MYST #3: Stuck in Love

    This is a movie that came up on my selections on Netflix instant, so I decided to watch it, and I ended up liking this one a lot too! It didn't get very good reviews, but I guess that doesn't really reflect my interests because I always end up liking movies that don't do well in the reviews. This was a very small release, more independent film, so I don't think a lot of people have seen it, but they should. I definitely think it's worth watching if you have a little time to spare. 

    Despite not having great reviews, Stuck in Love was a 2012 Toronto Film Festival official selection and has a star-studded cast including Greg Kinnear, Kirsten Bell, Jennifer Connelly (Academy Award winner), Lily Collins (who I love), Nat Wolff (Naked Brothers Band, anyone?) and Logan Lerman (who I also love).

   It has the appeal of a classic rom-com, but is much more complex. Each character is struggling with their own demons, all which have to do with love, and they all deal with them in different ways. It's a film about family, but also about romance. The characters are kinda weird, but also lovable. Watching it, I just wanted things to work out for all of them. It basically follows a family of writers, and all their love lives. The dad (Kinnear) is still hopelessly in love with their mom, almost to an unhealthy level-- he's often caught at her house uninvited. His daughter Samantha (Lily Collins) has given up on love and is a fan of meaningless one-night stands, until she meets Louis (Logan Lerman). And his high school aged son Rusty (Wolff) is in love with the popular girl, who has a boyfriend. 

    Seeing the three stories unfold simultaneously is really appealing  because you don't get bored with any of them and you're always interested in what's going to happen next. It's also interesting that they're all writers. Their dad makes them keep journals, and always checks to make sure they're writing in them, sometimes overstepping his boundaries and reading entries, which of course makes the kids extremely mad. Even though the three of them are very different, their stories also have common characteristics. 


    The film is directed and written by Josh Boone, who is also directing the highly anticipated The Fault in Our Stars starring Shailene Woodley. I think he did a great job directing this movie, because it steers away from the typical love story and is instead fresh and interesting, and leaves you satisfied at the end (mostly). If you like indy movies that are a little different but also normal enough to be appealing, this is a great one for you.

I give it an A-

MYST #2: August Rush

    I've actually seen this movie before, but not for a very long time so I decided to watch it again and see if I liked it as much as I remember-- and I did. I actually think this might be one of my favorite movies. For some reason they only give it a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I think it deserves a lot more than that.

    It came out in 2007 (and I always underestimate how long ago that was), and stars a young Freddie Highmore (The Art of Getting By), Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Keri Russell and Robin Williams (randomly). It blends a love story with a coming of age tale, and of course throws in some humor. Basically what happens is this: Louis, a struggling musician, has a whirlwind one-night-stand with Lyla, a violinist, that turns into them liking each other a lot. Of course, Lyla's father hates the idea of her being with a "no-good" guitarist, and tells her to just focus on her violin career. It turns out that Lyla is pregnant, but Louis has no idea as they're unable to make contact again. 

    I don't want to give too much away, but the movie flashes to eleven years later and the now-grown Evan is in a boys home somewhere in the middle of nowhere and Lyla and Louis have no idea he even exists (I guess you'll have to watch to find out why). The story follows his journey as he escapes the home and goes to look for his parents in New York City, guided by his connection to music. Lyla discovers that Evan is out there, and she goes on a journey to find him. During all this, Louis and Lyla can't stop thinking about each other, and are trying to find each other and reconnect. Evan is taught to play guitar by Robin Williams' character, who gives him the stage name "August Rush," and somehow ends up being discovered by a Julliard teacher and studies there. 

     

I know it probably sounds kind of cheesy, but I promise it's worth the watch. There's something so heartwarming about how much Evan loves his parents without even knowing them, and somehow knows they loved him back and didn't just give him away for no reason. He's so hopeful and optimistic, that it makes you be that way, too, if only during the 114 minutes of the movie. Also, the relationship between Lyla and Louis is not so cookie-cutter "romantic." It's different, which makes you root for them even more.

    It was directed by Kirsten Sheridan, who only has about four other credits, but I think she did a great job. There's sort of a magical element to the movie in the way that Evan can "hear" his parents through music he hears through things like electrical wires and high grass, but it's still believable. The viewer doesn't doubt that it's real life. 

  
  I promise, the ending scene will make you cry, but out of happiness. This movie truly is heartwarming and inspiring. 

I give it an A

Formal Film Study: John Hughes Films of the 1980s

    For this formal film study, I chose to focus on movies that were made in the 1980s and directed by John Hughes. I watched The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Pretty in Pink. Obviously, these films are all very similar and easily relatable. They also are all what I would consider to be classics, and if someone hasn't seen them already, I would definitely recommend seeing them. 

    These films obviously have almost infinite characteristics in common, including the style. They're filmed with very similar camera styles and look aesthetically the same. The composition, camera style, and cinematography are almost identical. These films came out in the consecutive years of 1984, 85, and 86, which only adds to their similarities. In the film industry of the 80s, people saw the rise of the "blockbuster" film such as Star Wars, James Bond and the Indiana Jones series. Along with this came the popularization of teen comedies, almost singlehandedly due to John Hughes and his style. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_in_film) 

    These films reflect American culture at this time, or seem to. I believe that a lot of people watch these movies today and think that American teens in the eighties acted just like the characters in these movies, which may or may not be true. I'm sure that to some extent they reflected real life, but just as movies today, I'm also sure that it was a glamorized version of what life and high school was really like. 

    In almost all his films, John Hughes used a ton of typical shots that weren't meant to be artsy, but to get his point and the point of the movie across. He seems to be a fan of full shots, long shots and close-ups, with nothing too crazy going on. There were some wide shots to establish the scenes, as well. Occasionally there are close-ups to emphasize the importance of certain objects or parts of people that pertained to a certain scene or part of the plot, such as the birthday candles in the scene where they celebrate Molly Ringwald's birthday. 

   The main thing that I found true in all these movies is that Hughes' was making a statement about society and the stress it puts on cliques and popularity, and how it shouldn't be that way. In all three movies, high school students from different social groups interact and somehow learn that the things like who they hang out with and what they wear don't really matter. I think Hughes was trying to get a message to teens at the time that they should be caring about much more important things. Whether it was through "the criminal, the princess, the brain, the athlete, and the basket case" in The Breakfast Club, Sam Baker and Jack Ryan in Sixteen Candles, or Andie and Blane in Pretty in Pink, Hughes definitely had something to say about the pure unimportance of high school cliques.

     All three movies starred the "princess of 80s movies," Molly Ringwald, and two of the three starred Anthony Michael Hall. Obviously, both of these actors had great chemistry with each other and with John Hughes, and showed a particular knack for playing struggling high school students. Both of these actors also ended up being a part of the ever-so-famous 80s "Brat Pack," alongside Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, and others. 

   Overall, these three movies are truly some of my favorites. If you haven't seen them yet, drop what you're doing and watch them right now!!

1935 Movie Project: The Golddigger

   Our movie stars Jean Harlow and the Marx Brothers, and is produced by MGM Studios. It's called The Golddigger. In the story, Jean Harlow plays a struggling actress who goes to the bank to get more money when she overhears the bank teller telling the Marx Brothers that they've inherited a large sum of money from their grandfather and her and her boyfriend (played by Willam Powell) hatch a plan to make one of them fall in love with her so she gets their money. It is a screwball comedy, so it mixes the genres of slapstick comedy with physical humor and romantic comedy with the relationship between the Marx Brothers and Jean Harlow. In the end, they spend all their money and she doesn't get what she wanted or to become a successful actress. This goes with the Hays Code because it shows her being punished for doing a bad thing and won't show too many romantic scenes or violence. The message is that even without money in the end, The Marx Brothers are still happy, which shows people during the Great Depression that everything was going to turn out okay. 
    This movie is directed by Leo McCarey, who directed Duck Soup. We thought he would have good experience working with the Marx Brothers and this type of movie to make it the most successful it could be. The cinematography would be by Gregg Toland, who at this point has done The Life of A Hollywood Extra and would soon become famous for Citizen Kane. We thought he held promise to create a great movie. We thought that the combination of MGM actors The Marx Brothers, Jean Harlow and William Powell would create great chemistry and make a really good movie that people would want to see. Our movie was inspired by It Happened One Night, the 1934 Academy Award winner for best picture.