright future in the industry.
Jessie (Janet Shay) is a child psychologist. She spends her career counselling children who have experienced the most unimaginable things and it’s starting to become too much. Taking matters into her own hands, Jessie decides that it’s about time that she does what the police could never do, to give the abusers what she thinks they deserve. However, when a boy returns after years of being one of her patients, Jessie starts to realise that there are consequences to her actions.
Guilt is an Australian drama written and directed by Karl Jenner and Lyndsay Sarah. Going through Jessie’s life, the movie follows her closely as she finds one abuser after another and does what she needs to do to ensure that no other children are harmed again.
Although setting her as the protagonist, Jessie is also seen to do terrible things to people which opens up the question of whether her vigilantism is right. The trouble is that Guilt never really answers that question properly and despite showing moments of her own guilt, the movie still stays on her side even when she finishes off one last job after learning the full extent of her actions.
Jessie eventually meets Grace (Hayley Flowers), the girlfriend of a convicted child abuser and trafficker and although their initial meeting feels forced because Jessie knows exactly who she is, the movie does attempt to give depth to a side of child abuse that most people wouldn’t consider.
Shay and Flowers do play their scenes well against each other and their scenes are arguably the most compelling of Guilt’s story, but their story arc does leave the audience with mixed messages as it comes to a dramatic end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEXNGLZa9Us
Guilt may have all the right intensions and through the use of the media it shows that the movie does show that it’s not just one sided when it comes to understanding the victims, their abusers and the effect on wider society.
However, the story is just too simplistic, which leaves the audience who disagree with vigilantism to be appalled and those who support it to applaud.
While the movie industry has plenty of creative storytellers who can conjure up incredible tales from their imagination and convert them into magnificent movies, sometimes, the best stories are real.
The phrase “you couldn’t write this” is a little overused, but there are many times where it applies perfectly. When incredible events happen, producers in Hollywood are often on the phone shortly after, ready to recreate them on the big screen. Here are some of those movies.
21
Casino games are often the setting for movies. They’re glitzy and glamorous and packed with excitement, which all translates well on screen. There have been hundreds of casino movies throughout the history of cinema – recent popular examples include Casino Royale, The Hangover, and Mississippi Grind – though none are quite like 21.
21 is based on the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team, a group of students and graduates from MIT and Harvard University who worked together to count cards while playing cards in casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere.
The team played blackjack, a card game that is played in practically every casino around the world, as well as in many online platforms that offer more than one version of blackjack. Most land-based casinos use multiple decks in a single shoe to make card counting more difficult, while online casinos use randomly generated cards.
That hasn’t always been the case though, so the MIT team took full advantage. They did this by using a range of techniques to improve their odds and beat casinos throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with around 80 players on board at their peak. Eventually, the players were banned from most casinos, so the team was disbanded.
21 retells this story, but the creators have used creative license to compress two decades of events into a shorter period. Yet the fi;m manages to capture the important parts of the true story while creating a compelling, edge-of-your-seat story.
Sully
In January 2009, New Yorkers looked on in fear as US Airways Flight 1549 flew between buildings and landed on the Hudson River. Rescuers rushed to the scene and the press quickly gathered on the shore to report on the events.
What many thought was going to be a gruesome tragedy turned out to have a happy ending. The Airbus A320 managed to land completely intact, with all 150 passengers and five crew members rescued. Only two passengers were injured seriously enough to require an overnight stay in hospital, though this isn’t discussed much in the film.
The outcome was widely attributed to the pilot, Chesley Sullenberger (Sully) and his co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles. The pair had been thrust into an unimaginable scenario as they took off from LaGuardia Airport: the plane’s two engines had been rendered inoperable by a double bird strike.
After assessing the situation, Sully recognized that there was no possibility of making it back to LaGuardia or another airport, and opted to ditch the plane in the Hudson River instead.
The film recreates these events after the ensuing investigation by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the National Transportation Safety Board. It focuses on simulations that were used during the investigation that showed that, in some scenarios, it may have been possible for the plane to return to two airports.
These simulations were criticized in the real investigation as being unrealistic, and in the film Sully requests another be done with 35 seconds to assess the situation and decide on the course of action.
Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva was one of the most successful and loved Formula 1 drivers of all time. He won 41 races and three world titles during his 10-year career in the sport. Fans still enjoy watching his races to this day, as Senna’s talent behind the wheel was like no other driver.
He was tragically killed during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola. It was a dark weekend for the sport, as Roland Ratzenberger had died the day before, and fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello had been injured earlier in the week.
The film uses interviews with people who know Senna and archive footage of his life on and off the track. It documents his early life and his rise through junior formulas before reaching Formula 1.
It’s not just a film for petrol heads though. It received a 93% critic score and 95% audience score from more than 18,000 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, thanks to its focus on the human side of the sport and Senna’s personality.
