Aliens

            Aliens is definitely my favorite of the franchise.  I love how, like the article points out, that Ripley is the ultimate action heroine.  She demonstrates motherly instincts in her protection of Newt, and when it comes to facing off against the queen, she spits an awesome one liner, "get away from her you bitch!"and proceeds to kick some xenomorph ass! That's the kind of thing we'd expect from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, and Ripley and Sarah Connor as well, show that transition of women occupying these kind of roles now.  It's because of badass female characters like them that there is an all female version Expendables style movie now in the works.  The 1980's really introduced this idea of a great heroine with Aliens, The Terminator, and really took off in the 90's.  Not only did it pave the way for great female action stars in empowering roles, but even Oscar winners like the article points out titles like Thelma and Louise and Silence of the Lambs.  Before that, in the 1970's it was occupied by men in those roles like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, and you'd have that lone hero fighting the good fight then getting the girl.  Ripley really brings out not only the final girl scenario, but rises above that in the sequels to be the only one who really knows how to fight the aliens.  As the series progresses, in the fourth one she's putting to shame a team of mercenaries and emasculating them.
         Where the article points out that women in these roles could come off as being symbolically male as they are shown muscular, wielding guns, there are other aspects of their characters that set them apart.  Their heroism is created by transition, they don't start out at badasses.  Ripley is a woman who was put into an extraordinary situation in Ridley Scott's Alien, and while being haunted by it in the beginning of the sequel, she doesn't just hide away, she wants to see them eliminated because she knows just what they're capable of, and by the end we see what she is capable of.  Her actions become driven by motherly instincts as she protects Newt.  There is a lot of female imagery in the Alien series, from the Queen Alien, the aliens being developed inside a human host, the eggs. The film stands out not as a woman trying to be a badass hero in the image of a man, but a woman who adapts and rises about the threats around her to protect herself and those around her.

And here is a clip of Ripley in all her awesomeness telling off the Queen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnOIvn8hMS4

Blue Velvet

              First off I wanna say I've wanted to see Blue Velvet for several years, and heard so much about it from one of my friends since high school.  I finally got to see it, and I loved it.  The only other David Lynch film I have seen is Wild at Heart, so I was able to recognize some of his themes and visual style that he carries across his films.  I definitely need to see more from his filmography, but I can definitely recommend Wild at Heart for anyone else who loved Blue Velvet.
             The opening part of the article intrigued me about Nietzche's view on art and illusion, that art's only truth is illusion, and that art is only true as a lie.  Taking that into account when looking at Blue Velvet and the images it shows, it can be really thought provoking.  The illusion that is presented through the film I think is that the suburban life is an illusion, and merely the top layer to a much darker world underneath.  Not too far from the perfect white suburban home of Jeffery Beaumont, Dorothy lives trapped in a dark and violent world.  A world where men like Frank Booth run rampant with his gang of followers.  Beneath the Norman Rockwell suburbia, is violence, sexual assault, and corruption that provides some scenes that feature very picturesque moments.  With the background of David Lynch as a writer, many of his shots take on the idea of his signature.  The lingering on lights flickering, the television, and that excellent shot and set design of Dorothy's apartment at the end with the corrupt cop standing there with a bullet in the head, and her husband tied to the chair and dead.  Those two statues in what someone in class mentioned as an uncomfortable room design, makes for such a really great scene.
           Jeffery Beaumont himself is kinda an illusion.  There are two sides to him, the detective and the pervert.  To each side, there is the different woman for whichever role he is playing.  The wholesome suburban side has Sandy, the girl next door type, and then the very troubled Dorothy.  Even Frank Booth tells him you're like me, as he kisses him with lip stick on in a rather unsettlingly great scene. Like the article states, this is an ambiguous film.  The characters, images, story, there is a lot of ambiguity to it.  There are things we are not given that are left to the viewers to make up, that make the film even better.  Lynch presents his images, the performances he captured and we are treated to a hell of a movie unlike most anything, unless another Lynch movie.