MYST #6

It's Kind Of A Funny Story                                         Watch trailer here


  I chose to watch "It's Kind Of A Funny Story" as my 6th movie in my spare time. This movie is about a clinically depressed teenage boy named Craig who has reoccurring nightmares of him killing himself. He rides his bike to the hospital one night and checks himself into the psych ward. While in the psych ward, he meets an interesting variety of people. The first to be introduced is Bobby, played by Zach Galifianakas, who provides most of the comedic relief in this film. Craig then later begins to fall in love with Noelle, played by Emma Roberts, who has a serious past of cutting and other dark stories. The two of them help each other and end up forming a bond, where Craig finds himself in the end through his painting. At first he was afraid to tell his friends about his mental condition, and they were not supportive after they found out, but at the end they all support Craig in his endeavors to stay healthy and happy. This is a very warm and lighthearted film on a serious topic. I liked the movie and thought it was good entertainment with some nice messages, but it also seemed to be a bit funny for such a heavy topic. I guess that's what the directors, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, were going for though. It didn't have any seriously dramatic or notable cinematography, lighting, or shots, but it was a good story with fairly well acting that had a happy ending. It was definitely a blockbuster film. I would give this movie 3.5/5 stars.

Formal Film Studies #2

For my formal film studies project, I chose to watch three counter-culture films from the 60-70s. I chose  The Graduate(1967), Easy Rider(1969), and Foxy Brown(1974). I chose these three films because they were turning points in cinematic history that faced controversial issues such as freedom, affairs, drugs, civil rights, racism, and worries about the future. These three films were all mainly independent films, which was a new uprising in the late 60s and 70s.

The first movie I watched was The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin, Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson, and Katharine Ross as Elaine. This film follows Benjamin in his endeavors to find himself after completing college. His father wants him to go to graduate school, but he's incredibly worried about his future. Mrs. Robinson, a family friend, asks Benjamin to drive her home one night and then proceeds to seduce him. From then on, the two of them are having an interesting affair. Mr. Robinson insists that Ben takes his daughter, Elaine Robinson, out on a date, but Mrs. Robinson absolutely does not want that. Benjamin ends up taking her on a date and eventually falls in love with her. He follows her back to college even after Mrs. Robinson lies to her daughter and says that Benjamin took advantage of her. Elaine, still infatuated with Benjamin, first tries to avoid him, but finds herself coming back to him. Benjamin goes in and crashes her wedding, and the two of them run off in the end. This movie is famously known as the counterculture film of the era. It uses a lot of cinematography (Mike Nichols was the cinematographer) through lighting and shot composition on the characters, especially Benjamin. The entire film mainly consists of shots of Ben. The shots of Ben are mainly close-ups and either long or short shots. They are shot to convey his psyche throughout the film, which is majorly anxious and frantic. This movie is known as the countercultural film of the era due to its realism. It is the first movie to address the distortion of superficial living, and focuses on the life of Ben, who feels so isolated and alone. Specific scenes where the cinematography was especially emphasized was during the cocktail party thrown for Ben after returning from college. The camera is close and following Ben, which emphasizes the claustrophobic feelings he's having as relatives and people are smothering him.
Another huge element of this movie that makes it different than anything before is the soundtrack. Mike Nichols used Simon & Garfunkel's song "The Sound of Silence" many times in the movie during filming, and then chose to leave it as The Graduate's main song, along with "Mrs. Robinson," which became a huge hit after this movie was made, although the song never actually is in the movie.

The second movie I watched was Easy Rider. This movie starred Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholsan, and was also directed by Dennis Hopper and written by him and Peter Fonda. Easy Rider is about two "hippie" bikers that are biking across the country to find freedom and eventually reach New Orleans for Mardi Gras. There are a lot of drugs, countercultural issues, intolerance, and sexual content involved along the way on this personal oddysey in which the partners try to find freedom. On the journey they encounter a lot of bigotry, hatred, and intolerance, towards their non-conformity. This is especially present when they try to get into motels to stay at during the night, but can't. Also when they encounter rednecks and degenerates insulting them in a small diner in the South. There isn't much of a specified "plot" in this film. It tends to be more of a chaotic, experimental film that tries to grasp many political and social issues. It deals a lot with defining freedom, and what it truly means to be free. It then proceeds to challenge what the American Dream truly is and how one can ever be free with the boundaries that society and the establishment have put up around you. George Hanson, played by Jack Nicholsan, a liberal alcoholic lawyer who becomes the most notable friend of the partners on their journey, makes this freedom concept very clear to Billy one night about why they aren't tolerated. George says to Billy one night at the fire on their way to New Orleans, "Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what's it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em. " This quote and part in the movie is my favorite. This makes it the ultimate counterculture film of this era and I personally really liked this movie. The jump-shots and other cinematatography elements make this movie really interesting and different. They used a lot of different cinematography that I haven't seen in movies before. According to Dennis Hopper, all shots were shot outside using natural lighting. He said outdoor shooting was intentional because "God is great gaffer." The most interesting use of cinematography in the film I thought was the way they portrayed Mardi Gras when they finally arrived. The filming throughout the streets was grainy and almost documentary-style. They used a low-budget, and tried to portray the gritty realism there. I liked how they did it. I also like the interesting way they shot the cemetery scenes where the partners and two prostitutes trip on LSD with them. It was just music and a lot of flashing scenes and noises, then more repeated shots, jump shots over and over agin. It definitely fit the trippy vibe they were going for. Another huge countercultural element of this film was the usage of a classic-rock soundtrack, which is similar to The Graduate.

The next film I watched was a lot different than the other two: Foxy Brown. This film was a "B" film, while the other two were both "A." This film addresses race, as it is predominately an African American film. Pam Grier plays the lead role as "Foxy Brown" and is described as "a whole lot of woman." This movie was much different than the other two, as it was a lot lower budget, and didn't directly address the counterculture scene as much. Foxy Brown is portrayed as a sex symbol and does many provocative things throughout the film that would not be considered acceptable. The main storyline is she takes the role as a "high class prostitute" to get revenge on the mobsters that murdered her government agent boyfriend. It deals a lot with justice, and the whole idea of getting revenge on her own is very anti-establishment. The villains in this film, coincidentally are white, which is a subtle racial testing movement. Overall, I didn't like this movie as much, but it still was interesting,

MYST #5

Life Of Pi                           Watch a trailer here

Life of Pi is about a young boy stranded on a lifeboat, struggling to survive with a bengal tiger. Pi, the young boy, goes through a series of spiritual journeys and testings of faith to survive. He is cast away at sea after losing his entire family and everything he had ever known and is thrown onto a lifeboat, only to find a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and unfortunately a huge bengal tiger, ironically named Richard Parker. He eventually finds himself attached to the tiger, and sees it as himself. It is a magical and adventurous story that is accurately portrayed from its book. This movie left a lot of sentimental feelings and questions at the end. This movie took me on a mystical journey. It has a lot of action and suspense in it, but is also a wonderfully filmed and beautiful movie that I would consider a piece of artwork. The special effects and cinematography was incredible and absolutely unbelievable.
Pi Patel was played by Suraj Sharma, who hadn't been in many huge movies before. He did a fantastic job acting as Pi through all the circumstances he had to go through. It was directed by Ang Lee, who used all his techniques to make the movie about a brave and solitary young man, opposed to a boring one. There was always music, which set the scene, and left out any uncomfortable silences in a story of loneliness. This film conveyed many emotions and made the viewer feel at one with Pi and as they were part of his journey towards survival.
The special effects to make the animals, especially the tiger, were utterly fantastic. It's quite difficult to make animals look so real, but this movie did the best job I had ever seen at creating real and magical looking animals. All in all I would give this movie a 5/5 star rating because I thought it was absolutely wonderful. I would definitely recommend seeing it.

1970s movie!

My group decided to develop a very experimental and low-budget, almost documentary style, movie called "Truckin'." The plot of the this movie goes along with many Grateful Dead references because they were huge in the 70s and "Dead Heads" were part of the counter-culture scene. The movie starts off with a young man named Rubin, relatively straight-edge, who meets a mysterious, yet intriguing girl, named Cherise, in a coffee shop. He is instantly drawn to her. She tells him that if he wants to see her again, he must meet her at the next Dead concert. Rubin goes to the concert to find Cherise in her natural Dead Head scene, and he's completely caught off guard, but continues to follow her and the Grateful Dead around the country. Cherise, and her other dead head friends, adopt Rubin into their crowd and follow the band. He eventually stops following the band just for her, but because he becomes one of them throughout the movie. This happens after an acid trip, which opens his eyes to the reality of the world and the walls society and the establishment have set around him. Rubin then wants to go against the system and continue along with Cherise. They fall in love and are basically hippies together for their lives following the Grateful Dead.

Our genre is entirely blended. One could call it a countercultural film, while others would say it's a romantic documentary type film. We were trying to go with a blend of genres to set the scene as a 70s experimental and independent film. The message of this film is to open the eyes of 70s audiences that maybe the "system" is flawed and wrong, and they have the ability and freedom to choose. Our director and producer was Dennis Hopper, who also starred in Easy Rider, because he liked to take on low-budget experimental films like this one. We also went with AIP as our studio, as it was very independent and down to make experimental and low-brow movies.

Dennis Hopper also starred in this movie as Rubin, and Brigitte Bardot starred as Cherise. We chose them because Dennis Hopper has had experience playing the role of a so-called "hippie" in Easy Rider and thought he would be a good choice as Rubin. We chose Brigitte Bardot as Cherise because she was known as the "sex-kitten" of the 60s and 70s, which fit the alluring and sexual attraction that Cherise portrays in the film. She also was mainly only a television star, so putting her in this movie went with the experimental style we were trying to achieve. Our main focus on this film was sound, as it was based almost entirely on music (Grateful Dead). We chose to have the soundtrack take over and not as much dialogue between characters to really let the audience feel the vibe of the movie. Cinematography was also emphasized in our film every now and then, especially during Rubin's acid trip, which was shot from a multitude of angles and chaotic shots to make it look very trippy. The rest of the film was basically shot from a handheld camera to set the documentary-style feel of the film, so the audience could see the gritty and true reality of the movie instead of an overly edited and fake film.

The MPAA rating system would give Truckin' an R rating, due to sex, drugs, illicit behavior, anti-establishment features, and many other references. We were going to make the film X-rated, but decided against it, so we could still have a wider variety of audience, but still mature.

There weren't any serious decisions that my group made that I disagreed with. We were all very content and pleased with what we had come up with, due to similar interests. We all liked our subtle, yet obvious if you're a Dead fan, references which made the movie fun. The only thing I would have changed or added to if I had sole control over the process, is make the movie a tad more anti-establishment like. I would have intertwined war protesting and government protesting to add to the 70s counterculture feel.

The movie ends with Rubin saying, "Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been.." I love this element to the ending because it's a lyric from the Dead song "Truckin'", which is our title and it fits very well with the movie, as Rubin progresses from a straight-edge, relatively white-collared guy into a free-loving and easy-going, dead head hippie.

MYST #4

Breaking Dawn pt. 2                      Watch the trailer here


Based off Stephenie Meyer's vampire/love story novels, Breaking Dawn pt. 2 was the last movie made out of the series. If you don't know the Twilight story yet, basically a girl named Bella falls in love with Edward, who she later finds out is a vampire. They get married, while Bella's other lover, Jacob (who is a werewolf), gets upset. Later, Edward and Bella have a baby on their honeymoon while Bella is still human. This is an unknown thing in the vampire world. So in order to save Bella and keep the baby, Edward has to bite her and turn her into a vampire right after she delivers the baby. (That was a quick summary of all the 4 movies prior to Breaking Dawn pt. 2)

In Breaking Dawn pt. 2, Bella wakes up as a vampire. She is a "new-born," so she has limited self-control, but then later realizes her power is a shield and can shield herself from others powers. In this movie, they did fairly well with the cinematography and shots with all the details of Bella's new visions as a vampire.It shoots to things she couldn't normally see before really quickly in short shots. The graphics are very good too. Her baby, Renessme, has a power too that is greatly shown in short shots and great detail. Then they are in danger because the "Voltaire" is after them because they think that Renessme is an immortal child. This was filmed well, the fight scene, but the ending made me angry at first because it was a huge twist, but it left you with a sentimental feeling at the end.

This movie was written by Melissa Rosenberg, but based off Stephenie Meyer's novels. It was directed by Bill Condon and starred Kristen Stewart (as Bella), Robert Pattinson (as Edward), and Taylour Lautner (as Jacob). Robert and Taylor have always been faily well actors, but Kristen Stewart lacks great acting. She did better in this film, opposed to the others.

I personally preferred the books over all the movies because the movies tend to be cheesy. This movie was the best by far out of all of them, but still not fantastic. I'd rate it a 3.7/5 stars because I always love the Twilight saga, but it wasn't incredible.

MYST #3

Manic    Watch movie trailer here

I watched the film, Manic, as the third movie in my spare time. I absolutely loved this film. It captured everything it was attempting to capture, and conveyed a powerful message. It's a movie about Lyle Jensen, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is a troubled and angry person that is sent to treatment with others like him, so he can get help in fixing his life. While he's there, he gets in fights, learns about life, helps others, reinvents himself, and fixates on society's flaws. It was a very eye-opening film that addressed issues that aren't usually discussed. 

This was a low-budget film that didn't really make much money, but that's not what the directors and producers wanted out of it. Having Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel starring in the film, viewers would think it would be a "big-time Hollywood film," but they're wrong. It was made in 2001, before those two actors were as big as they are now, and shot on a low-budget using almost a shaky camera. I believe this was more effective in capturing the message because it really emphasized the gritty realism each character was facing. It helped highlight the trauma and pain that lead them to be there. The film was directed by Jordan Melamed, who doesn't have much experience directing, so he really did well with one of his first films.

The cinematic elements in this movie didn't necessarily make it great, but they were key factors. The way certain characters were lit on screen, helped the audience develop opinions and views on them. The good vs. evil with lighting was highlighted well. The cinematographer also did a good job at using up-close shots on objects/important things to either foreshadow an event or leave a message. Overall, I really liked this film and I would honestly give it a 5/5 star rating.

MYST # 2

Taken 2  Watch a trailer here

I watched Taken 2 for the second movie in my spare time. Honestly, I really did not like this movie whatsoever. It had decent cinematic elements and special effects, but the storyline was terrible.

I went in to the movie theater so excited to see it, due to Taken being so compelling the first time. My expectations were not met at all. The plot was stupid and basically pointless. Not much happened and it could have been so much better. Liam Neeson did a phenomenal job acting, like always, but it was just the storyline that through the film down the drain. It wasn't thrilling or compelling. He was much better in the first Taken though because the storyline helped him seem like much more of a badass.

The cinematic elements were good. They used a lot of high and low angled shots to capture the intensity of certain moments, but it certainly didn't make the movie great. The special effects of the guns and technology was good because it captured the realism. Certain aspects of the movie that I did like is how they addressed sex trafficking and almost how it affects the victims, like Kim (played by Maggie Grace). It was a decent movie on its own, but it was awful compared to the intensity and greatness of the first one.

Olivier Megaton directed this film, along with the first one. Although Taken 2 wasn't his best work, he still is a good director. He hasn't directed very "big-name" films, so that could be a possible reason as to why the film didn't meet expectations. However, Liam Neeson, being one of the most well-known "badass" actors of our time didn't do as well as he could have. He starred in phenomenal films prior to this one, such as Schindler's List, Star Wars: Episode 1, Batman Begins, Love Actually, The Dark Knight Rises, etc. He did not meet expectations whatsoever, even though he did relatively well. He is just such a great actor and I expected much more out of him. Overall, this movie kind of sucked and I would only give it a 2/5 star rating.