MYST Post #6: If I Stay

If I Stay

This is the second Chloë Grace Moretz film I've reviewed on this blog. Unfortunately the first one was a total disappointment. This one, however, exceeded my expectations.

The thing I loved most about this film is what an interesting take it was on a run-of-the-mill teenage romance. Based on the trailer, I thought it was going to be about two teens who fall in love and then at the very end, one of them gets in a car accident and dies.

It's actually about a girl named Mia (Moretz) who at the beginning of the film gets into a car accident with her parents and younger brother. She wakes up and sees herself being strapped to a stretcher, carted into an ambulance, and taken to the hospital for emergency surgery. It becomes clear that the Mia whom we are seeing walking around the hospital is actually her subconscious, deciding whether to give up her fight and die peacefully, or keep fighting and wake up to pain and no parents or brother. Through flashbacks, we see what her life was like before the accident - she was a talented musician applying for Julliard who comes from a loving, open home and who has a boyfriend, Adam (Jamie Blackley) who loves her.

Mia "waking up" and seeing the car accident around her

There were a lot of juxtapositions in this film, which I loved. One moment, you would be watching an intense hospital scene with shouting nurses, crying family, loud heart monitors, and Mia's subconscious running around trying to find answers when all of a sudden the film would cut to a quiet, peaceful scene with just Mia and Adam walking along and holding hands. There was also the juxtaposition of the two main characters. Adam is the lead singer in a successful band, participates in underage drinking, and barely has anything to do with his parents. Mia is a quiet cellist who does not drink and is very, very close to her parents. These contrasts keep you on your toes for the whole movie, and keep the movie from getting boring.

Hectic scene vs. a calm one

This movie was amazing all round. The casting was great, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I both laughed and cried. I give it a five out of five. 

MYST Post #5: True Romance

True Romance

One of my favorite bands is The 1975. Earlier today, I was watching an interview with the lead singer and the interviewer asked him about his song "Robbers". He said that the inspiration for the song and its music video came from Tarantino's movie True Romance, so naturally I had to watch it.

This movie is about an average joe named Clarence (Christian Slater) who spends a night with a call girl named Alabama (Patricia Arquette). The next morning they confess that they've fallen in love with each other and they get married. Later, upon hearing about how Alabama's former pimp was abusive, Clarence murders the pimp. While he is there, he grabs a suitcase thinking that it is full of Alabama's clothes. Turns out the suitcase is actually filled with bags of cocaine. Their lives take a sudden turn when they realize that by selling the cocaine, they could live comfortably together for the rest of their lives. They journey across the country to find someone to sell the drugs to, all while being chased by the people who own the drugs. At the end, they are sealing the deal with a big-time movie producer when cops burst in. Then the men who own the drugs burst in and there is an intense stand off between the cops, the owners of the coke, and the movie producer's body guards. After a big shootout, Clarence and Alabama escape with a suitcase full of cash and head to Mexico to start a family and a life together.

First of all, the casting in this movie was fantastic. There were a few big stars in there - Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson, and Brad Pitt all make appearances in the film. Every actor fits his or her role like a glove and gives an outstanding performance.

Brad Pitt as Floyd, a brain dead stoner

Another thing I noticed that I really liked about this movie was the lighting and coloring. In the beginning, the lighting was all very dark. The color palette was mainly dark blues, black, purples, and deep reds. However by the middle of the movie, the lighting was bright and light and the colors ranged from bright yellow to bright pink and light blue. To me, this showed the progression of the couple from living boring, sad lives in downtown Detroit to leading exciting, adventure-filled lives in California. The very last scene in the film shows Clarence and Alabama on a Mexican beach with their son, and in the background is a sunset. The color palette in this scene is a dark hue of orange, showing that they have settled back into a boring life, but this time it doesn't make the viewer sad; it leaves you with a feeling of contentment.

Dark colors in the beginning of the movie

Bright colors in the middle of the movie

Medium/dark hues at the end of the movie

The level of drama that was in this movie was off the charts. Normally I'm not a fan of overly-dramatic movies, but in this case it really worked well. It added to the whole craziness of the movie. When you have a story about a hooker and comic book store worker falling in love at first sight, getting married, and running away to sell a suitcase of drugs, you cannot understate anything. The most dramatic scene in the film was the standoff between the police, the bodyguards, and the drug lords. There was a lot of yelling - the movie producer was yelling at an actor who went undercover to bust the deal, the police are yelling at the body guards, the drug lords are yelling at the police, Alabama is screaming. Then when everyone starts shooting, it seems like everyone is trigger happy. There are lots of interesting shots and angles and a lot of usage of slow-mo in this scene. It's an interesting juxtaposition between the standoff and the shooting. During the standoff, there was a lot of noise but not much action. During the shooting, there was a lot of action (bullets flying, feathers from cushions floating through the air, cocaine bags bursting, people jumping out of the way of bullets, men falling down) but mainly just the sounds of gunshots. I think that out of all the scenes in this film, this one was my favorite, which is surprising since I'm not too much of an action fan usually.

One of the drug lords hiding behind a couch during the shoot out

All in all, I LOVED this movie, and it has become one of my favorites. There was a great mix of romance and action, and I loved the message of "love conquers all". Whether you're a romance fan or not, this movie is definitely a must-see. I give it 5 out of 5.

MYST Post #4: Gardens of the Night

Gardens of the Night

I had heard about this movie about a year ago from a friend who was doing a project on teen homelessness, and made a mental note to watch it sometime. I completely forgot about it until recently I was scrolling through Hulu and saw the name. I hadn't even seen the trailer - I had only heard from my friend that it is a sad movie about homelessness and prostitution.

Donnie and Leslie

This movie is about an 8-year-old girl named Leslie who is walking home from school one day when two strangers convince her that her parents have been called away on urgent business and that they have to drive her home. She gets in the car and drinks the soda that they offer her, promptly falling asleep after taking a few sips. She wakes up in a dark bedroom with a young boy named Donnie sleeping in the bed next to her. She is led to believe that her parents no longer want her; Donnie was told that his parents sold him for drugs. They are now a part of a child prostitution ring. Later, the movie cuts to Donnie and Leslie as homeless teenagers. Donnie is played by Evan Ross and Leslie by Gillian Jacobs. They are both forced to prostitute themselves in order to make money. Donnie talks about joining a traveling carnival to make money a different way but Leslie says that she is sick of moving around. Eventually, Leslie is at a homeless shelter and is told that her parents are alive and want her (up until this scene, she still believes that she is unwanted by her parents), so she is taken back home and reunited with her parents. Sitting at home that night, she realizes that she will never be comfortable again in that house like she used to be, so she sneaks out of the house and goes to find Donnie. As the credits roll, there are scenes of carnival rides, so the audience can assume that she went to join Donnie in the traveling carnival.

This movie was tough to watch, especially at the beginning when the two young children are being forced to prostitute themselves. Many times I found myself in tears listening to the kids crying and screaming and hearing the words the adults used to comfort them - "A caterpillar has to break out of its skin in order to become a beautiful butterfly. You don't think that hurts for the caterpillar? That's what you're doing right now - breaking out of your skin so that you can become a beautiful butterfly." However, I think that it is important that people watch this movie and force themselves to acknowledge that these things are really happening. People focus a lot on "trendy" problems in the world: world hunger, wars, etc. Those are very prevalent, sad problems, but so is child prostitution and homelessness. Watching this movie makes me upset that not very many people are trying to do something about these issues that exist in our very own country.

There was a lot of interesting composition in this film showing that no matter where the pair went or what they did, their troubles will always follow them. For example, there is a scene at the beginning of the movie where young Leslie and Donnie are taking a bath together. Baths are meant to be cleansing, right? Well not in this case. In this scene, one of their kidnappers is constantly in the background of the scene. There is another scene in which Donnie and Leslie are eating ice cream together in a diner while their kidnappers talk to a prostitution ring leader about clients for the children. The adults who are talking are constantly in the foreground or the background of the scene while the kids are talking about innocent things like birthday parties and eating ice cream - something which should be fun. 

The kidnapper is in the background while Donnie is in the bath.

Speaking of baths, there were a lot of bath scenes in this films. Leslie is taught when she is a child that clients like when she takes a bath first. It is obvious irony because, as I said before, baths are supposed to be very cleansing and you are supposed to feel relaxed and clean when you come out. Instead, she sits in the bath feeling dirty and nervous at what is to come. There is even one part where Leslie tries to drown herself in the bath. At the end when she gets back home, she sees her father bathing her little sister and it obviously reminds her of how her kidnapper used to bathe her. This could be symbolic of how nothing is ever as it seems, which is a prevailing theme throughout the film. When Donnie and Leslie would go out with their kidnapper, no one would suspect anything (except for one time, causing them to have to escape the police). Little did they know what was really happening to these children. 

Young Leslie being bathed by her captor.

Although this movie was very sad and tough to watch, I'm very glad I watched it. It has done a great job of depicting the tragedy and horror of child prostitution and the hardships of homelessness. I hope that more people watch this film and realize what a problem this is in our society even though we don't hear about it on a daily basis. I give this film a 4 out of 5 - the only things I didn't like about it was that it tended to drag on a little bit in the middle, and it never showed if Leslie actually reached Donnie.

MYST Post #3: Hick

Hick

Earlier today, I overheard a conversation about the movie Hick. I looked it up and saw that it featured many of my favorite actors - Blake Lively, Rory Caulkin, Chloe Grace Moretz - and the storyline sounded pretty similar to one of my favorite movies, Electrick Children. I decided that I had to watch it. Going into it, I had high expectations. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed.

One of the first scenes of the movie is of the main character Luli (played by Moretz) at her 13th birthday party, which is hosted by her alcoholic mother in a bar. Nobody there is Luli's age - everyone attending looks to be at least 30. Luli's father gives her a revolver. A few scenes later, Luli is home alone and decides that she can't stand living with her alcoholic parents anymore. She packs a bag of clothes, her gun, her drawing book, and a wad of cash stolen from her mother, and starts hitchhiking her way to Las Vegas. A guy named Eddie (played by Eddie Redmayne) picks her up. Soon after, she gets scared of him and asks him to drop her off. She catches another ride with a young woman named Glenda (Blake Lively), who takes Luli to her house. To the surprise of both Glenda and Luli, Eddie is there, working for Glenda's husband, Lloyd. Eddie then proceeds to kidnap Luli, rape her, and keep her hostage in a motel room. A few days after Luli was taken, she wakes up tied to the bed, with Glenda watching her. Glenda confesses that she used to date Eddie and he did the same thing to her. Glenda is helping untie Luli when Eddie walks in and shoots and kills Glenda. Luli takes the gun and shoots and kills Eddie. The motel owner, Beau, tells Luli that he can make sure she'll never get in trouble for any of that, and that if she needs a new home, his sister in Los Angeles has always wanted a daughter. At the end of the movie, after realizing that she doesn't want to go home to her mother, Luli takes a bus to Los Angeles to live with Beau's sister.

One of the main things I didn't like about the film is that in the beginning, the plot is extremely slow. Then all of a sudden, everything bad that could happen happens, and then the movie ends, and the audience is left shocked and confused. There are many unanswered questions at the end of the movie: what happened to Luli's father? The only information we get is Luli's mother's flippant "your father never returned". What happens after Luli gets on the bus - does she make it to LA? Does Beau's sister welcome her into her home or does she reject her just like Luli's real mother did? Does Luli ever get in any trouble with the police about the murders? There are so many things thrown at you at the end that you barely have time to process what is happening. 

Unfortunately, the plot wasn't the only thing I disliked about the film. For one thing, the casting was terrible. It was hard to take blonde bombshell Blake Lively seriously as a white trash gold digger after she starred as a rich, spoiled, New York teen in teen drama Gossip Girl for six years. I disagree with the way 15-year-old Chloe Moretz was sexualized in this movie. Eddie Redmayne totally flopped in his role of a psycho stalker/kidnapper/rapist. And Alec Baldwin? Where did he even come from? And how many donuts did he have to eat before getting this role?

A fat Alec Baldwin comforting Chloe Moretz after she kills her rapist.

The shots and angles in this movie were extremely boring. Rarely did the camera stray from a medium shot. I can only recall one scene in which a unique angle was used (a dutch/oblique angle when Eddie sees Luli for the first time after she gets out of his car). Being that there was basically just one type of shot, it was hard to decipher scenes and take meaning from them. High angles mean that that person has power - so who is in the position of power here? The object can't be that important if there is no close up on it - right? 

All round, this movie was a flop. So bad, in fact, that when I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes after viewing, I saw that critics gave it 5% and viewers gave it 37%. Basically, the movie is unrealistic and paints a picture of an extreme worst case scenario - it's as if my mother herself directed it as to push the idea of running away and hitchhiking out of my head. I give it one star out of five. 

MYST Post #2: Annie Hall

Annie Hall

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen as Annie and Alvy

Bored on a Sunday afternoon, I was scrolling through Facebook and stumbled upon a post about Annie Hall. Interested, I looked it up on IMDb and decided it was a movie that I just had to see, being a fan of romantic comedies, Diane Keaton, and Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris is one of my all time favorite films). 

The movie begins with Alvy (played by Woody Allen) speaking directly into the camera, breaking the fourth wall, talking about how he misses Annie, a woman with whom he was in a relationship for a year. He describes himself and his relationship with Annie, incorporating a few jokes into the monologue and relating them to his life and his time spent with Annie. Right away, I could see that this movie would be unlike any other I had seen - the main character was already narrating the story in first person and present tense. If I had turned the sound on my computer off and just watched the scene, I would have felt that the scene was minimalist and simplistic - just a man in in a suit with in front of a blank wall. But if I had closed my eyes and turned up the volume, I would have felt completely different. Alvy babbles on and on about Annie and about himself. The only breaks he takes while speaking are to clear his throat. The monologue is almost difficult to keep up with (especially considering that at this point, the viewer knows nothing about who Annie is or why he cannot seem to stop talking about her). As I kept watching the movie, it struck me that every scene was like this: seemingly simplistic but in actually fact quite deep. I imagine that if one were to watch the movie only half paying attention, the movie would seem quite mindless and typical of a romcom. But reading deeper into the movie and paying attention to the little things opens up a new side of the movie to the viewer. Every scene has a purpose (and the purpose is not something like "to show their love for each other". Try, "to show the way that Annie has changed throughout the relationship with Alvy, finally looking up from the floor when she sings in front of an audience, and the way Alvy is uncomfortable, proving that he is not ready for changes and is stuck in his old ways").

First scene of Annie Hall

Throughout the rest of the movie, there are little quirks like when Alvy walks into past situations/memories and views them from a third person perspective, or when the subtitles flash up on the screen during a conversation between Alvy and Annie, narrating not what they are saying but what they are thinking. There is also a scene where Alvy goes to Annie's family's house for a meal. In this scene, Allen puts side-by-side shots of his family eating a meal and Annie's family eating a meal, juxtaposing the chaos of his family and the calmness of hers. Through this, we as an audience see why Annie is awkward and almost shy around other people and why Alvy goes a mile a minute; there are actually a few scenes that do this with different scenarios. A lot of romantic comedies are superficial: girl meets boy, girl falls for boy, boy falls for girl, and they live Happily Ever After. But in this movie, the viewer gets a great inside look at what the characters are thinking and past events that shaped them as a person. 

While Annie and Alvy are talking about art, subtitles narrate what they are really thinking.

On the left is Annie and her mother. On the right is Alvy's family.
There is a noticeable difference between both families,
even down to the fact that Alvy's family takes up more space on the screen

The shots in this movie last for a long time. I did a bit of research and the average shot length during a typical 1970s film was between 4 and 7 seconds. The average shot length in this film was 14.7 seconds. This is an interesting juxtaposition against the quick banter between Annie and Alvy that is occurring most of the film - in fact, the majority of this movie is dialogue. There are few scenes in which there is no one talking. The long takes could be a reflection of the way Alvy speaks in long, run-on sentences, barely pausing to take a breath. It could also represent the way Alvy is looking back at the relationship with Annie and makes the reader feel as if they, too, are standing back and viewing a scene from one spot. In many movies, shots that long would not work and the viewer would lose interest. However, because of the interesting, constant dialogue, the viewer doesn't get bored (or at least, I didn't).

Woody Allen included in this film dry humor, unique flashback scenes, a romantic storyline, and dialogue that kept me hooked the whole time. Because of all of those components, I absolutely adored the film. To be honest, I don't think that there was one part of the movie I disliked - right from the beginning I was captivated and I even had to cancel plans with friends because I couldn't bear to put the movie on pause until I got back. I give this film 5 out of 5 stars.

Formal Film Study: Xavier Dolan films dealing with sexual orientation

Having heard about Xavier Dolan's newest film Mommy doing so well at Festival de Cannes this year, I became interested in Dolan's other work (all of which has been shown at Cannes) and what influenced it. I noticed that many of his films deal with sexuality and how sexual orientation affects different people. I decided to watch 3 of his films: J'ai Tué Ma Mère, Heartbeats, and Laurence Anyways. Being that Dolan is from Montreal, Canada, all three of these films are in French.

Xavier Dolan

In today's society, being gay is almost considered "trendy". Gay men are portrayed by the media as being feminine, friendly, sassy types. Dolan has obviously tried (and succeeded) to break that stereotype. In all of these films, the main homosexual character is not the stereotypical gay man that you see every time you turn on your television. The characters Dolan creates are normal, subdued, fairly introverted males with pent up frustration and sometimes aggression. In J'ai Tué Ma Mère, the main character, Hubert Minel, is a quiet homosexual teen who fights with his mother and runs away from home just like every other kid does at some point. Heartbeats constructs a protagonist who is boyish and quite rugged. The leading man in Laurence Anyways transforms himself into a woman, but that doesn't stop him from being strong and assertive. Being that Dolan himself is gay, this is probably a reflection of who he is, especially when you take into account that Dolan not only directs but also stars in Heartbeats and J'ai Tué Ma Mère. He is trying to make the point that just because a man is gay, it does not mean that he has to act like a girl.

Another thing I noticed about Laurence Anyways and J'ai Tué Ma Mère was that both films depicted the strain that "coming out" can put on a parent-child relationship. In fact, J'ai Tué Ma Mère centers around that theme. In both movies, the audience sees that at first, the mother of the main character, does not know how to deal with the news that her son is queer. In Laurence Anyways, the main character's mother says to him, "I don't know what you want me to say. Your father will never accept you" after he tells her of his decision to become a woman. In J'ai Tué Ma Mère, Hubert's mother finds out from Hubert's boyfriend's mother that Hubert is gay; she does not mention to Hubert that she knows until it comes out during an argument, which prompts him to run away. This creates a huge divide between mother and son. However in both films, the relationship is mended and the mother comes to terms with her son's sexuality. Laurence and his mother are having lunch together near the end of the film and she says, "I was never close to you. I never saw you as my son. But I do see you as my daughter." Hubert and his mother reconcile at the end of the movie. This interested me and prompted me to look into Dolan himself. I came to discover that Dolan actually describes J'ai Tué Ma Mère as autobiographical. At first, his mother was shocked and did not know how to deal with it. But then she accepted it and now they are close.

Throughout all three of these movies, there were a lot of direct shots of both faces and objects. It made me think of the way that none of these stories beat around the bush - they are direct and get right to the point. They are also all quite long and tell stories in chronological order - there is no jumping around a timeline, which leads us back to the point that they are all very forthright. Yet another thing that caught my attention was that all the films had at least two scenes with discontinuity editing, each one including the main character. This created a juxtaposition between the two characters in the scene and emphasized the way homosexuals often feel like they are not accepted or are not "a part of it".

Direct shot from Heartbeats

From a scene of discontinuity editing in Laurence Anyways

It's easy to see what the political/cultural stance of these movies are. All three films were made within the last 5 years, but even though they are fairly recent, they are still battling to defeat gay stereotypes and prejudices. Laurence Anyways is set in the late 1980s-early 1990s, depicting scenes of bullying and rejection of transsexuality (seen when Laurence is fired from his job and also when he is beaten up on the street). Those things, however, are still prevalent in today's society, which is one of the messages that the film is putting out there, and trying to bring awareness to. J'ai Tué Ma Mère is set in the time in which it was made (2009), but it too has a scene where the main character is beaten up for being gay. Although homosexuality/transsexuality is becoming more prevalent and more widely accepted in today's society, these films are trying to show that we are not all the way there yet; living as a transsexual or a homosexual is still very hard.

Right after Laurence is beaten up, he begs a stranger for a
quarter so he can call for help and gets ignored.

      

Create A Movie Blog Post

Love Has No Price

Billy (Clark Gable) and Ruby (Jenette McDonald) are two very rich Chicagoans who have grown up together and have always been expected to marry when they reach an appropriate age. Neither of them were hit by the depression and enjoy all the luxuries that immense wealth entails. Ruby is madly in love with William and is waiting for him to ask her to become something more than friends, but William is hesitant, not sure if he loves Ruby the way he is expected to. He confides this in his best friend, Carlton (Maurice Chevalier).
One day, William goes out to get a newspaper and runs into Peggy (Jean Harlow). He is dressed as a common person as to avoid attention in the main part of the city.  He finds her very attractive, and she does not realize how rich he is. From then on, he goes to get a newspaper everyday just to see Peggy. Against her arguing, William buys her a coffee after seeing her everyday for a week straight. They quickly fall in love, Peggy thinking that he is just a commoner like she is. Toward the end of that week, Ruby sees them together through a shop window while she is going to get a dress tailored downtown. Being that Ruby and William aren’t actually a couple, she does not say anything on the spot. Instead, Ruby figures out where Peggy live and pays her a visit. Ruby tries to pay off Peggy - who obviously needs the money - to stay away from William but Peggy resists. At this point, Peggy realizes that William ("Billy") is not who he has been pretending to be; instead of making her feel angry or hurt, this only makes her love him more. Having been unable to bribe Peggy, Ruby thinks of other ways to get rid of Peggy. Eventually, Peggy fears for her wellbeing and tells Billy she needs to leave town. Billy insists on coming with her, and they leave town together. Carlton, who has been madly in love with Ruby this whole time, jumps at the chance to win Ruby's heart in her state of devastation. He succeeds, and everyone gets their happy ending in this romantic drama.

Being that this is during the Great Depression, everyone is looking for a happy ending, especially when it comes to the lower class. Audiences will love that the rich man chooses the poor girl over the wealthy girl. But just so that there are no sad faces in the end (and to please our upper class audience), we decided that Ruby should get a happy ending, too. The message we are trying to send is that love trumps money, and you do not need to be wealthy to be happy. This shows through Peggy and William's love. The movie also shows that happiness can come from unexpected places (and people), as shown through Carlton and Ruby's unification at the end.

We decided that MGM should produce this movie. MGM has made a few big romance movies like Gone With The Wind, Sweethearts, and Camille, so we know that it will be a good choice regarding the genre of our film. MGM also has several famous actresses and actors signed on to their studio; specifically, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, who have costarred in a few romance movies. The two have great onscreen chemistry, as seen in Red Dust and Wife vs. Secretary, so we just knew that they would work great together. We picked Victor Flemming to be our director because he directed Red Dust, a romance film in which Gable and Harlow work alongside each other as the protagonists/love interests. He also directed Gone With The Wind, a romantic great which we hope this movie will be as good as. 

We chose to focus on the costumes and make up in this movie. Being a romantic drama, this movie will attract a lot of female attention, and everyone knows that women love fashion and make up. We also think it important to create a significant juxtaposition between the rich and poor, and what better way to do that than with clothes? We dressed Ruby in extravagant gowns and sparkly jewelry, all in flamboyant colors like crimson and purple, with heavy lipstick and eye makeup. Peggy is clothed in plain colors like white and beige and grey, with minimal (if any) makeup. 

The Hays Code can greatly restrict a romance movie. However, we did not find it to be much of a hindrance. Since Ruby and William are not in an official relationship, there wasn't an issue of adultery. The love between William and Peggy is an innocent infatuation rather than a passionate affair. No allusions to sex or anything of the like are included in the movie. This movie is in black and white. Since the storyline is a classic tale of (almost) forbidden love, we decided that it should look classic, too, so we avoided using color. 

I agree with everything my group decided on, and would not have wanted this movie to be done any other way.