Apostle is about Thomas Richardson, a prodigal son who founds out that his sister was taken hostage by a religious cult on a Welsh Island. He decides to visit the island and pose as a convert in order to free his sister. There, he encounters the founders of the cult, Malcolm Howe, Frank and Quinn, who then explain to him that the land has a sort of hunger for blood and the land became fertile because of blood sacrifice. Hence, the founders sacrifice the offspring of their farm animals to the land but issues arise when the offspring begin dying and they have to rely on human blood. The community holds a tryst, or meeting for bloodletting and then the blood is jarred and kept in storage for when harvests are not doing so well. Now that I have given a bit of backstory on the film, I will talk about the hypocrisy of religious cults, especially this one. First of all, religious cults are spiritual groups with a leader/authority figure that guides every sheep in the flock and as we can see the irony in “following the herd”. Cults main agenda is not to convert individuals and spread their messages, it is to keep their group small and their followers blinded. Most of their followers stay loyal because cults hide behind the worshipping of a God, typically the God from the Bible as seen through their history. This form of interaction with a leader who is led by God is extremely attractive to the masses. Thus, we see the hypocrisy surrounding cults because they do not practice what they preach. In the film Apostle, strict rules have to be enforced and followed by every member and if they don’t then they are punished in the name of God. Jeremy, a boy from the island, fell in love with the daughter of Quinn and they ended up having sex and she became impregnated with his child. Once her father found out, he killed her and ripped the fetus from her womb. Not to mention, he falsely accused Jeremy of killing his daughter and sentenced him to be punished and killed. This being said, they preach about repentance and purity but then their leaders commit murders act that are justified in their “holiness”. It seems to be that these leaders are hypocrites and hide behind a facade in order to keep on killing. Not to mention, this is a way to instill fear in their members and prevent them from rebelling. Through history, cults have been committing heinous acts and killing hundreds such as People’s Temple, where 900 members were urged by Rev. Jim Jones to drink cyanide laced grape punch. Thus, they died in the name of their leader and their religion. But, I would like to think that if a religious leader told me to do something that would go against my beliefs and place my life in danger then I would turn away from them. Though it seems that followers are more deranged than the actual leaders of these cults because they allow themselves to believe all the nonsense. They justify the death of their friends and even family members in the name of fate and it is wrong. Watching Apostle, I felt a sense of anger because of the way they treated their members and how poor Jeremy was falsely accused of murder by Quinn and was put to death. Still, this film was very well thought out and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it gave me the jeebee geebees.

A Star is Born is a film about a young woman who writes her own music and has failed to become a well-known singer because of her looks. Bradley Cooper, known as Jackson Maine, is a recovering alcoholic that has ran into a lady who would change is whole perspective in life and who he would inspire to pursue dreams and goals. One can call this a remarkable tragic love story about two people who found each other and made each other better. Lady Gaga, who plays Ally, is afraid of record labels pinning a face to her name because of her looks, Big Nose, rounder face, and freckles. In reality, Ally despite not fitting into the conventional model of what a women should look like, she is a beautiful and vibrant woman. She doesn’t see this and thus this stops her from taking action and moving forward with her goals. On the contrary, Ally’s character in real life, Lady Gaga, despite understanding the she has “very Italian features” she embraced who she was and did not let that stop her drawing her keyboard to gigs in the New York area and from sending demos to major record labels. She is a fearless and multi-talented warrior ,and her faith and persistence is what got her to achieve all the fame and recognition that she well deserves right now. In a Barbara Walters Interview with Lady Gaga, the songstress stated that “I had this dream, and I really wanted to be a star. And I was almost a monster in the way that I was really fearless with my ambitions.”(NBC). Miss Gaga has such ambition that she visualized and practiced her away into the music industry and forgot all about how different her looks were and embraced them, wearing vibrant and colorful makeup to showcase her looks. She even celebrated herself through fashion, such as the famous “meat dress”. Still, in the film, her character Ally has allowed her ambition to be crushed by old white men who do not think her looks will bring them in any profits. In fact, they are negating her true talent who will in fact bring in people. Ally has a beautiful powerhouse of a voice and she should still continue to strive to latch onto a record deal because she deserves it. I can see why Lady Gaga chose to play this character because its so different from her who she is and the faith she has kept all her life. She wanted to understand what it was like to be in someone else’s shoes and playing Ally, it was a whole other experience for her and that is why she could not get over her character. Recently, on the Ellen show she spoke of her character Ally and how she developed respect for her because she overcame her obstacles, no matter doing them on her own or having Bradley Cooper’s character help her on the rise to fame.