Red State

The Kevin Smith film that made big news at Sundance when he announced that he would be distributing it himself without a studio. That alone can get a movie lover interested in seeing what this movie is all about.

I honestly had no idea what the plot was when starting this movie, Netflix had placed it in the horror genre and the poster portrays and women holding a gun. Doesn't sound too horrible, right?

Nope, it was pretty horrible. The film basically just proved that religion as well as the government are just completely fucked up. Oh and so is the internet. Nothing I don't already know given the fact that I live in America and pay attention to the news, and let's not forget lived thru the Bush era.

This movie suffered for too many plots and jumping from one to the other. Sometimes this can work very well, like when a movie starts out following a character the audience expects to be the main important one but then he/she gets killed and we realize this is a movie about someone else completely, see Hitchcock's Psycho. However Kevin Smith is no Hitchcock, not even close. The audience doesn't care enough about any of the characters, they are static and frankly annoying. After about 20 minutes of the Preacher speaking, I wanted him to be shot and killed. He could be called the main character of this film frankly because he occupied the majority of it. A man who was completely crazy and unlikable, now that's just bad writing.

The focus jumps from teenagers to the religious group to the government, this could have worked but it felt forced and random. Basically, this movie was a waste of time and I understand why Smith decided to purchase it himself, after seeing this film who would have wanted to buy it?

Billed as a horror film that was only scary because of how horrible it was. Not in the good bad way either, just bad. I'm sure Smith tried to make it feel like a satire of religion and the government but the institutions felt too real for it to be a satire, but the film wasn't clever enough for that realness to make it fit into horror.

** and 1/3 stars from me. Bad movie, I wouldn't watch it again but I can tell what Smith was going for but I'll say what we're all thinking. Smith, get a time machine and go back to the 90s to when you were making good films and stay there.

Remember The Daze

A film about graduating from high school in the year 1999 made in 2007. They were trying to capture the feeling of the well-known well-loved classic Dazed and Confused which chronicled various students on the last day of high school in 1976. Both films feature tons of underage drinking, illegal drugs and the pursuit of sex.

Remember The Daze was fun, there were a lot of actors whom I've seen in works since that it was entertaining for me to see them in this state. Hell, how often do I have the chance to watch Blair Waldorf tripping on shrooms, or that little boy from Holes beating the crap out of some preppy jerks?

Another thing that really stood out in this film was the editing. For a film to carry multiple characters and plots it's important for the editing to make it not feel like a mess. The editing did that here, the transitions were seamless and beautiful. Panning over the crowds at the parties to get to the next group or through various shots of each characters in their cars getting to where the action would be happening. On top of that the film had some great moments of clarity. It wanted to get to the real question, this taking place in 1999, what does the future hold for all these characters. It's the end of millennium, and having been around at that change I remember the whole world freaking out about the future. The characters touch on it briefly but it's passed off as a "I'm so high" type of conversation that you'll never bring up again.

While I did enjoy this movie a lot for many little things there was one really big thing missing for me. The 90s. This film is supposed to take place in 1999. I was around then, yes I was nine years old and not out partying at all hours celebrating graduating high school like the students in this film, but I remember how things were. Nothing about this movie felt like the 90s to me. It felt very much like a movie made in 2007. At one point Meredith Brooks' song "Bitch" is playing in the background and that brought me back to the fact that this was taking place in '99 not '07. Although that really couldn't have made a difference, I listened to that song just today and it's 2011.

That was my main problem with the movie, other than that it was good. Nothing fantastic, but a fun watch. It's currently streaming on netflix so if you're feeling a little nostalgic for the days of summer breaks with your best friends in the small town where you were up, then Remember The Daze is a one to watch.

Overall I give it *** and 1/2 stars.

Super 8

I'm not exactly sure where to start with this amazing film, perhaps I should start by saying Super 8 is by far the best movie of the summer. I'm saying this as a hardcore Harry Potter fan as well as a film buff.

Super 8 is one of those rare summer blockbusters that combines fun explosions, entertainment and a good well rounded story. Movie like that don't really exist in today's Hollywood however there was a time when they did and that time was dominated by the man that Super 8 pays homage to, Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg was also a producer on Super 8 but you could tell that this movie was really just a love letter from JJ Abrams to Spielberg himself. Abrams had stated that the idea for this movie came to him because when he as young he spent his summers making movies with his friend using his super 8 camera. He wanted to make a movie that featured a large part of his childhood, Spielberg. Now he is also known for running around making movies with his friends when he was a kid, in a way Super 8 is for both of them.

Now, people who have seen Cloverfield or watched Lost or anything else Abrams has done, they know the man is a genius and knows how to make a suspenseful movie that don't feel like a bad horror flick. However in Super 8, Abrams takes what he does best and merges it with Spielberg's classics to create a piece of art.

It's clear to see Spielberg's classics such as ET, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, The Goonies and even Jurassic Park reflected in Super 8 so I don't need to explore those. Instead I want to talk about the amazing child actors that carried this film.

Making a movie that focuses on children is difficult, kids aren't always easy to work with and it's hard to find those that can carry a large amount of depth needed for a film. The stars of Super 8 were fantastic. Apart from Elle Fanning, who I am a huge fan of, I hadn't seen these young actors in anything else. In fact, the lead role was given to a complete unknown and this was his first acting gig. His first acting gig. He blew me out of the park, all of them did. I knew going into it that Elle had the acting chops to hold a movie, having first seen her in Phoebe In Wonderland, a movie that changed my mind about kids in general, and then in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere. Each one of the kids in this film stood out and they all have a very bright future ahead of them.

Another thing I loved about this movie was how real it all felt. Yeah, I know aliens feeling real? Girl, you watch too much Doctor Who, but it was more than just the alien plot. The subplots felt really, the dynamic between the kids and how Fanning came between them. That happens in real life all the time, I'm sure each of us has a memory of when we liked someone but they liked our friend and we took it out of them. Happens everyday, and the relationships between the parents and their children. Everything was connected in a way that felt real and was explained just enough for us to get it and not need anymore.

Now, to the alien, what an amazing plot. I love how we went into the movie thinking that this was a monster and the bad guy but as the film developed we learned that this Alien didn't want to harm anyone, he/she just wanted to go home. Paging ET and making me cry again. That touch gave the movie such a classic feel but updated for this generation.

I could go on and on about all the little things I loved about this movie but I won't, I'll just say please go see it. It is worth every penny and it's clear to see this is a five star movie.

Daydream Nation

I just watched Daydream Nation starring Kat Dennings, Reece Thompson and Jon Lucas. It's a coming of age story about a city girl who upon a move to a small town decides her life needs some excitement in the form of an affair with her teacher and an unexpected tumble into love.

Before I start this review I should point out a few things.
1. I love Kat Dennings, I think she is beautiful and hilarious. She is one of the women that I wish I was instead of myself.
2. I have a huge weakness for coming of age dramas. Even more so when they are limited release or independent coming of age dramas. Although the story lines are often the same, I still love them. Something in me just can't get enough of them, maybe I'm still coming of age even in my early twenties or maybe we never really stop coming of age. I just love them, especially when they are about females.

Now know those two things, on to my review. I think it's safe for me to say that I really liked this film. I thought Kat Dennings did a wonderful job portraying a girl on the verge of college who has dealt with way too much for her age and just wants to pretend to be someone else while trying to figure out who she is. This film focused on what she does best, being sexy and sarcastic while still showing off that she can act. The rest of the cast holds up to her and Reece Thompson, who I had only seen in Rocket Science before this, did a great job as the stoner schoolmate who just can't get his life together. This role was completely different from Rocket Science which is always nice to see. I actually didn't put it together until I looked it up after because the two characters are so drastically different. Jon Lucas also did a great job of playing the teacher who is just as sexy as he is crazy. I loved that they added more of his story in the terms of his novel that he was trying to write, it was a great way to show the audience what Reece's character's possibly future could look like. I loved that subtle comparison.

The story was very different from other coming of age dramas because although with the romances, they added in what was going on in the town to the point that Kat's life was occurring around the events of the year when she started to change. That was a great way of showing it in a realistic way, most of us remember our personal events that led to us starting to change but we also could tell you how the world around us led to those. Along with that the film didn't just focus on Kat's character coming of age, just as much was about Reece's character finding himself. They balanced each other nicely in the way that first loves do, you're both a mess and tend to screw things up often but somehow things fall into place to help you grow. It's a beautiful mess (or maybe that was just my first love). As I already stated the film also focused a good deal on Jon Lucas' teacher and his slight mid-life crisis. It wasn't over the top but it was in there enough to allow the story to feel full. Along with this there where some great moments with Reece's character's younger sister. All this plots can sound confusing however from the way I looked at it, it really was a story about Reece and Kat. Reece's sister was a way of telling Kat's past from her childhood while Jon's was Reece's possible future. The way this plots twisted together created a beautiful pattern that flushed out the story in a creative way.

I love coming of age dramas however most of them suffer from the stories not feeling like a fully developed story, Daydream Nation was developed. I wasn't left sitting and saying wait, why did that happen? I don't understand why that person did that. I understood how the characters interacted and why the film concluded the way it did.
Overall I really enjoyed this film and gave it 4 and 1/3 stars. The acting and storytelling where right on par, I'd recommend this movie to other fans of coming of age dramas.

Mass Mini Reviews

As one can tell I'm not super good about updating this blog with my reviews. It's not that I haven't seen anything recently, it's just that nothing I've seen has inspired me to write about it. But, I still feel bad about not keeping up so here are a handful of smaller reviews on the movies I've been watching recently.

Alice: The sci-fi original mini series. It was good, just as good as Tin Man however Tin Man had it's fair share of issues too. Overall this mini series didn't hold up, it was entertaining yes. I enjoyed watching it yes but the same formula was there and I can't help but wonder if the people at Sci-fi have daddy issues, because in both Tin Man and Alice the main female lead has some serious father issues that hold up the story. The plot in general got so over done with story line after story line. Note to filmmakers: If you think you need to add in more story lines, don't! Just go back to the writing board and make one really good story line. Not five. I rated this *** 1/2

The Matrix: Yeah, I'm a little behind on this trend but in my defense when this film came out I was spending my weekends at the mall or seeing whatever horrible romcom was just released. I finally sat down and watched it, it really isn't that good. This is another example of having a great, brilliant, amazing idea for a film and then handling it horribly. The idea and theory of the Matrix is incredibly interesting but all this film focused on was Neo, who was played horribly by Keanu Reeves. Why anyone would have thought he'd be good is beyond me. The film spent so much time with Neo and convincing him that he's the one, when really I was like eff that. I don't care if Neo is the one, tell me more about the Matrix. How is came to be, what's it's purpose? But I didn't get any of that. Rumor is there is more in the animated shorts they did but I don't feel like searching those out. I don't have faith that they could handle the theory right when they did such a poor job in the film. While, I do understand that given the time this film came out and what it did for special effects. Not once did I say anything against those. It did great things for those but everything else in this movie was so cliche. The plot was straight up Sci-Fi/Action Movie formula. *** plus a 1/2 a star for influence.

Thor: I'm a big fan of superhero movies because they are entertaining and while I'm not familiar with Marvel lore, I really enjoyed Thor. They did a great job of making it a character based movie and not just setting up next summer's The Avengers (which was exactly all last summer's Ironman 2 did). The film introduced us to Thor and his story while adding in a few sprinkles of what we can expect for next summer. The weakest part of this movie was Natalie Portman. The woman just won an oscar and her performance was lackluster. She phoned it in. There was nothing oscar worthy about her in Thor at all. **** Bonus points for Hawkeye's cameo too.

Breaking Upwards: A sweet indie film about breaking up and how it's hard to do when you care so much about the other person. It's really good and one of those films that during the viewing you end up shaking your head and going "yeah, I've been in that relationship". I don't have too much to say about it besides that it really is a sweet little indie film. *****

So sorry about neglecting this blog. I will try to be better but expect much shorter posts rather than the rather lengthy ones I've done in the past.

The Good Guy

Starring Alexis Bledel, Scott Porter, and Bryan Greenberg.

This film was one of those rare gems that you turn on late at night because you just want to watch something light but it turns into an amazing well developed feature. The whole reason I wanted to watch this movie was because during my time working at a video store in the summer the trailer played a lot. This trailer also featured my all time favorite song, a song that is not often heard outside my own headphones. Along with my favorite song in the trailer, I thought the plot was interesting although a little over done. By time it was out of DVD and I had heard things about it on the interwebs it was being referred to as yet another Alexis Bledel flick where she has to decide between two impossibly handsome men. So my decision to watch this film at a little past 1am on a saturday night was to watching Alexis Bledel pick between these two men to a nice soundtrack. That's not really what I got.

It opens on Scott Porter's character, Tommy, narrating as he drives in a taxi and rings the doorbell to Alexis Bledel's Beth's apartment. Drama ensues however the audience is left going what the fuck is going on here. She hands him some money, tells him that she really is sorry for him and then we flashback to six weeks earlier. Tommy continues narrating, and possibly because of other articles I had spent my day reading I thought that Tommy was going to be a reliable narrator. How could I have been so silly?

At this point in the story Tommy and Beth have been dating for two months. Tommy is a hot shot on Wall Street and seems to have just about everything going for him. He's incredibly sweet to Beth as they talk about their past relationships and future dreams. Beth had been planning a trip to Italy for work but upon budget cuts the trip is cancelled, when Tommy hears about this he takes Beth to a secret spot in the city that's the closest he can get to taking her to Italy. Cue me "aaaawwww"-ing. Moving on.

One of Tommy's co-workers leaves for a better offer so Tommy decides to take Daniel (Bryan Greenberg), an former army solider who was working on their computer systems and show him how to be hot shot Wall Street salesman. Daniel is socially awkward, shy, bookish and all around adorable while still looking like a hot piece of man. Tommy helps him out of his shell a little bit through a makeover and a couple night teaching him how to flirt. Here is where we get another voiceover from Tommy, letting us know this is where things get a little messy. He invited a girl he met at a bar to stay the night because she lost her purse at the bar, he confirms to us that nothing happened but he still decided not to tell Beth.

The story propels forward and Daniel joins Beth's book club and the two start falling for each other. It's cute. They aren't really the focus of the story, it's more Tommy's story. Beth begins to feel Tommy pushing away and during a night out with the girls she sees Tommy's ex, who has been stalking him their whole relationship. Beth decides it's time to confront her, while we can all see this plot twist coming it was handled very nicely. Beth learns that Tommy has a slew of women that he calls his girlfriend and she calls him to end things. Ultimately Tommy things Daniel told Beth, he punches Daniel then goes off to sleep with someone else. Beth calls Daniel to comfort her and he tells her that it's always been her, cue more "awww"s.

During all this Tommy's life is spiraling out of control, none of his ladies are answering his calls, he lost his wallet at Daniels when he punched him and now he can't pay for his hooker. This is how he ends up at Beth's. Now we're back in the present time and the voiceover returns. Tommy says that he know he's made some mistakes, but then out walks another girl from his bedroom and we hear him feed her the same line he fed Beth earlier. That damn douchebag. There is another cute moment between Beth and Daniel but that's not what I want to focus on.

While the plot between Beth and Daniel was adorable, it was Tommy's story arc that really kept me interested. During the beginning of the film it was the things that Tommy was doing that had me "aww"-ing, but his character does a complete 180 that I should have seen coming but truth is, I didn't.

That being said, the title. The Good Guy. From this story it would appear that the good guy is in fact, Daniel and not Tommy. However, we don't learn a lot about Daniel. It's clear that this is not his story, it's Tommy's. I love that. This film made me question the title and think deeply about it. Who is The Good Guy?

I gave this film a total of **** (4) and 1/2 stars. It was well written and held my attention until almost 4am. It wasn't the best acted movie I've seen by a long shot, but it was enjoyable and had a killer soundtrack. Seriously, check out the song Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by Stars. It's a good movie for one of those nights where you don't have much going on and just feel like a good without too much thinking, just the right amount.

Sucker Punch

I took a mental health day and went to see Sucker Punch. I've been excited about this film since I heard about it, I have a weak spot for ass-kicking chicks. However as most people know it's been getting horrible reviews. This terrified me, I was so worried that I'd go into this movie and it would disappoint me. I tried to keep my expectations low, going to see it just for the stunning visually that Zack Synder always delivers. What I got was so much more. To use the over used play on the tagline, I was unprepared.

Shortly after the movie started I realized it was not going to be what I was expecting and while I did see a lot of the plot coming it didn't annoy me. I found it comforting, in a film where so much is happening that is abnormal it was nice to not have an overly complicated plot to untangle. It took me a while to adjust to the different levels of reality, but once that happened I was enjoying it.

The biggest complaint that people have been having with the film is that it's anti-feminist and not empowering to woman at all. I completely disagree. I found it to be very empowering, not just to females but to everyone. [SPOILER] One of the main themes of the film is guardian angels and how they can take different forms to guide and save you, however this theme is not heavy in religion. By the end of the film the message is clear that each person in the audience has the weapons they need to survive. What I don't understand was how someone could say that isn't empowering? I walked out of the theaters feeling like I could take on the world.

As a regard to it being anti-feminist, the critics are using the argument about their skimpy costumes and sexy dance moves. Being a feminist does not mean that women need to become more masculine, not at all. Part of bring a woman is feeling comfortable as a woman, the film really presses this point. The girls use the fact that they are woman to get what they want from men, yes that is very true. But is that anti-feminist? No. There is nothing wrong with knowing how to get something from someone else, whether that person is male or female. Part of surviving is doing what needs to be done, I think the film was very clear that surviving was the point. These girls did nothing wrong by dancing for the men to achieve their goal, plus that part of the film was set in a brothel.

Overall, I gave the film ***** stars.
I thought it was creative and empowering. Very empowering.