Based on a six hour BBC miniseries, State of Play stars Academy Award winner Russell Crowe as Cal McAffrey, an old-school investigative journalist, who is paired with novice reporter, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams).  After their no-nonsense editor (Helen Mirren) assigns the duo to research the brutal murder of a beautiful D.C. assistant, the two begin to uncover a scandal that involves several powerful political figures. Among them is ambitious and promising Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) who also happens to be one of McAffrey’s dear friends.  Collins is thought to be the future of his political party and a possible contender for the upcoming election, but as the plot begins to unravel, secrets are revealed that threaten his career, his friendship with McAffrey and the country’s political structure as a whole.

At first glance, State of Play may seem like just another political conspiracy thriller but, at its depths, is a much more relevant statement about modern journalism and culture.  While everyone in this film delivers top-notch performances, the most interesting and dynamic exists between Crowe and McAdams, who respectively represent the old-schools and new-schools of journalism.  McAffrey is a newspaperman, someone who researches and fact checks and lives and dies by the presses.  Frye is your typical Gen Y-er, raised in the Internet Age and used to information being just a click away.  The plot twists keep the film engaging throughout, but the scenes depicting the opposing schools of journalism are the brains of the film and help it to rise above many in this genre.

I’ve always believed that a good movie will leave you thinking about something once the lights come up – that you will somehow walk out of the theater different than you walked in. I left State of Play not only thinking about the current state of media, but how this dichotomy transfers to our culture. As we continue to see newspapers fall, there seems to be a growing backlash against new-school journalists and Gen Y as a whole. There is a bitterness that is creating an “us” vs. “them” mentality, which doesn’t seem to be benefiting anyone.  This film shows the advantage of the two schools working together – the old teaching the young the tricks of the trade and the new teaching the old the advantages of technology.  As a member of Gen Y, I can certainly identify with McAdam’s character and I feel this constant battle in the world daily.

That Girl says: Like it!  State of Play is an intelligent and thought-provoking film that is worth holding the presses for.  More than just well-acted, directed and crafted overall, its depiction of the modern state of the media makes the film relevant in our current culture.  It also delivers an important message about respecting the past, but embracing the future – and the need to do both.

Release Date:  April 17th, 2009 (Wide Release)
Running Time:  132 minutes
Rated:  PG-13
Company:  Universal Pictures
Cast: Russell Crowe – Cal McAffrey
Ben Affleck – Stephen Collins
Rachel McAdams – Della Frye
Helen Mirren – Cameron Lynne
Robin Wright Penn – Anne Collins
Jason Bateman – Dominic Foy
Jeff Daniels – Rep. George Fergus
Director: Kevin MacDonald
Official Site: http://www.stateofplaymovie.net/

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As a generation of overachievers, we feel entitled to have the perfect life the moment we envision it. Everything must be accessible at the speed of a mouse click, and the lives we embark on must provide a clear route to our future. Gen Y has no patience for ambiguity, and this includes our personal lives. Courtship has always been one huge gray area, especially in its beginning stages when we don’t know where the flirtation is going. So to allay the stress of the unknown, we have those infamous DTRs – the “define the relationship” talks. But what do those talks really mean? And if we’re confident in our feelings, are those labels really necessary?

The always awkward talks arise from our need for definitions, boundaries, and tangibility. A bit of mystery characterizes every romance – it’s what makes the chase so thrilling and the other person so intriguing. Yet there comes a time when the mystery gets old. The unknown is unnerving, particularly when it comes to emotions (where we’re the most vulnerable). With our hearts on the line, we need to know where we stand in the other’s eyes. And the only way to achieve that is to put ourselves out there and ask the inevitable, “So what are we doing with each other?”

But whether we’re the initiators or the avoiders of those conversations, we need to first determine if we’re ready for such demarcation. As a generation, we don’t like to waste our time. Our lives must be planned out as soon as we graduate, that new job must put us on the fast track to our dream career, and any significant other must be worthy of the long term or we don’t date at all. We don’t gamble our futures, so the pressure to solidify or deny the uncertain really puts us in a corner when it comes to our emotional well-being.

There are those whose need for structure takes over, and they rush into romantic situations for which they’re not prepared. We all know someone who has been blindsided into the girlfriend status (or perhaps someone who has done the blindsiding). And any pairings that arise from those instances are doomed to fail.

Then there are those like me, who will deny until their dying day all romantic entanglements. It’s the flip side of our generation’s intolerance for ambiguity—a fear-of rather than a compulsion-for definition. If all that matters is emotions, why do we need to pin them down when we’re sure of what we feel? Unfortunately deliberate ignorance is also an equation for catastrophe. Resolving nothing, it only pushes aside those pesky matters of the heart until they rear their messy heads again.

Though uncomfortable to the max, “define the relationship” talks are crucial to developing healthy romantic interactions. We’re not the only ones whose hearts are at stake, and we can’t forget about the other person’s feelings in our selfish quests for specificity or denial. But timing is everything here. Having these conversations too soon or too late in the courtship may spell disaster. Progress happens in due time. If your partner isn’t ready for a certain label, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ready to kick you to the curb. Relax and enjoy the courtship. Bode your time, take heed of your emotions, and most importantly, listen to your partner.

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Generation Y, born roughly between 1977 and 2000, has been referred to as the Look-at-Me Generation, the Dumbest Generation, the Entitlement Generation, and many other not so flattering epithets.  “Young people today,” writes Jean Twenge, author of Generation Me, “have been consistently taught to put their own needs first and to focus on feeling good about themselves.”  Confounded with a substantial increase in individualistic marketing schemes, the “everybody wins” trophy trend in children’s sports, and the numerous effects of internet and technological advancements, the result is what Twenge calls Gen Y’s “cotton candy sense of self with no basis.”  We’ve been told we can do everything, but are we really doing anything?

In a recent USA Today article, Sharon Jayson explains that many Gen Y college grads “still haven’t a clue about what to do with their lives.”  A 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center may indicate that instead of allowing Gen Y to achieve tangible goals, self-centeredness has put many heads in the clouds.  81% of 18- to 25-year-olds said that getting rich was their number one goal.  51% said being famous was one of their top two goals.  These beat out helping those in need (30%) and being leaders in their community (22%).

It seems that under the surface much of Gen Y is actually under-confident and searching for something more.  We live and revel in status updates, instant gratification, materialism, and are constantly told we need more and should be more.  We are constantly connected, rarely alone and introspective, and hopelessly defined by what we buy and own.  This kind of pressure inherently creates a never-good-enough, never-satisfied mentality, and self-actualization and happiness seem possible only by way of imagined cure-alls, specifically money and fame.

But some Gen Yers are looking to selfless acts to fill this void.  “College students today are not only going abroad to study in record numbers,” Thomas Friedman writes in the NY Times, “but they are also going abroad to build homes for the poor in El Salvador in record numbers or volunteering at AIDS clinics in record numbers.”  Friedman calls this group Generation Quiet, those “quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad.”  These Gen Yers join Facebook causes, wear t-shirts touting social justice and environmentalist slogans, they volunteer at home and abroad, but are they really making a difference?

Friedman sees Gen Y as “much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be,” but insists that these ideals aren’t transforming into effective action.  “They are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be… an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it.”  If Gen Y wants to thrive as adults, we will have to get involved, get loud and demand the change we need and want.  As Friedman lucidly puts it, “If they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re just not paying attention.”

Generalizations and speculations about Gen Y’s traits and impact will continue, but it’s clear that many young adults need to reassess their priorities.  As Gen Y grows up, the question will, and should, hang over our heads: will we ever harness all that confidence and do something positive with it?

photo by simon robic

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Vapid characters, contrived situations, and superficial lifestyles — all the necessary ingredients that make MTV’s The Hills one addicting pleasure fest. The highly successful series blatantly glorifies wealth and beauty while feeding female viewers false realities; and still women tune in religiously once a week to get their fix. When a show like this promotes such empty values while garnering a wide female audience, what does that say about us?

As women, we often crave the soapy storylines and visually appealing elements that make up shows like The Hills. The situations in the show, although not a positive reflection on our generation, are innately relatable. Haven’t we all experienced a falling out with a friend like former BFF’s Lauren and Heidi? Aren’t some boyfriends controlling and manipulative like Spencer? What about the commitment-phobic males who send mixed signals like Justin Bobby does to Audrina? Despite the killer jobs, perfect wardrobes, flashy cars and opulent lifestyles, these characters go through similar experiences just like us, only adding to the show’s appeal.

Over the course of the series, the leading ladies of The Hills have succumbed to societal pressures to attain “perfect” beauty. Heidi Montag underwent breast augmentation and rhinoplasty. Following in Heidi’s footsteps, Audrina admitted to getting a pair when nude photos surfaced. These young Hollywood starlets reinforce to young audiences that you can’t achieve fame or success if you aren’t physically beautiful. With these kinds of examples, women become trained to appreciate people merely for their physical attributes. Not all of us fall pray to such a rigid definition of beauty. In no way are the ladies of The Hills practicing Bellists, nor are they trying to be.

Even though the characters on The Hills appear to have it all, viewers can see that wealth, money and “perfection” do not equate with happiness. The ladies often times aren’t satisfied with themselves or their relationships. That vulnerability is what makes these characters real. Heidi almost losing her job because of Spencer or LC and Audrina drifting apart are problems in their world. At times, their drama seems trivial, but that’s what makes for a good show. These characters have lackluster personalities, offer no valuable insight but they have star power and that’s why we’re drawn to them. The Hills is a soap opera style program but on a grander scale.

This “non-scripted” drama is far from reality. Viewers are not easily fooled or gullible. In fact, fans of the show are aware of the dumbed-down dialogue and take it for what it is — a show purely for entertainment purposes. Love it or hate it, The Hills is defining our generation to those who are a part of it and those who aren’t.

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Hooked up. Got together. Fooled around. Messed around. Got play. It’s the language of a generation, our generation, but what does it all mean?  We use these terms to describe some kind of sexual interaction.  It could be a bit of kissing or it could be any type of sex. It could be with a friend or a guy whose name you don’t know or just can’t remember.  But ultimately, it’s a technique for isolation.

We don’t always like to think about it or allow it to be true, but the way we talk says a lot about who we are.  From regional dialects which use words like “y’all” or “wicked” to job specific vocabulary, much of what you say reveals something about you.  And the way we speak when it comes to sex says more about our generation than we are willing to say to one another.

No one can enter into my personal life unless I invite them in with particular detail.  Otherwise, I can build a wall.  “Oh, I hooked up with Jason last night.”  And what is the response we get for clarity?  “Hooked up hooked up or just hooked up?”  What does this mean?  Obviously, it’s telling of some sort of sexual progression but what?  That’s exactly the point.  Only the speaker is allowed to know.  Everyone else is left in ambiguity, shut out by the speaker’s sense of personal space and self-protection.

That protection could be from fear of judgment. No one likes to open themselves up to ridicule or disdain—especially when it comes to sex.  We’ve grown up with terms applied to girls like “slut” or “easy” or “skank” or “whore.”  We shout them out at one another or whisper it under our breaths and invite guys to do the same.  And though we may occasionally dish the terms out, in jest or in truth, we prefer to give and not take.  So we mask our sexual lives with terms like “fooled around.”

Even “went to bed” or “slept together” can be taken literally or figuratively.  Have you ever had that conversation where your friend and some guy slept together and you think you know what she means until she says, “but all we did was sleep?”  Sometimes it strikes me as odd that a statement like that needs to be amended. And these are some of the more clear-cut versions of our hook up vernacular.

A conservative might say we use protective terminology because we aren’t supposed to be engaging in sexual activity whereas a more liberal person might contend that we have been trained to think that female sexuality shouldn’t exist, let alone be discussed in any public or semi-public forum.  Either way, the result is we censor ourselves, locking ourselves into miscommunications and misconceptions.  We shy away from candor so that we can create a glossy veneer that is translucent but not transparent…and no one seems to notice. The result is no one knows the most personal level of who we are, the most vulnerable and most honest level; we don’t let them.  And by using such ambiguity with others, we can often lose sight of who we really are.

Did you know that if you tell yourself something enough, you’ll begin to believe it’s true? Try this experiment on soda. Tell yourself you don’t like sodas. Say it out loud in a group at your next venture to a restaurant. Remind yourself when you see soda.  “Ew.  I don’t really like that.”  Soon not only will you never drink it but you really will not like it.

The power of words is incredible and here we are using phrases without finite meanings. It’s deception.  The only question is why are you doing it?  To distance yourself from your own cognizant mind or to distance yourself from your friends?  It’s definitely not distancing you from the guys you’re making out with or having oral sex with. What you’re really saying with those words is that you trust a guy enough to have sex with him but you don’t trust your friends to admit it to them. It’s a remarkable foundation for friendship, don’t you think?

photo by valeria c. preisler

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Why does the frothy MTV reality show The Hills resonate so powerfully with the gen Y audience?  Some say this is because The Hills is the Sex and the City of our generation. The Hills lacks Sex’s witty analysis of the romance conundrums facing the modern women.  At the end of the day, even the most stylishly sensible valley girl is no Carrie Bradshaw.

Like Carrie, Lauren is a fashion forward gal who wears designer dresses, heels, and sunglasses to do such mundane chores as taking her pooch to the vet.  Lauren, in the literal sense, is a trendsetter as she unabashedly promotes her own fashion line on the show.  Like Carrie, Lauren’s also a sensible gal – the proverbial voice of reason in the realm of valleyesque communication.  On the other hand, Lauren lacks Carrie’s witty self-reflexive nature.

If Lauren is Carrie’s parallel character, then Audrina would undoubtedly be The Hills’ version of Samantha. Again, we see a few key differences in the characters.  Samantha was a successful career woman with unshakeable confidence who slept around as a power statement, unashamedly owning her sexuality. Audrina, on the other hand, let’s her bad boy boyfriend Justin Bobby shred her self-respect.  He treats her like crap, disrespects her friends, and publicly humiliates her.

Audrina claims she was duped into taking the topless photos that surfaced conveniently right before the third season aired. She made a public apology to all of the girls that look up to her, saying that she hoped they learned a lesson from her mistakes.  Then it came out that she had the photos submitted to Playboy.  Right after the photos’ release, she booked a Maxim gig.  The most disgusting aspect of that statement is the wink wink, nudge nudge apology to “all of the girls who look up to her.” She uses her sexuality to gain power and that’s what girls everywhere have been trained to do.  Samantha would have at least had the guts to admit that she took the photos to try to get into Playboy and boost her career.

So who is the Charlotte of the bunch? Despite her villainess role, Heidi fits the bill.  She’s given up everything to have a man, and although she’s not yearning to have a baby, she is nesting.  In the past, she’s let her man run her life. It seems in this season, she’s standing up for herself and realizing the pitfalls of letting a man control her life.

Whitney is really the only viable candidate for Miranda. She lacks the brains, wit and cynicism of Miranda, but she did manage to finagle her own spin-off; so she gets the career gal title.

Perhaps the real reason this show resonates with MTV youth is because The Hills gals represent what girls in our generation strive to be – wealthy and famous. In fact, according to a Pew study, 81% of 18 to 25-year-olds surveyed said getting rich is a top two life goal for their generation; 51% said the same about being famous.  And The Hills gals all have wealth and fame on their side. Knowing this, it’s plausible that The Hills, despite its shortcomings, could become the Sex and the City of generation Y.

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“Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” — Max Ehrmann

I suffer from a commitment phobia.  Not the I-can’t-settle-with-one-guy kind. It’s more of a I-can’t-settle-with-myself sort of a thing.  After graduating last June, I’ve been inundated with questions pressuring me to solidify my future.  Innocuous as they may seem, questions like “What are you going to do with your life?” and “Where do see yourself in ten years?” have become the bane of my existence.  My response has always been an ambiguous circumlocution followed by a swift subject change.  It’s taken a while to come to this point, but I’m finally okay with the simple and truthful answer, “I don’t know.”

As the progeny of hard-working baby boomers, our generation has benefited economically, technologically, and culturally.  Yet despite our higher education (most of us are either in college or have just graduated), we have been sorely misinformed.  As my 22 years have shown me, we believe that we need the perfect job now, the perfect apartment now, the perfect life now.  We are the Now-Now-Now generation, equipped with a sense of entitlement that has turned around to bite us in the asses.

Don’t get me wrong – I know how fortunate I am to have supportive parents, to have been raised in a comfortable home, to have a top-notch education.  But in my post-collegiate state, where an eternity of possibilities lie before me, my need to have everything right now has crippled me, making me feel as if there’s something wrong with the fact that there’s no clear-cut future in line.

I spent the summer after graduation at my parents’ house, scouring job sites with the aplomb of an egomaniac.  For better or for worse, an English degree doesn’t prepare you for a direct career path, so I was applying for positions in every industry.  I naively gave myself three months to find a job; then I would move out to start my adult life.  I thought that my prestigious education and stellar extracurriculars would make me a shoe-in for entry-level work.  Unfortunately, when three months passed, I was still jobless.  And apartmentless.  But I was determined to move out anyway.

Homeless and unemployed, I spent the last month-and-a-half couch-surfing and continuing my job hunt.  It wasn’t exactly how I pictured life after college, but I’ve come to terms with my situation.  While I could have done without the aching back (sleeping on couches will do that to you), I’m grateful for what I’ve gained.

I’m closer to the friends that I crashed with thanks to their generosity.  I’m amazed at my family’s capacity for support during my transitional time. Most importantly, I’m more self-aware and self-forgiving.  As an English major, I’ve had to read a lot of books, and when dealing with time constraints, there was admittedly some skimming involved. Now, with a little more time on my hands, there’s no need to skip to the end. The best part of a novel is the development of the characters, finding out how they got to that final objective.  The same applies to me.  As cliché as it sounds, life is about the journey, not the destination.  So pack lightly, wear comfortable shoes, and keep a good record of what happens because I’d like to hear your story if we ever meet along the way.

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I’m a firm believer in shopping alone. There’s a sense of freedom and control that permeates when I peruse the aisles of my favorite boutique. But there comes a time when I need an outside opinion on what’s cool and stylish. Instead of turning to a friend, I go to my mother for her point of view, and I’m not alone. More and more, young women are shopping with their moms. These young women are the new luxury lovers and the ultimate consumers of the twenty-first century. They’re being called “the millennials,” and they’re responsible for shaping contemporary style and design.

The Millennials are the generation born between 1980 and 2000, and they tend to have a more optimistic attitude toward high-end, high-quality goods and products. These offspring of the baby-boomers want it all, and they want it now. This cohort feels entitled to the luxurious material goods that middle class society has fostered. Those who aren’t born into wealth are willing to work hard to sport high end fashion, luxury accessories and tricked out cars.

The relationship between millennials and boomers is a unique one. According to the marketing company Resource Interactive, members of the millennial generation are closer to their parents than are members of any previous generation. It’s not uncommon for millennials to text their parents, vacation together, and inform each other on what to buy. I know I’m not alone when I say that I send my mom pictures via cell phone just to get her opinion on an outfit. Millennials confide in their parents and vice versa.

Advertisers have caught on to the fact that our generation utilizes technology to become knowledgeable consumers, and ceaselessly bombard us, influencing our spending habits. They’re figuring out ways to influence not only the shopper, but the credit-card holder (aka the parental units) as well.

Designers and luxury executives around the world are doing whatever they can to appeal to this generation and their parents. Next time you see your friend texting on their Blackberry, sporting some Ray Ban shades and the new Juicy sweat suit, you might not only question their taste, but also if it’s their bff they’re texting, or if they’re asking their parents for a money transfer to their MasterCard.

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