Final-- Our Superficial Society: One Tatum at a Time

Former fashion model, Channing Bryan Isaac Tatum, has made a controversial impression on moviegoers today. Born on April 26, 1980 in Cullman, Alabama, 30-year old Tatum is the oldest of eight siblings. He attended military school and received a college football scholarship, only to drop out shortly after. His casting in Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” music video launched his modeling career with agencies such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Armani. In 2004, Tatum began his acting career on the set of “C.S.I: Miami” as well as starring in numerous commercial ads. Nonetheless, his performances over the years have personified emptiness, which are emphasized through his cold body language and indifferent facial expressions. His dull acting is regurgitated in every one of his films, as he plays particularly similar roles as a misfit badass. However, society’s predictable infatuation with such films encourages Hollywood to employ such superficial actors such as Tatum. Thus, the vicious cycle of shallow film production keeps spinning in a feeble and terrifying direction.


Channing Tatum is an extremely unversitle actor. He always playing the same tough guy in either a drama or romantically categorized film. He plays Jason Lyle in “Coach Carter” (2005), a wanna-be gangster with a jail-bound father. Jason is a character who is too cool for everyone; walking around with his shirt off, backpack over one shoulder, and his hands in his pockets. Likewise, Tatum plays Antonio in “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” (2006) where Antonio’s natural instinct on the streets is fighting after his abusive father goes to prison. Antonio walks around like a “hot shot” with unbuttoned shirts, big muscles, and anger issues. Pin 2006’s “Step Up”,” Tatum plays a very similar character—Tyler Gage. Troubled and defiant, Tyler struts around in baggy pants, hooded sweatshirts, and wife beaters stealing cars for money until he finds a better outlet of dancing. His character in “Stop Loss” (2008), Steve Shriver, is a hard-core military fighter whose rough and hostile nature led him through a successful armed forces career. Tatum is also portrayed in an afflicted and mysterious light in “Dear John” (2010) as he plays John Tyree, a soldier who maintains a strained relationship with his father. Overall, Tatum is consistently playing the distressed and burdened character who seems mad at the world given his difficult upbringing. His steadily guarded nature makes him appear rigid and overdone in film, and such redundancy conveys him as an inauthentic actor. Interestingly, Tatum is usually in strong movies with a strong cast but even in his small supporting roles, he fails to live up to basic expectations. It wasn’t until recently that Tatum was cast playing main roles such as in “Step Up” and “Dear John”. Nevertheless, Tatum’s lack of versatility reinforces his surface-level acting.


As Tatum refuses to branch out and test new ranges within the acting field, he limits himself to a one-dimensional actor. His insecure body language confirms his awareness of the camera. Primarily, he offers very little eye contact with other actors making him distant to his own character and his audience. Secondly, he is generally standing at an angle to the camera, looking at others in the corner of his eye, over his shoulder (if he is looking at them at all). In addition, his face expressions are tight and unemotional making him extremely uncaptivating. This impersonal demeanor makes him a very unconvincing actor and character. This is especially clear in one of this year’s top box office films, “Dear John” (2010). Typically, a classic romantic film is known to thrive off of connections between characters as well as deep emotions. But instead, Tatum seems bored and distracted appearing interested in everything but his co-star, Amanda Seyfried. This naturally causes a lack of chemistry between the two lovers and ultimately causes a fake relational bond. Tatum’s very few face expressions are usually centered on a very focused and serious one. Most commonly, Tatum adopts an angry and intense attitude throughout his films. He often seems in deep thought with pointed eyebrows, his chin turned up, jaw muscles pulsing, with his head held back, gazing. But don’t let him fool you into thinking he is multifaceted when in fact he stares so intently out of narrow talent and fake confidence. He appears to be looking through people rather than actually looking at them. This blank and frozen face is a clear example of him trying too hard, eventually coming across as ingenuine and un-relatable. If he ever looks slightly happier than usual, transforming into what Tatum thinks is a charming a half-smile, it often comes across as awkward and out-of-place. It seems that everyone except Tatum understands that in the end, it shouldn’t look like acting, because with him it almost always does.


As Tatum seems to use one overarching facial expression for numerous types of emotions, so is the case when he speaks. He embodies a monotone voice for all types of emotions—whether it is two extremes such as excitement and depression. It is obvious that he doesn’t believe what he is saying because his words and expressions don’t coincide. While many good actors pride themselves on their ability to maintain a hold over their audience, Tatum does not have such an ability to express human emotion that would allow for such a connection. His actions and words say nothing and everything about his acting career—that he makes a better model than he ever will an actor.


However, his re-appearances in films are not entirely his fault. Society appears to crave Hollywood’s endorsements of such poor performance. Consumers today seem to value good looks over good acting. In her interview with Francis Davis, Pauline Kael comments that “what you see is a movie industry in decay, and the decay gets worse and worse”. Unfortunately, with the support of society, Hollywood is becoming less and less authentic and more and more superficial. In fact, it took the author of “The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer,” Phil Carlo, to recognize Tatum’s lack of fit for his casting as the main character of the film. Carlo called for the production to be cancelled. He explained, “I had to turn him down. I really hated the idea of Channing Tatum. I told [producer] di Bonaventura that this is not the guy to play one of the most feared killers of the 20th century”. Fortunately, someone was able to stall Hollywood and Tatum’s circus show, even if just for a short while.


Therefore, Tatum is one perfect example of Hollywood’s weak and pompous system. While Hollywood proves ignorant of recognizing skill, society positively reinforces such mediocrity by continuing to make actors like Tatum repeatedly rise at the box office.

An Eye on the Oscar's

The Academy Awards Ceremony that we all know today as the Oscar’s is the eldest awards ritual in media, as it dates back to its first ceremony in 1929. Eighty-one years later, the Oscar’s are still going strong, although today it is a little less modest. Sunday night’s broadcast of the 82nd Annual Oscar Awards Ceremony, held at Hollywood’s Kodak Theater, offered an array of admirable awards, yet embodied a strange presentation.

With interviewers Kathy Ireland, Jess, Cagle, and Sherri Shepherd, the red carpet began the night with superficial confrontations and awkward conversations, catering very much to the viewing audience. The interviewers succeeded in barely offering anything intelligent to say. For example, when Sherri Shepherd pulled Jeff Bridges aside and addressed his wife exclaiming, “Your husband looks so… yummy!” In addition, many of the actors and actresses seemed distracted and obligated to do a few minutes of “face time”. Thus, last night, the red carpet seemed a forced introduction to the awards.

Live music, bright lights, and a huge stage set the glamorous mood. Neil Patrick Harris unveiled the Oscar’s with feathered dancers, glitter, and tuxedos in his showgirl-styled song and dance performance. Co-stars Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin from “It’s Complicated” were the humorous hosts of the night. The at-home audience was further addressed in the graceless spotlights on celebrity stars. Baldwin excitedly shouted “Hey there’s Woody Harrison!” and Martin announced “Oh look, its James Cameron!” Name-dropping was then followed by a snapshot of the actor. There’s a reason audience members looked un-amused and bored. However, Baldwin and Martin worked off each other in a fairly comical manor otherwise, but also made some slicing jokes that were borderline insulting to the stars.

The first award of the night, Best Supporting Actor, went to the very deserving Christof Waltz who played a malicious Jew hunter in “Inglorious Bastards”(2009). Following Waltz, first-time nominee, Mo’nique, from “Precious” (2009) gave a heavy speech after her award for Best Supporting Actress.

“The Hurt Locker” (2008), to many peoples’ surprise, stole the show with its dominating winnings. It won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. Conversely, it was no surprise that “Avatar” (2009) won Outstanding Cinematography and Outstanding Visual Effects, as well as Outstanding Art Direction.

“Crazy Heart” (2010) won its well-deserved recognition receiving Best Original Song by Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett, while Jeff Bridges took home the award for Best Actor. Sandra Bullock also won some acknowledgment for “The Blind Side” (2009) in her award for Best Actress.

Given the results, it is evident that deeper-rooted films with a real life inspiration were most successful in 2009. From the heart-wrenching true stories seen in “Precious” and “The Blind Side” to the violent and dark frontlines of Iraq in “The Hurt Locker,” prove emotional yet moving, and audiences have come to respect such relatable films.

A wide variety of presenters including the Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Steve Carrel, Robert Downey Jr., Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Rachel McAdams offered fresh voices and familiar faces to the monotonously long ceremony.

As the Oscar’s are annually hyped up, entertainment purposes exceedingly overshadowed the award giving. From the red carpet to reminiscence, the tacky and exaggerated entertainment was amusing for unintentional reasons.

Draft: Our Superfical Hollywood, One Tatum at a Time

Former fashion model, Channing Bryan Isaac Tatum, has made a controversial impression on moviegoers today. Born on April 26, 1980 in Cullman, Alabama, 30-year old Tatum is the oldest of eight siblings. He attended military school and received a college football scholarship, only to drop out soon after. He accepted various jobs as a construction worker and a cologne salesman. His cast in Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” music video launched his modeling career for agencies such as Abercrombie and Armani. In 2004, Tatum began his acting career on the set of C.S.I: Miami as well as in numerous commercials ads. Nonetheless, his acting over the years entails emptiness, while being emphasized through his cold body language and indifferent face expressions. His monotonous acting is regurgitated in every one of his films as he plays particularly similar roles as a misfit bad ass. However, Hollywood’s encouragement towards actors such as Tatum keep the vicious cycle spinning in a feeble and terrifying direction.

Channing Tatum is always playing the same tough guy in either a drama or romantically categorized film. He played Jason Lyle in “Coach Carter” (2005), a wanna-be gangster with a jail-bound father. He is too cool for everybody, walking around with his shirt off, backpack over one shoulder, and his hands in his pockets. Likewise, he plays Antonio in “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” (2006). The film takes place in Queens, New York where Antonio’s natural instinct on the streets is fighting after his abusive father goes to prison. He walks around like a hot shot with unbuttoned shirts, big muscles, and anger issues. Playing Tyler Gage in “Step Up” (2006) was also nothing new for Tatum. Troubled and defiant, Tyler struts around in baggy pants, hooded sweatshirts, and wife beaters stealing cars for money until he finds a better outlet—dancing. His character in “Stop Loss” (2008), Steve Shriver, was a hard-core military fighter whose rough and hostile nature led him through a successful armed forces career. “Dear John” (2010) also portrayed Tatum in a bad boy and mysterious light as John Tyree who maintains a strained relationship with his father. His distressed and guarded nature was all too familiar. He is always the afflicted and burdened character who seems mad at the world given his horrible upbringing. His rigid nature is over the top and redundant in all of his films, making him a very inauthentic actor. Interestingly, Tatum is usually in strong movies with a strong cast but even in his small supporting roles, he fails to live up to basic expectations. It wasn’t until recent years that Tatum was cast playing main roles such as in “Step Up” and “Dear John”. Nevertheless, Tatum’s lack of versatility reinforces his surface-level acting, as he never branches out nor tests new ranges.

Channing Tatum is a one-dimensional actor. His face expressions are tight and unemotional making him extremely uncaptivating. He offers very little eye contact with other actors making him distant to his own character and his audience. His insecure body language confirms his awareness of the camera and uneasiness of it. He is generally standing un-square to the camera, looking at others in the corner of his eye over his shoulder (if he is looking at them at all). This impersonal demeanor makes him a very unconvincing character. This is especially clear in his role as John Tyree in “Dear John” (2010). A classic romantic film is known to thrive off of connections between characters as well as deep emotions. But instead, Tatum seems bored and distracted seeming interested in everything but his co-star, Amanda Seyfried. This naturally causes a lack of chemistry between the two lovers and ultimately causes a fake relational bond, easily spotted by audiences. Tatum’s few face expressions in a movie are usually centered on a very focused and serious one. If he ever looks slightly happier than usual, modifying what Tatum thinks is a charming a half-smile, it often comes across as awkward and out-of-place. Most commonly though, Tatum adopts an angry and intense attitude throughout his films. He often seems in deep thought with mean eyebrows, his chin turned up, teeth grinding, with his head held back, dazing. But don’t let him fool you into thinking he is multifaceted when in fact he stares so intently out of limited talent and fake confidence. He appears to be looking through people rather than actually looking at them. This blank and frozen face is a clear example of him trying too hard, eventually coming across as ingenuine and un-relatable. It seems that everyone except Tatum understands that “in the end, it can’t look like acting”, because with him it almost always does.

As Tatum seems to use one overarching face expression for numerous types of emotions, so is the case when he speaks. He embodies a monotone voice for all types of emotions—whether it is two extremes such as excitement and depression. It is obvious that he doesn’t believe what he is saying because his words and expressions don’t coincide. He has never proven an effective actor that maintains a hold over his audience as Tatum has no ability to convey human emotion. Between both body language and words Tatum verifies himself a fool of acting.

However, his re-appearances in films is not entirely his fault when Hollywood endorses such poor performance. What has Hollywood come to today? Do consumers really value good looks over good acting? With Tatum, this seems to be the case. In her interview with Francis Davis, Pauline Kael comments that “what you see is a movie industry in decay, and the decay gets worse and worse”. Consumers seem to use Hollywood films for their own self-indulgent purposes, living in a dream world. Unfortunately, Hollywood is becoming less and less authentic and more and more superficial, offering jobs to unqualified actors such as Tatum. Thus, his muscles, smooth skin, and defined jaw line are actually paying off. In fact, it took author of “The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer”, Phil Carlo, to recognize Tatum’s lack of fit for his casting as the main character of the film. Carlo called for the production to be cancelled. He explained “I had to turn him down. I really hated the idea of Channing Tatum. I told [producer] di Bonaventura that this is not the guy to play one of the most feared killers of the 20^th century”. Fortunately, someone stalled Hollywood and Tatum’s circus show, even if just for a short while.

Therefore, Tatum is one perfect example of Hollywood’s weak and pompous system. His actions and words say nothing and everything about his acting career—that he makes a better model than he ever will an actor. Not only is Tatum ignorant for not acknowledging his own lack of talent, but Hollywood also proves ignorant of recognizing skill. Then again, looks can be deceiving. Nonetheless, audiences everywhere are just a few Tatum movies away from seeing Hollywood’s downward spiral themselves if they haven’t already. And the actors will eventually fall down with it.