Rewind - Fish Tank *spoilers*

As a teenager, we all have dreams and aspirations that are usually cut down by the atmosphere surrounding us. Mia (Katie Jarvis) dreams of being a dancer. But there are a few things that make her road to dancing fame a little more rocky than others. First of all, her outlook on life is less than positive. She doesn't go to school, so she spends her time wandering around aimlessly causing trouble wherever she can find an opportunity to. When she gets to her home in a council estate, she is greeted by her equally potty-mouthed younger sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) and her abrupt single mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing). Mia doesn't live in a happy world, but everything seems to change with the arrival of Joanne's new boyfriend Connor (Michael Fassbender). Connor brings a change to the household and is more like a father to Mia and Tyler than Joanne is a mother to them.

I guess this makes Connor sound like a top bloke. For the most part, he does look like a top bloke. He takes his new family out for a trip and shows Mia how to catch fish and introduces her to his favourite song. While Joanne isn't interested in having the kids interfere with her relationship with Connor, Connor is more interested in the welfare of everyone in the family. He's exactly the sort of guy Mia needs in her life. Someone who will listen to her and support her dreams of becoming a dancer, even giving her a video camera to record her talent. But Connor, though he seems really nice, is actually the most evil person ever. Okay, so maybe I hate him all the more because I'm a similar age to Mia and I would be so angry if someone was an asshole like that to me, but really, he was a horrible person. First of all, you don't just have sex with your girlfriends daughter. Second of all, that sex scene was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. The things he said during the whole thing were just downright creepy. And third of all, once I actually found out what kind of man this Connor guy really is...well, let's just say, I threw things.

So that must set this movie up to be a pretty angry one, huh? Yes, it's angry. When you have a protagonist like Mia, who seems to be very angry with the world (with good reason), it doesn't make for the most happy experience. But at least it's realistic. It doesn't try to sugarcoat anything in fear of being politically incorrect, nor does it try to make anything any happier than it really is. It just captures a teenage girl with her fair share of insecurities, even though she appears confident on the outside, coming of age. Except this teenage girl doesn't get her dream guy or have her dreams come true. She gets a crappy mother who would rather drink than actually do her duty, a man who pretends to be a family man but really wrecks her life, and a dance audition which isn't actually her sort of thing. The ending, though, is actually quite nice. Mia may not get her dream, but she had an exit strategy, which was uplifting, in a way.

Anyway, I've talked enough about the actual story in this, which is very well-written and well-conceived. Writer-director Andrea Arnold does a good job with just her second feature film, also not trying to sugarcoat the movie through it's photography. The performances are all superb too. For one thing, I can not believe that this is Katie Jarvis' first acting job. She is superb. In fact, she's beyond superb. Especially in the scene where she finally breaks down and you see black mascara-infused tears running down her face. In that scene, she tells the story of many of us teenagers: our happiness dashed and our sadness wearing its way through the cover we put ourselves under every day. I really do hope that she takes more acting jobs in the future. As for Michael Fassbender...well. He can make you love him, and then completely turn the tables so you hate him. He's charming, but in that risky sort of way. From that moment I saw him walk in shirtless to make a cuppa I had a feeling there was this evil edge to him. Which I liked, at that moment, but at the end, I hated his character. The rest of the cast is really good, considering how ill-experienced they all are, but Jarvis and Fassbender stand out the most.

Fish Tank is exactly the type of arthouse realism flick that you could expect. It doesn't demand much, but it does achieve a lot. And, for once, a teenage girl as the lead role isn't an annoying know-it-all nor a lovelorn depressive. Which is refreshing, even though the movie itself is suffocating.

THE VERDICT: Andrea Arnold has created a perfectly realistic film about a teenager 'coming-of-age', without the usual constraints of the genre. First-timer Katie Jarvis and rising star Michael Fassbender turn in brilliant performances.

What I hoped for:

What I got:

Cinema--Easy A

or: Hughes for this generation.

One word to sum it up: Smart.

I have been looking forward to seeing Easy A ever since I first heard about it. Not only did it look like a choice teen comedy, which have been surprisingly lacking lately, but this was an ample opportunity to let Emma Stone's star shine. For so long she has been the best thing about really crap movies. Did no one ever think to give her a lead role in a movie until now? Well at least the tables have turned for her...now she can say that she was the best thing of an equally good movie.

High school student Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) finds herself the victim of her school's 'rumour mill' when she lies to her best friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) about a weekend tryst with a fictional college freshman. Word quickly spreads of Olive's promiscuity and, much to her surprise, she welcomes the attention. When she agrees to help out a bullied friend by pretending to sleep with him, her image rapidly degrades to a more lascivious state and her world begins to spin out of control. As she helps more and more of her classmates and her lies continue to escalate, Olive must find a way to save face before the school's religious fanatic Marianne (Amanda Bynes) gets her expelled and she loses a shot at attaining her own happiness.

I'll start by saying this: Emma Stone is amazing. She is a young actress who can take a character and give it all the charisma, charm and vivaciousness it needs to come to life. Boy, is her special talent recognized in Easy A. She easily makes this movie as great as it is, with her sarcastic sense of humour. A lesser actress may have stumbled with the ultra smart script filled with big words last seen in The Social Network, but Stone makes it all believable and utterly addictive that Easy A is, well, addictive. The rest of it's cast is pretty good, apart from Amanda Bynes, who was supposedly retiring from acting. We haven't seen her for a while, but she hasn't changed in her time away from the film. And it's hard to see her still as a teenager. She is kinda annoying in this film, but I think that is all down to her character. Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci are undoubtedly the stand outs as Olive's rather open parents. They managed to get the most laughs because the audience have all had their parents embarass them at least once in their lives, but these two are just plain embarassing it's funny.

There hasn't been a good teen comedy since Mean Girls, and Easy A realizes that and tries to breathe life into the often under done genre. While the script isn't as smart as Tina Fey's 2004 one, it is generally a lot funnier than those raunchy college comedies that we find on the DVD shelves. The best thing is that this script is true. Everything could happen in real life. The rumour mill is there to be played with, which is what Easy A does. Of course, this movie owes a lot to the 80's comedies, but in all fairness, it's about time this generation saw some John Hughes style comedy. Easy A captures all the humour of growing up, and it can easily be compared to some of those John Hughes classics. The fact that it has so many references to his film is so cool, because now some of those younger folk may want to pick those movies up and give them a watch. So all I'm left to say is: thank you, Easy A, for reminding our generation that a teen comedy can be smart, not be too raunchy, and be all out funny while being heart breakingly true.


THE VERDICT: A great showcase for Emma Stone, and a fantastically written comedy with all the smarts of an 80's comedy. Must see for any teen.

8/10

Classic--Sixteen Candles

or: Growing up, John Hughes style.

One word to sum it up: Crude.

I believe that every teenage should watch at least one John Hughes film while they are growing up. Yeah, the material is a little dated because we no longer live in the craziness that was the 1980's, but the themes in his films are still relevant. Sixteen Candles is every inch the film that pretty much sums up a kid in the 80's growing up, but some of things in this film are timeless. It's just a shame that I couldn't really get into this movie because I found it rather ludicrous, to say the least.

Samantha's (Molly Ringwald) life is going downhill fast. The fifteen-year-old has a crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush on her. Her sister's getting married, and with all the excitement the rest of her family forgets her birthday! Add all this to a pair of horrendously embarrassing grandparents, a foreign exchange student named Long Duc Dong, and we have the makings of a hilarious journey into young womanhood.

This film is purely John Hughes. I could see all the early developments of this masterful director coming through in this film: the strange humour, the ultra hip and often very loud soundtrack, and the famed look into the mind set of a teenager. However, I felt like this was a little too much, especially considering it was one of his earlier films. It's like David Fincher and Fight Club. While that movie was very good, Fincher often got too ahead of himself, and since then he has honed in his style and consistently makes very elaborate and smooth running movies. Hughes went a little too far with Sixteen Candles and it's humour, but his future films like The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off have better controlled writing, direction and even soundtrack, and are far more enjoyable.

In saying that, Sixteen Candles isn't a bad movie. I couldn't help but feel that this was the real beginning of all the crude teenage comedies we see these days, like Superbad. Instead of making growing up as a teenager the bore and unhappy experience that it often is, Hughes uses his signature style to make fun of it. The best thing about it is that I could relate to the heroine, Samantha Baker, in more ways than one, which is so hard to find in a teenage comedy. Molly Ringwald is a good fit in the lead character: being pretty, but not to pretty; being talented, but not mind blowing. Sixteen Candles has redemption in the great ensemble cast which even includes a young John Cusack. They fill interesting characters that do look and sound like they have come straight out of the corridors of high school. To be perfectly honest, Sixteen Candles isn't particularly memorable, and probably one of John Hughes' lesser films. But it's not a bad way to spend some time watching.


THE VERDICT: John Hughes' talent is evident, but it's like he's trying to shove it in our face. Molly Ringwald and the beginnings of the 'brat pack' offer Sixteen Candles it's chance to be a great film, a place where it never quite gets.

6/10

DVD--Rocket Science

or: Another quirky indie...but no one said that quirky indies were bad...

One word to sum it up: Indie (yes, that is a possible word to sum this movie up).

The joys of searching through the preview drawer. Usually, the movies are awful and painfully cheap action films or the really really quirky indies that may be so indie that no one has ever heard of them and therefore no one ever watches them. But sometimes, on very limited ocassions, the preview drawer will get some normal and quite good movies (last year, I discovered Let the Right One In in there...and how well our relationship turned out!). Rocket Science seemed to fit in the category of perfectly normal and good movies in the preview drawer...but may run the risk of being an indie which is so indie that no one will watch it.

High school student Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson) stutters. On the evening his parents stop arguing and separate, 43 miles away at the state tournament, his school's legendary debater, Ben Wekselbaum (Nicholas D'Agosto), goes blank mid-sentence, Ben's teammate Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) doesn't get a first-place trophy, and the world changes. That fall, to Hal's amazement, Ginny recruits him for the debate team, mentors him, and will be his partner. He still has his stutter, but he works hard and he falls in love with Ginny. On the day of the first debate of the season, the world changes again. From then until the day of the state tournament, Hal has a lot to sort out.

There is no denying that Rocket Science is a typical indie. It has all the quirks, a deft sense of humour, and those homely set pieces which make never fails to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. However, there are many reasons as to why this film should be seen. The first is a nice and harmonious connection between the writer/director Jeffrey Blitz and his characters. He obviously treats the characters as if they were people at his school and attends to each of them with such adoration that you can't help but feel connected in some way to them as well. Trust me, you may find yourself in each of these characters.

Secondly, there are the people who are playing the characters. Reece Daniel Thompson is in perfect form, even though he looks a lot younger than his age, as Hal, and you can't help but put your heart out to the poor stuttering guy. Anna Kendrick shows why she is an Oscar nominated actress and why she has more of a future than her Twilight co-stars. She just exudes such a naive want to be an adult in this role, and plays the over achieving teenager we all love to hate so well that really makes me wonder: why is no one picking up on this film and her superior talents?

Finally, this movie draws so many similarities to films like Napoleon Dynamite, but yet, it has that John Hughes kind of feel about it. There, I said it. This film is remarkably like a smaller scale modern take on a John Hughes film. And it does that thing really well. So, with some reasons to watch Rocket Science, are there any reasons not to? It may not be one of the most perfect films ever, and it does sometimes drag. But you should definitely see Rocket Science. Put it on you Netflix queue (man, I wish I could get one of those) or whatever, and you won't be disappointed (hopefully).


THE VERDICT: Quirky indies are good, and Rocket Science is no exception. The connection between the writer and the characters and the audience makes this film a clear winner and an understated gem.

7/10

Classic--The Breakfast Club

or: All the real teenagers.

One word to sum it up: True.

A little while back, I watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the first time, which kinda changed my opinion on 80's comedies. A few people recommended that I watch The Breakfast Club, because apparently that was one of the best John Hughes films out there, so I bought it and gave it a go. So maybe 80's comedies weren't that bad after all...

Five students, Claire (Molly Ringwald), Andrew (Emilio Estevez), Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), Allison (Ally Sheedy), and John Bender (Judd Nelson), all different stereotypes, are placed in detention on a Saturday. They pour their hearts out to each other, and discover they have way more in common than they originally thought.

The film was different than what I expected. I kinda expected an account of day to day life at high school over several days. What did I get? An account of a detention set over one day. But do I care? No. The movie was really, really good. Watching five very different, very believable, very relateable, teenagers interact and talk to each other about what bothers them...well, that strikes a chord when you are a teenager. I know someone who is like each of those characters (okay, maybe I don't really know a compulsive liar like Allison, but I know someone not far from her), and that's why this film is so special. Because I know where they are coming from and I understand the way that they feel.

Give five talented young stars a John Hughes script and they have practically set up their whole career. If only we could still have a 'brat-pack' who made movies which were similar in tone to John Hughes movies. The closest we have got to good teen movies are ones like Mean Girls and I am presuming that Easy A is another good one. John Hughes works have such a spirit, and he really seems to understand the lives of teenagers instead of giving them a distant stereotype: they whine, they eat to excess, the bitch about each other constantly even though it doesn't make sense, and they all hate their parents. John Hughes tones down the whole 'teenagers are horrible' idea and makes us a little more believable.

I'm guessing that you watch The Breakfast Club while you're a teenager, and you will find yourself relating to it. If you watch it when you are older, then it will bring back memories and be quite a nostalgic little movie. Either way, it's a bloody good movie.


THE VERDICT: A charming and funny insight into the lives of teenagers, which comes as a breath of fresh air instead of a stuffy over stereotyped piece. John Hughes is at his best here, as are the members of the Brat Pack. A must-see classic film from the 1980's.

8/10 (rating is bound to go up on a second viewing)

Rewatch--Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

or: The movie with the worst title ever.

One word to sum it up: Ahhhhhhhh (not a word, in fact, that only really sums up Aaron Johnson)

Here in New Zealand, the 'Georgia Nicholson' book series by Louise Rennison are pretty much more popular than the Twilight saga. And fair enough too, at least these books are intentionally funny. It was always going to be a hard task adapting two of the books (or, as I like to see them as, a teenage girls bible) into a movie. Welcome to one of the most truthful and the easiest to relate to teen movie a teenage girl could ever see.

Georgia Nicholson (Georgia Groome) is just an average teenager living in a small town in England. She has her best friends there for her whenever she needs them, just as any average teenager would. Her Dad is moving to New Zealand, so she has her mum there too. Georgia's life turns around when she meets Robbie (Aaron Johnson), a 'Sex-God' who has moved from London, and Georgia instantly falls in love with him. She has to try everything to get him to like her, even if that means that she loses some things close to her in the process.

Even though this movie might seem a little weird to those who aren't 'in the know' with the source material, it's actually genuinely funny, just like Mean Girls was. Georgia Nicholson is the perfect teenage herione, who the younger audience can both relate to but find hopelessly funny at the same time. It's so great that they found Georgia Groome to play her, as she makes a convincing performance and really brings life to the character. Though it isn't the bible just like the books, it's still a worthy movie that has no trouble in keeping your attention for 100 minutes.

The movie is filled with a particularly unknown British cast, but luckily doesn't come across quite as annoying as the cast of St. Trinians. Georgia Groome lead the pack, and it really just felt like a polished documentary on a teenagers life. I can't go through a review without mentioning the gorgeousness of Aaron Johnson. I see why he was a Sex-God. Even if he was a little wooden in some places, how could you not fall in love with this guy? Hmmmmmmmmm?



THE VERDICT: Really good for the teen crowd, as for once the film doesn't alienate us teenage girls. Georgia Nicholson is my new hero, and a hero for all us misunderstood young people.

7/10

Adventureland

I watched Adventureland waaaaaay back before this blog even existed. You may have noticed though, back in January I reviewed the movie on here. Long story behind that one, but I decided to buy the movie and watch it again. What's surprising is that it's a bit better than I remembered it to be.

James (Jesse Eisenberg) dreams of travelling to Europe for a while, and is hoping that his parents will help him pay for that. However, his parents are having a few financial troubles, and James is forced to go work at 'Adventureland', where he is in charge of a games stall which doesn't give out it's prizes to easily. It's not all bad working minimum wage for doing nothing though, as James meets a whole raft of interesting people, including Em (Kristen Stewart), a girl who just wants to live her life without anyone interfering.

Kristen Stewart really annoys me. I really wish the girl had more talent, and you can see that she is trying her best, but she relies on blinking and pulling her hair back too often. With time, and definitely a lot more films like this, she could become the next best Oscar winner. I haven't seen The Runaways, but let's just say, her recent films, with the exception of this, haven't done wonders for the talent she has locked away in herself somewhere.

The film serves as nostalgia for the olds, even though it is predominantly a teen film. A teen romance with real heart, to be exact. Jesse Eisenberg is perfect as James, who is over-educated and awkward. Yes, that sounds a lot like another Michael Cera, but I'm sure with Eisenberg's upcoming role in The Social Network, we'll see a real star on the rise. The cast is filled with some talented and genuinely funny stars, including welcome appearances from Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, who serve as most of the films humour.

The 1980's never looked so good, and neither did a crappy summer job. Good luck watching this film and not wanting to go and get some cheap thrills from some less-than-exhilirating fun-park ride. It's just a shame that this never got a huge release here and turned up out of the blue on DVD last year. It's a little gem of a movie that will have you laughing but will ultimately break your heart.

Bring out the high wasted pants and the some 80's songs after you watch Adventureland. Makes the 80's look cooler than anything else.

8/10

Things I love about Mean Girls...

Mean Girls has to be one of the funniest high school movies ever made, and has completely defined my generation. Sure, it could have just been another teen comedy, but being written by Tina Fey, it's not. It is smart and captures what high school is all about: bitches, bitches, and more bitches. Hey, my high school doesn't really have a group as harsh as the Plastics, but there are people like them in every school.

Instead of going all out on a review, coz you have probably seen it (if you haven't, GO GET IT OUT NOW! You better be gone now...come back later!), I will unleash another 'Things I love review' (maybe a recurring feature on this blog??). I know that most of the following five things are mainly cast related, but that's because the cast is so amazing and they are the biggest contributors to the greatness of the movie. So anyway, enjoy=)

Wow, Lindsay Lohan used to be an actress?
Hard to believe. I'm really thinking that the Lindsay Lohan in this is completely different to the Lindsay Lohan that we see nowadays. It's a real shame because she used to be an alright actress, and the jobs she does manage to scruff up (i.e. Labour Pains) aren't very well received, and basically, no-one even knows they exist. I guess people kinda went off her after I Know Who Killed Me. However in Mean Girls, she makes the role of Cady someone to sympathize with...she is really just a jungle freak who somehow manages to make herself popular. Without the Plastics she probably would have been the same jungle freak.

Rachel McAdams as the mean girl.

She was 27 years old at the time of filming yet still managed to play the part of a teenager so believably, and I'm sure she is a lovely person, but I don't think I have ever hated a character as much as I hated Regina George. Okay, maybe it wasn't hate, because I loved watching her. But Rachel McAdams was definitely the stand out in this movie, by far. Like Regina George, whenever someone was near her, they shrivelled up and were soon forgotten. It's hard to believe that this is the same girl who was in The Notebook in the same year. What a fine, under-rated actress she is. She should so play another super-bitch.

Let's not forget the other mean girls.

I don't think Lacey Chabert has ever had another film like Mean Girls, as I have only seen her floating around the dark corners of straight-to-DVD-land. But she is perfect in this film as Gretchen Weiners, a girl who has everything from her rich daddy but will do anything to make sure she stays in the Plastics and doesn't look like a loner. I know a few people who are like her...they don't like who they are hanging out with but they feel they have to so they can get higher social status. Pretty sad, but that's the way 'girl-world' works. Then there is Amanda Seyfried, who plays dumb girl Karen. I think Karen is perhaps the most entertaining character out of the lot, and believe it or not, I actually know some people as stupid as her. This is definitely Seyfried's finest hour, as the romantic drivel she has been starring in lately (ah, Mamma Mia!, Dear John and Letters to Juliet) have only proved her sweetness but not her talent.

Tina Fey wrote a funny script and then she played a funny character.

Ms. Norbury is a teacher I would like to have. She's just so unsure of herself but can be really funny at the same time. She is like the other characters in this film, and I think what Tina Fey has done with this film is taken real life and made it funny. Everyone is unsure of themselves, and they have to find ways to get over that. And they get over it in different ways, but the outcome is always funny.

I watch it all the time and have never, ever, get bored with it.
Just everything about it is so funny and so easy to relate to. Trust me, I could watch this 1000 times and never be bored. I think you get the point.

I absolutely love Mean Girls. I don't think that it is wrong to say that this is one of the best films of the last decade. They really shouldn't have made a sequel.

Bandslam

You always go with your gut feeling, right? Bandslam (2009) is one of those movies which I saw and didn't really have an opinion on, but then I saw that it was rated 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. That's like, just about as much as Avatar. Which made me feel sorta guilty, because I only rated it 60%, but while reading the critics consensus, I couldn't help but feel what they were saying was true...
Fed up with being bullied, Will Burton (Gaelan Connell) moves with his mother (Lisa Kudrow) to another town, and has no trouble fitting into his new school, thanks to super popular Charlotte (Aly Michalka). Charlotte notices that Will has an astounding knowledge of music, and decides to enlist his help to recreate her school band so they can go to 'Bandslam' and beat her ex-boyfriend. But Will has to decide between hanging out with Charlotte or msterious rebel Sa5m (Vanessa Hudgens).
Now, this film is really just an average teen watch. But surprisingly it does avoid all of the cliches, and adds something totally unique--a teenage life from a normal teenagers perspective. Also, the performances aren't so weak, with Vanessa Hudgens in top form, leaving behind High School Musical. Okay, so it won't go down in history as the greatest teen flick ever made, but it is one with substance-there I said it, it has substance-and alarming truths. Probably helped by a cameo from David Bowie.
6/10