Maddison Bullock | Through the Shattered Lens

It’s pledge week!

Bailee (Briana Fermia) really wants to join the college’s nicest sorority and she feels that she established a real connection with Jana (Maddison Bullock) when she interviewed to be selected for one of the opening spots. Unfortunately, connection or not, there’s no room for Baileee because a legacy named Cori (Taylor Fono) has also applied. Cori’s mom was in the sorority. Cori’s sister was in the sorority. Therefore, Cori gets to be in the sorority! Yay! College traditions are the best!

Bailee confronts Jana about how unfair it is that she wasn’t invited to join the sorority. Jana feels guilty but what can she do? There’s just no space. But then, one night, Cori is attacked on campus. Due to her injuries, Cori has to withdraw from the college and therefore the sorority. Who can take Cori’s place? Jana has a suggestion!

Bailee is now in the sorority and it soon turns out that she’s totally clingy and kind of psychotic. She takes the whole idea of “sisters for life” very seriously and Bailee fully expects that Jana will be her sister for life. Jana, meanwhile, is like, “This is my senior year, I want to hang out with my boyfriend, and I want to finish up my science project so I can have a career once I graduate.” Soon, the other sorority sisters are getting drugged, framed, and attacked. Even Jana’s boyfriend gets attacked in the shower! Could it all somehow be connected to Bailee?

Of course it’s all connected to Bailee! The film wastes no time in making it clear that Bailee is not to be trusted. That’s the way Lifetime films work. Anyone who shows up out of nowhere and suddenly starts demanding that you be her sister for life is going to turn out to be totally unhinged. They always start out as slightly needy but seemingly sweet but, by the time the second commercial break rolls around, they’ve already put at least one person in the hospital or maybe even worse. Some people will go to outrageous lengths to have a friend.

Anyway, Sisters for Life was a fun, if slightly predictable, Lifetime film. As I’ve said in the past, though, the predictability is kind of the point. Familiarity is one reason why Lifetime movies are so much fun to watch. We’re always a few steps ahead of everyone else in the movie. Towards the end of the film, one character announces, “You’re the meanest sister that I’ve ever had!” with a totally straight face and if you can’t appreciate the self-awareness behind a line like that than Lifetime films just aren’t for you.

Wives of the Sky

From Press Release:

Winner of 24 awards, including Best Film at the New York Cinematography Awards and Best Original Screenplay at the Indie X Film Festival, Wives of The Skies is a romantic dramedy, set in 1965, starring two stewardesses, Fran and Marcy from Fine Air, a well-appointed airline. One evening after work, at their stewardess’ hotel, they befriend Derrick, a British photojournalist who wants to interview them as “subjects” for his “documentary film”.

As Fran and Marcy are interviewed, they are revealed as very different than Derrick hoped for or could possibly have expected… As they get to know each other, Wives Of The Skies makes a contemporary socio-cultural statement regarding the meme of “the good girl, drawn bad”. Wives of The Skies clarifies the impact of the overarching “men’s gaze” which objectifies women as carnal sex objects men seek, while they look for love… along the way, addressing the primitive issue of Trust vs. Mistrust, Wives of The Skies displays the Japanese art of Kinbaku.
Currently a soaring success on the festival circuit, the short film is directed by Honey Lauren and features a superlative cast including Rachel Alig, Maddison Bullock, Sebastian Fernandez, Drew Brandon Jones and Embry Rose.

Director Honey Lauren : When someone I know sent me a link to vintage 1960’s Stewardess outfits for sale on EBAY, I was blown away at not only the popularity and high prices, but that these outfits are sold, collected and bid on, by what looked like mostly men. I recognized that these uniforms have become a fetish… for me, at the very least unexpected. Curious, I researched the history of stewardesses during this particular era.
The stewardesses were sporting uniforms by top fashion designers like Pucci, Mary Wells and Yves Saint Laurent. The fabrics, which “hugged” as they stretched, were considered revolutionary for their ability to display the stewardesses. During the flights, the layers of clothing came off at different altitudes. Dramatic designs were all the rage, with geometric patterns and stripes; bold pinks and lavenders topped off with tangerine go-go boots!

As I read the famous COFFEE, TEA OR ME, the tell all book by two “randy Stewardesses”, something about these “sexy Stewardesses”, seemed pushed and insincere. It seemed a marketing ploy by the airlines to sell tickets. Ok. We’ve seen this before. Sex sells. These ladies, and only ladies, were dressed, weighed, packaged and displayed. One airline even advertised the suggestive “Does your wife know you’re flying with us?” Another display of the pattern of woman being sexualized and sold. Only after I wrote WIVES OF THE SKIES, did I find out that COFFEE, TEA OR ME was indeed a hoax, written by a man hired by the airline industry.

I have long recognized that where there is a pattern, there is a story. WIVES OF THE SKIES, is a story. And a question… ‘Sex sells, but at what cost?’

My Review:

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This is a beautiful short film (about 25 minutes) but it covers some hard hitting topics that need to be dealt with in our society. Humorous at points, graphic at others. I loved how Honey Lauren took a modern problem and placed a throw-back theme on it. Everything about this film had me connected from the start. The cinematography is just spectacular, the music is amazing. I could watch this movie for hours on end.

Would I Recommend this movie?

Yes, absolutely and definitely! (And you might need a tissue while watching)

Where can you see it?

Unfortunately, with all the cancellations lately, It might not be in theaters for a while, but, here is hoping everyone gets to see this gem of a film! (I’ll give updates on release dates if/when they become available)

Here is the trailer: