The Invisible Counterpoint

In one of the initial scenes of "Guardians of the Galaxy,"  when “Ronan the Accuser” has a badly tortured Xandarian before him, do we think the audience is in any way identifying themselves with him? Not at all, of course. If audience sympathy goes towards the Xandarian culture, it won’t have anything to do with it first being represented by this guy. And when Yondu Udonta and his collection of bullies arrives to ask another Xandarian, “the Broker” — the elderly merchant — about the location of the infinity stone, looking very much like they’re just going to kill him after throughly confounding and terrifying him, is the audience in any way just wishing the bullies would leave the poor guy alone? Again, not likely. In fact, maybe they too would be looking at this quaking, isolated, precious and mannered man as deserving being confused with child babble before being dispatched — Who does this pretentious bag of bones think he is, anyway? And when “the Collecto...

Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" tells the story of  a  boy, Mason, and as much as the title articulates our applying his story somewhat to  all  boys, the "chapel" within advises caution. Since Mason's biological father is a major influence on the boy, it's not quite fair to slough off his inspiration --  Lennon, Paul, George and Ringo -- as "divinities" to seek greatness from, but it's clear what has clearly replaced the trio of God, Christ and church in this film is the university, and the supreme research psychologists who've worked there to incur relevant understandings of what makes human beings tick. 
Behavioralism is the first psychological theory we hear discussed, and it's all but rejected in the film ... not only because it's mouthpiece turns out an alcoholic, wife-beating, dictatorial brute, but because it's clearly linked to a cynical take on human beings and ultimately corrupt societal applications -- l...