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.
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.
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.
