Sunday, April 26, 2015
Upward vs Downward Counterfactual thinking
REFERENCES:
Posted by tanteemay at 8:15 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Flipped Movie Review
Posted by tanteemay at 10:29 AM 0 comments
The Probability of Miracles Review
So today i read The Probability of Miracles, and i think it was an amazing book. I love Cam's cynic, sarcastic humour, and her never-failing love that she constantly grounds her family members with.
Posted by tanteemay at 10:23 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
The Spectacular Now Movie Review
I lost count.
I love this movie.
Do i have to say it again? I. Love. It.
The thing about The Spectacular Now is that it tells a story. It tells the life story of a boy that can't seem to understand why people bother so much preparing for the future when they can choose to be happy right now. After he's blown off by his ex-girlfriend, he meets a typical girl-next-door Aimee Finicky, who seems so normal that he finally takes a step back from his hard-partying life to spend some time with her. He befriends her with the intention of 'helping her out' which mainly means introducing her to sexual education, because she's never had a boyfriend. Instead he finds himself falling for her with her unselfish ways and simple speech and it doesn't take long before the two are a couple.
And the damn screen cuts to black.
This is one of my favorite scenes because both characters are being so unselfish and show it in their own way. After seeing his father act so recklessly, Sutter doesn't want to hurt Aimee the same way and so he tries to prevent it by pushing her away. Of course, he's only hurting her. He does it because he believes he is a replica of his father. Everything he does, the drinking, partying, pick-up lines, charming conversations, reminds him of his father. Because he initially 'picked' Aimee up with the intention of 'educating' her, he believes he doesn't deserve her now that he's sincere.
Right after that, its graduation. I just love the way this movie positions its scenes, you know, they can spend a whole week showing you the growth of Sutter's and Aimee's relationship and jump into prom right after that. And after prom its graduation, but it doesn't feel hurried because you've already spent enough time with the characters earlier on. We've gotten used to their presence, and the filmmakers realize that, so they fast forward time to a few months forward without the need to place a caption on screen. It's understood. And it doesn't feel out of place.
Amazing movie.
How many times has this movie made me cry?
How many times has it made me question about my life, my future, my self?
How many times has it made me realize I had those answers all along?
I can't believe I put off watching it this long. It's not everyday that a movie touches me the same way Les Mis did, make me recall my high school days the way Perks did, and think about my first love the way Flipped did.
It leads you on a path taken before, nights after prom, breakups, recent hookups, the thrill of romance, family hardships, and basically everything life is when you're in high school. Certain scenes you relate so much it hurts; you can't help but feel this movie is a passionate retelling of your life and what you did or wish you did before. It encourages you to live in the 'moment', as Sutter often puts it, 'I choose to live in the Now, because its happening.'
I know this part sounds hopelessly common to you, but the film manages to pace it so well that the story unfolds in its own way, has time to develop, and by the end of the movie you feel like you know Sutter as an old friend. Even the sex scene doesn't feel rushed, it isn't slapped in your face with the thrill of bedroom drapes and seductive women pouting their heavily made-up faces at you. And suddenly he plugs her and its over, back to ordinary school life, and you just have to accept the fact that it happened normally just as it wouldn't in real life.
Anyway, back to the story. The two get close, and while Sutter's friend Ricky questions his sudden change of taste in women, Sutter insists that there's more to Aimee. Besides, the worst-case scenario is that he gives her boyfriend experience and walks away unscathed. How bad can that be?
After several tutoring sessions together, Sutter asks Aimee out on a date where he spontaneously tells her she's beautiful and despite her weak protests, kisses her. This leads to him asking her out for prom, taking her to home-dinner dates, and ultimately, bringing her to visit his estranged father. The visit slaps Sutter in the face that his father isn't the man he thought him to be, and understands why his mother kept him a forbidden topic. He takes it out on Aimee the way home, claiming she doesn't really love him and that she's only declaring so because she's drunk. A car swerves dangerously close and Sutter barely manages to avoid it. Aimee unbuckles her seat belt and quickly checks him for injuries, asking if he's okay. Sutter's furious because he almost killed her and instead of being mad, she's doing the exact opposite. He screams that she needs to get away from him, that he's a bad influence, whilst she tearfully apologizes and tries to calm him down. He yells at her to get out from his car which she does, sobbing and crying and looking so painfully helpless, before a car drives past and tears her down.
Aimee on the other hand is so blinded and full of love for Sutter that she doesn't understand what he's doing. But even worse is that she's not mad at him for it, no matter the reason. The fact that he exists and is beside her is enough, because he's all that matters to her. She's so selfless that when he shows up at her house to say sorry, she doesn't even want to hear it. She shushes him and says, 'Lets pretend like it never happened.'
Then, looking into his remorseful brown eyes, she says, 'I know. Don't say it. It's okay.'
It's a relief to be given some normal daily happenings of an American teenager instead of the usual tragic background story and overdramatized script. I especially loved the conversation scene between Sutter and Aimee where he asks her, 'So whats your thing?' and she replies, 'I don't know. I like to think there's more than just one thing to a person.'
The degree of awkwardness in this movie is just about right, the intimacy brought to a personal level and the makeup completely washed away. You can see Sutter's scars, Aimee's freckles, and they aren't glossed up in hip clothing and celebrating within the trendy crowd. The emotional depth is wider on a personal connection when all artificial trickery is stripped away and left with imperfections that remind us of our own life. All of which has been lost in the glam of Hollywood moviemaking. But the best part of this movie is that it has a happy ending. When Aimee leaves for Philadelphia, she waits for Sutter to come see her off, even holding back the bus to do so. But he doesn't come, doesn't answer her calls. When we see him drinking in the bar and asking a stranger if he did the right thing, we assume he's done a silent breakup. But wait!
We're shown Sutter staring at his college application once again, going over about his hardships, dealing with them, and realizing that while its fine to live in the spectacular now, there's always going to be another one tomorrow. He ends with a note to start making them count, and just as you think that's the end of it, a new scene opens with him walking up the stairs of a building just as Aimee walks out. She sees him, and a smile plays over her face just as the screen goes black again, but I think we can all guess what happens next.
Posted by tanteemay at 9:54 AM 0 comments
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Kick-Ass 2 Movie Review
Posted by tanteemay at 8:36 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
As Cool As I Am Movie Review
This is where i should have recognized the stop signs and un-stream the video right there and then. Instead i was forced to sit through two hours of distracted sex, a trifle of repeated mistakes with agonizing 'what ifs,' and the hook-and-dump boy race.
'As cool as I am' constantly changes its pace and mood, therefore confusing the viewer and making them unsure of how to respond back with the right emotions. The movie introduces a strong female lead in the beginning, so i assumed she would have a non-affinity for the sex department and focus on building emotional support for her family instead. It actually manages to pull through with this concept for a while, until a particular scene where her father argues with Kenny's mother that his daughter may be having a sexual relationship with Kenny.
Not wanting her to end up pregnant and throwing away her life like he did, Dad emphasizes again and again how much he only wants the best for her and that means not having underage sex. Lucy even goes as far as making a promise to Kenny that they both wont ever have sex again, not until they're old enough and have their parents' consent. Just when you think this film is finally making sense, finally digging itself a successfull concept- it buries itself deeper into the hole.
In a burst of impulse Lucy climbs in Kenny's window and demand that they have sex again. Kenny asks of her promise and she gives the same flimsy excuse- that memories are malleable and prone to change.
Once again, we're thrown off the hook and are unable to find someplace to hold on to because all common sense and logic has been abandoned. Whatever happened to the firm decision before? She accuses her mother of having an affair with other men but does not realize how her actions might end her up in that situation as well. She is aware of her parents history yet does not give a second thought to which she might end up like them.
What is even more frustrating is her substitution of boyfriends which she freely sleeps with them then ends up regretting it. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Which is stupid, because you think she might have the brains by now to think twice before getting in bed with a stranger which ultimately led to her parents situation.
Another subplot that the film fails to develop is Lucy's relationship with her father. It is hinted at the beginning that she misses her father constantly and looks forward to his visits. It is the potential growth for a bond that most teenagers would be able to relate to; the steady figure of their father that they can rely on. However, not only does he fail to give that impression, but he dissappears slowly from the picture that you begin to question if he was of any significance at all.
In fact, I'm starting to question if this film has any significance to real life at all. Its a great movie for a young girl's struggle and search in life, but fails to nail down a central point. It goes back and forth between a romantic comedy and dysfunctional family which i cant pin head or tail.
In the end, this isn't a film any viewer would walk away saying, 'I enjoyed that.' Teens with a single parent might relate, but how many percentage of teenagers do we have that their fathers work as lumberjacks and comes back four or five times a year, with a mother that sexually flaunts her feminity every chance she gets?
Not many. Yeah.
Posted by tanteemay at 9:59 AM 0 comments
Friday, November 15, 2013
DARK OF THE MOON
Dark of the Moon
Sky's a drifting gloom
Wandering, as it searches
For it's once-groom
Fool! Her father boomed,
Look at him, a mere peasant,
Can you not see with more reason?
Forgo tradition!
The young beauty bursts,
Never in my life have I been so cursed.
This is the first,
But its for him that I thirst!
Her parent wails,
The epitome of ultimate anguish.
I am finished, she declares,
I tire of these dulling curfews!
Out of the door and a tissue she blew,
Mother nature wrestles with her swelling rage.
Rain pelts and snow hails,
Turbulent storms of an angry gale.
Her father fasts and chants,
Oh, how i pray!
Her heart's astray..
For one that is deceiving
And has tricked her pure heart into believing!
Buried in sorrow,
Blinded and hollow,
She died beneath the crescent.
As her coffin descends,
Everyone was present.
But her lover did not follow
It left her, mourning and alone,
Shattered through heart and bone.
In the blackest of nights,
One can claim to see a shadow
Of late, prowling in the meadow
And it stands under the half-formed moon,
Sheathed with a soft crooning tune,
She was known as the Dark of the Moon.
Posted by tanteemay at 5:54 AM 0 comments