island of the blue dolphins. scott o'dell. (197)

i decided to finally read island of the blue dolphins because the 4th grade class i was subbing for had read it and their lesson plans included watching the movie and an compare and contrast essay.  since i never read it as a kid, (though grandma bea always tried to get me to read it.  she loved it.  she also wanted me to see the movie, which i never saw), i decided now was the perfect time. plus it helped with my newbery medal mission.

as you can see in the picture, i read an ebook version, but not just any ebook, but one that i checked out via the library!  i went out of town friday, so i didn't have time to go to the library to check it out on saturday.  i considered buying it for my kindle but didn't want to spend $4 when i know i could find a used paperback for $1 (what can i say, i'm cheap.) so i looked for it on overdrive (the app the library uses) and they had it!  so the island of the blue dolphins is the first ebook i checked out from the library.  exciting, i know!  i will always love a physical book but its nice to have ebooks as an option.

island of the blue dolphins is the incredible story of a young girl, karana, that survived on a island by herself for about 18 years.  it is based on an actual person.  prior to my reading, i learned from my friend julianna via her goodreads that the woman this story is based on his buried at the santa barbara mission.  i also learned from my friend thomas that the island of the blue dolphins is one of the channel island.  i am hoping i can take a books and landmarks picture for the island of the dolphins.

karana, was left on the island by herself after a group of aleuts lead by a russian explorer, killed her father and majority of the men from her tribe, after a dispute over payment.  the explorer and aleuts came for otter pellets and then tried to cheat the tribe out of their payment for the hunting.  karana's father was the chief, after his death, the new chief decided to sail to another island for the tribe to migrate too.  he sent ships and the tribe left, but after karana discovered her brother was not on the boat, she went back for him.  i love my little brother, but i don't know if i would be this brave.  she found her brother and they were left stranded together.  then sadly her brother was killed by wild dogs, which left her completely alone.

before i go on, i will add, that i felt there was a lack of emotion in this book.  there was no display of sadness when her father or brother died.  i mean there was big expression of her emotions due to these  these events, everything was stated very matter of fact.  karana, moved on with life rather quickly.  she did want to get revenge on the dogs but i just found it interesting that o'dell did not dwell on these events though they completed changed her life.

karana was extremely resourceful.  though it was forbidden, she had enough common sense to ignore the teachings of the tribe and created her own weapons.  i was also impressed with her ability to hunt and gather for herself.  if  was left on the island i would have died after a few days.  i actually would have probably drowned myself.  it was amazing to see what she endured and how she survived.  its even crazier when one realizes that this was based on an actual person and that woman lived off the land like she did for almost 20 years.  granted it wasn't that much of a change of life for her, unlike if it happened to someone today, but i mean the fact that she didn't go crazy from being by herself is what amazed me.

in the end, she is discovered by a priest and taken to live at the santa barbara mission.  if i was child, i would have been happy for her, but as an adult, i know what mission life entailed.  sadly, i learned via wikipedia that the real woman died after only seven weeks on the mainland.  

still an incredible story and a must read for all kids.

the movie on the other hand was a poor adaption.  i am actually shocked hollywood hasn't done a remake.  i mean that girl from that whale movie a while back would have been perfect. the movie cut out a lot of interesting parts like the elephant seals and devilfish.  i am assuming they were missing because they didn't have trained animals or the technology to fake it.   but yes a remake should happen that is truer to the book.  i am shocked after the success of "castaway", this wasn't made for an kid audience.  hmmm.  i wish i knew someone in hollywood to pitch this too.

all in all, read the book and avoid the movie.  the 4th grade class i subbed for voted this way as well.

the tree of life.

i waited a year for this movie.  there were that many requests for this film that i did not get it for an entire year.  sadly i must say that the wait was not worth it.

i planned on seeing "the tree of life" in theaters.  brad pitt and sean penn!  this movie had to be amazing. my cousin erin and i even went to the theater to see it.  however, we were late and missed the first 10 minutes and decided to see "midnight in paris" instead.  the employee at the movie theater, a girl i know, even warned us that people had asked for their money back and it was actually a good thing we didn't see "tree of life."

i should have listened to that warning.  but i must add that when i heard jimmy kimmel (i think) make a joke about dinosaurs being responsible for the brother's death.  i had to see it.

this movie was bad.  not that it was bad but it was too artistic-y.  i mean i didn't need to see the beginning of time.  and the whole close ups and shots from different angles to make it feel like you were in the movie, just made me nauseated.  if i saw it in theaters i probably would have been sick.  that jerky first hand perspective was spooky in "the blair witch project" not so much here.  and that whole time sequence from the beginning of time was  bit pretensions.  it was beautiful but came across as some sad christian bragging, like look at all that my god has made.  i don't know it was weird.

the movie in itself was horrible.  it was a son justifying his hatred of his father, but i couldn't sympathize with the son.  so your father didn't like the way you picked weeds and mowed the lawn, seriously get over it.  i mean brad pitt seemed like the product of the era, that is how men were.   i mean its horrible to feel unloved by a parent but move on instead of telling on it.  i had an absent father but i didn't go around moping about, nor did i allow it to effect my self-confidence and self-worth.  it was difficult to sympathize with the son because he was for lack of a better world, a crybaby.  life is tough some time deal with it.  yes that flare up from brad pitt was bad but once again wasn't it all because of lawn work?  really???

also i couldn't handle all of the christian propaganda at the end.  seriously i hope that heaven isn't a beach because if i die and god allows me into heaven and it turns out to be the heaven from "tree of life", i will ask to be sent to hell.   and seagulls in heaven???? i hope not.  that would definitely be hell.

"the tree of life" was beautiful but lacked any real substance.  i would have appreciated it more if it was an art installation, dialogue less and project on different walls of a room.  but as a movie, it was horrible.

hello i must be going.

i forgot what i was watching but when i saw a preview for "hello i must be going" i had to see it. i've been a fan of melanie lynsky ever since she played the adopted mother of those "sound of music" singing kids in "away we go". there is something sweet and likable about her. but what i was most excited was that charlie from "girls" was in it! (random "girls" note but amy's (lynsky) brother looked oddly familiar, i imdb-ed him . . . and it was jessa ex! the one she sexed with shosh still in the room!) since i didn't see it in theater, i checked it out.

the film is about amy, a thirtysomething divorcee. her world has fallen apart due to mentioned divorce. she moved back home and when we mert her, hasn't left the house in 3 months (ridiculous and sad). but things change when she meets jeremy (aka charlie!). he's nineteen and her dad's potential business partner's stepson. they hang out and have sex and eventually fall in love. and from
their secret relationship, amy learns a valuable lesson about love and jeremy learns how to live for himself and do what he wants in life. it's sweet.

the film has a great supporting cast. my favorite was jeremy's mom, who is a psychologist so is open to everything. she believes that her son is gay, though he isnt. and when she finds amy and jeremy skinny dipping buys the story that is a firm of therapy. it's silly but would be nice to have such a support parent though at time she is naive.

there was also a great analogy about love. amy's old high school friend tells her “love isn’t a prize you get at the carnival for squirting water in a clown’s face the longest. if someone loves you, they just love you. love just happen." at the time it seem profound as a future thirtysomething looking for love it's comforting to think love not as a reward for your hard work. but more as something that will just happen. but love is work so i kinda don't agree with it though i think love at first is random but love in a relationship requires work. oh and i love when amy drunkenly butchers this analogy by telling her mother, "it’s not like coming in the clowns face at a carnival.” lol

also the soundtrack was amazing. it was all music by laura veir and the saltbreakers. check her out.

and check out the movie, it was a grand jury selection at sundanese. and also hot sex scenes with charlie! who can say no??!?!

ps the title comes for a groucho marx song. amy and her dad used to watch his films late at night when she was a kid.

stanley kubrick retrospective. lacma.

if you are an avid reader of this blog (thank you if you actually exist!) then you know that i have spent the last couple of months checking out as many kubrick films as i could in preparation of this exhibit.  prior to this exhibit, i was a huge fan of "a clockwork orange" (i loved the book as a teen) and "full metal jacket", but after watching his catalogue, i became a fan of his work.  i did not see all of his films but luckily i did see the ones that were featured in this retrospective.

the retrospective covers his early career as a photographer, his films: the killing, paths of glory, spartacus, lolita, dr. strangelove, 2001: space odyssey, a clockwork orange, barry lyndon, the shining, full metal jacket, eyes wide shut, and the never made, aryan papers.  there was also a portion dedicated to the film A.I. which i skipped because i didn't see the film nor have a desire too.

as i watched and researched about kubrick's films, i learned that they were based on literary works.  as a result, there were so many amazing bookish pieces in the retrospective.

letters between vladimir nabokov, author of "lolita" and kubrick about the screenplay.

bookcase filled with books for research for "barry lyndon".  he really wanted it to be true to the era and did an extensive amount of research for it.

kubrick's copy of "the shining" filled with his notes.  these pages demonstrated kubrick's attention to detail, he had notes for the set based on the setting from the book.

the books that "full metal jacket" were based on.

i loved kubrick a little bit more based on his bookwormness.

here are some of my other favorite parts of the exhibit:

mitchell mbc camera.

i was so excited to see this camera.  i had read about it on wikipedia after watching "barry lyndon".  this camera was engineered by kubrick and his team, i am not sure how it works (they had some lenses from NASA) but i do know it resulted in a beautiful film.  all of those beautiful scenes lit by candlelight or daylight, all thanks to this camera.

continuing with the "barry lyndon" room:

a letter from audrey hepburn.  kubrick had asked her to be in "barry lyndon" but sadly she was unable to act in it.  marisa berenson ended up with role and was beautiful as lady lyndon.  my friend shawn pointed out the letter to me and we both decided that the film was better off without a big name like hepburn in it.

"a clockwork orange" was the first kubrick film i saw.  so was excited about all of the props from that film:

love the eyeball cuffs!!!!!

in the clockwork orange room, i attempted to give my friends, shawn and chrissie, a quick tidbit about kubrick's adaption of the novel but forgot how it went.  i googled to refresh my memory.  so here it goes:  kubrick's film omits the ending of the novel.  burgess had this whole theory about cycles and numbers and wrote the novel as three cycles of seven chapters.  however, american publishers did not think americans would buy the ending in which alex reforms of his own will, so they omitted it. the version that kubrick read was the american was so his adaption does not have the compete ending.

"the shining" room was seriously creepy with all of its props.  though i have to admit that i was disappointed that the big wheel was not in there.

if you read my shining post, you know i loved the fashion in it.  so was excited to see this:

dr. strangelove:

this picture is from a pie fight scene that was cut.  even though this photo is amazing, i do agree that the pie fight would have caused the film to lose some of its edge.

full metal jacket:

and last but not least, "eyes wide shut":

i also made some instavideoes which i will post later.

but as you can see the exhibit was amazing and i hope you were able to see it (if you live in la).

new york, i love you.

while walking through central park, last saturday, my cousin apollo and i started talking about the vignette in "new york, i love you" with the boy that takes the girl (the bff in "juno") to prom and she is in a wheelchair.  they have sex thanks to a belt in a tree in central park.  and in the end, it turns out that she isn't in a wheelchair but just a method actress!  we couldn't remember any other ones other than the one with natalie portman and the odd one with shia labeaouf.  i mentioned hoping that netflix had it so you can imagine how happy i was when it was at the library! so of course i checked it out!

i didn't see "new york, i love you" in theaters, i either rented it or caught it on tv.  i love "paris je t'aime" so had high expectations for this, though it wasn't as good as "paris" i still enjoyed it.  i will say i forgot how many good and newish actors were in this:  justin barba, bradley cooper, orlando bloom, christina ricci, rachel bilson, james caan, blake lively, maggie q, and ethan hawke.

i won't discuss all the vignettes, just my favorites.

the prom one is definitely my favorite.  and i forgot james caan was in it! he was the perfect new york dad, i mean he is sonny.  i loved when the kids are rushing back and stressed cos it is way past curfew but all he is concerned with we're the yankees!

i loved the one with natalie portman as the hasidic jew and her hindu business partner and their fantasies of marrying each other.  all of the banter on diets was  funny.  also discovered thanks to wikipedia this this vignette was directed by mira nair who directed "monsoon wedding" which is a favorite of mine!

the shia labeouf, though confusing, there's a yahoo answer about it.  i still think it is beautiful.  my interpretation is this the older woman was going to attempt suicide by jumping out her window but labeouf was her guardian angel, preventing it from happening.

i also adore the one with cloris leachman.  that little old couple is too cute trying to get to coney island to celebrate their anniversay.  i hope i find someone that i can grow old with.  

i enjoyed the orlando bloom one for its references to the dakota.  i made sure to go pay my respects to john lennon by going to the dakota and listening to my favorite beatles songs.  i also loved the literary references.  note to self:  i need to read "crime and punishment" and "the brothers karamazov".  also what is with bloom and falling in love with girls over the phone (see: "elizabethtown").

and last but not least loved how the ethan hawke one was so tongue-in-cheek.

also loved all fillers.  i want a boyfriend like justin barba that will surprise me with a trip.  i laughed every time bradley cooper got in a cab.  also maggie q at the cleaners hilarious.

i will add the ending was cheesy.  i liked the paris ending more.  but a great complication and i will check it out anytime i miss nyc.

the great gatsby. movie version.

i never get to say this about film adaption of books so excited to write this: this was a wonderful adaption of "the great gatsby". most films based on books leave me upset because they normally ruin stories that i love or cut out my favorite parts or lines but this was great. kudos to the screenplay writer/adapter.

there were two incidents at the beginning which let me know the film was going to do the novel justice: the green light shining across the bay and when toby maguire described gatsby as being as sensitive as an earthquake machine (one of my favorite lines). i loved that most of the great lines of the novel were included in the movie like daisy's quote about a girl being a fool, and jordan's large parties quote. i think most of the quotes i listed in my post about the novel were included in the film.

i was also impressed with so many of the events in the book finding moments in the film. the scene when nick first enters the room with daisy and jordan in it was just like the novel with the exception of jordan sitting like a statue but the billowing curtains were spot on. i was surprised by the inclusion of the clock incident when daisy and gatsby meet for the first time and of course the scene when gatsby and nick cross the bridge with the white driver and the black people partying (this was also one of my favorite music scenes). these little details proved that everyone working on the film actually read the novel. though i will add that the scene at the party in the library would have been better if the man talked about how the books were real and he had gone to the library to sober up because he had been drinking for three days straight. but other than that a wonderful adaption.

the movie even helped me understand some parts of the story better. for example, i never got tom's reference to drugstores when they switch cars until the movie. also the film did a lovely job of showing how gatsby could not grasp that love is fluid. that though daisy did not love tom at that moment, it didn't mean that she had never loved him. gatsby was so insistent on daisy's love being only for him but sadly that is not how the world
works. we have different degrees of love for people in our lives and though we may fall out of love with someone we never truly stop loving them because you can not erase the past. it was heartbreaking to see his lack of depth when it came to love when it seemed that his whole life was driven by his love for daisy.

i think the casting was great. leonardo did an excellent job as gatsby (though a little old). my favorite scene was when he was so nervous about meeting daisy. i also loved how well he played gatsby's need to impress daisy, there was a slight desperation to his gatsby that is seen throughout the book. i thought that carey mulligan did lovely as daisy, she did the voice described in the novel justice. but i will add that i couldn't handle her hair long in the flashback scenes. also my inner modest reader did not read daisy's blossoming as her "blossoming" but i guess it was. lol.

and the fashion was amazing!!!! i wanted jordan baker's hat from the first scene party scene. and of course daisy's crystal dress!!! and all of her headpieces. i already looked on etsy, a headpiece like that will cost me $200 (#poorgirlproblems).

and those parties! where do i get a giant champagne bottle that shoots out confetti!!! i really missed out not being around for the 1920/30's.

last but not least the "eyes of god" billboard was perfection.

but even with all of this gushing, i can not give "the great gatsby" my stamp of approval. the reason being the one thing that i was certain was going to be amazing ended up sucking, and that was the soundtrack. baz luhrmann has utilized some amazing songs for his movies "kissing you" in "romeo and juliet" or "roxanne" and "like a virgin" in "moulin rouge". granted "moulin rouge" is a musical, i was expecting gatsby parties to have a great soundtrack like the "because we can can can" of moulin rouge but everything was lame. i should have known it was going to suck when i heard that awful cover of amy winehouse's "back to black" with beyonce and andre 3000. i liked the part in the apt with myrtle and the scene on the bridge but everything else was ho-hum. the lana del ray song was good but used too much. the first party song was such a snoozefest. and between the gerswhins and cole porter, lurhmann could have put together some good covers or mash ups. but nada. the soundtrack was a serious letdown and i thought it was going to blow my mind. oh well, i can't get to judge-y because at least he didn't destroy this "the great gatsby".

all in all, "moulin rouge" is still my favorite of his but at least he didn't kill gatsby well figuratively speaking.

anna karenina. 2012 film

if you are an avid reader of this blog, you know i read "anna karenina" last year in anticipation of the film. you also may have noticed i never got around to seeing it in theaters. i was disappointed with myself for not seeing it on the big screen but am now quite pleased with myself for only spending $1.20 via redbox versus $12.00 at the landmark because it was atrocious. oddly enough, it was so bad it made me appreciate tolstoy's work so much more.

i was really excited for the film but 10 minutes into it, knew i was going to hate it. i absolutely hated how it was filmed as a stage production. i get that the theater was an important setting for the novel at the end but it made no sense as the setting or style of the entire film. if it was a movie based on a play or musical ie "les miserables" then i would have thought joe wright a genius. instead i thought joe wright was pompous and idiotic. "anna karenina" is a beautifully tragic story and does not and did not need bells and whistles. "anna karenina" simply needs to be told.

and don't get me wrong. the film was beautiful. the scenes with the fields of flowers were like a van gogh painting. the scenes with anna with her son in bed were like an art deco building. and of course, loved our first introduction to kitty which was framed in accordance with the novel. i loved how the train was introduced via anna's son's train. but everything else was pointless and excessive. oblonsky's work scenes and the switching of his coats? the beginning scenes with levin walking around? any scene that involved climbing up and walking among crowds in the risers. these scenes did not help the storyline and could have been replaced with parts that could have demonstrated the depth and beauty of tolstoy's work.

i mean levin is an amazing character and an important part of the novel and he was so one dimensional in the film. i also hated how they cut out the whole
kitty being lovesick and meeting levin's brother during recovery. i did love levin's little speech on love and adultery at dinner but he had so many great moments in the book that were edited out of the film. (btw: when i saw levin's home i thought to myself i would marry him and live in the middle of however, mother russia.)

and i must add i still hate anna. her love was not true love because it was filled with selfishness, she only thought of herself which was demonstrated in all of her actions. and sadly people were devoted to her and she just took advantage of her love. think of her poor son. he loved anna more than his father but anna did not love him more than vronsky. what a horrible woman!

but back to the film. the actors were good. knightly's underbite as always is distracting. i pitied jude law which was ironic considering his adulterous affairs. vronsky was hot. and oblonsky reminded me of kevin kline with a mustache. and whoever played princess betsy had weird lips but oddly it worked.

all in all a horrible adaption of a beautiful classic.

spartacus.

as i was watching, i had planned on writing this cute little introduction about how surprised i am with myself for not seeing this sooner since it was referenced in my all time favorite movie "clueless". (chee and christian watched "spartacus" on their first date because christian had this thing for tony curtis. and yes, curtis was dreamt in this with those blue eyes! swoon).

i had also planned on writing how disappointed i was by how the film looked and felt very hollywood. and very un-kubrickesque. it looked more like "the ten commandments" and "ben-hur" than "a clockwork orange" and even "barry lyndon." as i was watching i was certain kubrick didn't direct it, it was so mainstream. (i just read on wikipedia that there was a previous director and kubrick did not have complete artistic control. so that explains that.)

[quick random sidenote but wikipedia also told me the movie was based on a novel, which upholds kubrick's movies being based on literary works.]

i was also going to complain about how
long it was! 3 hours and 15 minutes! actually i will still complain about that. seriously 3 hours and 15 minutes?!?!

anyway, all on judge-iness went on the window with the last 45 minutes and that ending. my god! that ending!

how beautiful and tragic the last 15 minutes were! the irony of the fight between spartacus and antoninus. they actually fought due to their love for each other; spartacus wanted to save antoninus from a slow and painful death, and antoninus did not want the romans to crucify spartacus! but at least they were able to declare their love and appreciate for each other.

and then the ending!!! i was so unprepared. spartacus still partially alive and hanging on the cross, while varinia introduced him to his son. so compelling yet so weird. i mean i still cannot get my head around it. it was beautiful but spartacus was literally hanging on a cross with his newborn at his feet. though maybe my issue with the scene is due to the sacredness of the cross due to my christian upbringing. (mormons do not recognize the cross as a symbol of christ which makes it ultra taboo which might be why i was uneasy with the last scene. uneasy is the wrong word, just surprised. it did pull at my heartstrings.)

since we are on the topic of shocking scenes, i was surprised by the showing of the curfixiaions along the road. but then i guess i got my wish of the film being more kubrickesque. also the battle scenes with limbs being chopped off and sword fights. also those fights scenes were good considering how low tech they were. like how did they do the fire scenes unless they just fired up people? also all of those extras?!?! how did they do that.

and of course, one of the most memorable scenes, "i'm a spartacus". i first hear that phrase in "that thing you do!" (the drummer). and kinda wished i didn't cos it kinda killed the scene. but again so compelling, all of the slaves. standing by spartacus' side. and in a way, they were all him. and of course just single tear down douglas' face, so powerful!

seriously though i was not enjoying "spartacus" at all, but that last hour just reinforced how amazing of a director kubrick truly was.

and one last thought, how lovely was jean simmons? very.

the shining.

we didn't watching scary movies growing up. so never saw "the shining" until i was in high school and caught half of it on ktla one sunday afternoon. but i still knew all of the pop cultural references from "the shining" ie redrum, scary twins, "all work and no play makes jack a dull boy" and "here's johnny!!!" thanks in large part to that simpson's parody. so when i saw pictures of the twin's blue dresses at the lacma exhibit i figured i should finally give it a real watch and i did.

this movie is so freaking scary!!!! mind you, i knew how the story ends and i have seen all of the signature scenes and i was still scared. so scared that i kept lowering the volume and considered pausing the DVD because i didn't want to see what was going to happen next (and i knew what would happen next so there was really nothing to be afraid off.) i was relieved when danny covered his eyes during his second confrontation with the twins because i wanted to cover my eyes. lol. and i felt better knowing he was scared because to be honest his whole talking finger "tony" was creepy and if that creepy kid was scared than i shouldn't be embarrassed about my fear.

what made the movies so scary and suspenseful was the soundtrack. the music for the scenes were just too eerie. and kept me scared about what waited behind a door or down a hallway. also the lack of sound which reminded you just how empty the hotel was, like when jack was throwing the ball against the wall. one of the creepiest sounds was danny riding around on his big wheel, and when it went from carpeted sound to loud sound on the wooden floor. it was so scary because you knew those creepy twins were going to show up. (i hope the big wheel is on display at the lacma.)

wikipedia described this as psychological horror and that is the best way to describe it. it's not scary because things jump out at you but because it gets you thinking. you know what is going to happen and there is nothing you can do to stop it, you just have to watch it all go down. you know from the beginning during jack's interview with the story of the previous caretaker that the same fate is going to meet them. having this knowledge is what makes it torture to watch.

kubrick did a great job of building suspense and then cutting to random scenes. there were so many times that my heart was racing and then the next scene was "tuesday" and nothing more. and if you think about it other than the scenes of the twins hacked in the hallway, the creepy lady in room 237, and the killing of dick hallorann (which broke my heart when he died), there aren't many gory scenes. the scariest scenes are when you realize jack is going bat shit crazy. jack nicholson really did an amazing job, he was a cold hearted sociopath. when tells wendy, "i'm gonna not to hurt ya, i'm just going to bash your brains in", he said so matter of fact like it was a logical explanation (which it was in his twisted head). i also loved the scenes when wendy discovered his "writing" and i think what made it creepier was that the typing wasn't perfect but had typos and then when it was typed as if it was dialogue and paragraphs, it was like wow! he is insane!

and i remember jack's picture being in the 1921 photo from my first ktla watching of the movie. however, this time i interpreted the ending has jack being the reincarnation of the crazed caretaker. one reason being that jack told wendy how he felt like he was returning home when he first came to the hotel. and then jack's interaction with the ghost of the caretaker made it seem like his previous self was guiding him to repeat his fate. it seems far fetched but after looking on wikipedia, kubrick did mention that jack was a reincarnation.

regardless, of how you think the movie ends its still scary. and i will say one of the scariest movies according to me.

last but not least, i have to add what a fashion icon, shelley duvall was in this film! i wanted to wear everything she had one! the yellow native american jacket was my favorite! i loved the detail of brooch on her blazer when she first walked through the grounds. the purple coat she has on when jack screams at her was great. i also love her overall outfit too, i wish i could find a better pic but no luck. but so many cute outfits! i will have to copy some looks!

ira & abbey.

after watching chris messina in "ruby sparks" i was inspired to look into what other movies he has been in and came across "ira & abby".  i knew nothing about it but since he's cute and i love romantic comedies, i assumed it couldn't be that bad.

plus when i picked up the movie, i saw that the cover touted as "the best manhattan love story since 'when harry met sally'". so figured i was in for a treat. however, i wasn't. it wasn't that the movie was bad it's just wasn't good. the story premise was kinda lame. ira and abbey meet when ira goes to sign up at the gym that abbey works at. they hit it off and sort out the type of person the other is and about a hour of knowing each other abbey proposes to ira. and they get married!

it goes well at first. then things fall apart. they go to therapy (btw his parents are analysts not therapists.) all of the therapist were random actors/comedians ie jason alexander which was cool. then ira's mom has an affair with abbey's dad. so even more therapy. (ps ira's mom is played by the mom from "who's the boss"; never a fan of the show so forgot her name.)

oh and random appearance of jon hamm as abbey's second husband who is a heroin addict in recovery but still hot if you like longish hair.

but they figure life out thanks to a large therapy session with everyone.

it was okay. nothing that struck a cord with me. i didn't want to cry which is always a sign of the romcom. the only thing i loved was how abbey's family did their christmas card in costumes. so going to steal that.

but regardless of the movie, chris messina was adorable and totally drool worthy. but watch him in old episodes of "the mindy project" versus adding this to your netflix queue.

happythankyoumoreplease

what is with me and tv character obsessions? but yes i did check this out because "ted mosby" wrote and directed it. i wanted to see it in theaters (especially because the landmark did a q&a with josh radnor) but it got bad reviews so was okay when i didn't see it in a theater. what re-sparked my interest in it was my new girl crush zoe kazan starred in it too. well not major but minor.

so the thing that i have to remember when i watch my favorite tv actors in movies is that they are not their tv characters. i realized that when sam (radnor) started cussing, ted mosby doesn't say fuck well more like i never heard him say it. i was expecting to watch a ted mosby movie and that was not the case.

this movie was okay, nothing really to write home about. it follows the life of sam, a writer and his friends. sam helped this foster kid who was left on the subway and instead of sending him back into the system, kept him for a few days (yes which is essentially kidnapping) and discovered the kid is good at art and tried to develop that talent in him. he also met a girl named mississippi and they decide to have a "three night stand" which is kind of a cute concept. act like a couple for three days to see how it works versus just one night of sex. i would have signed his contract. and she is this singer and she asked him to her show but he doesn't want to go cos what if she is bad? then his attending her show becomes this symbol of his commitment to her. and in the end he goes. she is supposed to be amazing but i thought she sucked. she sang this bad show tune kinda song. it ended the movie on a bad note in my opinion.

another storyline is his friend annie who has alopecia which they treat as this horrible ailment. she even hosted an awareness dinner. and i get everyone has their own self-image battles but i think the head wraps made her look more ridiculous than her hair loss. she looked like a wannabe black girl, kinda like a wigga but that is not the right phrase. she didn't read bohemian but more like a wanna-be erykah badu, so i couldn't take her seriously. her whole thing was that she doesn't realize her beauty until she started dating this guy she was initially annoyed by from her office. btw this guy was buster from arrested development!!! anyway the title comes from story she shared at dinner where this taxi driver teaches her this mantra so she could have more happiness in her life.

then there is mary catherine (played by kazan) who was sam's cousin. her boyfriend wanted to move to la and she is anti-it because she hates la. but he gives this amazing description of la which is very true.

--

she gets preggers and then crazy. her bf proposed to her (without knowing that she was knocked up). but she freaked out because she is not the marriage type. but they end up happily ever after.

see the story lines were ho-hum. i didn't become invested in any of them.

but you know what i did love! the soundtrack!!! it was amazing and sadly not available anywhere. but wikipedia listed out the track list and surprise surprise the music supervisor is andy gowan from "how i met your mother". the man is really amazing!!!

tiny furniture.

if you know anything about me or have been around me, you know that i've been on a "girls" kick.  and so in desire to be up-to-date on all things lena dunham, i decided to check out "tiny furniture". also will be attending a "girls" party and don't want to be embarrassed by the fact that i haven't seen it.

"tiny furniture" is a look at the life of aura, who just graduated from college, broke up with her bf and moved back home. btw aura's mom and sister are played by lena's actual mom and sister! her sister has some crazy long legs(i wonder if she has the same complex as me about a skinner younger sister?). also found out that her mom is an artist just like her "character".

due to this art imitating real life element, and of course the similarities of this film to "girls", i wonder how much of lena's productions are really just her life.

things that are for sure her life:
-bathing with company. she is always having deep talks about life with someone while she is bathing
-a fear of aids though not necessarily but probably due to "forrest gump"
-she really does have a tattoo on her bum that jemima kirke gave her
-she's a big fan of woody allen
-she's a masochist when it comes to sex and relationships.

i also came to realize that not only is lena just hannah but jemima kirke is really just jessa because her character charlotte was just jessa. i saw in an interview that lena has to beg jemima to be in the tv series and after watching this i have to assume that she didn't want to turn her actual personality into a tv persona. i also now kinda hate her because who could be that fabulous in life. yes jessa is a bit of a mess but she is the bohemian i could never be. if i get a second chance at life i want to come back with her spirit.

[ps just found this article online at vanityfair.com with jemima kirke. looks like i was wrong:

Did you have a hand in shaping your characters in Girls and Tiny Furniture?

Yes, I think there’s a reason why she gave me these roles. Not necessarily because our behaviors are the same, but because perhaps there was a similarity historically between the characters and me. I definitely don’t act like those characters, but there is a lot that I can understand. I think there is also a reason why she gave me such a similar character in the show to the movie. And that reason is that I don’t know that my range in acting is that big. I think that I can do just a few different things. I’m not trained.]

also alex karpovsky also finally grew on me. not that i didn't appreciate his doucheness in "girls", his mickey d's rant, genius! but finally found him attractive. or maybe it was just the fact that he dressed up like a cowboy on a toy horse with these really cool cactus balloons in the background. (i am going to look for said cactus balloons for a future photo session and maybe coachella).

so "tiny furniture" is a very honest look at how it is to be back from home after college. it sucks cos you don't really fit into your home life anymore because though it is your home, it really isn't. i thought aura's freakout was great because that is how you feel sometimes that your family doesn't get you anymore.

the film also shows how much it sucks having to get some random job because let's face college does not give you any real work experience. ability to write last minute paper or takes detailed notes can never be listed on a resume. and the pay is never what you need to survive aura works as a daytime hostess at a restaurant and meets the man of my dreams though he turns out to be a dick! which sadly still makes him the man of dreams but a sous chef that reads! why can't i find that on okcupid. but he turns out to be a male slut and they end up hooking up in a pipe which sounds gross but is also kind of amazing.

also realized just like i have on the series that as much as i love lena's characters they are also so damn selfish. aura screwed over her college friend who moved out to new york. aura was supposed to her roommate but bailed on her the day before she heads out to nyc. which is really messed up. but i get the selfishness, as a gemini it's in my zodiac coding.

there is a lot of praise for it and it won a lot of rewards. but i wasn't mad for it like i am mad for "girls" but still worth a watch.

i has the criterion copy but sadly didn't watch special features because our DVD remote is broken. but may watch them on the criterion's youtube channel.

last but not least do not like lena with long hair. and actually love it super super short. so cute!

bottle rocket.

i adore wes anderson but i have never seen his early movies and by early i mean "bottle rocket" and "rushmore" (yeah i know it's horrible that i haven't seen the later, especially if i claim i love anderson but i haven't and i do.)

and to be honest, good thing this is the first time i saw it because if "bottle rocket" was the first anderson film i ever saw i would have never watched the others. i mean the only thing that reminded me of the rest of the anderson movies was the music. the music was quirky but perfect for every scene like all of his movies. and also pagoda is in it! i googled and his name is kumar pallana but he'll alway be pagoda to me.

this movie was missing whimsy. there is this feeling of warm fuzzies one gets watching anderson films and i didn't get them watching this. normally i get lost in his films, i become a member of that dysfunctional family and love them quirks and all. and there are also cute moments sprinkled through out his films, like the plays of margot tenebaum, the random sea creatures of "the life aquatic", the letter writing between sam and susie but none of that in "bottle rocket." there were no memorable scenes either.

visually it was nothing close to an anderson film. there were no cute sets. nor did he do his single shot scan through multiple rooms thing. wes probably hadn't seen "the graduate" yet so "bottle rocket" didn't have any mike nichols-esque shots. it lacked heart, it was as if wes was trying to be late 90's cool when he just needed to be his oddball self.

james caan couldn't even save it. i was so excited to see him in it. sonny back and alive but his character fell short for me.

i mean not everyone can be amazing from the beginning. a lot of people have strong debuts and than suck so i'm glad he made this. but let's be honest, i feel no need to buy the criterion version of this film.

harold and maude.

"harold and maude" has been on my to watch list for at least 10 years. i first heard about it from my friend leslie, it is her favorite movie. so when bill had charlie watch it in "the perks of being a wallflower", i decided i should finally watch it.

"harold and maude" is a love story but what makes it unique is that harold is in his early twenties and maude is a seventy-nine year old woman. the idea of them together grossed me out but it's only because i think of the sex involved. oddly the priest in the film shared my opinion. though i hope to be in my seventies and still getting my kicks, the idea of being a twentysomething and sleeping with some that old is gross. but i mean people love this film so i needed to get my mind out of the gutter.

due to its status as a cult classic, i wasn't sure what to expect and then seeing the drawing of harold hanging himself on the cover, i was all sorts of confused.

quick endorsement for the criterion collection edition. it comes with a booklet with interviews and the illustrations for it and the disc menu are adorable.

so harold hanging himself is actually how the movie opens. turns out harold is obsessed with suicide. he fakes his own suicides throughout the film. i find most offbeat protagonist quirks attractive however did not find this endearing at all. it was just creepy especially since his mom turned a blind eye to it. it is eventually revealed why he does it and within that context it makes sense so
he becomes less weird. but initially i was like what is wrong with this kid?

and i guess that is why i didn't enjoy this film. i didn't get the appeal of the characters, i wasn't attracted to harold or maude. if a love story is good, you will fall in love with both characters: tom/summer, celeste/jess (though both of these couples do not end up together). think of "sleepless in seattle" you love both hank and ryan's characters so you want them to be together, you root for their love. sadly, this did not happen for me, i did not fall completely in love with harold or maude.

i did think harold was cute, especially in his little 70's outfits, though the suits he wore for dates were horrid. also i dug the sound of voice. i actually found the pranks he played on his dates funny and would not have ran out screaming like the girls did. however the dealbreakers were definitely his mommy issues and his immaturity. at the dinner table he seemed more like a 12 year old than a twentysomething. i often couldn't gage his age which made him unattractive because he seemed like jailbait.

maude was a delightful character. i read the first part of the essay written by film critic, matt zoller seitz in dvd booklet and i got what she was supposed to embody, the counterculture ideals of the sixties but within the older generation versus the youth. i found her interesting with her smell machine, vagina sculpture (that was a vagina he sticks his head in right?), desire to free trees and her lust for life. i also appreciated her philosophies in life, understanding that we are a special individual and not all the same flower or part of a larger group of flowers. however, i hated the fact that she stole cars and her reckless driving. there was nothing cute or spunky about those two things. i mean i'm all for damning the man but you should still have respect for private property. i was disgusted by how she just took cars and this kinda ruined her for me. i mean steal government cars as a form of protest but not your neighbors. also cars can kill people so did not like the reckless driving. i could see how harold would fall for her but she was not my cup of tea.

and let me clairfy, i didn't support their love because of the age gap but rather because i didn't fall in love with them myself. in fact, i was disappointed with myself for being judgey earlier. people should be allowed to be with those that make them happy. it reminded me of the may-december romance in "dandelion wine" and how upset i was that others did not understand it, yet here i was being close-minded. and at the risk of like a lolita (cos that was not the case), i feel like i could have had my own "harold and maude" friendship with my high school english teacher, mr. brice. my senior year we bonded over mullets (i had an "i heart mullet" pin on my backpack and he used to have one, he showed me his id as proof), "a clockwork orange" (i tired to get him to have our class read it), and my civil disobedience (he gave me a pep talk about doing what you believe in, when i called into the office for trying to stage a student protest). he also wore vans. he was totally my maude down to the bohemian-counterculture-free spirit though i prolly wasn't his harold. lol

even with all this, i was not crazy about the film. maybe i need to give it another watch. i know it was a black comedy and i got the humor, but still no sparks. i do understand why bill had charlie watch it. maude does share some very valuable gems about life with harold:

"vice, virtue. it's best not to be too moral. you cheat yourself out of too much life. aim above morality. if you apply that to life, then you're bound to live life fully."

"harold, everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. you just can't let the world judge you too much."

"a lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. they're just backing away from life. reach out. take a chance. get hurt even. but play as well as you can. go team, go! give me an L. give me an I. give me a V. give me an E. L-I-V-E. LIVE! otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room."

i think these are important life lessons for everyone. but i guess i watched this too late in life. these thoughts aren't new to me though they are important. i should have watched it my first year of college when leslie first mentioned it. i mean i understand why it is great and it is, and it deserve all the praise it received and more, it just didn't blow my mind.

ps also without giving any spoilers. i did love the ending in terms of maude. she did live life to the fullest!!!

pss oh and damn you at&t for ruining the cat steven's song that harold and maude sing in the movie! and way to go cat steven's on the soundtrack!

psss the night that i watched this totally dreamt that i was dating an old man, not just older but old. lol

ruby sparks.

grandma bea and i do not have fancy cable or satellite that gives you a guide to look for tv shows. instead we have to use a tv guide or channel 2 which scrolls through a listing of shows. though it can be a pain to use channel 2 because you have to wait for the channel you want to come around, it has kept me informed on what is new on dvd. it was in one of these said segments that i learned about "ruby sparks".

"ruby sparks" is the story of a struggling novelist who writes about the girl of his dreams, only for her to come to life. the storyline caught my eye and so did the actors. it's stars paul dano who we all adored in "little miss sunshine". i also saw a movie with him and zooey deschanel called "gigantic", it was cute but not super great. i also just learned thanks to his imdb that he voiced "alexander" in "where the wild things are". but who really caught my eye was chris messina. i first fell in love with me as the sweet adoptive dad with the great syrup/love analogy in "away we go". i am also loving that i get to see him on a regular basis on "the mindy project". he is so flippin' cute! he plays calvin's (dano) older brother.

at first i thought ruby was played by erin from "the office" but it's actually zoe kazan. and after watching this movie, i have a huge girl crush on her! you may remember her as the youngest sister in "it's complicated". anyway i learned on wikipedia she wrote "ruby sparks"!!!! and she and dano have been dating for 5 years now, so cute! and way to go her for writing such a great screenplay!

so as i said before the movie is about a lonely novelist who has a lot of issues (he sees a therapist). he wrote this amazing debut novel (everyone thinks he is a genius, though he hates the word). he even has bookish groupies, aka maeby from "arrested development"(!).

random digression but i could totally see myself as a bookish groupie, but have never thought of who i would sleep with based on book alone. i will do this now. please note this is based on their writing not the picture on the book jacket.

contemporary writers, i would want to sleep with: nick hornby, chuck klosterman, kevin wilson and maybe chuck palaniuk (though he would probably be into some crazy shit though i would be open to try. lol)

olden days: hemingway (we'd get along drunkenly and i would forgive him for his cheating), f. scott fitzgerald (ditto for what i said about hemingway, lol), garcia marquez and bradbury, definitely ray bradbury!

back to the movies. so calvin's therapist has him write about a person willing to meet his dog scottie (who is named after f. scott, i'm not a dog person but would consider someone with a pet name that cute!) and that is when he begins to write about ruby, a girl he has been dreaming about. and then one day she appears and she is real! i don't want to give any spoilers but will say that calvin realizes the power he has over ruby because he did write her. i will add that not everything is perfect for them, even though he created her but his love for her is real which is kinda odd. this also provoked another question for me as i read: "do author's fall in love with their characters?" like did austen love mr. darcy, fitzgerald- daisy, kerouac- sal, or tolstoy-natasha? it would make sense also because they were probably based on people they knew in real life.

oh and if you want to know what happens check it out or look for it on netflix.

also ruby is absolutely adorable, which is in part because zoe is so cute. she was the quirky girl that every boy falls in love with. i have a love/hate relationship with these types of girls in movie (see: sam in "garden state", claire in "elizabethtown", "allison" in "yes man", summer in "(500) days of summer" [yup those last two are zooey deschanel]). because i consider myself a quirky-ish girl yet i can't find a artsy boy that looks cute in cardigans to fall for me! where is my romantic comedy?!?! soundtracked by the shins?!?!? lol. but seriously these types of film fill me false hope. but than again this movie proves you need to be in love with the person and not the idea of the person. so i'll shut up now.

oh and before i forget, love love love loved that this movie was filmed in la. i have a soft spot for movies in which i can spot the filming locations. like where calvin gives a talk is totally the billy wilder theater at the hammer musum and the after party is in the hammer gift shop!

so yes go check out this movie!! also if you like books, you'll like this.

p.s. the book cover for the book that calvin writes at the end is totally cute. if it was a real book, i would have picked it up simply based on the cute cover.

anything goes.

seriously blogger is killing me! just right now it deleted the intro for this post. and now i have to start over! (i just looked and there is an update to fix this so got that taken care of!)

my friends and i recently saw "anything goes" at the ahmanson (we are season ticket holders) and i fell in love with it! rachel york's performance was stellar, the storyline was cute and the dialogue was witty! and of course, since cole porter wrote the music, the music was amazing!!!! i absolute love cole porter and was delightfully surprised because i did not know that "i get a kick out of you" and "de-lovely" were in this musical. i also learned that "friendship" was a cole porter song! i only knew of it because it was a song on this disney sing-a-long video i had as a kid, though they cleaned it up to make it kid-friendly. "friendship" was my favorite number of the night but all the music was so good that we were singing songs as we left the theater (my friend danny said that back in the day if the audience left singing the numbers it was an indication that the show would be successful). danny and i were singing them the next day too, so it was super successful in our eyes. also if you are reading this and are not familiar with cole
porter go google him! i love his songs because they are so well-written and clever. his little ditties are so witty and adorable.

i was so excited about the show that i decided to check out the DVD from the library so i could listen/watch the songs over again. sadly i had my hopes up too high, the movie version was horrible compared to the the stage production. even bing crosby added to its horribleness, my grandma told me she always thought he was wrongly casted and i have to agree with her. though crosby had a voice, they needed a dancer. i love donald o'connor and enjoyed his performance. however, would have liked him in the lead role from the stage than the one played. mitzi gaynor was adorable in her role. i also like jennmarie though i loved her wardrobe more! the polka dot dress she wears during "all through the night" was de-lovely and delightful!

but the actors couldn't save it. i disliked the movie because the book from the musical was not used in the movie. the stage storyline was a lot more entertaining, it had stowaways, public enemies, sex fiends, secret lovers, gamblers and ended with a wedding! the movie verison not as exciting. crosby played a broadway star putting together a new show with an upcoming television star who was also kinda rude (which broke my heart). they both head to europe and they each (without the others' knowledge) sign a girl to play the lead. they both try to convince the other to fire the girl the other signed but end up falling in love with that girl. in the end, they ended up changing their production storyline so that everyone can live happily ever after. basically they change the storyline to what happens them so it's one of those weird musical in a movie thing, though we don't see them reinact their story. but in contrast to the stage production it was boring! not even gabriel blowing his horn could have helped it. (85 actually didn't as its closing number.)

sadly they did not use all of the songs from the stage production. it broke
my heart because there was no "friendship" which as i mentioned before was my favorite. also they didn't use my favorite songs as part of the storyline (meaning they didn't break into songs randomly to express their innermost thoughts) but rather use them
as production numbers within the movie kinda like a show within a show. for example, "i get a kick out of you" was sang to a lover in the play but was a nightclub number for the french singer. and they kinda killed "you're the top" which was a cute ditty between two friends but instead in the movie was a used as a number they were practicing to prove which leading lady was the best. and i think this is what made the difference and resulted in my dislike of the movie. the musical numbers were not the words of lovers but actors playing lovers. "all through the night" and "de-lovely" were sweet because they were sang to their girls versus an audience. by making the songs productions within the movie, it resulted in the songs losing their sincerity. in this case, using the songs like this did not work, anything did not go.

though i love the songs, the storyliruined too weak especially in contrast to what i saw on the stage. so skip the movie but if you get a chance to see the stage production, go see it!

war and peace. movie version.

after finishing, "war and peace" i decided to see if there was a mini-series to check out. didn't find one but found the 1956 movie starring audrey hepburn.

i will say that once i saw the cover i knew that audrey would do well as natasha. she did make a lovely natasha. she had the beauty and the spunk of tolstoy's character. she was everything i imagined natasha to be. another great casting was mel ferrer as prince andrei. he was handsome, noble, loving and at times oddly cold. all of the casting was great, helene was beautiful, mayra was not as pretty, kutuzov was fat and old, and all of the men were handsome!!

but i didn't agree with all of the casting. i envisioned old prince bolkonsky fatter. napoleon was way too tall, he needed to be shorter. sadly, i did not like henry fonda as pierre. he just didn't seem like pierre to me, there is vulnerability and uncertainty to pierre that fonda did not project. i have no idea who would do better as pierre, i just didn't see fonda as pierre.

so when i first saw the cover, i assumed that hollywood probably condensed tolstoy's epic into a two hour romance, focusing on the pierre, natasha, prince andrei love triangle. however they didn't! it was actually 208 minutes and the whole novel was covered. some things were cut out or edited but for the most part the whole book was covered. all of the major story lines were there. i will admit that toward the end i started to get bored but that was because it was the war part.

there were some parts that i wished would have stayed true to the book.

-countess rostov's disapproval of nikolai and sonya's romance. they sure did a lot of kissing in front of his family.

-dolokhov's storyline needed to include the fact that he was living with pierre and pierre's close friend when he had his affair with helene.

-pierre's uncertainty about his love for helene. it seemed as if pierre was in love with helene. also it needed to be shown that her family forced him to marry her.

-natasha needed to be more sickly and grief-stricken after her incident with anatol.

-prince andrei's kid was way too young.

-natasha and pierre's ending was way too hollywood.

-and since i loved it so, the nikolai and marya meeting and story.

all in all, i think it is a good adaptation and individuals who don't read or don't want to read the book should check it out.