Can We Take a Moment to Remember How Blue Valentine is Still Devastating?

Few spoilers in this post, but I imagine most of you should have seen it back in 2011. If you haven't, grab the tissues and come back later.

Did you know that the most fun thing you can do on a Sunday afternoon before you go to work is rewatch Blue Valentine and spend a good 20 minutes crying over it?

Didn't know that valuable information? Well I can 100% confirm that while rewatching Blue Valentine may not be the most happy experience, it is an experience nonetheless.

A little bit of context: I first watched Blue Valentine when it first came out on DVD in July 2011, when I was a tiny 15 year old enjoying the last days of illegally watching R16s. I have not been able to go back to it since. Until there came a Sunday when I thought: "I've got a couple of hours to kill, let's watch the most depressing film in my collection this side of Revolutionary Road."

Apparently I didn't really remember the magnitude of absolute earth-shattering devastation that this film brought to my world. Or I was watching it with different eyes when I was 15. But holy heck is this film depressing.

One thing that really took me by surprise this time around was the way Derek Cianfrance loves playing with his narratives. One of my favourite films from last year was his sophomore effort The Place Beyond the Pines. Here was a film that easily could have been split into three parts, yet he expanded his narrative beyond what he could have. He didn't only show the cause, but also showed the effect. I talk about this a lot more in my review of the film from last year, but to put it simply: I really admire Cianfrance's ambition. We're too often brushing simple narrative ambition under the rug for the more complex, confusing narratives drawing in a plethora of realms (however, that does make for some damn good cinema when it's done right).

My Movie Biography: How It All Started in 2006

In eight days, it'll be my blog's third anniversary, and I decided that I might as well do something special for it. I have three special things planned, but this is the first, which will run right up to the big day. What is the "Movie Biography". Well, it is basically a year by year look at the films that have shaped my love for films. Sometimes there'll be just two films (like there are today), other days there'll be heaps, but I thought I may as well share my inspiring and interesting (haha) anecdotes on how I came to love these films. Because I imagine if I ever got a biography written about me (which is kinda my lifelong goal), the chapters would be in the movies I've watched instead of normal things like "Stevee Taylor becomes an astronaut". Because we all know that's going to happen, which is why people will write a biography on me.

Let's start with my first favourite movie. Technically my love for Racing Stripes all happened in 2005, but 2006 was when I really started loving movies and when I really discovered that I loved this film. First of all, I'm sorry that I wasn't into arthouse movies when I was 11. If you had showed me The Tree of Life when I was that age, I probably would have gone on my Bebo and said "OMG The Tree of Life is my favourite movie!" I'm actually not joking. I used to believe I was cool because I knew of these movies, and even if I didn't understand them, I'd go "I LOVE THAT MOVIE!". Which is why you don't start loving movies when you're 11. Alas, behind that arthouse façade, my favourite movie was one with talking animals that had a zebra as a racehorse. This was for a whole raft of reasons:
-I don't mean to impress you, but my mother and I saw it TWICE. This was a big deal back in the day. I think we saw it our local cinemas, too, which means it was a really long time ago. I also think we saw it a second time because I had two broken arms and I couldn't do all that much. Including eat popcorn like a normal person, but the cinema was dark so no-one would have noticed how stupid I looked with two broken arms. Then again, one of my casts was glow in the dark...yeah, I really thought that out well. Alas, I think the fact that we went to go and see it twice was probably the reason why it was my favourite film.

5 Movie-Themed Biopics That I'd Like To See

Earlier in the week I caught up with My Week with Marilyn, which had Michelle Williams (in an Oscar-nominated, amazing performance) playing the one and only Marilyn Monroe and endure a week with Eddie Redmayne's boring Colin Clark. While the film was a perfectly serviceable look into the difficult shoot of The Prince and the Showgirl, directed by Laurence Olivier (a great Kenneth Branagh), it wasn't as interesting as it could have been. In fact, I spent the whole time wishing that I was watching biopics of other people. By the end of My Week with Marilyn, this is the list I came up with:

Vivien Leigh

This is a pretty obvious choice on my part. It's just that after reading four different biographies on her and then writing my own, I know how interesting her story is. While it would be a little bit exhausting to see her entire life play out on screen, it would be quite heart-breaking to see her descent into mental illness. Basically, anything around the time when she was filming Caesar and Cleopatra and what happened after that. Or, if we were wanting to go on a Blue Valentine route, we could chart the relationship between she and Laurence Olivier and how that dissipated over the year. Or maybe down a bit of a less-intense version of We Need to Talk About Kevin showing the slight disconnect between her and her daughter Suzanne. Or maybe just down the traditional road of making a movie about the making of Gone with the Wind. It has been done in a TV movie, but I feel like that story could be a whole lot more. With Vivien, there's a whole range of opportunities for stellar movies, which was one of the reasons why I didn't totally feel My Week with Marilyn: her character was treated poorly. Mind you, I suspect the problem with a biopic on Vivien is the fact that absolutely no-one could play her. She really was one in a million.

AAN: It Is All Over. And This is My 800th Post.

I only watched half of the Oscars. I decided not to go home 'sick' after all and I managed to not get my phone taken off me in class even though I checked it at least 20 times for winners. In fact, today has been an exciting day. In my English class, the teacher decided to ask the class for the 24 categories at the Oscars. Me being me, I knew all of them. As soon as the bell rung, I bolted out the door - and then the fire alarm went off, which was weird. I got home, found an online stream, but that got taken down. Luckily, a link I'd saved for last year's show worked this year. My life does not get more exciting than this.

All in all, even though I wasn't as excited this year, I was still jumping for joy all day at school. I'm sad it is over. I cried during the montage, because I'm going to miss the films like War Horse breaking my heart. Now, I will go through my year catching up on all of the films I missed - The Artist, A Separation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy...I can't wait until May when they start rolling out all of the awards season movies on DVD. While I felt that last year was better, at least it wasn't The King's Speech fronting this year of film.

My thoughts on the winners:

-We all knew that The Artist was going to win Best Picture. But I was doubtful, considering how strong Hugo was at the start of the show. Hopefully the win will speed up The Artist's expansion in NZ.

-I AM SO UNBELIEVABLY PISSED THAT VIOLA DAVIS DID NOT WIN BEST ACTRESS. I wanted Rooney Mara to win (and what a clip they showed of her), but this was the year for Viola. Anyway, Meryl Streep is a goddess. I loved what Colin Firth said to her. I miss him winning things.
-Even though I haven't seen The Artist, I am so glad that Jean Dujardin won. Anyone but George Clooney. I loved Jean's speech, too, I learned a thing or two from that.

DVD - Blue Valentine

Note: I was going to do a review on the X-Men trilogy tonight, but I changed my mind after watching Blue Valentine last night. Seriously, I've been chomping at the bit to do this review all day.

When I was young, I was always under the impression that I'd grow up, get a really good job, fall in love, get married and have children. It was that simple. Those thoughts were often surrounded by beautiful colours, fountains of hearts and any other form of happiness. But as time has gone by, that dream is slowly becoming dimmer. I don't know whether it comes from the fact that I've realised just how much cynicism there is in the work, or the fact that my parents don't live together anymore...or maybe it's just that I watch too many movies about marriages. I think most of those movies do sugarcoat married life a bit, though. However, watching Blue Valentine completely made my dream the darkest it has ever been. Yes, the film was a little too close to home, which made it all the more depressing, but seriously? I never want to fall in love now, for the fear of falling out of love when it's really just too late.

The tagline for Blue Valentine was simply "A Love Story". To a degree, that is true. Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) were once in love, which led them to get married and have a gorgeous daughter, Frankie (Faith Wladyka). Their love story would have been good on it's own, and would have made for a just about perfect chick flick of some sort. However, woven into their happy love story is a weekend in the distant future which visits Dean and Cindy, now just your average married couple, struggling to stay together. Dean hasn't changed much, but Cindy appears to be worn out - which is probably the result of Dean's slight immaturity and trying to juggle work and being a mother at the same time. So really, this film is about what happens after all of the romance and fireworks.

If this film was in chronological order, then it probably wouldn't have hit as hard. Having the two time periods cutting into each other is just like watching positivity fight negativity, with the latter always ending up on top. That's not to say that this movie is always depressing. There are some genuinely sweet moments, like the tap-dancing/ukelele scene between Dean and Cindy in their early days. Even during the later days, it's kinda funny seeing the pair in that slightly strange 'futuristic' hotel room, trying to reignite their relationship. There's a slight goofiness in what Derek Cianfrance is trying to achieve - it may not be fully realised, but you can see this coy attempt at a cheesy rom-com subtly coming through. But you've really got to hand it to Cianfrance, because when most people make a movie that they want to hit the audience really hard with, they decide to make it the most depressing experience ever. With it's slight sense of humour, it's a lot easier to believe Blue Valentine and it becomes more realistic. Sometimes directors just want you to feel really miserable, but Cianfrance wants you to feel for these miserable people.

The cross-cutting technique is used to full effect, making this ingeniously depressing. That may be a strange claim to make, but trust me...if the final sequence had been left without it, I probably wouldn't have bawled my eyes out for the rest of the night. The way Cianfrance mixes the scenes, so they each contradict each other, is pure genius. As I said, this film is like watching what happens after all of the romance and fireworks. You just get a better idea of the 'before' and 'after', which definitely does make it all the more depressing. Ingeniously depressing, to put it correctly...you can quote me in the future.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are also ingeniously depressing. They simply are Dean and Cindy. Is it possible to get better young actors than these two? How Gosling got ignored by the Academy for his performance here is beyond me. He's the picture of masculinity which meets naivety and immaturity. He's a romantic who was unfortunately very easy to get tired of. Gosling just gave it everything he had, and this confirms for me that he might just be one of the best young actors working today. Michelle Williams, who was recognised by the Academy for her work, is every inch a winner with her performance. She plays a damaged character so well, and even manages to get a bit of sympathy even though her character is probably the evil force driving her relationship apart. Together, you forget that they are acting. They are so great together that you feel every twang of pain when an insult is hurled, every throb of happiness which comes with a compliment, and you feel like your world has fallen apart at the end, thanks to Gosling and Williams.

Yes, Blue Valentine is extremely hard to watch. But I feel as if a movie hasn't fully rewarded me if I don't feel completely involved with the characters, to the point that I am probably in tears at the end. Let's just say, this movie was definitely rewarding. The credits were made with colourful fireworks, which pretty much summed up my happiness with this movie. I'm happy for the way it turned out, and I'm happy about how much I liked it. I don't want to overrate it, but this is definitely the best movie I have seen this year, so far.

THE VERDICT: Derek Cianfrance has created a movie which is raw and realistic, moving and depressing. The performance from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are simply perfect, adding more fuel to the fire.

What I hoped for:

What I got: