World’s Greatest Blogger

Why are you reading this? No, seriously why are you? I haven’t written in months and looking back at some of the entries in the past, I wasn’t exactly doing the world a disservice by withholding my glorious prose. Yet, somehow you are reading it. And you still are. And still. Ok, I’ll stop, but seriously, thanks for sticking around. It means a lot. For realz. You know what would also mean a lot, some comments. You know, I’m like everyone, I just want approval. Day after day, I check wordpress just to see one of those little red “1″s that means I got a new comment. And then when I finally get one and it turns out that it’s some kind of spam trying to sell me viagra or diet pills (thanks guys, I get the message), I cry and cry and cry and nothing can stop me… Ok, that’s a lie, but really, some comments would be nice.

Now, the year is drawing to a close and with that comes everyone’s favourite part of the year, the year end Top Films lists. If you’ve been checking mine recently (which I’m sure you do all the time), you may have noticed I’ve been tinkering with it quite a bit. I’ve been rethinking a lot of my initial opinions on a lot of movies and probably will do until I finally put a final list together. So I’ve decided to take the list down temporarily and then ceremoniously present it when it’s final. Perhaps on New Years? We shall see. Anyway, it’ll be down for a bit.

That said, before I make the final list, there are still a few movies I want to see before I make a decision. I haven’t really been seeing as many movies as I wanted to over the break. Ones I definitely want to catch soon: New York I Love You (although it’ll probably be a bust), Coco Before Chanel, Food Inc., Moon, The Brothers Bloom, Precious, The Young Victoria, Up in the Air, A Single Man, Brothers (shut up, Filmspotting gave it a good review) Avatar and The Last Station. Quite a program.

I did recently see two movies, World’s Greatest Dad and Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes as predicted proved to be quite light fare that wasn’t anything special but still quite fun. World’s Greatest Dad was actually surprisingly an absolutely brilliant black comedy that had me absolutely in stitches. I would most definitely recommend it. Both Robin Williams and Daryl Sabara (who is far far removed from the cute little boy in Spy Kids) play their parts absolutely perfectly.

Anywho, for now, I’m off to see more movies so I can make a better list. Goodbye for now friends!

Where the Wild Procrastination Is

How to procrastinate? How to procrastinate? Oh right, write a blog post.

Hello friends, lovers, enemies! I should be doing a paper, but this is what I’m going to do instead, because I just can’t concentrate on The Aeneid for more than an hour at a time.

I’ve been busy, busy at university (for once this is a being busy I LOVE) and so haven’t had time to see many movies or write a blog. But I finally have. Well, technically only the first but let’s just ignore that. ANYWHO, I had the pleasure of seeing Where the Wild Things Are with a couple of friends last friday. You may very well remember that it was on my list of Most Anticipated Movies of 09′ [I've linked to that list so many times at this point, just find it yourselves] and after seeing it, I must say, rightly so. While the plot obviously can’t stay the same as the source material, the deviations from it were in no way bothersome. I liked the little bit of context at the beginning with the overworked mother and the uninterested older sister. The dynamic between Max and his sister Claire struck me as very familiar. Growing up my brother always wanted to play with my girlfriends and they would play with him because he was so “cute”. I can understand Claire’s viewpoint – that does get annoying. What I didn’t like so much was the hand-held camera shots at the beginning. They seemed too deliberately “artsy” and didn’t add anything.

But of course the best part of the film lies in the imaginary world that Max constructs and in the Wild Things. The best moments in that part were the moments of pure joy and cheeriness like when they were all building their fort. Some of the darker moments while certainly interesting wore on a little bit and struck me as too drab. However, I did very much enjoy the Wild Things and thought all the voice actors did a great job. Paul Dano’s Wild Thing was my personal favourite – he does the melancholy oh so well – but the others all did superb jobs.

I’m glad that this movie is different enough from the book that I can regard them as separate entities. That way the movie doesn’t take away from the book which was one of my favourites growing up.

A story of boy meets girl.

This has been a very action filled summer for me so I didn’t have quite as much time to devote to this blog. Apologies. But I hope that I will find more time and right frame of mind to start updating a bit more. I do feel guilty that I haven’t updated in ages even though I do have enough to talk about and people seem to still read it (for that by the way, thanks a million! I would love it, if I got some comments once in a while, would love to get to know readers better). Anyway, I have been seeing a disproportionate number of movies lately because my family moved to Toronto which has just the most unbelievable selection of movies out in theatres. But for now I’m just going to talk about one movie I saw, hopefully more blogs will come in the next few days. At least one I’m sure before I set off to university next week.
If you’ve read some of my older posts, you may remember my Most Anticipated Movies of ‘09 list. If you don’t, you can find it here and here. Now, you may well remember (or have just refreshed your memory) that my number one movie on that list was (500) Days of Summer. Well, I have finally seen that movie and am pleased to report it lived up to my expectations. I’m finding it extremely hard to express the feeling that I got while watching and for a while afterwards. The film while not being a romantic comedy the way we are used to (as we are informed from the very beginning) does have elements of that particular genre. It is hilarious and also extremely witty. In fact, I haven’t laughed so much in a while. It has parts that are extremely romantic. In fact those are maybe the only part that could use some gloss-trimming. But also, there are moments that are excrutiatingly sad. It’s really the combination of those three that makes it magical. In addition to an absolutely great script, the movie has something that every rom-com can only dream of. The perfect pairing of actors. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt not only give great stand-alone performances here but they also work together so perfectly that it’s obvious they have worked together before and have been friends for a long time (9 years in fact, since their first film Manic which incidentally is also a great film). They are so at ease with each other which makes us (or me at least) buy into their story and relationship immediately. They are real people who have problems, feelings and opinions and the two actors portray the characters better than anyone else I could imagine. As an added bonus, the film has an incredibly good soundtrack that I have been compelled to listen to on a loop ever since I got it. Right now, (500) Days of Summer is pretty much tied for my favourite movie of the year with Adventureland (which was *only* on 10th place on the aforementioned list) having just the slightest edge over 500 Days but I think I will need to revisit them both side by side to make a better decision once it gets to the end of the year. Basically, watching this movie (which you should) you’ll laugh, you’ll cry (or at least it will get dusty in the theatre, I guarantee it), you’ll hide your face in shame for the characters (mostly Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s) and you will love it. Just leave your cynicism at home.

Tomorrow (hopefully): Inglourious Basterds

Very Punny

Yesterday while watching a movie in the cinema I had an epiphany. It’s cheesy but true. As long as I have good movies and music in my life, things don’t suck too much. The movie was The Boat that Rocked and the epiphany came early on. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To be fair, The Boat that Rocked isn’t exactly revolutionary. It isn’t called The Boat that Shocked for a reason (man you should be proud of that pun, I worked on it all the way home from the movies). But like the title promises, it rocked. And it rocked HARD. And what it made me realize is what movies are supposed to be about. Entertainment. That’s why we shell out money for stale popcorn. We want to be entertained. And did The Boat that Rock entertain? Most certainly! I had a great time watching this movie. It was funny, touching and beautiful to look at. But what stood out for me (and I suppose influenced the former criteria) where the performances and the soundtrack. I had never heard of Tom Sturridge (even though imdb tells me I saw him in Vanity Fair) but was very impressed by his performance as freshfaced, naïve ‘Young’ Carl. While I find it very hard to fathom how it’s possible that he was not a success with the ladies before he got on the boat, he plays (what seems to be the lead here) very convincingly. But I think this movie should really be commended for an amazing performance by an ensemble cast. Billy Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans, Rhys Darby and Jack Davenport were among the more known faces in the group. But the cast also featured one new (for me at least ) face I will be on the look out for now: Chris O’Dowd as ‘Simple’ Simon who was great fun to watch both in comedic and sad moments. And now for the soundtrack. I don’t really have anything to say about it other than that it was LEGENDARY. Yes, a lot of the songs weren’t from 1966 (the year the movie takes place in) but there are just a few too many for this to be accidental so the few of you who I’m sure would be quick to point that out, just hold your breath for now. The music was so great and reminded me exactly of what it is about music from the 60s and Rock’n'Roll in general that I love so much. There’s just this energetic quality that I can’t quite place that just makes me want to get up and dance. I was in love.
I’m sure people will comment negatively on the seeming lack of plot of this movie but that’s kind of what I liked about it. I mean, life doesn’t have a plot, it’s just a bunch of random scenes strung together. And I quite liked the scenes and narratives in this movie. The only one I didn’t quite get on board with (oh the puns just write themselves) was quite a major one involving Simon that I won’t give away here (if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean). And if nothing else, the movie offers a damned good time for anyone willing to rock out.

Real Life and TV Friends

Right then, I haven’t posted anything in a pretty long time. I’ve been really busy with school and stuff. I only have about two weeks left (including exams), then on the 25th I have graduation and then finally I’ll be free from the shackles of high school. Woo, I can’t wait. On friday we had our senior prom. The actual prom was long (6 1/2 hours!) and the music sucked but there were some singular good moments (such as singing Don’t Stop Believing with a few friends at the top of our lungs). However, the best part of the night was the after party. It was a friend’s birthday and so some of his friends planned a surprise party for him, originally only inviting about 30 people but then news of the party spread like wildfire (mostly because everyone was looking for somewhere to go afterwards) and eventually everyone showed up. And that was the best part of it. Because unlike other parties that usually happen with people from my school, there was everyone there, not just the “cool” kids or the “artsy” kids or whatever label my stupid cliquy highschool puts on people. And then because there was drinking (gasp!), everyone was friendlier and easier to approach. I actually had quite a few interesting conversations with people I don’t normally talk to in school. I absolutely loved it. I just wish that it hadn’t come along so late in high school. Oh well. Hopefully next year in uni, it’ll be somewhat similar. Also speaking of graduating, Hank Green made a video about the Class of 2009, so I feel good about that.
Anyway, before I go, I would just like to say that I have been watching A LOT of “Scrubs” lately. So much in fact that I watched the entire series in just about 3 or 4 weeks. It’s been an epic journey and now that it’s done, I feel kinda sad. I was really hesitant about watching it because I thought that it would probably be overrated but it didn’t took me very long to fall in love with the show and its characters (Zach Braff especially). It’s very escapist but I just absolutely love it. I’m not sure if I want there to be a ninth season or not because on the one hand I think it ended kind of perfectly but on the other hand I just love spending time at Sacred Heart Hospital. Agh, I really need to stop watching entire shows when I’m bored. I’ve been sucked into so many series over the past year.

Je suis Wolverine!

This is just going to be a quick blog to just quickly say something about the last two movies I saw last weekend. First off, I should preface this by saying that I was in Montreal that weekend and it was raining so I went to see two movies. The first movie I saw was X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But my dear mom, bless her, didn’t think to ask whether the movie was in English or French so alas we ended up watching the dubbed version in French. Needless to say, the movie isn’t exactly dialogue driven so I think I got along quite well only understanding about half. The movie was kind of fun, mainly I think because I really enjoy the X-Men trilogy as a whole so I had fun watching Wolverine’s origin story. However, I must say, there were a few too many pointless fight scenes between Wolverine and his brother Victor. I mean what’s the point? We both know they can’t die, so let’s just move on. A lot of the movie also seemed absolutely unnecessary such as the inclusion of Taylor Kitsch’s character. Then again, maybe I just didn’t really understand what was going on. Maybe someone who actually saw it in a language they understood can enlighten me on that one. 
The second movie I saw was Atom Egoyan’s new movie Adoration. I know I should be more up on my Canadian film directors but the truth is I hadn’t even heard of Egoyan before Adam and Matty discussed Adoration on Filmspotting. So when I saw that it was playing in Montreal I was very excited to see it. I must say I was very satisfied. It was a genuinely great movie. It was intriguing and moving and the fact that you had to piece together what was the truth and what wasn’t, made it that much more interesting. As well, it gave me a lot to think about and actually incited a pretty lengthy conversation between me and my (usually apathetic) brother. It’s definitely a great movie!

In other news: Hopefully I’ll be seeing The Brothers Bloom on the weekend which I’m super excited about.

Woo, I’m back!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, can you believe it? I’m writing a blog and it’s not BEDA anymore. Crazy. Anyway, yeah, the blogs are back. I do remember saying that I might still write every day or every other day after BEDA but that just didn’t happen. I know and I’m sorry (or you’re welcome). But I’m back. This was my first weekend where I wasn’t completely inundated with schoolwork so I actually had time to see two movies.
First I saw Sunshine Cleaning with my mom for a nice pre-mothers’ day outing. I was really kind of looking forward to the movie because I love Amy Adams and Emily Blunt and it was advertised as “by the same producers as Little Miss Sunshine“. But unfortunately I was let down quite a bit. The movie strives to be overly original but just ends up introducing a whole number of plot lines that just meander and never actually end up going anywhere. However, both Amy Adams and Emily Blunt do a very good job playing the two main characters. Even Alan Arkin is pretty good albeit his character being the exact same as the one he played in the aforementioned Little Miss Sunshine. It wasn’t a terrible movie by any standards but it was in the end kind of boring (although it was only about a hour and a half so at least it wasn’t overly long).
But I also saw a movie that I received from zip.ca (the Canadian netflix for you Americans out there) over a week ago and still hadn’t watched. It’s called Undertow and is directed by the same guy who also did All the Real Girls, Snow Angels and strangely enough Pineapple Express. It stars Jamie Bell as Chris who lives on a secluded farm somewhere in the Southern states with his dad (Dermot Mulroney) and younger brother. But things start to go wrong when his uncle Deel (Josh Lucas) comes back from prison looking for something that he feels entitled to. I have to say I hated this movie from the very first second. Not because it was overly terrible or anything, because again, while not being great or anything it wasn’t too terrible. However this is that kind of movie where every second you just have to prepare yourself for something really really violent to happen (and me having to switch from full to half screen) which I just don’t appreciate. I just don’t like that kind of sick suspense. It doesn’t do anything for me except scare the crap out of me. And unfortunately from the very first moment on, this was the case with this film. However, it has to be said that Jamie Bell was absolutely terrific as the main character and absolutely nailed the Southern accent (so much so that until now when I looked it up on rottentomatoes, I completely forgot he was British). He really is a terrific young talent and I hope to see him in more movies coming up (hopefully better ones than Jumper).

So, that wasn’t so bad. Also, I’ve been really busy lately so unfortunately I’ve completely neglected top 5 lists on fridays and other projects that I had planned but I hope to restore those starting next week.

BEDA 30: And in the end…

So guess what, this is my last BEDA post. I’ve been avoiding it all day because I have to admit, I actually really enjoyed blogging every day this month. There were of course times when I thought I was gonna have to shoot myself if I had to write another blog but overall, I had a lot of fun. And I actually took away quite a bit of it. When I first started BEDA I was still new to the whole vlogbrothers/nerdfighter thing but as I’ve gone on I feel like I’ve learned a lot about this unique group of awesome people and now actually feel part of it. I just want to take this particular moment to thank Maureen for a) starting this whole project up and giving so many people such a unique opportunity and b) pairing me with three super awesome BEDA buddies. I’ve learned so much during the last 30 days. I feel like I’ve become a much better writer now that I had to churn out something every day with the prospect of people reading it. I definitely think I will try to update my blog as much as I can from now on. It might not be quite every day but definitely more often than before. And of course I’m definitely going to continue reading my BEDA buddies’ blogs just because they three really cool cats. So to sum this all up, I really had a blast during BEDA and am sad it’s over.
In other news: “The Office” tonight was kick-ass. I’m glad that the Michael-Ryan-Pam dynamic is still there. And my my Phyllis has once again proven what a jerk she can be. I can’t wait to see how the tensions are going to play out in the next few episodes. Unfortunately though on the other hand “30 Rock” was very disappointing tonight. Hopefully it’ll return to its old form next week.

Cheers and DFTBA!

BEDA 29: In which I tell a tale of triumph

Look at me writing a blog even though I’m tired, sick, have nothing to write about, have tons of homework and generally absolutely no idea why I’m even doing this. What a good girl I am. BUT there are only today and tomorrow left so I think I can stick it out two more days. Ok, so as mentioned I have nothing to write about so I will just show you some stuff. Ok, first, enjoy another picture of a recent twitter success:
I was pretty stoked. From what I can tell this @Jason_Segel is actually the real deal which got me quite excited I must say. Oh yeah, this was in response to me saying “I hate it [twitter] and love it at the same time. Twitter is a strange concept…”. So yeah, triumph! 

Also, I saw this the other day trying to comment on someone’s blog
Now I don’t watch the show or anything but I just thought that was kinda funny. Ok yeah, I literally have nothing else to say so I’ll be seeing you tomorrow for my last BEDA blog. *sniff*

BEDA 28: In which I feel very collegiate

Today is once again going to be a short blog. I’m tired (even though it’s actually pretty early considering how late I usually go to bed) and sick. I just came back from volunteering at this arts event to get my volunteer hours done for graduation. It was fun because we had to dress up and pretend like we were paparazzi at this kind of Hollywood-like event but unfortunately since I was sick, all the yelling that was required only made me more sick and then when we were finally done it had gotten really cold outside so now I feel even more like crap. Oh well, I’ll just have to stick it out two more days because we have a short week and get friday off which is exciting.

I’ve been thinking a lot about BEDA and blogging in general and I’ve been thinking about actually keeping up updating my blog regularly. Maybe not every day but possibly every other day. I’ve just been getting in the habit of writing every day lately so I think I might want to stick to it. 
On a related note, I finally officially paid all my deposits and officially accepted University of King’s College’s offer which means I’m officially going to study Journalism in Halifax next year. So that’s all pretty exciting. Plus, they have this awesome thing called Foundation Year Programme which means you have a 2-hour lecture four days a week about books starting with Greece and Rome and moving towards modern times and then afterwards you have tutorials with like 10 people and that’s how you spend your entire first year. Being a nerd and all I find that super exciting. Maybe I’ll think differently next year. But yeah, anyway, I’m really excited because I feel like university is so close now and I’m totally ready to move on from high school. I mean, it’s pretty far away from where I live now and I’m definitely going to miss my family and my mom especially (I’m actually kind of looking forward to a break from my little brother tbh) but I’m just really ready to go out and do something for myself just to see what I can do you know. And if I fail, at least I’ll have done it on my own, can learn from the experience and move on. Let’s hope I don’t fail though