lost in translation

Oh well. I can take a hint.

Then I just listen to a really dumb 90's song (that I'm too embarrassed to even post here) and I watch that "Expectations vs. Reality" Scene from (500) Days of Summer.

And I feel a little more...understood perhaps?

Bleh November

Netflix just added a bunch of new movies on their "watch instantly" feature. I use someone's username and password, so I can't rent movies, but I can watch whatever is on their internet selection. Most of the time it's a couple good movies among a bunch of lame or straight-to-DVD kind of movies. I feel like I've watched everything worth watching on Netflix, so that is why it is a pleasant surprise when they periodically add more.

I watched Sweet November. Ugh. I should have read Ebert beforehand. He is [almost] always a trustworthy critic. Keanu Reeves? Romantic? Really? I didn't buy it. It was somewhat painful and dull.

Meh. You win some. You lose some.

P.S. I'm also mad that last month I rented An Education. I mean that I actually went to Blockbuster and paid a whole 3 dollars because it was nowhere to be found in the plentiful Redboxes around town. If I had only known it would be on Netflix a month later... Oh well, it was still a delightful movie. I'll write about it sometime.

15 characters

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen fictional characters (television, films, plays, books) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you.

1. Mr. Keatings--Dead Poets Society
2. Tyler Durden--Fight Club
3. Tom Hansen or Summer Finn--500 Days of Summer
4. Charlie--The Perks of Being a Wallflower
5. Sam--Garden State
6. Ellie Arroway--Contact
7. Jane Eyre--Jane Eyre
8. Holly Golightley--Breakfast At Tiffany's
9. Grendel--Grendel
10. Katherina--Taming of the Shrew
11. The Narrator--El cuarto de atrás
12. Holden Caulfield--The Catcher in the Rye
13. The Monster--Frankenstein
14. Ella--Ella Enchanted
15. Bad Blake--"Crazy Heart"

Cursed

I am an imdb/movie buff.

I've slowly come to realize this.

I love referencing and discussing movies and pop culture. BUT, the curse of the movie buff is that you have to sift through a lot of lame movies to find a good one. You start to see every plot hole and every narrative ploy to keep the story rolling. Everything becomes cliche and insincere. You've seen everything before. Nothing amazes or even entertains you anymore.

It's annoying.

This ain't no place for the weary kind

I said I would blog about Crazy Heart, so here it goes...

This movie was my favorite kind of movie. I like when movies take their time when appropriate for the subject matter. I like movies that examine life and are not always constrained following the old cliche plot that peaks and falls.

Crazy Heart is about a washed-up old country singer who drinks his demons away. He meets Jean, a young woman who initially just wanted an interview, but ends up developing a friendship and love. Yes, there is a significant age difference, but maybe that is one meaning of the title Crazy Heart. I wish there was a better way to say "love knows no age." I think this movie showed that all people from all walks of life can create intimate connections with one another. Before you think it, this movie is not cliche, but it is not depressing just to avoid being cliche. And I like that. It's optimistic in a refreshingly realistic way.

You probably won't enjoy this movie if you're just looking for something to entertain you. Yes, that is one reason to watch movies, but that is not my only reason, and it is certainly not my priority when I watch movies. Crazy Heart requires you to feel what the characters feel. You ultimately leave evaluating yourself and what you want to live for and how you want your life to be and how you are going to look at people differently and how you are going to develop relationships.

It's just a beautiful movie.

Crazy Heart

Good movie.

I'm just in awe.

It's late right now, but I'll blog about it later.

It made me actually like real country music.

But that's not the point of the movie at all.

Great writing. Great acting. Great cinematography.

Phenomenal Movie...which is very refreshing these days.

i like a lot of movies with the word sunshine in them...

little miss sunshine, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, and now...

sunshine cleaning.

This movie was interesting. It provided a sort of euphemistic background to what the movie was really about: cleaning up crime scenes or places of death. I liked the depth of the two main characters. It may have been slow at times, but I think it was a small look and people's seemingly insignificant lives. I don't know. I liked it.

that's all.

Now I have to write a bloody sonnet. blahhhh

the world forgetting by the world forgot

Love love l o v e Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I guess I'm just a fan of quirky, thought-provoking movies about off-beat relationships. Sensing a pattern anyone?

Eternal Sunshine though is quite different than 500 days of Summer in its stylistic approach and character development. The agenda is also completely different. It's so weird how a similar archetype can be developed into something extraordinarily unique.

This movie has been haunting me all day. If you could erase the painful memories, the sour relationships, the regrets, the rash words...would you? Does this make our lives fundamentally better to forget all the bad?

The irony is in the title, which is a quote from Alexander Pope. Forgetfulness does not produce eternal sunshine. Ignorance is not bliss. It's more like a dreary day. You're stuck in limbo between the warmth and happiness of the summer sun and the crisp, sometimes unbearable cold of the winter months. Yet in their juxtaposition, they complete each other. Moderate temperature is the most loathed of all. It masquerades as a means to an end. It gives the promise of the tipping scale, but it really just leaves you longing. Longing for something more than dull and mediocre. Getting rid of the bad inherently pulls the good with it and you're left in the middle of the road with nowhere to go.

Before I drown in the philosophical deep end, see the movie. It's lovely.

I nominate young Werther here.

Okay, here is another post on 500 Days of Summer. I was on imdb.com, and there seems to be all these haters for the movie. So here is why I unabashedly love this movie:
-I like when film makers make a film. They include foreshadowing and symbolism. You can tell when a movie is just there for cash revenue. This is why I find value in a lot of indie flicks. (No, it's not because I want to be an artsy cliche.) Independent films still have some value--a message, a theme, a story... They make movies for movie's sake. I love movies, and I'm not ashamed. Film can be an art, but like most art forms (music, literature, painting, dance), it can be manipulated, down graded, and sold cheaply to the masses. This is contradictory toward the true purpose of art, which I believe is to express being. This involves everything associated with being human: emotion, action, reaction, conflict, politics, events, etc., etc., etc. Before I get didactic and off-topic, suffice it to say, I think 500 Days of Summer is a work of art with the best of intentions.
-The cinematography is beautiful and deliberate. I respect the fact that they paid homage to a city that usually gets trashed. Los Angeles has never been my destination of choice, but this movie changed my mind, and gave me a glimpse at the older, vintage, Hollywood-void LA. I started to appreciate architecture (something I knew nothing about) because of Tom, and the movie supported his love. I admire that the writers stood up for their city, and showed us why.
- The soundtrack is perfect.
-The blue scheme is unique. I admire the dedication they devoted to it.
-Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel were so natural in their roles. JGL mastered a wide array of emotion he was supposed to portray on the various days. I got choked up in just the way he looks at her at the end. No words were even necessary. I think he's very underated as an actor. ZD is very comfortable in her skin. She's quirky, but there is something about her that makes you understand that "Summer Effect."
-The expectations vs. reality scene was simply brilliant. It was executed flawlessly without too much confusion, and probably rings true with every person sometime in his/her life.
-I like the disorderly way the narrative was set. I feel that's how relationships often are when remembering back. You get snippets of good and bad. Memories mesh together. Time becomes irrelevant. This movie juxtaposed emotions sometimes delicately and sometimes starkly. Relationships bring out the full spectrum of human emotion.
-This wasn't an attack on women. It would be easy to say "women are just a ruthless and barbaric species who are out to crip-stomp every man's heart." The movie was not out to frame Summer. No one was the bad guy. Sometimes people don't feel the same way about each other. Sometimes people have walls that need to be broken down. Sometimes people remain blind to the negative in a relationship. Sometimes we do get our hearts broken, and no one is at fault. Sometimes life just happens.
-It's optimistic--not cynical, which is very refreshing.
-It's funny and cheerful mixed with serious, which is a hard balance to create. Thoroughly great writing by Marc Weber and Scott Neustadter.

To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die...

I feel proud that I liked the Smiths before (500) Days of Summer came out. Just saying...

If you haven't seen that movie yet, go see it!!!

I just love it. The soundtrack is phenomenal. Regina Spektor, Feist, Simon & Garfunkel...

I really can't get enough of the movie. It's brilliant. I want to watch it everyday.

I wish there were more Toms out there.