16 Days of Birthday, Day 16: The Best R16's I Watched Before I Was 16

So yes, today is the day. The day that I am finally 16...the age I have been waiting to see since my Dad first bought the local Blockbuster. Now the only movies I can't get out myself are the R18's...but no one seems to make those anymore. The censors never stopped me, though. I've been watching R16's for the past five years. But today I'm watching In Bruges, on my brand new blu-ray player (yay!), which just so happens to be an R16...and the first one I have ever watched legally.

To celebrate myself finally being 16, I shall list 16 of my favourite R16's. And I'm sure some censor Nazi will come along and arrest me for watching all of these movies while being underage...or something like that.

American Beauty
Age watched at: 15
Sam Mendes' brilliant debut feature which won a whole swag of Oscars and has some brilliant performances by Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey is a movie which I can't wait to own now I can go out and buy it for myself. Hey, it might not be 1999 any more, but this film still has some relevant things to say about the modern world.

Black Swan
Age watched at: 15
The funny thing about this movie is that I told everyone that they have to be very mature in order to handle this movie. This was coming from someone who wasn't legally allowed to watch it! Oh well, I watched at least 5 times as a 15 year old...and I still think I'm more mature than others!

Blue Valentine
Age watched at: 15
This movie was supposed to be an NC-17 in the US, which is the equivalent to an R18 here, all thanks to one not-so-bad sex scene. Wow, the censors sometimes get pretty touchy! I still feel pretty emotionally damaged by this film, though. I cried far too much at the end, and just about made a vow that I'd never get married.

Carrie
Age watched at: 11
As I said in last night's post...I got pretty obsessed with this movie. Which was dumb since it was an R16 meaning I couldn't get it out every time I wanted to watch it. I also think this was the first 'true' R16 I saw, with all the language and violence and whatnot.

The Departed
Age watched at: 13
I watched this one when it was on TV because of my devotion towards Leonardo DiCaprio. It's fair to say, I really do love this film - it's one of my favourite Scorsese movies. Now I can buy it, and watch it over and over again!

District 9
Age watched at: 14
Oh, this movie is just hilarious. Wikus van der Merwe is pretty much my idol - everything he said pre-prawn days was bloody funny. Unfortunately, the amount of cursing and violence in this movie tried to ensure that little 14 year old me shouldn't have been watching this movie...but there's no way that I could have waited to see this brilliant sci-fi for another two years.

The Godfather
Age watched at: 15
Of course, this movie is essential for every person who even wants to consider themselves as a cinephile, so I didn't really want to wait much longer than I did to watch it. I actually watched part of it back when I was 12, when it was on TV once. It's fair to say, the only thing that worried me about this movie was the fact that I took so bloody long to see the film.

The Hangover
Age watched at: 14
The Hangover is probably one of my favourite comedies. I pretty much love gross-out comedies, and this one is the best. It was my favourite movie for quite a while (yes, I realise that might be worrying, but I did watch it every day for a month), but now it's a movie which I like watching when things get a little on the tough side - it always cheers me up.

The Hurt Locker
Age watched at: 14
I'm probably going to go buy this movie very soon. Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar winning bomb disposal film is one which I really like for a whole lot of reasons: Jeremy Renner, the manliness of it all and the heart it has. Thanks to it's censor rating, I had watched every other Best Picture nominee before I got around to watching the winner - and while I don't think it was as good as some of the other nominees, I was definitely on Team Hurt Locker rather than Team Avatar.

Inglourious Basterds
Age watched at: 14
I should really stop choosing favourite directors that always make highly-censored films. First there is David Fincher, who hasn't made anything too bad in a while but I'm sure that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be an R18; then there is Quentin Tarantino, who has never made anything under an R16. I was pretty pissed that I couldn't watch Inglourious Basterds when it first came out, so as you could imagine, I was pretty excited about the DVD release. Luckily, my expectations were reached.

Knocked Up
Age watched at: 12
As I said, I love gross-out comedies. Judd Apatow was at his best when he made Knocked Up, the hilarious pregnancy tale starring Seth Rogen before he lost weight and Katherine Heigl before she became the new Jennifer Aniston. I remember I got a poster of this to proudly display in my room as a cool R16 that I saw - I thought I was so grown up.

Let the Right One In
Age watched at: 14
In last night's post I shared with you the first review I ever did on this blog, which just so happened to be about this film. I feel like this movie is a little too tame to be an R16, but it is a really violent and sadistic film beneath it all, rather than being a lot more up-front about it.

Magnolia
Age watched at: 15
I only watched this movie for the first time around three weeks ago, as Tyler from Southern Vision wanted me to watch it so much (it's his favourite movie), and I genuinely loved this movie. Paul Thomas Anderson has quickly become one of my favourite directors, and all three of the films of his that I have watched are to be added into my top 100 - this one probably coming out on top. Such an epic multi-plot film, featuring a side of Tom Cruise that I didn't ever think I'd see.

Memento
Age watched at: 14
Ah, well, this is my favourite movie of all time, so it's a bit of a no-brainer on this list, huh? I think that Chris Nolan should make some more R16 movies now that I am 16 and I could watch them with no strings attached. He's a good man, so he'll listen to me.

Pan's Labyrinth
Age watched at: 14
So yeah, this is a fairytale, right? Well it is, but not the kind that gets given a G rating. Instead, it's the kind that literally scared the bejesus out of me and featured some very beautiful-yet-odd images. I need this movie in my collection, pronto.

Psycho
Age watched at: 11
Back in the day, I used to be a real censor Nazi. I used to be so touchy about people my age watching R16's. One day Mum was like "Oh, I think it's time for you to see Psycho", so I was like "No Mum! It's an R16! I can't watch it!" After fighting with her for a while I finally got it out and we watched it together. There was my first introduction to Alfred Hitchcock. We've both watched many Hitchcock movies together, and I pretty much love them all...and I love my Mum, too.

Taken
Age watched at: 15
Okay, so this is just a fun one. I was like the only person in Dannevirke who hadn't seen this movie, until I watched it around a month ago. As you may know, I'm going through a bit of a Liam Neeson phase, and while he may star in some really crappy movies these days, Taken is seriously the shit. Like, I could watch Liam beat the crap out of everyone he comes across all day - but alas, this movie was enough. He was badass in this movie, and the movie itself was surprisingly very good!

What are some of your favourite movies that you watched underaged? And now this marathon is over, did you enjoy it?

16 Days of Birthday, Day 15: Movies that Mean Something to Me

Well we're nearing the end. Tomorrow I will be a legal 16 year old. Today I'm just a young 15 year old.Aren't birthdays just wonderful things?
For today's topic I've chosen something which I can get really sentimental over...the movies that mean something to me.What do I mean by this? The movies which I look at and have all of the sentiment for. To put it in simple terms these movies feel like pets to me. Nice fluffy ginger kittens if you want to get specific.

My first obsession with a movie.

Back in the early days of my interest in film I got a magazine which listed the top ten scariest horrors ever. I became obsessed with this page even though I never really had the balls back then to watch the movies on the list (although if I remember correctly I've probably watched at least half of them by now). One of the movies on that list that interested me the most though was Brian De Palma's 1976 classic Carrie. I was so interested by that iconic image of Sissy Spacek in a prom dress soaked in blood. So I got the movie out - this was probably in early 2007 - and watched it with my Mum. After that I was obsessed with the movie: I had to know every little detail of the movie and I read the book several times. The worst thing is that I don't even know why I was obsessed with the movie...

A movie which I have an undying love for.

Back in April 2008 I watched Gone with the Wind for the first time. At that point I didn't actually know that it was nearly 4 hours long so I was a little confused when it just stopped in the middle and then there was a little hand on the screen asking me to flip the disc over. That day I watched the whole thing thinking that I hadn't seen anything like it before. Truth is I still haven't seen anything that comes close to the sheer epicness and the masterful piece of film-making that it is. The technicolour is enchanting, the story is amazing and the acting is brilliance...it's truly one of a kind for me. It affected me so much that I made this huge booklet describing everything about the making of this movie (and no one, to this day, has ever seen it).

My favourite Christmas movie.

Some of you might like to watch a particular film on Christmas day. I usually catch The Wizard of Oz as it is always on TV that day. But the movie that I watch every year without fail is Meet Me in St. Louis. I don't really know why...it just fills me up with joy every time I watch it. My Christmas day just isn't the same without Judy Garland singing 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', Tootie getting up to all sorts of mischief and the final scene showing the Saint Louis World's Fair. Rather than being like a fluffy ginger kitten, for me this is more like an old friend who likes to bring around honey all the time

The first movie that I ever blogged about.

This movie just so happens to be in my top ten favourite movies of all time. Back on October 21st, 2009, I started this blog by writing this review:

Today I watched a Swedish Horror movie called 'Let the Right One In' (2009). I'd heard many good things about this film, by reading reviews on imdb.com and in Empire magazine. This movie sure was great. You see, people tend to think that Twilight dominates the vampire genre, but it doesn't, not compared to this film. Sadly, I think people don't watch subtitled films because 'they're too hard to keep up with'. Well, this was the first subtitled film I'd ever watched, and I didn't find it hard at all. In fact, I completely forgot that the characters were talking in some language that sounded like gibberish. The story revolves around a young bullied boy, who meets a strange girl in the courtyard outside their block of apartments. The girl has a secret though...she's a vampire who feasts on the blood of innocent people in Stockholm. While watching this, I didn't feel that it was that freaky, but after thinking about it, it was quite a violent and sadistic film. I will remember this film forever as the best vampire film. Don't knock it until you've watched it.
10/10

If my reviewing skills haven't become any better since then, I sure do write a lot more! I love this film a lot more than I did back then, though, thanks to it's beauty and thrilling cross between horror and arthouse.

My favourite experience at the movies.

Technically, there are three favourite experiences that I've had, and they're all for the same movie. You probably already know what they are: the three times I watched Inception. It's pretty much impossible for me to choose which screening was my favourite. The first time was amazing, because well, it was my first viewing of the movie after months of anticipating it, and it turned out to top my expectations. I like the effect it had on me afterwards, too: I cried once the credits rolled and I was shaking for quite a while after leaving the cinema. The second time was cool because I got to take two more friends, and everybody started clapping at the end. The third time may have been the most fun because I got to take six friends with me for my birthday party. We had a grand old time, but the funniest thing was when the audience all got really pissed off at the end.
So I guess I should thank my friends for making those experiences awesome: Maxine (who saw it with me all three times), Kieran and Megan (who saw it with me twice), and Cassie, Tania and Georgia.

And, of course, my favourite movie...

Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking that Schindler's List might be my favourite movie, but I really can't place it over Christopher Nolan's Memento. While Memento may not be a film that I have watched that many times, nor a film which I feel like watching often, I still absolutely love it. I really do like movies that aren't in chronological order. Memento is the king of movies that aren't in chronological order. I always feel like I have this movie all figured out, but then I remember that it's going in the opposite direction to me and I have to figure it out all over again. Usually I forget small details that make this movie make sense, so it's always like watching a new movie for me. Such a rare trait that it possesses - and that's why I love it.

So what are some of your 'fluffy ginger kitten' movies?

16 Days of Birthday, Day 14: I Like to Cry at Movies

Remember how in that post I did about happiness in movies, I said that I prefer watching depressing movies or movies that make me cry? Well yeah, I'm a big crier at the movies. I will literally cry at anything.

You know, I used to be such a tough girl. I used to feel sad at some movies, but I never used to cry in them. No way, I was too tough for that kind of shit. That was until I watched the original version of A Star is Born (the one that was made in 1937 and it has Janet Gaynor in it), and I found myself tearing up a bit at the end of it. At first I was pretty angry at myself for breaking my rule of not crying, but little did I know that this was the start of something new. After that little episode, I was soon tearing up at anything. These days, if a movie has one shred of emotion in it, I will cry like a baby.

If I were to choose a movie which I've cried the most in, it would probably have to be Requiem for a Dream. And I think I was crying a lot more the second time I watched it, mainly because I had my friend crying along with me. How is it that the movie is so traumatizing, even though no-one dies? Well, it's like all of the characters die inside, which is pretty sad to watch. Then there's Clint Mansell's scary music blaring in the background, which I think sounds exactly like the struggle of life. But the one thing that makes me feel absolutely wrecked is when Sara Goldfarb has her last dream of being on TV, right before the credits start to roll. From there on, I'm left frozen in front of the screen, with tears just streaming down my face. I think watching this movie twice is enough for me.

The movie which I cried the most in at the cinemas, however, is probably Never Let Me Go. You know, the totally underrated and forgotten movie that was adapted from one of the best books ever. This movie is endlessly sad for me, because I really don't want to imagine living a life which is set out for me. In fact, I don't want to imagine a life where some people are kept away so much from the outside world, partly because that's what they're made to do and partly because the rest of the world seemed very ashamed of those poor donors. When I think about all that kind of stuff, even though it's not real, it makes me really sad. Brb, I'm just crying into my keyboard...

As you know, I'm a huge fan of Schindler's List. I cry a lot during this movie because I just can't believe that something as horrible as that could have happened in history. But the moment which I always have a good cry in is during Oskar's "I could have done more" speech. Why? Well, Liam Neeson totally owns in that scene (I miss those days, Liam, please let your sensitive side show again?), but I would have said the exact same thing. I would have cried because I couldn't save one more. Then again, I'm not a player or a guy who is obsessed with money...Oskar's transformation just makes that scene all the more sweet. Now I'll tell you a semi-funny story: me and my drama class were watching this because we wanted to get a better idea of the Holocaust for our Anne Frank unit. When we got up to this scene, I started crying a lot. I mean, tears were streaming down my face so much and I had to keep mopping them up with my jersey sleeve. Luckily I composed myself right when the credits started rolling, and everyone was looking around giving each other the 'that was a good movie' look. In ICT, we started talking about the movie and one girl was like "I nearly cried at the end!" So I blurted out, "I was in tears at the end...I couldn't stop myself!" Then the guy who was sitting next to me while watching the movie said "I didn't see you crying!" Wow. Either he is blind and deaf or I'm just a really composed crier.

Anyway, those are my main crying movies that never fail to make use a box of tissues.

Here, however, is a list of the weirdest movies I've ever cried in:

• Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (when she gets a surprise birthday party...I wish I could have one of them but I always find out)
• Love and Other Drugs (okay, so I didn't cry during the movie. I just had a mental breakdown at the end of it for no reason - the movie was pretty dull)
• Gone with the Wind (it took me six watches to actually cry during the movie)
• Black Swan (I still don't know why I shed a tear during that movie...but it happened)
• Inception (the first time I saw it I cried so much - now I just cry at the sight of Christopher Nolan's name for some silly reason)
• The King's Speech (when I watched this with my cat when it first came out on DVD I cried rather vocally during the end speech...needless to say, my cat was scared)

What are some movies that you have had memorable crying experiences in? I'd like to know some weird ones!

16 Days of Birthday, Day 13: Music in the Movies

If you were to look through my iPod at the moment, you would be sad to find that I do not have any Justin Bieber. Or any of that rap crap that I am forced to listen to in ICT (i.e. a song that only has the words 'everybody in the club getting tipsy'). Or any emo screamo or whatever the hell it is called. If you were to judge me through my iPod, I think you would find that I'm not a normal teenager. Nor am I one of those hipster kids who only listen to indie music. Instead, at least 75% of my iPod is filled with songs from the movies, mainly full soundtracks.

I pretty much listen to my iPod every night, usually while I'm blogging, because I pretty much hate silence. And with all this movie music on my musical device, it all ties in, doesn't it? There are quite a few songs which I always have to listen to every time they come around on shuffle. Because everyday I'm shufflin'. And here they are:

According to iTunes, my most played song on my iPod is 528491 by Hans Zimmer off the wonderful Inception soundtrack. Now, all of you people probably love the track Time (more on that soon), but 528491 has to be my favourite. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: put this on your iPod, stick in your headphones, turn this song on full blast and close your eyes...it is more epic than the movie itself. The song has so many layers and it always reminds me of Cillian Murphy's eyes - mainly because this song is used while the camera is looking straight at him.

I'm also a huge fan of the track Time, don't worry. This song is so amazingly beautiful and it just adds more epicness to an already epic ending. To be honest, Time was probably the soundtrack to my latter half of 2010. I used to listen to it like five times a day.

The Social Network's soundtrack, composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, has quite a few songs on my most played list. The one that has been played the most is surprisingly track #14, Magnetic'. This is the one which is played during the first meeting between Sean, Mark, Eduardo and Christy Lee, even though in the movie it's given a bit more of an Asian vibe to fit with the sushi bar they're at. I don't know why I love this song so much...I think it is probably because it's so frustratingly fun, just like the character of Sean Parker.

There are so many other songs that I like from The Social Network, though. If I were to rank the songs on the album from best to worst, the list would go something like this:

1. Magnetic
2. In Motion
3. A Familiar Taste
4. Intriguing Possibilities
5. The Gentle Hum of Anxiety
6. Soft Trees Break the Fall
7. In the Hall of the Mountain King
8. Pieces Form the Whole
9. Painted Sun in Abstract
10. Penetration
11. Almost Home
12. Hand Covers Bruise
13. On We March
14. It Catches Up with You
15. Complications with an Optimistic Outcome
16. Eventually We Find Our Way
17. Hand Covers Bruise, Reprise
18. 3:14 Every Night
19. Carbon Prevails

Haven't listened to The Social Network soundtrack yet? You can do so on Youtube here. I reckon that this soundtrack is probably one of the best modern soundtracks out there...it's just so damn perfect for the movie!

The Black Swan soundtrack by Clint Mansell (inspired by the work of Tchaikovsky) is one which I bought pretty much straight after I watched the movie around Oscar time. While most of this score is basically Tchaikovsky's work, Mansell does some amazing things with it, such as playing the Swan Lake songs in a distorted manner and giving his own paranoid twist to them. Two of my particular favourites are:

Perfection - This song is probably my favourite because it is the exact music played from the time Nina kisses Thomas to the very end. And if you've seen the film, then you know the ending is pretty damn epic, but still very beautiful. In five minutes, this song seems to capture every emotion that little Nina could possibly be going through at that point. Which makes for an amazing, heart-stopping and pretty song which is the perfect end to an almost perfect film.

Opposites Attract - Okay, so this song is the one that is played during that sex scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. But it is also the song which is played in the trailer, which I heard a lot when I was at work, therefore my ears really warmed to the song. It's a pretty cool song which has this really weird strain of evil in it...very good, very good.

In Kick-Ass there were two very awesome John Murphy songs which were incidentally both in Danny Boyle movies.

The first is Kaneda's Death, Pt. 2 (Adagio in D Minor), which is from one of the most underrated movies ever, Sunshine. It can be seen in Kick-Ass when Hit-Girl is trying to save Big Daddy...what an epic moment. If any of you keep up with the trailers, then you'll probably recognise it from The Adjustment Bureau's trailer. This is one stirring song which always makes me feel like someone on the moon bouncing around. Don't judge me.

The second in In the House - In a Heartbeat, from the scene where Jim is trying to save himself and his friends. The song starts out all nice, but then it goes totally badass at the end making for the perfect track to go with any action sequence. Which is shown in Kick-Ass, too, as this song is used in a scene which nearly made me forgive Nicolas Cage for all of his past mistakes: the one where he is setting fire to the warehouse. So badass.

Another Clint Mansell song that I really like is Lux Aeterna from Requiem for a Dream. Of course, this song is pretty much a staple for any movie lover as it is now used everywhere. But who remembers it in Requiem? That traumatic piece of music backing an already traumatic scene. While I'd like to blame Darren Aronofsky for wrecking my life forever after watching that movie, I think it's all Mansell's fault. This song still terrifies me.

The Theme from Schindler's List is a particular favourite of mine, too. Well, obviously, since the movie just so happens to be one of my favourites and John Williams' score work couldn't have been more impeccable. With Itzhak Perlman playing the violin, Williams manages to put every shred of pain, sadness and the heroism from Oskar Schindler into this achingly beautiful piece of music. It always makes me feel like crying, usually because when I hear this song I always think of Oskar saying "I could have done more!"

And just for randomness, here are some songs which I like that just so happen to be in movies (but they're not from scores or anything like that):


Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap - from (500) Days of Summer


Black Sheep by Metric - from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World


Hero by Regina Spektor - from (500) Days of Summer


Letters from the Sky by Civil Twilight - from I Am Number Four (movie sucks, the song is amazing)


I'll Try Anything Once by The Strokes - from Somewhere


Where is My Mind? by The Pixies - from Fight Club


La Boquilla (Dixone Remix) by Bomba Estereo - from Limitless


Stand Up by The Prodigy - from Kick-Ass


Little Green Bag by George Baker Selection - from Reservoir Dogs


You've Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger by Beth Rowley - from An Education

What are some of your favourite pieces of music from the movies?

16 Days of Birthday, Day 12: Quentin Tarantino's Awesomeness

We all know that there are too many war movies being made. Yes, that World War II was a very interesting period of time. And seven times out of ten the movies are actually really good. But you know what's better than having history happen before your eyes???

Having that guy, Quentin Tarantino, change history before your eyes.

Having history changed is a pretty risky move. But when it is done by Quentin Tarantino, the king of all things cool, it is pretty amazing. People may have doubted Inglourious Basterds because there was an e where there was supposed to be an a and there was an extra u creeping it's way into the title. But who cares? I am one of those firm believers that Inglourious Basterds is a masterpiece. Seriously, I could watch Aldo Raine and his basterds scalping Nazis, Hans Landa laughing at Bridget von Hammersmark's 'misfortunes' and The Bear Jew smacking the shit out of a guy every day. If only there were more hours in the day...

Quentin's reimagining of what happened to Adolf Hitler and his Jew-hating followers is one which isn't believable, in the slightest. But does that really matter? No. I had a lot of fun watching this. I must admit, when I first watched this film, I was a bit dubious of the first chapter. But this was because, back in the day, I was a bit ADD and had to have things jumping out of the screen to grab my attention. Thankfully, that's changed. Any time I watch this film now, I am still completely engrossed in what is happening on the screen.

50% of the time I am waiting around for Hans Landa to grace the screen again. I'm sure I'm not the first person who has said it, but Christoph Waltz is simply genius in this movie. Every time the guy falls silent, I am scared shitless. Every time he smiles, I am scared shitless. But most of the time I just feel like laughing at him...he's a bit lost in his little world, which I find quite funny.

That's not to say that I forget about the other stars, though. Everyone looks like they are having a lot of fun. My other favourite performances in the film are the ones from Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent. These two blonde and beautiful actresses have their parts down to a tee - Kruger playing the glamazon actress who uses her charm and fame to become a spy; Laurent playing a Jewish girl in disguise who has a cinema and a plan (a plan which is awesome, by the way).

I particularly like Kruger in the chapter "A German Night in Paris". This chapter is probably my favourite out of all of them (followed closely by the final chapter, of course). Every thing is perfect in this chapter. From Kruger's introduction, being both smart and still living up to her actress reputation, to Michael Fassbender being ultra-sexy through speaking German. Things seem to skate pretty level in this scene until Fassy accidentally blows his cover by holding the wrong three fingers up. Then what happens? Just a casual shoot-up, leaving the actress and the new father to be the only ones alive. The Tarantino-favourite Mexican stand-off and a new master plan follows. How is this chapter not genius? Better question: how is Quentin Tarantino not a genius?

The one thing I really like about QT is the fact that he basically writes and directs his movies with himself in mind. His scripts always drip with pop-culture references and homages to his favourite films (that is the main reason as to why I love Inglourious Basterds so much). You see, if I were to ever become a film-maker like I want to be, I'd probably be writing scripts similar to his. Mainly because 99% of what I say is usually from a movie, and usually the people I know haven't seen any of the movies which I quote, so they think I'm a bloody genius every time I say something. I'm like a walking homage...

Anyway, what I'm meaning to say is that whether it be Inglourious Basterds (probably my favourite film of his) or Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino has always been - and will always be - a favourite of mine. His films always lift me up if I'm in a bad mood, even with all their violence and blood. He's a guy who doesn't make films for money or status. He make movies because he can, and he can do it really well. And through all of that, he seems to be teaching his audience something. Which he doesn't do through pounds of metaphors or hidden messages.

He just is awesomeness, all the way through to his core.

What's your favourite Quentin Tarantino movie?

16 Days of Birthday, Day 11: You Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Make Me Happy...

Yes, I did just quote Tropic Thunder. I still find the fake 'Simple Jack' trailer one of the funniest things ever. As much as I'd like to sit here and talk to you about why Robert Downey Jr is the best at being an American playing an Australian playing a black dude etc etc, that won't be the case tonight. No. It's gloomy outside, the polar blast is still lurking around New Zealand (but no snow for Dannevirke...grrrrrrrrrrrr), and I'm feeling a bit under the weather. So I thought I better write a happy post!


You know, there are rarely any moments when I watch movies just to be happy. Usually I just stick a movie in and there you have it (I shall be watching Biutiful later tonight, which doesn't look like it will be a happy ride at all). If I had a type, I definitely do like watching movies which make me cry or really sad. But there are some movies which just make me happy. They make me smile like an idiot at the end, even if they aren't jovial right the way through.

At the moment, everybody seems to hate romantic comedies. Which is probably a good thing, considering that 99% of them are a load of crap and watching two people being in love isn't as interesting as it was back in the days of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. But you know one pretty recent romantic comedy that is actually awesome? (500) Days of Summer. Okay, so maybe it's more of an anti-romantic comedy, but either way, it still speaks the truth about many relationships and why they sometimes don't work out. While I wished that Tom and Summer could have been together at the end, I'm always smiling ear to ear once the credits roll. That's probably because this film, after all the depression that Tom goes through after being dumped by Summer, takes one last stab at happiness right at the very end. It comes in both the form of Tom finally realising that there are more things in life than the love of Summer Finn, and a very clever inside joke between the viewer and the film.

I'll admit, I'm secretly a hopeless romantic. You know, one day, I'd love a guy like Tom Hansen. Yet, another reason why I love (500) Days of Summer is the fact that it is so coy about love, as it's essentially about learning that love isn't the fairytale it seems to be. That's what really makes me happy. Yes, the film looks at a romantic relationship between a man and a woman. But in this one, Katherine Heigl doesn't get the guy who she really hated at the beginning. Instead, we see love happen. It may not be true love, but it's there. Then, we see the ultimate heartbreak through the brilliant expectations/reality scene, as Tom's fantasy falls down around his ears by seeing what actually happens. Yeah, reality will always be there to make sure that we don't live our lives through a fantasy. This is when I feel pretty sad for the guy, which makes the end all the more happy. And while Tom spends most of his post-Summer days in a state of depression, when he finally meets Summer again, he was able to take it like a man. (500) Days of Summer may have it's twee glossy coat, but really, there's a world of depression and sadness underneath it all. But it still manages to make me smile in the end.

Like I did with (500) Days of Summer, I can usually find happiness in the most unlikely films. For example, I always feel really happy when I finish watching Let the Right One In. This film, to me, is one of the most beautiful portrayals of friendship in a film. It features two outcasts, one being a young bullied boy and another being a young vampire who has lived for hundreds of years. Sure, it's unlikely, but this movie is essentially an allegory for having a friend who will always be there for you. My heart always shatters when I see the note Eli wrote - "I must be gone and live, or stay and die" - because this means that poor little Oskar has no-one yet again. But every time I see that amazing swimming pool scene, I'm instantly lifted. I think the bond between Eli and Oskar is so sweet, especially because of how Eli could help Oskar when he was in so much trouble. The final scene, showing Oskar in the train using morse code to communicate with Eli who is in a box, always makes me happy. Mainly because I love how they can help each other so effortlessly, whereas before they met each other, they were struggling to help themselves.
 
There are plenty of other weird movies that make me really happy (seriously, Inglourious Basterds will never fail to make me smile like someone on drugs). Oh yeah, and there are movies which make me happy once they finally end (uh, Sucker Punch, anyone?). But hey, I'm strange like that.
 
What are some movies which make you happy?

16 Days of Birthday, Day 10: My Many Man-Crushes

I'm not gonna lie, I genuinely find a lot of men in the film industry to be rather good looking. Usually, when I like an actor enough, I start stalking their IMDb pages and looking for movies I can watch with them in it. While you might just dismiss it as a creepy teenage obsession, these little love affairs I have with people I don't even know have their advantages. For example, there are some movies that I would have missed without stalking their IMDb pages. And yes, that's what I'll be taking a look at today: the movies I love from the actors I love that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. Because I'm both a shallow person and I want an excuse to look at hot pictures (jokes...).

As you can clearly see in my sidebar, I've got a little obsession going with Ralph Fiennes at the moment. Over the past few weeks, I've watched quite a few of his movies (Schindler's List twice...I can't get over how unbelievably good looking he is in that movie even though he's so evil). But a couple of nights back, I watched this movie called Strange Days. When I cleaned the shelves at work during the holidays, I stumbled upon this DVD, which has probably been there for years, and was drawn in by the name 'Ralph Fiennes'. I finally got my sister to get it out for me (it's an R18 for pretty obvious reasons) and pretty much went into it blind. All I knew was the fact that it starred Ralph 'sex on legs' Fiennes back in his early days, and it was written by James Cameron and directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Once I finished this movie, I was so glad that I watched it, but kinda sad that it isn't widely-known. Holy crap, this movie was adrenaline through and through, with it's sci-fi brilliance and a bit of originality that seems to be lacking these days. Seriously, you need to see this movie. It's directed like a man would direct it (Kathryn Bigelow is my idol!), it requires a bit of brain power, it's totally satisfying in the end and Ralph Fiennes is literally at his best (both looks wise and acting wise - he's BADASS!). And hey, it was made in the year I was born.

Now Cillian Murphy is a guy who I feel everybody should obsess over, because he's got some great, severely underrated movies out there. I've seen a whole lot: Sunshine, Peacock, Red Eye, Perrier's Bounty, The Wind That Shakes the Barley...but one I hold close to my heart is Breakfast on Pluto. Between me being jealous of how pretty Cillian looks as a chick and how flawlessly he plays his role, there is some genuine heart and whimsy in this movie. It's a film that doesn't take itself too seriously, which eventuates in a whole lot of flaws, but Patrick 'Kitten' Braden is one awesome character. He's one which is fearless, always happy and usually does the right thing, even though people don't believe in him. This is probably the best example of what Cillian can do...

We all know Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He is the guy who experienced a huge boom in his career thanks to an indie romantic comedy called (500) Days of Summer. But we also all know that he has been around forever. From the time he was working on the really cool TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun to being Christopher Nolan's latest go-to actor, JGL has working at a damn good filmography. I'm a huge fan of Brick, a modern day film-noir set in a high school. Who knew that high school could ever be so dirty? To this day, I still have these resounding nightmares about how interesting Lukas Haas is as 'The Pin'. Maybe there's someone like him around Dannevirke and I just don't know it.

Andrew Garfield is a name you should all probably know by now. Last year, his career sky-rocketed thanks to some movie about a website called The Social Network. People loved him, just not enough to give him an Oscar nomination. One movie he did win something for, though, was Boy A. Back in 2007, he got a BAFTA for his brilliant performance in this made-for-TV drama about an ex-con trying to make his way in the world. Young Andrew was at the beginning of his career then, but he looks like he's been acting for most of his life in films just like this. It's a heart-breaking and gritty story, which takes it's time to unfold the story behind the story, which leads the viewer to draw their own conclusions about Garfield's character. I do have to wonder how Andy will handle The Amazing Spider-Man, because in Boy A he exhibits some really good acting skills that aren't perhaps the best for a superhero (or a teenage boy, for that matter). Anyway, I'm sure he'll rock.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure that Michael Fassbender is going to be in everything soon. Everyone wants a piece of him...or to be one of his many teeth. I admit to falling prey to his charm and badassery in X-Men: First Class, and I'm slowly making my way through his awesome filmography. One of his films which I particularly liked was Fish Tank. This movie is one which has become pretty well known, especially since Fassy's instant rise to fame thanks to being Magneto. The film mainly focuses on a rebellious teenage girl, with Fassy playing her mother's new boyfriend. Let me tell you, while this guy seems like a real family man who only means good, there is plenty of creep in him. Fassy and his young co-star Katie Jarvis make for a great duo inn this perfectly realistic and gritty look at a teenager trying to find her place in the world.

I don't really know what to ask here...ah, maybe...has a love for any particular actor introduced you to something special?

16 Days of Birthday, Day 9: "You like that movie?"

As many of you may know, I work at a video store. Working at a video store generally means that you often have to recommend movies a lot. Which just so happens to be the thing that I am worst at. Because, I'm pretty sure that nobody in Dannevirke has the same taste in movies as I do. And I'm not one of those old film snobs high on their pedestal...I'm just the teenager who is trying to avoid film snob status.

At the store we have these things called 'staff favourites'. We get a little square of paper and we stick a movie review on it because we really recommend it. Of course, me being me, I usually have the most of these. But I must say, many of the films I pick barely made it through a healthy cinema release, and aren't really considered 'mainstream' here. In fact, off the top of my head, the only 'mainstream' movies I can remember that I staff favourited are Inception, True Grit and The King's Speech.

Then again, Dannevirke being Dannevirke, 'mainstream' has a whole different meaning to what you think it is. The only films that fit into the mainstream category are pretty much just action flicks and gross out comedies. Meh, I like some of these movies, but not enough to staff favourite them. No, I'm more into picking the movies that everyone I know hates, but they were really well received by some of us film-lovers. I'm pretty sure that no one can really understand why a 15 year old girl would like such movies, but there you have it.

One of my proudest moments was when I staff picked Somewhere. You know the one - the really slow Sofia Coppola flick that really doesn't go anywhere. Okay, so maybe the staff pick was more of a warning. If I were to find another person within a 10 kilometre radius of my house that liked it, I would be more than surprised. But to me, while I notice the flaws in Somewhere and why most people hate it, the movie is a beautiful observation of Hollywood life. And guess what? It's done by someone who knows what they are talking about. Plus, Coppola's film-making style is so romantic...I couldn't help but love it. It probably did help that I watched Love and Other Drugs before slipping this in the player, and I was in quite an emotional state (that wasn't due to Love and Other Drugs...that movie was terrible).

A Single Man is another movie I picked. A lot of people I talked to said that it wasn't a very nice movie at all. Which is fair enough, because I'm sure that a movie that deals with death and depression and gay lovers isn't everyones cup of tea. But my goodness, I love this movie to bits. I think it's such a beautifully made and horribly sad movie which observes a day in the life of a fractured soul so well. Unfortunately, very few people I know have been able to see this. Maybe Tom Ford shoulda put some more bombs in it, eh?

The one movie people have a lot of trouble with me liking (though I wasn't around to staff pick it when it came out) is Brokeback Mountain. Now, I know a lot of you film-lovers really dig it, and it obviously should have won Best Picture back in 2006. But let me tell you a story of a customer who rented this movie out. She said she rented it out for a laugh. That's not all she said, though. She started going on about how "disgusting" the movie was and then embarked on a homophobic rant condemning the movie. I don't think I've ever been so angered by another human being in my presence ever in my life. First of all, Brokeback Mountain is one damn good movie with such brilliant performances and direction - plus, it's a moving love story, just as worthy as any other love story. And hey, if you don't like the choices that other people make, it doesn't mean you have the right to condemn it.

Anyway, while I tend not to like anything by Michael Bay or the latest Ashton Kutcher movie, I'm pretty happy with the movies I like. Because, to be honest, at least I'm getting the most out of my movie watching.

Any similar experiences to mine?

16 Days of Birthday, Day 8: Social Networking and Movies

I feel as if I have done way too many posts in this marathon which are just lists. So why not ramble on a bit today? After all, it's Sunday, there's a 'snow storm' headed our way, and I'm very tired. Therefore, rambling sounds good to me.

Anyone remember when I did this post back in May? It was all about the war between Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time, and The Hurt Locker, the little war movie that 'robbed' it of the Best Picture Oscar. But that wasn't the only war I talked about in the post. There was a bit of hate going around for The Hurt Locker, which came in the form of Facebook 'like' pages. Which just goes to show that people now have a new platform to unleash their hate towards a movie on...even though it is so so wrong.

Okay, so you all know me. I'm a teenage girl, on the cusp of reaching the legal age, who spends a fair amount of her time lurking around the internet. The essential websites I can be found on most are: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and of course, Blogger. Now these are all websites that don't deal with movies specifically, unlike IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. In those places, it's perfectly natural to unleash a bit of negativity towards a movie, because those sites are based around people's opinions towards a movie. Blog sites are made for opinions too. Most of the movie-related comments on YouTube are spammers anyway, going on about "how great the van dropping off the bridge in a layer of dream" was in Legion. Twitter is pretty good to the movie lovers. Facebook is the one social networking site I have a real problem with.

Okay, maybe I just have a problem with those damn 'like' pages. Like, seriously? Why would you even 'like' a page just to say you hate a movie? Actually, why would you even go to all that effort to make a page like that? I think it's just ridiculous.

Let's go back to the Avatar and The Hurt Locker war on Facebook. I'll start by saying this: I like The Hurt Locker a lot more than Avatar. Yes, that probably makes me one of those 'film snobs' in the Facebook like page maker's eyes. But I do have to agree that Avatar did something great with film-making, and I guess the fact that it lost Best Picture to a tiny movie that most people hadn't even heard of was pretty...er...surprising. However, I can't imagine these Facebook page makers would even really care that much about the Oscars. They only cared in this situation because they'd never heard of The Hurt Locker (and probably hadn't seen it before the Oscars) and pretty much everyone on Earth has seen Avatar. There are a lot of people who love Avatar to death, and everything else just looked inferior compared to it. So no, its not a matter of 'hating' The Hurt Locker itself. Its a matter of resenting the fact that the cat got beaten by the mouse...or something like that.

On the flipside, Tumblr is a site which tends to over-love a movie. When I first got myself an account on there, it was back in July last year, which just so happens to be when Inception was first released. You think I was obsessed with this movie? You should have seen the people on Tumblr! First came the many memes...the 'Strutting Leo' (as pictured to the right), the 'squinting Leo', the 'we need to go deeper'...the list is just endless. Some of them were really funny, I admit, but they quickly got old. The next thing was the many 'ships'. Now, if you're not up with the 'hip kids on the internet' lingo, a 'ship' is a relationship between two characters in the same movie that is endorsed by a person on the internet. In Inception, there are a lot of characters, so there were plenty of 'ships' to go around. There were the generic ones like Cobb and Mal, Arthur and Ariadne, and Yusuf and his cats. But the ship that was endorsed the most was one between Arthur and Eames. Out of this ship came many gifs, many graphics involving the two and even rather graphic artworks. You know, I've never seen anything like the Arthur and Eames ship. It spiralled out of control, and it was a little bit embarassing after a while. Ever since then, not one movie can escape these kinds of 'ships'. But nothing, absolutely nothing can beat the amount of fandom that Inception got on Tumblr (except for maybe Harry Potter).

There have been plenty of other movies to get all of this fandom. The Social Network had the famous ship between Mark and Andrew. Along with that, you could pretty much watch the entire movie in gifs on there because every line was so quotable. X-Men: First Class has had a little ship between Erik and Raven, and a huge ship between Erik and Xavier. Plus, the Tumblr universe has gone mad on Michael Fassbender, mainly comparing him to a shark because of his rather big smile (it's the 'new thing' to be one of Fassy's teeth). One of the newest ships that has just rolled around is for a movie that hasn't even been released yet: The Avengers. Which lucky superheroes get a ship? Captain America and Iron Man. Which is weird, considering Iron Man is Howard Stark's son, who like, gave Cap his powers.

So I'm going to wrap this up now since it's snowing in Dannevirke properly for the first time in eight years and I'm too excited to form coherent sentences. Social networking has it's ups for the movie industry...people have the power to easily tell people what they like and dislike about a movie without being a critic. But most of the time, social networking is a place where people can either unleash their hate in an extremely unhealthy way, or obsess over a movie in an unhealthy way. Either way, I'll just stick to my blogging.

What do you think about the relationship between social networking and movies?