My Review of Abzurdah

                                         

I just watched the new Spanish Netflix movie Abzurdah, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 5.4/10. It came with the raunchy title cover and had quite the eye-catching description, being that a disenchanted and obsessive girl falls in love with a man older than her by 10 years (while still being a minor herself) and eventually begins to fall obsessively for him, till he deserts her which drives her even further nuts till she attains an anorexic / bulimic state. 

The movie has a good starting plot to start things off with, however I really do think that it needed more tracks and music in between instead of going for that slow deep kinda vibe. Although I do notice it to be a growing trend amongst Mexican filmmakers to avoid pitching in lots of tracks AS well as dialogue, showing more of sounds and focusing on the chronological unfolding of the movie. 

I do think that this movie could've make done without excessive promiscous scenes as I found them unnecessary and pointless to the story's plot, unless the movie was trying to paint patriarchy at its finest, as recorded in one scene where Cielo discloses to her diary that it was many days that passed in the similar fashion, with him just laying atop fully dressed and her naked, which goes ahead to imply that she could be letting him have his way with her while she just submitted to him.

It however does address a rather serious topic of eating disorders and their connectivity to trauma and panic disorders as an outlet. When we think about eating disorder patients as a whole, we often think that the patients had some kind of a body dysmorphic issue or that they were getting pressurized by the beauty industry as a whole, constantly telling women that they need to look a certain way in order to be perceived attractive. However, anorexia is not at all at par with the society's beauty's standards, it is a mental health condition that stems from the person's inner self and circumstances. The proof of this lies in a scene where Alejo tells Cielo that he can't lay with her because her breasts are too small and that she's too thin, and we all know that the society consistently tells women that bigger bossoms are what's considered nationally attractive. Cielo doesn't develop this disorder because of wanting to look more attractive but rather because she finds it as a distraction from thinking about Alejo obsessively. 

Her opening a forum and telling her supporters that anorexia is a way of life and that everyone that suffers it is a princess, is an indication enough that it's really hard to convince an anorexic person that they're beautiful just the way they are as they all just tend to shut the outer world off completely and focus on a delusion of 'not being skinny enough'. 

I thought that the movie had a great plot, but character development was essential to it, especially on Alejo's part as they portrayed him to just be a vessel to Cielo's obsession, as a character alone he was incredibly dull and bland. I also really liked how the strictness level of the parents was supposedly high unlike other netflix movies, and this consequentially shows us that no matter how strict parents are, if the child wants wreak havoc to themselves, nobody can stop them but them.

All in all, I give this movie a solid 6/10. 

mucho gustos, and adios~ 

 

The Perception of Incomplete Sleep from The Transtheoretical Model

 

               Researchers have been meaning to explore the correlation between health-related beliefs and their effect on the person's health behaviour by designing key models to give them a more vivid perception of the human behaviour. Factors like smoking, unhealthy eating, drinking frivolously, not getting enough sleep, not getting enough exercise, avoiding health screenings and checkups all seem to take a toll on one's lifestyle and behavioural choices, we will focus particularly today on not fulfilling the daily quota of rest for functioning properly (Ogden, 2017). Getting inadequate amount of sleep seems to be a very prevalent problem in today's world, especially with the high level advancement of technology and work load, everyone seems to be chasing the last bits of their sleep and procuring in one last wink before eluding to their daily hectic lives of injunctive productivity. Most people do realize that in order to carry on with their days, it's crucial to get their designated sleep but due to their attitudes and virulent widespread slogans "Sleep is for the weak'' and "The night is young" inducing subjective norms and peer pressure (Agzen and Madden, 1986) amongst the young, to influentially make the most out of their nights and avoid sleeping. They of course do have the full self-efficacy (Ogden, 2017) to control their sleep schedules except for the insomniac ofcourse. Others might think that they're just too good to get full hours of sleep and think that they can carry on with their chores without needing much rest, which is quite obviously a discouraged mindset.

             Getting meager levels of sleep observed from a certain scientific model of The Change Model (Prochaska and Diclemente, 1982) ensues the following revelations; the precontemplation stage which involves an individual not making any sort of sleep cycle changes due to numerous factors like peer pressure and overconfidence in oneself by staying up late to talk to friends of significant other, or simply ignoring all the calls for health awareness and just doing what they feel like doing. Then comes the contemplation stage where the individual could for example notice a sudden demotion from his boss due to sloppy work performance or the failure of a driving test due to lack of awareness, which could give him the wake up call needed and he'd start to consider making a change in his sleep routine. After that comes the preparation step where he'd start making small changes like turning on the night light on devices to help him wind down earlier, meditating, finishing all his activities before bedtime approaches and settle on some light activity like watching a show or reading, taking naps to replenish the sleep deficit, and ofcourse marking an earlier bedtime and trying to adhere to it occasionally. Consequentially would come the action phase, in which the individual fully commits himself to ingraining a new healthy bedtime into his routine in which he receives a solid 8 to 9 hours of sleep required to be able to perform to his best capability, he'd start with having that schedule on only weekdays, and dismantling all the distractions that could possibly hinder him from going to bed earlier. Last but not least comes the maintenance phase in which the individual tries to sustain and maintain this healthy change and thus apply it to every single day of his regardless of it being a weekday or a weekend, and making it completely habitual such that his circadian cycle goes on autopilot to make him sleep on the designated time instead of him having to consciously make an effort.

                 From a psychosocial standpoint, there are a few points that can be highlighted in making a change for the better with a healthier sleep schedule, such as emotionally and socially, the individual could perhaps recieve backlash from his group of friends for suddenly deciding to go to bed early which could make him feel hoarded or inferior, along with that he would also have to cut down on the quota of entertainment that he derives from the activities he indulges in past bedtime, or perhaps the neglection of his partner that would want to stay up on nights to talk to him, however he'd feel inner contentment at being able to be more productive and less drowsy while going about with his day. Financially, since he'd be more capable of yielding fruitful results due to work performance, he'd receive an upliftment and perhaps receive more bonuses, paychecks, as well as possibly a promotion. As for pupils, they'd yield better grades and receive higher praise from their parents. All in all though, it'd have a positive impact on the individual except if they happen to be nocturnal or insomniacs, in which case either therapy or differently geared schedules would have to be allotted to the individual to perform their utmost best. 

 

References

-        Ogden, J. (2017). The psychology of health and illness: An open access course. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318642251_The_psychology_of_health_and_illness_an_open_access_course

-        Steven, D. (2015), What should I do if I can’t sleep: Teens Health Nemours. Retrieved from: https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/sleepless.html

-        Kirsten, N. (2019), 12 Ways To Fix Your Sleep Schedule, Retrieved from: https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/how-to-fix-sleep-schedule

 

Story Plot Prompts

While I was in the process of compiling various ideas and devising new story plans for the platforms that I write my stories on, I came up with many random ideas and it sparked this instant desire of mine to spot these ideas get penned creatively by the many gifted writers all around.

1. Plastic Surgery Obsessed Girl (Romantic, Satire)

There's a girl suffering from severe 3rd degree self-esteem issues and inferiority complex, entrusted onto her by a past trauma that she'd witnessed while growing up or the dejection of a loved one, consequently, she dives into the world of plastic as her image of herself obscures further and further as she goes on a frenzy of following myriad plastic-clad girls that had undergone major reconstructions and corrections to their faces or bodies, an idealistic world, the supposed definition of beauty in the society's judgmental eyes, she's just never contented with how she looks after each surgery, and attracts the wrong kind of attention trying to seek a partner, who would only like her for how she looks and the different aspects that she changes of it instead of what she carries behind her appearances, until someone comes along that recognizes her for who she is instead of what she had built her exterior to be, and gets acquainted to what's within her, when she finally finds him to be "The One" and is ready to marry him, she discovers that she has medical complications due to all of the plastic surgeries she'd undergone e.g infections, organ damage, blood loss or just general dissatisfaction with appearance despite her loved one telling her that she's perfect as she is, the thirst to be the best looking which would in turn affect their relationship...

2. Lesbian turns straight (Romantic, Satire, Drama)

A teen girl finds herself after crossing puberty being drawn towards females during high school, she finds herself craving for her friends & female acquaintances while they gush about how hot the school jock and the football team is, which of course she finds out of the ordinary as the society draws heterosexuality to be the norm, so she researches her phenomenon online to find out that she's classified with the orientation of a lesbian. That's what she believes herself to be while growing up and thanks to the modern advancements of the era and the help of lgbtq+, it doesn't pose a threat for her to be herself, however she then meets a boy from somewhere in her adult life and starts spending more and more time with him, he knows she's a lesbian so he doesn't have any feelings for her but she starts to notice an incredulous attraction that she can't place her finger on.

3. Slave Girl sold to Egyptian king (Alternate History) 

A poverty-stricken girl is implanted with the greed and thirst to be wealthy through a deceptive counterfeit pact arranged by dubious friends and thus finds herself banished from her home country to Egypt / Greece / India (any ancient civilization with a long history) and sold in the slave market (can include the concept of time travel too for a fictional touch to the story) and is consequently purchased by the King of the civilization, will she obediently follow all his commands or put up a fight and resist? Most importantly will they both fall in love with each other or just maintain a intermittent master-slave relationship their entire lives?

4. Stellar Shelter (Fairytale, Fantasy) 

You take psychedelic drugs (plot twist at the end) and get transported after falling asleep into a complete reverie realm, and happen to know from your astrological knowledge that you are indeed residing within a star that could be any star of your choosing (for reference, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B are the binary pair closest to earth, otherwise a simple search on google can elicit many of the names of the stars. So you get transported to any of them and then notice your surroundings change, the temperature dropping/rising, the terrain evolving and most importantly the planet inhabitants greet you and start to interact with you. You can then start to develop a creative plot based on interactions between you and the supposed 'aliens' (since you know, you're the one that's alien to them now). 

5. Seeking refuge within a snowy cottage (Fairytale, Thriller, Mystery, Romance)

This plot hits me right in the feels as I've always been a fan of seeking a hideout from a snowy weather inside a warm little cottage. A girl could be getting forced to marry a suitor against her desire and willingness, enforced to by her whole family, and as she has no resort to do anything as such due to wanting to live her life as an independent, self-reliant woman that wants to create a name of her own within the world, having been always a loner with few family members, she has nowhere to seek refuge. So she runs away from her home and makes it to another city on foot, it's a blustery way as she treads heavily on bare feet, until she stumbles upon a forlorn, abandoned and old cottage, she looks into it and notices that it hadn't been inhabited for years, so she decides to take resort in it till she could think up of a better alternative. She spends a few days there until one day a man shows up from an affluent family, touring the forests and comes across this cottage, and the two meet. Now you can go crazy with the romance here as it's your imagination that decides how the story unfolds! 

6. Transportation to different dimensions (Fantasy) 

Protagonist finds himself forlorn and distraught after several disputes and conflicts in his home with his parents, friends, rivals, etc and so psychologically he creates an outlet for himself to get transported into, you can make up any type of dimensions that you want like a new planet, prehistoric times, the time when the earth came into existence, a completely imaginary superficial scene that appeals to you and would cast you to get writing to no limits. You can include elements of psychological behavior and spark creativity along with it. 

7. Spectrophobia (Thriller, Horror)

You could resurface one of the more latent phobias called Spectrophobia or Eisoptophobia, which is the irrational and heightened fear of your reflection in mirrors. It is believed in urban legends that mirrors carried the trapped souls and superstitious reflections amongst all their demonic fears lodged within the aluminium coating , this genre is a highly gripping one which you can go wacky with, it was also a remarkable concept presented in the theatrical movie: Coraline (2009) in which she finds her other parents' siblings trapped within the perimeters of their house as she rescues them. Highly striking concept, and you can work wonders with this one as you can encompass mental illnesses, insecurities, bullying, traumatic experiences or superficial elements altogether.You can also create a fantastical story using transportation into the realm of a mirror and taking the body of that in a parallel universe, the possibilities are endless! I personally would love to see a story unfold using this genre. 

8. Woman fakes death during war (Alternate History, Romance, Mystery)

A war breaks out and soldiers of a team face off a treacherous defeat, they then have to surrender all their bounties and their women to the opposing team, you control one young woman and her family, who is supposedly very fearful of being handed over to the opposing team's men and so she pretends to play dead and her family helps her, she gets buried inside her tombstone but then has to sneak out for resources to stay alive in actuality, until she finds a man that she likes who rescues her and accepts her as one of his own, non-acclaimed women of the opposing team. You can go very creative with this prompt and I'd love to see many different outcomes. 

9. Television broadcast compels its viewers (Thriller, Horror, Suspense)

A new program airs on national TV across all the cities of a certain country, and the shows are highly captivating and indulging, and people keep recommending the shows to their friends,family etc until the whole nation finds itself swept away and addicted to the channel, the channel seems to be dictating some kind of an ominous message (go wild) and only a few of the lonely folks that have kept their distance from human beings and don't have many friends or have their families passed away and neither watch as much television, remain cluttered in their houses, as word reaches out that watching that TV channel might be dangerous, the folks gather around into one house and try to work together to help each other survive and to tackle humanity's addiction to the channel, in the process they make new friends with each other and share all their spare time activities with each other to benefit one another.

10. NPC's perspective (Satire, Drama) 

You all know how whenever you open that book or movie, you evidently find the distinguishable protagonists that just appear to have some specific extraordinary abilities as the narration of the story unfolds around them as they go about trying to find their brute of a romantic interest in high school being the demure shy girl, now you can twist this around, go wild, take a completely ordinary girl, quite possibly one of the mean girl bullies or the typical school girls witnessing some exceptional romantic story between two nerds or the nerd and the jerk, etc, the thing is, you can go free with this concept as you have a different everyday person's perspective so you could be able to throw in your own opinions and tell the story in from your own point of view. 

And that's it for some brilliant ideas that you can incorporate into your own original story ideas or they could just help get the ball rolling, looking forward to seeing your entries.