"Dear Lemon Lima..."

Yesterday I went and saw the movie "Dear Lemon Lima," and I loved it. The description in the SIFF Guide states that it is about Vanessa, who is a Yup'ik Indian, who expresses her heartbreak and her life to her "imaginary friend," Lemon Lima through her diary. When I saw the trailer for the film in class, it never really actually showed anything that had to do with her being part Yup'ik Indian, so I was a little uncertain of how it was going to tie into the movie.


I have to say that I was really surprised and thrilled to see Native culture expressed and embraced in this film. It does it in almost a light and cute way.


At the beginning of the film Vanessa is dumped by her boyfriend Philip, who is sporting the Buddy Holly glasses, and looks very dorky. He is going away to Paris with his family for the summer. Once summer is over the, the film takes off with Vanessa going to a private school that Philip and his parents helped her get into. It is a private school for the rich, white, suburban families. Vanessa is allowed to go because his parents helped her get the Molly Hootch Scholarship, which is granted to a Native student. Beth Grant, whom plays the principal in this film, does a great job with getting the students involved with many diverse native cultures in Alaska (the setting of the movie). Vanessa (Savanah Wiltfong) claims from the very beginning that she does not identify with her Yup'ik background. On her first day of school her mom comes out with two backpacks: one her grandmother made her, which is covered in fur, and the other is a gift from Philip's parents, that is from L.L. Bean. She chooses the one his parents gave her stating that the other one is just "too ethnic."

During her time at school, she learns how the school embraces Native cultures by having tribes come in and share their tribal dances with the students. As well as in P.E., they learn to train and prepare for the Snowstorm Survival Competition. The tasks include lifting two people on each side of you and carrying them down this runway, kicking a ball that is hanging in the air while leaning on one leg and arm, placing a stick between two people who are pulling at it in opposing forces, and whoever is the strongest pulls the stick from the other person, pulling a string that is attached around the ear of each person and pulling it off of the other person's ear, and lastly participating in a tribal dance that each student picks.

It is when Vanessa is forced to go to the weight room with the other "FUBARS," that she develops friendships with them. At first she has her sights set on winning Philip back, and in doing so, she dyes her hair blonde to assimilate to the pretty, white, blonde girl image. She does this because she see's Philip giving his attention to a girl at school named Megan who is the typical pretty, white blonde girl. In one of her classes her instructor asks her about her Yup'ik heritage, and she says that she does not know about it, because she really does not see herself as Yup'ik, she sees herself as white. Her teacher then goes into an explanation of how that is called "assimilation."

Throughout the film, and more so during the Snowstorm Survival Competition, she really learns to/begins to embrace her heritage.

Another thing that came up in this movie was how masculine men are supposed to behave, and this is very apparent with the character of Hercules (pronounced Her-cule). In one of the beginning scenes where he is introduced, he is sitting in front of a cage that has a bunny rabbit in it. His mother and father are sitting in their car, and his father is commenting on the fact that it is stupid that Hercules has an attachment to a stupid animal. His mother then gets out of the car, and tells Hercule that it is for his own good, and she frees the bunny. He then is forced to get into the car, and his mother hands him a big bag of G.I. Joe soldier toys. Telling him that this is what he should be playing with, not animals. It is just a little too sissy for men to love animals. His father has guns everywhere, and thinks that Hercules is apart of the Rifle Club at school. In another scene, Hercules is with his father learning how to shoot his rifle at a plastic deer. It is odd because his family shelters him, yet on the other hand they want him to grow up and be a man.

How the film represented femininity in the film was through the pastel colors and dresses. While I was watching the film, and at the very end, all of the girls are wearing pastel, girly-girl dresses. This got me thinking, "did the girls wear dresses the entire time, except when they were in their very tiny short-short gym shorts." I have to say that I do not remember one girl wearing pants or longer than mid-thigh shorts. Hercules in the movie is seen wearing plaid a lot. I liked the art direction that they went with in the movie, but it would have been nice to see the girls wear jeans instead of dresses part of the time, especially since it is supposed to take place in Alaska.


Hercules is also the only boy in the group of "FUBARS," which I also thought was interesting. He is red-haired, with freckles and he is a lot smaller than some of the other boys his age. He claims that he is allergic to everything and that is why he is in the weight room. There are a ton of girls but only one boy. In one way it is showing that he is not as strong as the other boys, and that is why he is in the weight room. Also, it shows that since all of the people that are in the weight room are girls, excluding Hercules, it shows that girls are not as strong as boys, or the white, blonde haired, privileged girls. You could see it in that way. However, they show their strength in the end. There was something else that I noticed with Hercules since he can be considered as more effeminate, and bonds well with girls instead of other boys, but i would be giving away the movie for those who have not seen it and wish to see it.

I overall loved the movie. It truly made me feel like I was thirteen again, writing notes with my milky-way (pastel colored) pens, and the stickers I put on notes to my friends. It was a really cute movie with a good positive message, and they really represented Native Culture in a positive light which was great.

All images courtesy of Google Images

John Lennon the Rebel, His Mom and Mimi

The first film that I went to see at SIFF was "Nowhere Boy," which was a narrative about John Lennon's life before "The Beatles." I really enjoyed the film, it was a mixture of good music, insight, drama and humor. I do have to admit though that the entire time I was watching the movie, I was thinking how I could tie it into the course concepts that we learned, and after the movie, I still really did not have a clear concept on what I would write about.

After discussing the film with my boyfriend, who had come with me to see it, we both had come to the same idea that it was weird seeing John Lennon portrayed as this young, buff, trouble-maker/rebel. I had always thought of John Lennon as this "Imagine," counterculture, peace, and make love not war activist. I had made all of these assumptions off of the way I heard people in media or other celebrities talk about him, or the images I saw of him, particularly the famous images of him and Yoko Ono naked. So lesson learned on this one, don't assume things, it just makes an ass out of you. However, it was that assumption that helped me realize what I could write about.

Since I had never really thought of John Lennon as this masculine (i.e., buff, prankster, fighter who loved the school girls) character, it was interesting to watch on film. He was ditching school and riding on the top of buses. He based his physical image off of Elvis and was introduced to rock n' roll by his mom. It was when she told him that rock n' roll music also represented sex, that the film showed him or eluded to him having sex with school girls his age. I guess the macho thing for men to do is sleep around with girls/women.

The film also showed not just physically how strong he looked by casting a buff actor (Aaron Johnson), but how strong he was by fighting. There was one scene right after his mother died, and the family is holding a service at his mother and stepfathers house when one of his friends picks up her banjo and starts to play it. With all of his rage in hearing the music from her banjo, he storms into the room and grabs it from his friends hands. When his friend stands up and says he is sorry but he did nothing wrong, he headbutts the kids face, and I believe he even broke his nose. When Paul brings him outside he grants John permission to hit him if that is what he needed to do, so what did he do? He punched Paul and knocked him to the ground. I felt that they always showed him getting aggressive and physical when he would get upset and cry. To me it was a way of making up for the fact that he was being more effeminate and crying.

Another thing I noticed was the way he would treat his mom and aunt. At times he was very unsympathetic to them. And he felt it was ok to treat them disrespectfully. There was one scene at his birthday party and he is outside with his mom who is smoking, and they begin to talk. Further into their conversation she begins to cry, when he says something along the lines of "here you go turning on the water works again." This leads me into next my next discussion: how the women were portrayed in the film. The two main female characters in this film was his Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas), and his mother Julia (Ann Marie Duff).



His Aunt was portrayed as this silent, almost mean lady who was out to get him, but when you think about it, she was just trying to protect him and do right by him, since she was the one raising him after his mother gave him up. At first his mom is seen as the outgoing funny one who loves her son, and makes Mimi out to be the horrible Aunt. The film showed this in the style of clothes that they wore. Aunt Mimi was always wearing dark, form-fitting, suit like clothes that covered almost every inch of her. She looked uptight, uncomfortable and too serious. Mimi's house also showed this. It was presented in this very colorless, classic look. Everything was very tidy and clean.


His mother on the other hand was always in bright, colorful clothes that showed skin. She was shown as a free-spirit. Even her house had clutter everywhere in it. The wall paper had a busy print all over it, as well as lots of colors everywhere. So this really helped to show the difference between the two women and their personalities. His mother was shown as the unstable one. They never really said what her problem was, or "illness," but I got the hint that she was bi-polar. There were several scenes where she was super happy, making cupcakes, and dancing and singing to music. In a scene after this, he goes to his mothers house after he is upset with Mimi about something, and she is inside of the house with the blinds shut. She looks like she is crying, and as he is knocking she says silently, "Just go away." So when she is happy she is super happy, when she is sad, she is depressed. In the one scene where she begins to cry, and John makes that statement about her crying, his half-sister comes out and asks if Julia is really sad again. Julia then puts on a fake smile and says she is happy. Once her daughter is inside, she tells John that she is sick, that she has an illness, but the doctors do not know what it is. His step-father was also very controlling of Julia. He made her decisions for her. When John goes to stay with his mom for a while, his step-father soon convinces Julia that it is not a good idea, and in the morning his mom cannot even look at John as he is leaving.

This really shows how independent women who are emotionless are mean, and not fun, compared to women who are colorful and fun tend to be unstable mentally and dependent on a man to tell them what to do.

I have to say that I really loved the movie besides these facts. If you are a "Beatles" fan or love their music, it is a fun movie to watch. It had some serious and unexpected moments, but it had a good amount of humor in it. I also felt it was hard to write about this in terms of the way they portrayed these real-life people, since the film is based off of a book written by John Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird.

All Images courtesy of Google Images