Sparrows

Best Movie Finale Ever

2011-07-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

The calm before the storm...

Then...

Aaand that's all I can show without giving too much away.

Bonnie & Clyde. 1967. See it.

I told Buffy where the Cullens live

2011-06-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

This summer I discovered that the channel TeenNick is much cooler than I would've thought. Next week they're going to start reruns of Freaks & Geeks (HOORAYYYY), and they've already started showing Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Buffy premiered when I was 7 years old and stayed on the air until I was about 13. I never got into it because I was a little too young and, as someone who steered clear of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, I wasn't about to take my chances with potential nightmares. But now I've reached an age where I find myself inherently interested in anything from the '90s and anything with David Boreanz, so I decided to bring the show into my life. I'm not sorry. It's a perfect mix of camp, pulp, satire, and darkness. The action is great, the dialogue is zingy, and Buffy's BFF Willow actually reminds me a lot of one of my very dear friends. All good fun.

Something I really appreciate about the show is the way it tackles serious issues in an unexpected setting (a show about vampires/demons). Kind of like The Twilight Zone, but in high school. I haven't seen a lot of episodes yet, but there was one from the first season that really struck a chord with me--for better and for worse. It's called "Out of Mind, Out of Sight," and can (/should) be viewed here.

It's a really depressing episode. An invisible force starts attacking the friends of Cordelia, an extremely pretty and popular girl at Sunnydale High. Eventually Buffy & co. figure out the attacker is a girl named Marci, who was so heavily ignored by classmates and teachers that she turned invisible.

First I'll say they did a great job casting this part. We only see her in flashbacks, and she's so plain and understated. She's not glamorous like Cordelia and Buffy, or memorably goofy like Willow. She's just there. It broke my heart to watch a scene of her pathetically trying to join in a conversation with some popular girls, only to be shot down. The actress did an amazing job of making me feel awkward for her, embarrassed, and sad. That was never me in high school- I was fine and happy to leave the popular people be and the feeling was mutual. Like Buffy, I had my own friends on the fringe of the in-crowd. But I knew a couple of kids like Marci, who'd give anything to be acknowledged by those cool kids.

The episode takes an ugly twist, though, when the invisible Marci knocks out Cordelia and ties her up. She approaches her with a table of surgical instruments and, laughing, explains that she intends to give Cordelia's pretty face a makeover that nobody will ever forget. I was horrified, my sympathy instantly gone. I felt much more for Cordelia, possibly because of something she said to Buffy earlier in the episode. She told Buffy that people assume she's happy and has lots of friends because she's always surrounded by excited classmates. But nobody ever really listens to her because they're so busy agreeing with what she's saying, ingratiating themselves to her. She can still be lonely in a crowd. When Buffy asks why Cordelia doesn't make some real friends, Cordelia shrugs nervously and says, "Might as well be lonely in a crowd than lonely and alone." She's an incredibly shallow character, but does have great moments like this that make you very happy when Buffy breaks in and saves the day at the end.

Moral of the story: Marci gets caught and sent to a rehabilitation center for other crazy kids who've been turned invisible. She basically gets no redemption...unless you count the fact that the actress who played Cordelia now has a pretty bad plastic surgery-ed face, while the actress who played Marci grew up to look like this.

Suck it, cheerleader!

How to Win a Medal From Hitler

2011-05-23T16:55:00.001-07:00

My current summer read is an illuminating book on the history of the Hollywood fan magazine. This was of particular interest to me because a couple of years ago, 12 issues of the movie "fan mag" Photoplay from 1945 fell into my possession (thanks, grandma!). I was skeptical of the authenticity of some of the articles with celebrity bylines, and according to this book I'm reading, my cynicism is rightly placed.

However, the author made a point of stating his belief that this certain excerpt by Humphrey Bogart was in all likelihood written by him, or at least closely supervised by him (which is more than can be said for many other stars, like Claudette Colbert's advice column). It's a short piece he wrote in the January 1945 issue of Photoplay, and I liked it so much and found it still so relevant in our post-9/11 world that I thought I'd reprint it here...at least so I can easily return to it sometime when I feel like it:

"MEDAL FROM HITLER: Here's How to Get One, by Humphrey Bogart.
How'd you like to earn a decoration from Hitler or Hirohito? You don't have to join the German army or the Jap army. You don't even have to blow up an American war plant.

It's easier than that. All you have to do is follow the line the Germans and their stooges are handing out in this country. All you have to do is swallow the race-bunk. That's what the Germans want us to do. They figure that if enough of us talk this race-bunk, we'll get to fighting among ourselves. That'll weaken us so much that we'll be easy pickings the next time--even if we should win this time.

Listen, brother. In this man's country you can date the girl you like. You can pal around with the folks you like. You can pray in a church of your own choosing. Okay. But that doesn't mean that one kind of church is better than another. It doesn't mean one kind of people is better than another.

Let's look at the record. Here's what science knows. It doesn't say maybe. It knows.

There are no 'superior races.' There are only people who for a time happen to be luckier or better situated than other people.
There are no 'inferior races.' There are only people who've had bad luck, or poor education, or maybe live in a tough climate...

Examine a man's brain. It tells you nothing about his 'race.' Test his blood. It tells you nothing about his 'race.' (Healthy blood plasma can save the life of any wounded soldier of any color.) Nor does skin color mean a thing except that certain people have a little more of a chemical, melanin, in their skins, and that makes them look more or less like Joe Louis; and others have a little more of a chemical called carotene in their skins, and that makes them look a little more like me.

Figure this one out. It's funny, isn't it, that the two peoples on this earth who are responsible for the fact that decent Americans are suffering and dying today--the German [army] and the Japanese [army]--are exactly the two peoples who believe in 'race superiority' and 'race inferiority' and who are out to murder everybody who doesn't agree with them.

So--if you want to be a German or a Jap stooge, you know how to go about it. Just get out in the street or talk to your neighbor and preach race prejudice.
Hitler will bless you. Hirohito will applaud you.
In fact, you'll be a mighty good Jap, a mighty good German. There's only one thing you won't be.

You won't be a good American."
Here's looking at you, Mr. Bogart.

Front Seat to History

2011-05-06T14:33:00.001-07:00

Today I got inexplicably annoyed when I looked over the Table of Contents in the latest issue of TIME Magazine (the one with an X over bin Laden's face). One of the last articles promised a look at "The 9/11 Generation: Revisiting Kids Who Had a Front Seat to History." To my surprise, it turned out to be a series of interviews with the 2nd-graders who'd been in the classroom President Bush was visiting when he received news of the 9/11 attacks. These kids were probably eight or nine at the time, and didn't know what had happened until after the President had left (several minutes after he learned of the attacks). Now in high school, a few of these kids stuck up for President Bush, saying they were glad he hadn't left right away because it would've scared them if he'd just gotten up and left.

Meanwhile, my friends and I were in a middle school in New York forty minutes outside of Manhattan, surrounded by crying children and adults who were scared out of their minds. People were worrying that they might never see loved ones again, and some didn't. TIME Magazine, you're wrong. Those Florida second graders were far in the back seat. We weren't even in the front seat, we were thrust crashing forward head-first through the window of the car on a ride that lasted for years.

But you would've been "worried" if the President had just up and left in the middle of your presentation, as though Presidents weren't extremely important people and there might've been some important, Presidential business to attend to.

I hate talking like this, I hate sounding like an obnoxious New Yorker who understands the ramifications of 9/11 better than others because I was there. I hate sounding like I don't value the opinions of people who lived in other states, or who were a different age, or whatever. I'm sure they were scared, too. I'm sure they worried that terrorists might strike us somewhere else. I do not want to discredit those feelings or concerns, because I can certainly understand to them. It just bugged me to see TIME treating these kids like they were some kind of heroes who lived through something incredible, when the people they should've been talking to were the kids who lost their parents that day. We've seen and heard interviews with widows and widowers, but I've never seen one with a child. (Point me out to one if you know of any.)

Osama bin Laden's death has brought about a lot of repressed fears. When I reminisce about middle school, I usually tend to think about the little clique of friends I had that changed so much through those three years, the wacky teachers, the introduction of Regents exams, the bullies who teased me about my hair. When in a particularly dark mood, I remember 9/11/01, and even 9/12. But it really wasn't until this last week that I thought about the days after that.

I was afraid America was going to be attacked any day. We had a few drills in school about what to do if we suddenly came under attack- I can't remember if it was specifically about terrorists, but I do remember they were in the classroom (not like fire drills), and it felt like the atomic bomb ones from the 1960s that my parents made fun of. I remember thinking if Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden could be killed, the war in the Middle East would magically be over and there'd be no more terrorism. When they did kill Hussein in 2003, I think I still half believed in that...one down, one more to go.

It felt very surreal when I heard about bin Laden's death. The first time I'd ever heard his name or Hussein's were in the days after 9/11, and they struck immediate terror in me. Those men scared me like nothing else ever had or has since. Even their names, in their intensely unfamiliar language, frightened me.

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about bin Laden. Mostly at first I just felt hollow. I didn't particularly identify with the "ding dong, the witch is dead" mentality of people who rushed the streets of New York or celebrated outside the White House, but neither did I feel I could relate to the people who sniffed at the way bin Laden was killed (some have been more self-righteous about it than others). The varying reactions have been interesting, especially within the people I was in school with when these attacks happened. Some feel they are entitled to feel a certain way because they were in New York when it happened. Others have been floating around that half-fake Martin Luther King quote to justify their feelings.

As for me...well, it's more than the fact that this guy ripped me and my classmates out of our childhoods. The 9/11 attacks were a first- they were the first time a foreign enemy had planned an attack on American civilians. Even Pearl Harbor was aimed at the military. But these were everyday people just going about their everyday jobs, killed because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time and they happened to be Americans. I can't even begin to fathom the kind of mind that would orchestrate such an attack (nor do I think I'd want to). Am I glad he's dead? Well, I'm glad he can't hurt anyone anymore. Even the Nazis had Nuremberg, though- should he have been given a trial? All I can say is that I'm glad he's in a place where he can't hurt anyone anymore.

Lastly I'd like to say I knew nothing of the Middle East prior to this event. My knowledge towards this area of the world is still extremely limited, but is broadened every so often by news articles and (of course) movies. I really appreciate BYU's International Cinema for including Middle Eastern films in their schedules so often, because it truly expands my mind and love for that culture. For many years, particularly when I was in middle school, I think I assumed the Middle East was a horrible, barbaric place where everyone hated us and was out to get us. bin Laden and Hussein really helped paint that portrait thick. I have never seen myself as a racist person, nor do I really feel that I am, but I have to share this story: in 10th grade, my Chinese class took a trip to China for two weeks. We did a lot of flying to different provinces, and at one airport, two Middle Eastern men in turbans sat down next to a bunch of us. Slowly but surely, our whole class suddenly clumped together and we started talking in nervous whispers. Suddenly all of us were serious, all of us were scared...what if these were terrorists?

I hate that bin Laden and Hussein planted that thought in my mind. Those 9/11 attacks have played a huge part in my serious fear of flying, but that is the only way they still haunt to me to this day. There are stories out there from people my age that are way more important than mine, and I hope that in due time, they will open up and share them.

Mimi

2011-03-19T09:33:00.001-07:00

Ruth Jones: Classier than you since 1912

If my grandmother were still alive, she'd be 99 years old today. That's insane. I believe it was an aneurysm that cut her life short eleven years ago, which shocked me at the time because I had assumed she'd be around forever. I can't help wishing she was still around. She departed from this life when I was only ten years old, and even though I loved her to death and couldn't wait to see her whenever we made our trips to California, I didn't know her at all.

This is stupid, but the only reason I'll always remember Mimi's birthday is March 19th is because of a Beanie Baby. My brother Graham and I used to completely obsessed with them (I think we still have over a hundred of them in the attic...and no, that's not an exaggeration). Mimi couldn't quite grasp the excitement over Pokémon, but cute plushy animals were something she could apparently get behind. Graham and I were pouring over some Beanie Baby journal in her house, searching for Beanie Babies that shared "birthdays" with our family members. If memory serves correctly, Mimi was one the only person who had the same birthday as a Beanie Baby. It was a sea otter, I can't remember its name, but we were so excited to show her. "LOOK! This Beanie Baby has the same birthday as you!!" She pretended to be thrilled for us and told us how much she liked sea otters.

I envy my older cousins for having gotten to know Mimi better than I did, but as people in my life continue to pass away, I realize that no matter how long you've had with a person it will never seem like enough once she's gone. You'll always want to know what they would have said, done, or reacted. This picture from PostSecret pretty much sums up everything:

Love & miss you, Mimi.

The Oscar snub I Still Get Most Upset About

2011-02-26T17:10:00.001-08:00

Any good film critic/student/aficionado should tell you that, in retrospect, the biggest snafu ever committed by the Academy was to give the 1941 Best Picture Oscar to How Green Was My Valley over the now-uncontested masterpiece Citizen Kane. Okay, I agree. But on a more personal level, this is the snub that will still send me into a tirade whenever either of the persons or movies involved (or the ceremony itself) gets mentioned.

In 2002, Chicago was THE movie to see. It was hot, it was fresh, it was big, it joined powers with the previous year's Moulin Rouge! to bring the musical back into fashion (or so we thought). Huge stars like Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly were on board and wowed everyone with their singing and booty-shaking abilities. Oddly it was one of my grandmother's favorite movies. Anyway, I was obsessed with Chicago for about a year or more after its release- I listened to the soundtrack constantly, watched my favorite musical numbers repeatedly once we got the DVD, and could be counted upon to burst into "The Cell Block Tango" at any given moment (HE ONLY HAD HIMSELF TO BLAAAAME).
Since the film was technically well done, and it was receiving massively good reviews, AND it was all anyone was talking about, it was a given that it'd win Best Picture. It seemed like a good idea to throw in some acting nods too, so here you go, Catherine Zeta-Jones, here's a nomination! Wait, you won? You weren't supposed to actually WIN! STOP!
Okay, I'll back up. I think Zeta-Jones was a great Velma Kelly; she has fun with the part, and that makes it fun to watch. Could any number of actress have taken her place? I hate to say it, but yeah. Yeah they could have. That, to me, is the mark of a deserved Academy Award: nobody else could have taken your place and made the movie anywhere NEAR as good. So you know who WAS irreplaceable in the Best Supporting Actress category that year?

DANG STRAIGHT IT WAS JULIANNE MOORE.

Basically everything in The Hours is perfection, but Moore's performance is truly the best thing about it. The funny thing is that she, Nicole Kidman, and Meryl Streep share basically the same amount of screen time, but Kidman got nominated for Best Actress while Moore was stuck into the Supporting category (it should probably be noted that she was nominated for Best Actress that year in Far From Heaven, making her a member of a select group of actors who have been nominated in both categories the same year). Kidman's win was well-deserved, so it annoys me when people say she was just the newest in a long line of actresses who were given an Oscar for uglifying themselves. But I'm getting off track, here.
Moore does the difficult job of playing a character who is herself putting on a performance- it is a convincing and heartbreaking one. You can see it is tearing her apart to have to lie to her husband and her son, but she can't fight the depression and loneliness that she feels despite their constant and doting presences in her life. Her character is complex and sad, and the fact that Moore makes an unsympathetic woman seem sympathetic (or at least pathetic) is a great accomplishment. Everything she does rings true; it's honest and sincere, and something people can learn from and recognize. Zeta-Jones is fun, but Moore is just... better.

She's been snubbed a lot. Her lauded work in films like The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, A Single Man, and this year's The Kids Are All Right have gone without nominations. Yes, she has the misfortune of picking some questionable projects (The Forgotten, anyone?), but she needs to be acknowledged for her exceptional work, such as The Hours. I'm waiting. Someday she WILL get the Oscar, no doubt for a role that deserves it, but in part it'll be an apology for all the snubs she's suffered in the past.

Best Original Screenplay

2011-02-25T21:47:00.000-08:00

Ah, 2007. The year of Juno. It was the movie everyone from film critics to proto-hipster teens to your mom went and laughed at. Yes, it was a pretty hilarious movie. Yes I laughed a lot, and yes the packed theater I was in rang with laughter almost the entire time. Yes, thank heavens, it brought the magnificent Ellen Page into our lives.

Thank you, Juno!

Anyway, fun though the movie was, its Oscar for Best Original Screenplay went undeserved (as did Page's nomination, to be honest). But since Diablo Cody actually won, that's who I have a beef with. Did it have its memorable lines? Of course it did. But it was not a structurally sound script. Characters do random things out of nowhere that are weird and creepy and, well, random. No, things aren't wrapped up nicely at the end and that's greatly appreciated, but should we really reward a movie with an Oscar just because it isn't a cookie-cutter teen movie? (Answer: no.)

"Naturally my next film will be just as successful as Juno and will in no way be regarded as 'that movie where Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried make out.'"

I know I just complained about how Oscars never go to comedies, and Juno is a comedy, but so's the film I think the award should have gone to. Well, sort of. Lars and the Real Girl is probably best described as a dramedy, perfectly balancing moments of humor with totally believable seriousness and emotion. Juno had a few of those moments also, but had too many crass jokes. Lars and the Real Girl exhibits much more sophisticated humor than one has the right to expect from a movie which, at first glance, appears to be about a man's relationship with his sex doll.
Of course the film is about much more than just that. It's intelligent, witty, moving, and inoffensive. In other words, it should have had that Oscar in the bag. Unfortunately, popularity will almost always win out, and because nobody knew how to market Lars, it lost out to one of the biggest comedy hits in a while. Juno's what we like to think of as a success story because it had no huge movie stars (the most famous probably being Jason Batemen from Arrested Development), no big-name director, and a first-time screenwriter. Still, that's no excuse for its having won over a film that was altogether better and much more deserving of recognition.

Best Actress

2011-02-24T23:41:00.000-08:00

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY GAVE MY OSCAR TO LINA LAMONT?!

"Fasten your seatbelts- it's going to be a bumpy night."
"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

Two iconic lines delivered by two iconic movie stars in two iconic films. Most people are familiar with these lines (especially the first one), if not with the characters who said them or the movies they're from. Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson returned to the silver screen in 1950 for their greatest-remembered roles, and Davis' in particular was considered a huge comeback. Her star had been on the decline, but thanks to the lead in All About Eve, she was welcomed back into the fold. Swanson had not had a hit in years, but Sunset Boulevard gave her a part that film aficionados and drag queens the world over would herald.

Both, of course, were nominated for their phenomenal work. Neither won. You might be thinking it'd be impossible to choose between the two of them (I have no idea who I'd have picked... okay, Davis, maybe) but the Academy didn't even go with their next-best option. Instead, they gave the award to a screeching Judy Holliday (who?) in Born Yesterday (what?).

(She will eat your family.)

Now I'm not saying that it doesn't take skill to do comedy, because it does, and on the whole, comedy tends to be grossly underrated by the Academy. Holliday is cute and a decent comedienne, but she's no Irene Dunne or Rosalind Russell or freakin' GARBO (Ninotchka), who never won an Oscar for their incredible comedic work. Holliday's character is a sort of prototype for Lina Lamont, except less funny and in a movie that is trying too hard to be funny and serious at the same time, leaving us in an awkward mess.

Too hard to choose between Davis and Swanson? Fine. Should've gone with Eleanor Parker in the little-remembered Caged. Parker herself is best known these days for playing the glamorous Baroness Schraeder in The Sound of Music, where she does a lovely job. But fifteen years earlier, she played a scared young woman who is wrongly thrown into jail, sees her friend kill herself, gets abused by the matron, has her baby taken away from her, and must put up with the advances of a creeper older cell mate (in yes, a woman's prison).
Yeah there's a bit of a campiness factor to this movie, but not to Parker's performance. She believably makes the transition from scared young innocent to hardened criminal, almost before you can even grasp what's happening. (Everyone should see this movie.)

Best Actor part II

2011-02-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

Depending on how well you know me, you might know that I have a borderline-obsession with the book/movie Bridge to Terabithia. Seriously, after that movie came out, I was OBSESSED with it. I talked about it all the time, I yelled at people who thought it was beneath them and hadn't seen it, and I persuaded people who didn't want the book's memory tarnished to give the movie a shot, because it suffered from a horrific ad campaign job. It was marketed as a Narnia-ish adventure full of magical creatures and epic battles, which in the movie, take up about 15% of the screen time, if that. Because that's not what this movie is about.

The point is I love this movie enough to have written two papers on it in college and I still love it. Now I'd like to move on and give you a couple of names: Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Tatum O'Neal (Paper Moon), Mary Badham (To Kill a Mockingbird), Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), Anna Paquin (The Piano), Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker), Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense), and Justin Henry (Kramer vs. Kramer). Yup. These are all kids who have either been nominated for or, in Duke and O'Neal's cases, deservedly won an Oscar. For his so-so performance as scared little kid and a movie that M. Night Shyamalan ripped off an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Haley friggin' Joel Osment got an Oscar nomination. Breslin got nominated for a comedy, which is extremely rare. Henry does believably portray a little kid, but Hoffman and Streep do all the heavy lifting in Kramer.

So I guess my question is, why didn't Josh Hutcherson get nominated for an Oscar?
(I know why- Terabithia is a Disney movie that was critically acclaimed, but was not a huge box office champ. Also it was marketed as a "kids" movie, so there you have it). I would argue that it's a much, much better made film than several Oscar-nominated movies (take your pick! From Memoirs of a Geisha to The Blind Side, this film is just objectively BETTER).

A big reason for its greatness is Hutcherson's unbelievable performance. He is not just playing a kid. He's playing a kid who is hated by his father, gets bullied at school, is crushing silently on his music teacher (the fabulous Zooey Deschanel), has to hide his fondness for drawing, and his precocious/annoying little sister is the only person who likes him. That is, until the new girl Leslie (an effervescent AnnaSophia Robb) comes into his life and becomes his best friend. I'll just add that Hutcherson is one of the best criers I've ever seen in a movie, ever. You believe what he's going through, and you know every single one of his emotions is sincere. The boy is a natural, and I can only hope that his presence in the Academy-Award nominated The Kids Are All Right will show Hollywood/viewers that he is an amazingly underrated talent who deserves better than a Cirque du Freak movie.

Best Actor

2011-02-22T22:54:00.001-08:00

If they had Oscars for Sexiest Man Alive, I'm sure Marlon Brando would have won it every year of the 1950s. I mean, just look at that dude.
Aside from that, he was an extremely gifted actor. It is an irrefutable fact that A Streetcar Named Desire is one of his best films and best performances. Actually, not just his: it's regarded as one of the best performances EVER captured on celluloid, and with good reason. He seems like a completely real person to the point that you forget you're watching a movie. That's true of most of the actors in the film, but Brando totally blew everyone else out of the water with his revelatory performance.
Unfortunately, the Academy honored Humphrey Bogart for The African Queen instead. Much as I love Bogart, he was undeserving of this award. It should have gone to Brando. Clearly the Academy was trying to make up for their EPIC failure of snubbing Bogart for his excellent work in a mostly-forgotten film called Casablanca...
And it's not like Casablanca was a Citizen Kane, where nobody recognized its brilliance until decades later. Casablanca won Best Picture, and Bogart should've had a lock for Best Actor. There's a reason why this movie is regarded as such a classic: the dialogue that has made its way into the collective American vocabulary, "As Time Goes By," Bergman, and mostly Bogart. It is an iconic performance that he pulls off perfectly. The man convincingly portrays Rick as angry, romantic, charming, a depressed drunk, self-loathing, and trying to help others. There's not one false note. It's really unfortunate that he couldn't have been given the Oscar he deserved in 1942 so Brando could've won his in 1951...

Best Animated Feature

2011-02-21T23:02:00.001-08:00

In honor of the upcoming Oscars, I decided I was going to do one post a day on the most ridiculously horrendous oscar snubs that come to mind. Because there have been some awful ones. I'll skip past the hundreds of brilliant jobs that were never even nominated (very few nods ever for Cary Grant or Hitchcock), and just get to the losers who should have been WINNERS.

The Best Animated Feature category was one that, in my opinion, was long in coming. I guess that's because there used to not be much competition- Disney owned everything. Eventually Dreamworks got its foot in the door, which led to the first ever Best Animated Feature Oscar going to Shrek. SHREK. Yeah it's a funny movie and all, but in my opinion holds no candle to Monsters Inc., which it beat that year. Shrek is bogged down with pop culture references, crude jokes, and an overbearing tone of "HAHA IN YOUR FACE, DISNEY" (although granted, all those things just got worse and worse as the franchise continued). This is the same company that brought us Prince of Egypt, a film of much better caliber that I only wish had come out during this category's existence.

Anyway, my real complaint is the Oscar that went to Happy Feet instead of Monster House. I've found that most people either never saw the latter, or if they did, did not care for it. It's "weird" and "creepy" and "different." That's why it should have won.
Instead, the Oscar went to a movie with little-to-no substance. A penguin is teased for his love of dancing. A last-minute environmentalist message is shoved in the audience's faces. The only reason I went to see this movie was because there'd be a trailer for the new Harry Potter. After seeing it, I had no desire ever to do so again. Yes it's cute, and I'm pretty sure it came out when our country was inexplicably obsessed with March of the Penguins, so its win was probably inevitable. I mean, its Pixar competition was Cars, widely regarded by most people and critics to be the company's worst film, bar-none.
This is the movie that should have won. It's creepy, it's fantastic, it's beautifully shot, and the motion-capture style adds a distinctive mood and beauty. It's like a Tim Burton kid's movie, only funnier ("That must be the uvula." "Ohhh, so it's a GIRL house..." "What?!" Or, another favorite of mine, "Are you mentally challenged? Because if so, I'm licensed to teach you baseball!"). I'm not saying a cartoon with a celebrity cast is weak (I mean, look at all the good Pixar movies), but sometimes it's a little obvious and annoying- like in Happy Feet, where we have Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Brittany Murphy, Elijah Wood, and Robin Williams, who bring absolutely nothing to their characters. The most famous person in Monster House is probably either Kathleen Turner or Maggie Gyllenhaal, both of whom play supporting roles. The voice acting is incredible, the animation breath-taking, and the story full of twists and turns. If you haven't checked it out, I'd highly suggest doing so. (Little kids may be scared, but it's a cartoon that even too-cool teens should like. And adults.)

The only other complaint I have about this Oscar is that I've read a lot of critics who seem to think the award should just automatically go to Pixar every year. Stupid. Obviously Cars was far from deserving, and sumptuous though the animation was in Ratatouille, I don't think that should've won, either. It beat Persepolis, which is still one of the most incredible movies I have ever seen. It's based on a graphic novel by an Iranian woman whose parents sent her to live in Vienna when she was a teenager to avoid the revolution. This is what the movies should be about: it taught me about a culture and history of which I was totally ignorant; it was accessible; it was impeccably done; the script and acting were exceptional; and it had a style all its own. Ratatouille looked great, but that's about it. Again, it was nothing I cared to see a second time.
Watch Persepolis.
Last year at the Oscars, I saw three of the contenders and loved them all: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and of course, Up. I really liked all three, but the winner Up is the only one I don't own. I still think of that as half a great movie- once we get into angry talking dogs, it just got a little weirdsville, especially after all the beautiful sincere emotion that is present throughout the rest of the movie. Coraline is also half of a great movie- the characters are fabulous, the design creepy, and the voice acting is fantastic. But it starts feeling too much like a video game at one point and not enough like a movie plot. What I do love is the ending, though...things go back to normal for Coraline, but they're still not perfect. (Fantastic Mr. Fox should have won.)

Disney, what happened?!

2011-01-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

If you think the one on the right is cooler, you are wrong. Read on.

No, I haven't seen "Tangled" yet. What I did see the other day was "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which for the last few years has been one of my favorite Disney films. Made in 1996, it was just another jewel in the grand Disney '90s Renaissance.

For some people, this is either the Disney movie they've never seen or care never to see again. It doesn't gel. It doesn't fit into the princess mode, or fun-goofy mode (though it certainly has its hilarious moments... "Paris, the city of lovers is burning this evening/true that's because it's on FIRE.../but still there's l'amour"). Also, it's just straight-up controverserial- and, perhaps, rightly so. It shouldn't be G rated. Allow me to quote the Nostalgia Critic who, speaking of the villain Frollo, says, "Where do I begin with this guy? He kills an innocent woman, tries to drown her baby, locks him in a belltower, burns people alive, lusts after women, offers their freedom for sex... and all while claiming to be a good Christian." You know, for kids!

But seriously. By this time, Disney was using big-name stars for its main characters (something that wasn't really put into place until Robin Williams played the Genie...thanks, Aladdin)- but it was still a new practice, so the movie stars don't overpower the film. Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Kevin Kline, and Jason Alexander provide the voices and all do an excellent job.

Then, of course, there's the best part about this movie, which is the song "God Help the Outcasts." (click here to watch it, right now. RIGHT NOW.) I'll give you a second to wipe away your tears. If you didn't cry, congratulations, you have a heart of stone. Okay, not really. But kind of. That song is beautiful. I've always liked it, but for some reason it wasn't until the last time I watched it that those lyrics really got into my head. Here is a freakin' Disney movie that contains a hymn, a song of the righteous, pleading for God's help.

All the songs in this film are wonderful, perhaps with the exception of the one sung by the gargoyles. Just no. But this is no surprise because the lyricist was Stephen frigging Schwartz, who also wrote the songs for "Pocahontas," "The Prince of Egypt," and a Broadway show probably none of you have heard of called "Wicked." The man knows how to pull at your heartstrings like nobody's business.

I first saw this movie when I was six, and didn't care for it all. Judge Frollo's hellfire song scared the crap out of me ("Hellfire/dark fire/now gypsy it's your turn/choose me or/your pyre/be mine or you will BUUUURNN!!!"). Esmeralda was the only thing I liked about it. But then I grew up and saw that the animation was incredible, the story was powerful, the songs were amazing, the emotion was real, and this was the bravest cartoon Disney had ever made. It pushes the envelope, but not in an obnoxious way. This is one of my mom's favorites.

(and to Victor Hugo snobs, get over yourselves. Of course it's going to differ from the source material. It's a kid's movie.)

Then comes 1997 and what do we get? "Hercules." Pretty much all of my BYU friends seem to think "Hercules" is like God's gift to mankind, when it's really just kind of a bleh movie. The hero is dull, the hero's sidekicks are dull, and it completely lacks any of the raw, powerful emotion that was so present in "Hunchback." The only decent thing about the movie was Meg's song. And that's another thing- everyone's always like, look at Meg and how independent she is. Shut up. Esmeralda did it first, and she did it without painfully corny dialogue.

I was going to say none of the music in "Hercules" (besides Meg's song) is memorable, but there is one other exception: the-I'm-a-pagent-child-so-I-must-perform-this-at-least-once-in-my-life number, "Go the Distance." It's a nice song and all, but compare some of the lyrics to "God Help the Outcasts":

Hercules: "I have often dreamed of a far-off place, where a hero's welcome will be waiting for me. And the crowds will cheer when they see my face!.."

vs....

Esmeralda: "I ask for nothing, I can get by. But I know so many less lucky than I. Please help my people, the poor and down-trod..."

So yeah. Hercules is all about wanting attention and being famous, where Esmeralda has a sucky life and is even apprehensive about praying because she feels unworthy. There's a huge and kind of obnoxious difference.

Fortunately Disney was back on its feet in 1998 with "Mulan," which, I don't care what you say, is AWESOME. There's no other word for it. The title of the post is in regards to the epic crash and burn of a failure that happened between 1996-1997 for some reason.

P.S. I don't hate "Hercules," it's just far from being one of my favorites. It does make me laugh occassionally, and yes, Hades is pretty amusing. But the lead character is just SO BORING. And as I said, there's no sincerity in it. And the music is largely unmemorable (and randomly styled). For a much better and much more hilarious historical-silly-sincere Disney flick, watch "The Emperor's New Groove." You won't be sorry.

Nostalgia: Because being a kid in the '90s was awesome

2010-10-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

Dexter's Lab. Powerpuff Girls. Lizzie McGuire. Batman the Animated Series. Ahhhh Real Monsters! Doug. Hey Arnold. The Amanda Show. Waking up early to watch Pokemon before school, making dad take us to the Pokemon movie (the first one), drawing Pokemon and seeing who could do the best one. Going to the mall for the sole purpose of taking all our change to the Game Keeper to buy Pokemon cards, then going to the foodcourt and saving a table while mom and dad bought our food so we could all open our cards and show each other what we had. Beanie Babies. Home videos. VHS. Cassette tapes. McDonalds Happy Meal Toys- the cars/Barbies, the Teeny Beanies, the movie tie-in promotions, the plastic Furbys. N*SYNC. BBMak. Britney. Avril Lavigne. The Magic School Bus. Arthur. Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Archie comics. Watching Scooby-Doo when I stayed home sick from school; pretending to be sick so I could stay home from school. Circus arts in gym class. Pogs. Johnny Bravo. Even Stevens. Disney Channel original movies (Double Teamed, Stepsister From Planet Weird, Susie Q, SmartHouse, Tower of Terror). Central School. Coin rolls. Oregon Trail. Dogz 4. Not understanding why my parents liked boring grown-up shows like Frasier. As Told By Ginger. Rocket Power. Recess. Playing house. Super Blaze & the Baffling Badger. Playmobil (not legos). The Santa Clause. Wee Sing. My Little Pony. Eureka's Castle. Mike's Super Short Show. Toon Disney. Bonkers. Tale Spin. Darkwing Duck. Gargoyles. Inspector Gadget. Reading Rainbow. The Pagemaster. Happily Ever After. The D Show. Amazon Trail. Typing games. Super Smash Brothers. Super Mario Brothers. The Lion King N64 game. Watching The Wizard of Oz the one time a year it played on NBC. Finally getting Sleeping Beauty on video, and before then only getting to watch the (British) copy my cousins had. Tights. Ballet class. Trombone. Boys vs. girls wars during recess. Telephone. "Pass it on!" Nature's Classroom. Computer games. Overalls. Floral print dresses. Stick-on earrings. Trick-or-treating. Waiting at the top of the stairs to be allowed to come down on Christmas morning. Never knowing what you supposedly got for your parents for Christmas or their birthdays until they opened it in front of you. Writing wish lists to Santa (mostly because it was an excuse to write on wrapping paper). Seeing the lights at the Bronx Zoo. Playing in the snow. Jumping on the trampoline. Whiffle ball. Not being grossed out by slugs. Going exploring. Swimming shoes. Trying on your parents' shoes and glasses. Getting carried upside-down by your dad. Getting in trouble for saying things like "button your beak!" Clifford the big red dog. Clue mystery books. Calvin & Hobbes. Flintstones Meet the Jetsons. The Land Before Time movies. Easter Egg hunts. Asking for a dog every week. Begrudgingly writing "thank you" cards. McDonalds PlayPlaces. Eating sugary cereal when grandma was babysitting. Good Disney movies in theaters. Sing-along video tapes. Watching Fantasia but really not liking it all except for maybe the part with the Pegasuses. Watching It's A Wonderful Life and getting distractedly bored after George grows up. A Troll in Central Park. All Dogs Go to Heaven. Fern Gully. The Tom and Jerry Movie. Not understanding why mom was kind of disgusted by Jessica Rabbit. Tag (all kinds, especially TV tag). Imaginary games. Playgrounds. Scooters. Juggling scarves. Dress-up box. Fake (fake) pearls, fake purse, fake jewelry, plastic shoes. Learning the Recorder. Mandatory piano lessons with easily angered old woman. Basketball. Trying to play Quidditch on the trampoline. Cops and Robbers. Colored Eggs. Racing up the stairs with using your hands and feet. Sliding down the stairs. Having a sleepover and then trying to walk around in it when you wake up in the morning because you don't want to get out of it. Trying to stuff your sleeping bag back into its holder. Sitting through The Sound of Music but fast-forwarding past your dad's favorite song ("Climb Every Mountain"- c'mon, it goes on forever!). Not seeing the appeal in any Broadway show not based on a Disney movie. Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors. Little league sports. Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, PBS. The Natural History Museum being the only museum worth your time. Video games. Arcades. Chuck E. Cheese. Thinking your older cousins were so cool for being able to drive. Sledding. Snowball fights. Eating snow and hoping it was clean. Eating off the kids' menu. Begging your parents for dessert when you ate out. The Rainforest Cafe. Arguing over who got to use the one CD player/headphone set in the car, and not learning for a long time that you didn't have to talk so loud for everyone to hear you when you were using it. Getting money in your trick-or-treat bag but then realizing it was supposed to go to UNICEF. Not understanding what exactly UNICEF was. The Scare Fair. Mittens. Velcro shoes. Braids. Leggings. Tights. Hair bows. Having your teeth fall out in your lunch. Trying to explain to your grandmother why a shiny Team Rocket Charizard was worth screaming about. Fighting over who got to play Professor Plum in Clue. Hating Monopoly and not understanding at all how there could be any strategy to it (and still hating it). Trying and never succeeding to get a boomerang to work. Chinese yo-yo's. Drumming with chopsticks. Never ever EVER opening umbrellas indoors because of all the bad luck it would bring. The Disney cartoon of Sleepy Hollow being the scariest thing you'd ever seen. Discovering the slow-motion button on the remote control. Magically finding the remote after it had been lost for a while and mom offered $5 for its safe recovery. Boomboxes. Washing the car. Riding in the trunk on the way to the pool. Swimming, ice skating, and roller blading at the Hommocks. Buying your teachers random presents like candles or picture frames and not being able to read the thank-you notes they wrote in script. Wondering if white out could make your teeth whiter. Halloween before it all became about how slutty you could dress. The Pledge of Allegiance. Ms. Meyers, Ms Clyne, Ms Blumstein, Mrs Rosenblum, Mrs Gabel, Mrs Venditti- kindergarten through fifth grade. Mr. Savage, Mrs George, Mrs Burton, Mrs Jordan, Ms Matsushita, Dr Sieh, Mrs Quittman. The Story-Tell-A-Thon. Watching Rocky and Bullwinkle because dad liked it so much. Making forts out of blankets and tape. Seeing how fast the treadmill could go. Trying to catch a leaf, because if you caught it before it hit the ground, you could make a wish. Yellow rainboots. Jumping in puddles. Throwing a little bit of everything in the kitchen into a bowl and always trying at least a smidgen unless you put soap in it. Little science experiments. That "S" thing we all drew in elementary school. Woodchips. Splinters. Spud. Playing catch. Red Rover. Ring Around the Rosie (and learning what it was really a rhyme about). Butts Up vs. Watermelon. The stocking stuffers from grandma that were always random old lady things you were supposed to pretend to like. Stickers. Picking out school supplies at the end of August. Wondering why the Little Mermaid and Aladdin and Hercules TV shows were so much less entertaining than the movies. Pigtails. Braces. Letting mom buy our friends' birthday presents. Field trips: permission slips, who you were going to sit next to on the bus, what songs you were going to sing on the way there and back. Waiting on pins and needles for the next Harry Potter book to come out. Having mom read out loud from them every night until dad fell asleep. Writing Valentines cards to the whole class (and searching for your least favorite card to give to the kid you hated). Teasing people about crushes. Everyone being friends. Feeling like high school will never, ever come.

Wow. Major flow of stream of consciousness nostalgia. Man, I had such an amazing childhood. There will never ever be a time again like the 1990s or early 2000s, but I guess that's obvious and everyone thinks that about the time they grew up in. Michael Cunningham was right when he said, "There is nothing, ever, that can compare to the recollection of having been young together. Maybe it's as simple as that."
It is.

Stop Teen Bullying

2010-10-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=592846987806&ref=mf
(if you have facebook, copy and paste that link into your browser...it's very moving.)

I know people can't always agree on things. Maybe a kid thinks another is a geek, or weird because he's from another country, or fat, or gay, or Democrat, or Mormon. We should not be putting people down. We will be held accountable for what we say, and I can't even imagine what the other side will be like for people whose stupidity, ignorance, and cruelty were so extreme that they caused another human being to take his life. Spread messages of love and kindness. Destroy not him for whom Christ died.

"Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really."

2010-09-04T17:19:00.001-07:00

Goodbye, Winnie. Thanks for the memories!

Young @ Heart

2010-08-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

For anyone who likes documentaries, old people, and/or James Brown, the movie "Young @ Heart" is a must. It made me cry four times...not like that's hard to do, but it's a very moving, amusing, well-made piece. Basically it's about a group of senior citizens (mostly in their 70s and 80s, though the oldest member is 92!) who sing rock songs as a choir. "I Feel Good," "She's Not There," "I Wanna Be Sedated" and other classics are covered by these rocking seniors. (That music video is seriously amazing.) Particularly moving is the group's rendition of "Forever Young," sung at a local prison just after receiving news that one of their members had died.

Also, I have a new favorite cover of any song ever. "Fix You" by Coldplay is a lovely song, but the lead singer's high pitch no longer does it for me with this song. Don't let Fred Knittles' age and weight fool you, the man has an absolutely beautiful voice and his grandfatherly, deep timbre makes this song so beautiful. Worth checking out.

Whetting appetites for movies NOT on dvd.

2010-07-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

In the wonderful world of Netflix, I've been extremely fortunate to see a myriad of movies that I've never been able to locate in libraries or video stores. However, there will be the sad occasion where I'll excitedly search a title I just read about, or attempt to add something I saw on TCM that I want my parents to watch, and Netflix lets me down.
It's not Netflix's fault, it's just that the movies haven't been released on DVD- and in many instances, the movie is nearly impossible to locate on VHS. Sure there are plenty of old movie throwaways that aren't on DVD simply because there would be no market for them, but then there are others (like the four listed below) that have no business NOT being readily available. I mean I just walked into a Barnes & Nobel and saw a Charlie Chan dvd collection. No offense to Charlie Chan, but I mean, come on. Charlie Chan? OVER THESE?!

4. The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947)- This is a fascinating film starring Rosalind Russell, an actress remembered mostly for her comedies ("The Women," "His Girl Friday," "Auntie Mame") if she is remembered at all. Though a brilliant comedienne, Roz was not always given due credit for her talents as a dramatic actress, which are on full display in this film. She plays Janet Ames, the widow of a soldier who lost his life saving four other men in his unit. Janet sets out to find the men her husband saved, convinced that whoever they are, they can't be leading better lives or doing more noble work than Mr. Ames would have done. Surrealistic in some parts, the film follows her journey to track down these men, and she slowly realizes how much bigger the war is than just her. Very humbling. Also, Sid Caesar is in it for about ten minutes and he's amazing.

3. Only Yesterday (1999)- This is one of those movies that's hard to talk up because when you ask what it's about, all you can really say is "it's about a girl in Japan and how she grows up there. And it's anime." Produced by Studio Ghibli, which brought us "Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle," "Only Yesterday" is a gorgeous piece of animation that serves as further proof that sometimes, cartoons are more human than live-action films. Every emotion depicted here, every line of dialogue, every minute animated movement just feels incredibly real. Disney has a deal with Ghibli to release their films here in America, but the company refused to put "Only Yesterday" on DVD. Why? Because for about five minutes, we talk about a girl getting her period for the first time. Perish the thought.

2. Turnabout (1940)- Like "Freaky Friday," but instead of the mother and daughter switching lives, it's a husband and wife. And their voices stay with them, so the actors dub each other, the woman's high-pitched, girlish voice coming out of the man, and his masculine one coming from her mouth. That alone makes this movie absolutely hilarious, but the characterizations are fantastic also. There are no big stars in it, unless you're weird like me and appreciate the support of Mary Astor and Adolph Menjou. But seriously, this movie is a riot and should be seen by anyone who likes comedy, laughing in general, genderbending, etc. If you have the TCM station, check their schedule and record this the next time it's on.

1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1946)- There is no reason for this film to be as hard to find as it is. None. Actually I just checked Amazon, and they do have copies of it on dvd for an obscenely high price for a low quality DVD. It's the first film Elia Kazan directed, is based on one of the most beloved American novels of the twentieth century, and is A FREAKING TREE GROWS IN FREAKING BROOKLYN. Everything about this movie is perfect. Someone realized that and put it on youtube in 12 parts, but who wants to sit at their computer for 2+ hours to watch a movie? I guess some people do that, but personally I'd rather just have it on DVD. My mother and I cried in three places when we saw this film, and I recommend it to anyone (Scarsdale has a copy on VHS, Westchester friends!). The children give exceptional performances, especially Peggy Ann Garner as Francie (Netflix does carry her version of "Jane Eyre," which is worth watching for her great turn as young Jane). Equally perfect is Joan Blondell as Aunt Sissy, probably the actress' best work. Dorothy Maguire, aka the mom in "Old Yeller" also does a stellar job here, especially in the scene right before she gives birth. Ironically my least favorite performance was James Dunn's as the father Johnny, yet he was the one who won an Oscar. Still, the relationships are captured perfectly with a sophistication that is wonderful to behold. We need a special edition of this to be easily accessible!!

(also in my head as I was reading the book, I cast a remake with Ewan McGregor and Emily Deschanel as Mr. and Mrs. Nolan. I'll have to graduate quick and write that script if I want this dream to become a reality, haha.)

"Chelsea, shut up"

2010-06-14T21:45:00.001-07:00

Ever watch a movie and realize that you have actively work NOT to say every single line aloud as the movie progresses? That is such a big problem for me. And I feel like a hypocrite because I really hate it when other people do it, but I do it all the time. The problem with this is that with one notable exception, I do it with movies my friends have never seen...so I go to all these lengths to have them watch it, and then I recite along to all the best lines. It's so obnoxious.

But seriously. I know these movies word for word. Put it in, and I can follow along to the letter. The letter. I guess I was sort of wondering what films these would be for other people...Disney is a given, of course. My brother and I can even do the musical cues for those- yikes.

-The Women, but the old one from '39 not the Meg Ryan remake. Aside from having what is unquestionably THE best catfight ever caught on film (seriously, click that link, about 1:30 in), this movie is chockful of witty, brilliant, hilarious sexist dialogue. Well, not all of it is sexist. But it's hilarity, and I've been obsessed since I was 13.

-Little Women, 1949. Elizabeth Taylor + blonde wig = greatness. I've watched this so many times that despite its length I know it completely by heart. And I highly recommend it.

-Clue, 1985. Really this is the hardest one to keep my mouth shut for. It's impossible not to love this movie.

IT HAS ARRIVED.

2010-05-15T18:34:00.001-07:00

OH MY GOODNESS. You have no idea how hard it is for me not to write this entire entry in all-caps. That's how exciting this is. What could warrant such an un-heard of level of "OMG HURRAY YES" in me, you ask (or...you know, maybe not)? Am I engaged? Did I get all A's? Has BYU suddenly dropped its bio requirement?

No. I'm giddy as a schoolgirl because of a television show. Specifically, "Daria."

Whenever I mention Daria, I usually get one of two responses, the first being, "Oh, that was a cartoon show on MTV, right?" and the other, more common one being, "What's that?" Both make me sad because the first is so dismissive and the second is so heartwrenchingly unaware of what they're missing. I first discovered this show when it was syndicated on a channel no longer in existence (The N, now Teen-nick) 7 years ago. And I've waited that long for this ground-breaking, hilarious show to come to DVD, particularly when The N pulled it in 2004. For years people petitioned to get the show available on DVD, and finally, our efforts have paid off.

Seriously. This show was important enough to me to make it onto the list I submitted as part of my application to the film program which focused on the ten most important media influences of my life. MY LIFE. It shaped my sense of humor. Daria and Jane were like heroes to me. These were characters on television who represented me and my friends. The humor is drier than bones (another great show, by the way), the voice acting is excellent, and every episode more than enjoyable.

Daria, Jane, Quinn, Helen, Jake, Stacy, Sandi, Tiffany, Upchuck, Kevin, Brittany, Mr. O'Neill, Mr. Demartino, Ms. Barch, Ms. Li, Joey Jeffie and Jamie, Mack, Jodie, Upchuck, and of course Trent Lane (the only animated character I continue to slightly be in love with. Except for Prince Eric. And Dimitri. But Trent especially.) Honestly, this show is the coolest of the cool. And for only $27.99 on Amazon (!!!!!) I was able to purchase the box-set, which consists of all 5 seasons, the two tv-movies, and a handful of delightful extras.

THIS IS AMAZING. My summer is set. And if you're unfamiliar with this show, I would highly recommend netflixing it immediately. If you don't have netflix, get an account for the sole purpose of being able to watch DARIA. As for my BYU friends, beware- I will be bringing this with me to school next year.
Pictured: Hotness incarnate.

Here's a few lines to whet your appetite:

Jane: Scoff if you will, but everyone who has lived in the House of Bad Grades has gone on to work minimum-wage jobs, to this very day. What do you say to that?
Daria: Scoff.

Quinn - Look, can you please stop talking to me? If the Fashion Club sees this I'll be like one of those baby birds that gets put back in the nest but the mother knows it's been touched by a human and pecks it to death, understand?
Daria - Sure. You're a birdbrain.

Jane: Trent, how much money do you have? (he is silent). ......Trent!
Trent: I have none, so I said nothing.

Jake: Stupid car! You're nothing but a radio with doors!

Quinn: You won't believe what just happened!
Daria: You're right. Save your breath.

Daria: I really don't feel comfortable dying your hair.
Jane: Come on, Daria, get going. We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Daria: I'm sure FDR had teen girl hairstyles in mind when he made that speech. You know, one phone call and I could have my sister over here with her little fashion fiends to do this job the way it should be done.
Jane: "Hello, Quinn? It's me, Daria. Can you help me make my friend look pretty?"

Daria: Jane. On a school team. That's pathetic. Hey, if she's the pathetic one, why am I talking to myself? And more importantly, why am I waiting for a reply?

Helen: Let me see your Career Aptitude Test....mortician?!
Daria: Hey, it's not my fault. Neck model was already taken.
Helen: "Your lack of interest in personal interaction makes you an ideal candidate for working with the dead." Daria, have you given any thought to your career plans?
Daria: I guess I'll just wait around for people to kick the bucket.
Helen: I can't believe you're not more ambitious.
Daria: You want me to kill people to drum up business?

Helen: So, how was your first day working at the pet store?
Quinn: It went great, the animals love me!
Daria: I heard a canary got caught in the air filtration system at the mall. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?
Quinn: Stop making things up. Besides, it wasn't really my fault.

Kevin: Munch the nutty-nutty?

:) Ahhhh, this is making me so happy. Of course, just reading the quotes isn't quite the same without getting to hear the great voice acting, so you should really watch this. No, really. You should. Oh, and also this, because Trent is hot.

If I had my own car....

2010-05-02T20:24:00.001-07:00

....I'd probably put on it the bumper sticker I saw today:

"Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to meet him."

Seriously, people. Please don't text and drive.

Oscar Recap

2010-03-08T14:41:00.001-08:00

For some reason, I was sure the Oscars were going to suck this year. If you're one of those people who doesn't understand the appeal of the ceremony, that's okay. There's just something inherent in me that loves the glitz and the glamor of it all, the self-congratulatory-ness of it all, the dresses, the drama, the ballots (I correctly guessed 14/24 for this year), the montages. But this year there were some major changes: most notably, 10 Best Picture nominations instead of the usual 5; acceptance speeches restricted to approximately 45 seconds (unless you're an actor or director); no more performances of the nominated Original Songs; and pulling out teen hotties like Taylor Lautner as announcers. All of these measures were taken to ensure more viewers, and I was sure it meant the ceremony would be awful.

Actually it turned out to be one of my all-around favorite telecasts in quite a while, and I'll just say a few reasons why.
1. KATHRYN BIGELOW. KATHRYN BIGELOW. KATHRYN BIGELOW!!!!! I had a strange but sure feeling that she was going to win it this year, and I was right. She was going to be the first woman to win Best Director; I just knew it. I thought that meant Avatar would win Best Picture, but fortunately I was wrong in that regard. Bigelow truly deserved her win and I'm so glad she's been recognized.

2. Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin. Honestly, they're like the first hosts in a while to make the Oscars feel like the Oscars again (Hugh Jackman was fun but it felt too much like watching the Tonys; I am still traumatized by Chris Rock's hosting job a few years back; Ellen Degeneres was of course fun but not particularly memorable). Steve and Alec made the ceremony classy, fun, and downright enjoyable. I only wish we hadn't had to suffer first through that horrendous Neil Patrick Harris opening number. Seriously, what was that?

3. Random funny little blink-and-you'd-miss-'em moments, like Meryl Streep's awkward hug fail and the Oscar Kanye moment. :)

4. Best Animated Feature nominees. I am a little sad that Beauty & The Beast is now no longer the first cartoon to have been nominated for Best Picture, but Up really is great. And, for the first time since 2006, all the nominees were actually worthy of being nominated, especially Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox (which, if you have not seen, I highly recommend checking out). This category usually has a lot of throwaways up against Pixar- Jimmy Neutron or The Wild Thornberries, anyone?

5. Sandra Bullock's acceptance speech. I did feel a bit blindsided by her win, I admit. I had predicted Meryl Streep would take it home, because in all the pre-Oscar articles I read, Best Actress was the only major category that columnists were struggling to peg. No, it wasn't the best performance of Streep's career, but it was her 16th(!) nomination and would have been her first win since 1982. While The Blind Side may have been an OK movie (not really worthy of its Best Picture nod, but whatever), Bullock was what made it so and obviously what made the movie a) what it was, and b) a blockbuster. It was the greatest performance of HER career. Her speech was funny, endearing, and not self-indulgent in the slightest. Plus you have to love that she had gone in person to accept a Razzie only a few nights previously.

6. The fact that Avatar only won the technical awards it deserved. Otherwise my film teacher planned on advising the Academy that the next time James Cameron went up to accept an award, his acceptance speech should not be cut off by the orchestra, but by a trapdoor.

7. KATHRYN BIGELOW!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh the Oscars. Thank you for another fabulous night. Til next year!

How I Feel About Fashion

2010-03-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I missed "Project Runway" because I somehow wound up going to see Alice in Wonderland at midnight. Probably my favorite part of the movie were the costumes, which were designed by Colleen Atwood- far and away my favorite film designer working in Hollywood today (she's also done Memoirs of a Geisha and Sweeney Todd).

But anyway, that meant I had to look up the newest episode of Project Runway this morning, and I may have a new favorite quote from that show. One contestant was raising his eyebrows at another's design, questioning the (admittedly questionable) taste or lack thereof that went into the garment.

"There's one thing that will never go out of style, and that's making a woman look like a lady."

Thank you, Southern gentleman! Unfortunately too many designers seem to forget that these days.

Even in college, I have these days.

2010-02-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

Especially on Sunday nights.

Leftovers

2010-01-23T13:06:00.001-08:00

Note to self:
Onion rings and a chocolate shake
do not a healthy breakfast make.

(...but it's just so scrumptious. Ah, college!)

Heroes

2010-01-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

This week, this woman passed away at age 100.

I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't recognize her face (I wouldn't) or her name (I would). This is Miep Gies, the last of Anne Frank's protectors to pass away. This humble Gentile hid two Jewish families in her attic, knowing full well the dangers associated with doing so. When the Nazis raided her home and left the attic in shambles, Miep took yet another life-risking move by collecting the papers that young Anne had written, and after the war, she returned them unread to Anne's father, the only survivor of his family.

But see, you probably know all that. And we'd all like to think that if it had been us, we would have taken action similar to Miep. In all honesty, though, I don't think I'd have been that brave. I wish to God I could say for sure that I could be, but I don't know if that's true. We can only pray that we'll never have to know for sure.

Without Miep, we would not have The Diary of Anne Frank (which I think I heard somewhere is the second most read non-fiction book after the Bible). She risked her life, but thought it was in vain, and maybe that is why she does not like to be called a hero. Because she kept such a low profile, not many people- even Holocaust historians- knew who she was until her family convinced her to write a memoir in 1987. She does not want to be singled out, for there were many others who risked their lives to save Jews in their communities; it just turns out that one of the people she tried to save has become world famous.

With all due respect, Miep is too humble. She was wrong. Her actions were heroic. I only found out about her death when my mother emailed me about something else, adding that she heard on the radio about Miep Gies' passing. I had to search hard online to find news about it. In this day in age when there is more coverage and obsession over the death of socialities or celebrities or movie stars, it makes me sad that there is not more notice given to someone who really did something with her life, right up until her death. After defying the Nazi regime, Miep spent much of her time adding her testimony of the accounts of what happened in Germany, arguing against Holocaust deniers.

I wish more people cared...I wish I had cared more, so I might have been able to find out how to contact her while she was still alive, and thank her for preserving one of the most humbling texts I have ever read. God bless, Miep! I hope now she is at least able to see Anne again.

Succeeding to Fail

2010-01-01T14:58:00.001-08:00

Inspired by an episode of "Daria" that I watched with my friends on New Years, I have decided to only make New Years resolutions that I know I will fail at. This way, when I fail, I will have really succeeded, because I will have realized that it's okay sometimes to fail. It's not the end of the world. Here are some resolutions:

-spend less time on facebook
-get to know my student ward better
-stop finding married classmates attractive
-get an A in Chinese.

Happy 2010, everyone!

2009-12-20T20:18:00.000-08:00

I wish companies/businesses/schools cared about individuality as much as they pretend to.

Jane: The whole point of these scholarships is to show how marvelously well-adjusted you are. You're coming across all observant and honest. You know, anti-social.

Daria: Look, this is how I write. I wouldn't want to get the prize based on some phony essay and phony personality. (Jane leans forward, looking around). What are you looking for?

Jane: The umbilical cord. Since you were obviously born yesterday.

Best State of the Union

2009-11-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

Why New York is better than any of the remaining 49 states:
1. Pizza.
2. Bagels.
3. Black & White Cookies.
4. Broadway.
5. Times Square.
6. Architecture: Chrysler Building/Empire State Building/Rockefeller Center, etc
7. Pret a Manger.
8. Honey-roasted Peanuts.
9. Pretzels.
10. Judaism.

perhaps a film critic.

2009-10-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

This "blog" is a nice place for me to practice film criticism/analysis, which is one of my favorite things to do and what I hope to do for a living someday. Aside from following up on pretentious famous critics like Leonard Maltin or Roger Ebert, I also am hooked on Top 10 lists by EW or moviefone.com. It is in the spirit of them that I write this post.
Child actors fascinate me. Some are cute (Shirley Temple), some are scary (Dakota Fanning), and some are unbelievably talented actors, more than stars (see below!). I decided to comprise a list of 10 performances done by actors under the age of fifteen that I think are the greatest I have seen. There is one guilty pleasure on the list, but the others represent what I think are the best depictions of real children I've ever seen. That's why Shirley Temple isn't on here, or Judy Garland; though I love them both, there is a bit too much theatricality in their performances (which was just right for the movies they were making). Also Dakota Fanning isn't on here because she never seems to act like a kid in her movies (SNL writers agree).

10. Jordan Nagai as Russell, in "Up".
Even in cartoons, kids in movies can be too eager, which comes off as annoying. I didn't realize how often this occurs until I saw "Up," and I was beyond impressed with little Jordan Nagai's voice acting (and not just because I love Asians...) His inflections and delivery of the dialogue sounded just like a little kid, dragging his feet one minute and bouncing up and down at the discovery of something cool the next. Some people might have found his character a bit trying after a while, but he was by far my favorite character in this movie. Well done, Mr. Nagai. Well done.

9. Ann Carter as Amy, in "Curse of the Cat People."
In one of the most misleadingly titled movies ever made lies one of the most touching portrayals of childhood ever captured on celluloid. I don't know anything else Ann Carter has done, but in this movie, she gives a very believable performance as a friendless, lonely girl, the likes of which were very unusual for child actors of the 1940s. Her interactions with her "imaginary friend" (pictured here) are sort of magical in their own way, and she gives us something to relate to. At one point or another in our lives, I think we were like Amy.

8. James Bentley & Alakina Mann as Anne & Nicholas in "The Others"
I couldn't choose between these two--they're both SO good. If you have kids in a horror movie, whether or not you buy it depends on how good the actors are. Bentley's performance as the scaredy-cat younger brother is so believable that you actually feel embarrassed for him as he is teased by his older sister, played by Mann, who is so believable that you want to slap her across the face more than once. My favorite part of this movie is probably when Nicole Kidman and Mann discover the secret that gives the film its twist ending- Mann's look of comprehending horror is chilling. (The other thing I like about this movie is that although it's scary, it doesn't exploit the kids... like "Let the Right Ones In," which was pornographic in its exposing the child actors to gruesome gore...)

7. Margaret O'Brien as Beth March in "Little Women" (1949)
I cannot stress how much I want everyone in the world to see this movie, and about 50% of the reason I want them to is for O'Brien's performance. I saw this movie when I was 12, and I identified with Beth March like I'd never identified with a fictional character before. The reason for that is O'Brien, who more than perfectly captures the fear, shyness, and sweetness that makes up this character. She is so sincere in the scene when she thanks Mr. Lawrence for the piano (see photo) that it makes my mother and I tear up every time. And at her final monologue, forget it. I'm sobbing. In the age of Shirley Temple, she is sadly not remembered much anymore.

6. AnnaSophia Robb as Opal in "Because of Winn-Dixie"
Not just any child actress could hold her own among stars like Jeff Daniels, Charlize Theron, Johnny Depp, or Hilary Swank. Robb not only does this, but makes their performances better. Though I adore her in "Bridge to Terabithia" (in a part that almost went to Dakota Fanning, WHAT?!), I have to say "Winn-Dixie" is probably my favorite performance of hers. The chemistry between her and the dog is unfakeable, and her emotions all come across as very true. The scene where Winn-Dixie goes missing and Robb calls out her father for wanting to give up is so powerful that I cry every time. Her pain and her tears are so real. This was before Hollywood got a grip on her, and she was more raw (now, at times, I can sort of see her "acting," which is unfortunate). I saw her in "Jumper," where she played the younger version of a character for the first 10 minutes, and I just have to say it's sort of sad when a child actor gives a better performance than the person playing her character for the rest of the movie. (I couldn't continue watching it after Robb was gone.)

5. Lindsay Lohan as Hallie & Annie in "The Parent Trap"
OKAY, Lohan's been going down sort of a downhill slope for the last few years with her alcoholism, drug abuse, family drama, and tabloid stories- but gosh dang it if this girl was not one of the most talented child actors around. Watching "The Parent Trap" again this summer, I was truly floored by how amazing she was. Much more so than Hayley Mills (no offense), Lohan made the twins seem like two totally different people, to the point that many lesser-informed viewers used to think the part was actually played by two actresses. Lohan not only nails Annie's refinement and snobbery, and Hallie's self-confident, laid-back personality, but also does an amazing job of playing each twin playing the other. So she really sort of plays four characters in this movie. I'll also add that Lohan gave two of the most believable teenage performances I've seen in "Freaky Friday" and more especially, "Mean Girls." Props to you, girl. I hope she comes back someday.

4. Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams in "Addams Family Values"
Someday I'd like to shake the hand of the genius who came up with the idea of sending the Addams children to summer camp. I'd also like to shake the hand of the casting agent who put Ricci in this role. And then I'd like to shake Ricci's hand. This is my guilty pleasure on the list, because of course Wednesday Addams is about as far from a "real" kid as you can get, although now that I think about it, she's sort of like a goth 10-year-old taken to the next level. Anyway, in this movie and its predecessor, Ricci showed a creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky (and hilarious) ability to more than grasp Wednesday's dark, dark, dark sense of humor. ("I'll buy your lemonade since they're made with real lemons, if you'll buy a box of my Girl Scout cookies." "Are they made from real girl scouts?") Priceless. Ricci's understanding and interpretation of the role is my favorite thing about these movies, more than making up for the lack of development the character had on the TV show. It takes an really smart kid to get a role like this. Watch Wednesday play Hamlet in "The Addams Family" and Pocahontas in "The Addams Family Values," and you get a good taste of what Ricci's about. Seriously, go out and rent these movies. Ricci will blow your mind.

3. Freddie Highmore as Peter in "Finding Neverland."

........just watch it.

2. Josh Hutcherson as Jess Aarons in "Bridge to Terabithia"
I don't think I could praise this kid enough. His part in this film was so difficult, and his talent in pulling it off puts many other adult actors to shame. Hutcherson infuses the character with equal measures of frustration, pride, cynacism, fear, love, and happiness that only someone bent on calling this movie horrible could say he fails to bring Jess to life. SPOILER ALERT!! Just when you thought he was just being cute and having fun, we reach the third act of the movie, and suddenly you're like, give this kid an Oscar already. The wrenching guilt the character feels after his best friend dies is painful to watch. His reactions with two of his teachers, a bully, his sister, and especially his father would make even the most hard-hearted person bawl like a baby. A BABY. Bawling. A lot.

1. Max Records as Max in "Where the Wild Things Are"
This is the performance that actually made me think of this list in the first place. I've never seen Max Records in anything else and don't know if he'll ever be able to make anything ever again, but regardless, this is without question the most realistic portrayal of a kid I have ever seen. The first 20 minutes of this movie are perfect, and they're actually the reason I wanted to see it in the first place. That part in the trailer where Max sees his mother (played excellently by Catherine Keener!) kiss her boyfriend, just the look on his face, gah. He knew how to be subtle, and other times, how to be loud and crazy. He just seemed so 100% unaware that he was being filmed, that he was in a movie, and that's what puts him apart from the other 9 kids I mentioned (and the ones I didn't. A-hem, Dakota). Seriously, everything he did and everything he said rang totally true. I felt like I was intruding on somebody'else's life, on somebody else's imagination. I can honestly say I've never seen a performance more powerful.

Back in the day, there used to be "Juvenile Oscars" for child actors, sort of like Special or Honorary Awards. Shirley Temple got one, as did Mickey Rooney, and Judy Garland rightfully received one for "The Wizard of Oz." I don't know when they stopped giving these out, nor do I know why. I really wish they would bring it back, because I feel like at least 3 or 4 of the kids on this list would have gotten one. We don't want 10 Best Picture Nominations, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, we want awards to recognize child actors!
...or I do, anyway.

life lessons

2009-10-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

Patriotism

2009-09-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Oh, my beautiful New York skyline. I hardly knew it before it was changed forever.

Five days into my first year as a middle school student, my Spanish class was interrupted by an announcement from the P.A. systems. Our principal told us all to go to a certain area of the school to hear something important. We were divided up by Social Studies teacher; all those who had Mrs. Savage were told to go to the cafeteria, so that's where I went. Once I got there, I tried to find some of my friends to sit down with, but after scanning the room, the only available seat I saw was by some popular kids I didn't really know. It turned out not to matter... once Mr. Chiang, my guidance counselor, had gotten everyone's attention, he told us: "Kids, this morning two planes hit the Twin Towers."

Immediately, the mood shifted. Everyone stopped chatting to their neighbors, boys stopped trading baseball cards under the table. We just stared at him. Instantly, kids shot their hands into the air, wanting to know how close the Towers were to this building or this office in the city where their parents worked. Neither of my parents worked in the city, so I knew they were safe, but I did think of Helen Belilovsky right away. Her son, Eugene, was my brother's best friend, and I knew she worked in one of the Towers.

For the next couple of days, we heard stories about people who were supposedly lost, gone forever, but then showed up, or were found. I kept hoping that would be the case with Helen. She would be found. She would come home. But she never did. Helen died that day, years after she and her husband immigrated from Russia after the Chernobyl incident, hoping to find a better life in America.

I always think of the Belilovskys on this day, but the other name that always comes to mind is Sarah Swaine. She was the last name on the roster of my first period class. On September 12, 2001, when Mrs. Savage was taking attendance... "Sarah Swaine. Sarah? Is Sarah here?" No one said anything, until a girl named Chloe Deem (Sarah's best friend) slowly raised her hand. "Sarah's not here. Her dad and her uncle worked in the Towers." Sarah should have been in three of my other classes that day, and each time her name was called, Chloe was now ready with her response- "Her dad died from September 11th." Like Helen, Mr. Swaine was never found. Sarah's birthday was on October 22nd. In middle school, girls liked to decorate each other's lockers for their birthdays before classes started, but most of the time after they did this, they ran away so that their friend would be surprised when she got to her locker. My locker was near Sarah's, and on her birthday, I could not get near it because half the girls in my class had showed up to decorate it to the hilt and sing to her. After sixth grade, I didn't have a class with Sarah again until I was a junior. She probably doesn't remember me at all. But I'm never going to be able to forget her.

I'm jumping around here a bit, sorry. But every 4th of July, when we sing "The Star Spangled Banner" in church, I always cry. My family thinks it's because I'm just sentimental and moved by the words and proud to be an American or whatever, but that's not exactly it. It's the memory of the end of 9/11/01, when my last class in school was band. Mr. Jordan lead us in playing The Star Spangled Banner. We could barely get through it for crying; we were just kids. Some of us were still only ten years old.

In 2002 and 2003, we held a school-wide assembly on September 11th to commemorate those who had died. By the time I reached high school in 2004, that was whittled down to a minute of silence. Nobody, nobody dared break that silence, not the rudest troublemaker, the meanest prankster, or the most disrespectful student would dishonor those moments of absolute silence. That is why it was so hard for me to come here, to Utah, and not be in New York on the eleventh of September. Last year, none of my teachers acknowledged it. None of the kids in my classes or girls on my floor seemed to realize what day it was (maybe they did; I don't know, I just know that I didn't hear anything about it). There was no moment of silence. No quiet plea from our principal asking us to remember those who had fallen. I thought of Sarah Swaine, starting college, and I wondered if she told her classmates about the losses she'd sustained. I just wanted someone to care.

This year, the school paper had one sentence in their bulletin about what day it was. I must admit, I felt really upset about that. I don't want this to sound like bragging or woe-is-me, but my classmates out here don't get it. They weren't there, which I know is why this day doesn't hold as much significance for them as it does for me. But I can't just forget it. I can't forget what that terror was like, leaving my childhood far behind me.

In retrospect, I think it was 9/11 that made me proud to be an American. I saw it pull our country together. I saw it make people want to help each other. My friends and I had a bake sale on the corner of our street, with signs declaring that all proceeds would go to helping the families of victims of the terrorist attacks. Normally a bake sale like this, with a bunch of kids, might make $8 at best. We raised $362.

I guess this post is for New York, then. For Eugene, for Sarah, and for Ryan McErlean, another boy in my grade who lost his father on September 11th (I had no classes with him, and didn't know of his loss until two years after the fact).

Lastly, though the cynic in me is struggling to contain these words, I just want to say, God bless you, America, and New York. Home of the brave.

Wait...summer's OVER?!

2009-08-26T11:44:00.001-07:00

Though there were times I felt that these summer days were crawling sluggishly by, and that it'd be nice to have some structure (like classes) again, now I seriously can't believe that summer has already sailed by. Those familiar tremors of fear are starting to set in again: fear of setting up a new place, living with new people, going to a new ward, starting new classes, having to make new friends all over again... sigh. It can be fun, but troublesome as well.
I may not have had a steady job this summer, and I may not have gone to Europe like four of my friends did, but these past few months have been so great, that I do wish there were 500 days of summer....
I got to re-introduce one of my best friends to my favorite city!

We walked the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time.

I went to 2 Broadway shows, which is very unusual for me...but it was SO exciting to see Lauren Graham in "Guys & Dolls," and then Rupert Everett and Angela Lansbury in "Blithe Spirit" the next month. :)

I reconnected with old friends, such as this one, who moved to Britain when we were 13!

I got to hang out with New Rochelle II, undoubtedly the coolest ward that exists!

We were visited by my mom's siblings, Patty and Michael, for Uncle Mike's 60th birthday. As always, it was so much fun to hang out with them- and see their hippie side released when they went to see "Hair" on Broadway!

After having read about him and seen him in countless documentaries, I got to meet one of my favorite film historians, John Culhane!!!

My family went on a trip to Newport, RI for the first time, so I could see a Norman Rockwell exhibit at the American Museum of Illustration. It's so beautiful up there.

And then of course, there was our epic pilgrimage to see the Corn Dance in New Mexico. Graham and I hadn't been to the southwestern part of the United States in about ten years, so going back there was a really fun experience.

Shortly after our return from the barren, wide-open-spaces area of the Southwest, we rocked it up at the 40th-anniversary concert (or "music festival," rather) at Woodstock with thousands of other fans.

Then of course, it was an epic summer for movies: the (very, very, very highly anticipated) Harry Potter, which yes, I saw 3.5 times (the .5 being our first thwarted attempt to see the movie at midnight). Also, Public Enemies, Ponyo, and Julie & Julia.

But mostly what I did this summer was what I do best: which is to say, hang out with my amazing friends. They are what made this season fly right on by. I already can't wait to see them again at Thanksgiving or Christmas, and thankfully, friends are also what help me get by when I'm at BYU. I'm sure this semester will be just as action-packed and full of fun/stress/college life in general as the last, so here's to it! (But this was just one last "hurrah" for my summer.)

I noticed 95% of my posts have been about movies...

2009-08-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

Princess Mononoke.(above)
Howl's Moving Castle (below), which actually was shown at International Cinema last semester.)

Right now, I just want to say something for the record: I. Love. Animation. I have so much respect for the artistry and wizardry involved in making animated films. In particular, I go crazy for traditional, hand-drawn animation and stop-motion animation (Coraline, Wallce & Gromit, or the upcoming Fantastic Mr. Fox ..which yes, I totally plan on seeing). There is something about seeing the direct work of human hands where no computer was involved or intervened to fix an error. If Disney's next cartoon (The Princess and the Frog, a return to traditional animation) is a hit, I really hope its style sets a new trend.
If not, at least I know I can always count on Hayao Miyazaki.
YES, that's a Japanese name, so YES, that technically means it's "anime." If you're one of those people who wrinkles their noses and raises their eyebrows and snickers every time this word is mentioned, I ask you to swallow that snicker, unwrinkle your nose, and return your eyebrows to their normal position. Do yourself and/or your kids a huge favor by renting a few Miyazaki movies to show them- even the worst of them are better than the tripe being shown to them by other studios these days (with the sole exception of Pixar.)
But the animation is weird, you say. Their eyes are big and round, their mouths move inordinately with speech, and the dubbing is bad. Whatever. Disney has released nearly all of Miyazaki's movies here, and each one is exceptional, especially the casts:
Ponyo (now in theaters): Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, BETTY WHITE
Howl's Moving Castle: Christian Bale, Jean Simmons, Emily Mortimer, Josh Hutcherson, Blythe Danner, Lauren Bacall
Spirited Away: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleashette, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers
Princess Mononoke: Claire Danes, Billy Crudup, Billy-Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver, Jada Pinkett Smith
Castle in the Sky: Anna Paquin, Mandy Patinkin, James van der Beek, Mark Hamill, Cloris Leachman
Kiki's Delivery Service: Kirsten Dunst, Debbie Reynolds, Matthew Lawrence
Porco Rosso: Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes, Susan Egan, Brad Garrett
Naussica of the Valley of the Wind: Shia LeBeouf, Uma Therman, Mark Hamill, Tony Joy, Patrick Stewart
My Neighbor Totoro: recently re-dubbed by Dakota Fanning and her little sister

These are all amazing movies and don't deserve to be overlooked the way they are, simply because they happen to be animated and happen to be from Japan. Anyone of any age can enjoy them (except maybe Princess Mononoke, which deserves its PG-13 rating). I will say that Ponyo, the one currently in release, is not my favorite, so I'd actually suggest going out and renting one of the others, because they're all so great. The best for younger kids would probably be Ponyo, Kiki's Delivery Service, and My Neighbor Totoro, which are all as good as the old Disney movies and draw kids in because the main characters are children as well. Most of the others I mentioned require a bit more of an attention span...
...wow, listen to me. I could just rant about movies all day long.

I am the uber nerd

2009-07-11T09:37:00.001-07:00

This week I had one of the most exciting experiences of my life.
I'm still geeking out.
Allow me to explain:
When I was little (and really awesome), I would obsessively watch Disney movies, and then obsessively watch the little making-of features about them. My obsession was so deep that when I was ten, my parents got me a beautiful book written by two of Disney's greatest animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, and later a documentary about them. Quoted extensively in their book and interviewed repeatedly in this documentary was a man named John Culhane. He was, in fact, I noticed, present in nearly every Disney-related documentary I watched.
Then I learnd Mr. Culhane had been the visual inspiration from Medusa's sidekick Mr. Snoops in "The Rescuers" (the character being so named because of Mr. Culhane's tendancy to "snoop" around the studio). A caricature of him also appeared in Fantasia 2000 for the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment.
I got the chance to meet with Mr. Culhane and talk to him about his Disney-related experiences. When he was 20 years old, he drove from Illinois to California with the sole purpose of meeting Walt Disney, which he accomplished. He and Mr. Disney spent five and a half hours talking together, which is about an hour longer than the time I spent obsessing over movies with Mr. Culhane. It just felt really magical to me in a way... I was shaking the hand of a man who'd been on first-name terms with Walt Disney.
But not just Walt Disney. Every single time I referenced a movie or a person, Mr. Culhane would light up and tell me a story: "I was at the premiere of A Room With A View and saw Jackie Kennedy- I thought she was trying to set up her son with Helena Bonham Carter..." "Did I tell you about the time Isabella Rossellinni kept me from going to Russia?" or the time he got to salute the German officer who refused Hitler's order to burn Paris. This man was just an encyclopedia of information- I have to admit I got really excited when I'd be able to finish his sentences. He would be struggling to remember the name of a movie or an actor, and I couldn't keep myself from helping him out. He was such a cute old man.
Also, he is one of the very few people who knew who I meant when I said I could do a Sheldon Leonard impersonation. Gotta love him for that!

Revisiting A Classic

2009-06-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

Last night as my brother, mom, aunts & uncle partied it up at the hippie musical "Hair," my dad and I decided to stay at home and watch a movie together. As we cast about various ideas, it dawned on me that I had not watched "The Wizard of Oz" in years (possibly not since before my "Wicked" phase began in about 8th grade). So we ended up watching that.
Oh my goodness, what an experience it was! It is astounding to me that this film is now 70 years old, yet has still managed to captivate children of all generations (I then noted how it was my uncle's 60th birthday. He's only 10 years younger than "The Wizard of Oz." Wow. And he also has captivated people for generations! Love ya, Uncle Mike). Anyway, back to the movie. I'm sure most of you have seen it, and if you haven't, you are truly missing out. Go rent it now and watch it, preferably with a young person so you can at least try and see it through their eyes.
In 2006, The American Film Institute voted "Over the Rainbow" as it's number one greatest song featured in an American movie. This is so true. There is nothing like hearing Judy Garland (accept no substitutes) wistfully sing this beautiful, melancholy tune. Actually, there was supposed to be a reprisal of the song when Dorothy was trapped in the Witch's castle- a scene which was ultimately cut, but the audio was saved and when I heard it, I cried! Judy Garland's voice is so beautiful, and in that rendition she is half-sobbing, and it's so heart-breaking.
But I found a new place in this movie to cry: that fabulous scene when Dorothy has just landed in Oz, and she opens the sepia-toned door into the Technicolor new world. Upon seeing it, my first immediate thought was "Geez, look how obviously fake that background is. And those huge, fake flowers, and hokey plants. How cheesy." But then, the camera shows us Dorothy's reaction, and IT MADE ME CRY. Her expression is so heart-warmingly innocent, thrilled; she's never seen anything so beautiful in her whole life. There are no words, and no dramatic music: just a single violin playing a few notes of "Over the Rainbow." I dare you to watch that scene and not be moved.

So much iconic Americana is in this movie... "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too!" Or, "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" Or, "Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?" Or, "There's no place like home," or, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" Flying monkeys. Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion. Ruby slippers. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. And every single freaking song is so memorable and impossible to get out of your head! What a beautiful movie! Stop reading this and go watch it now!
P.S. Watching this again, I also realized how much it used to worry me: how I thought Ms. Gulch was really going to get Toto killed, how I worried those trees would uproot themselves and attack Dorothy, how they're going to see the wizard and then get told by the doorman that he won't see them, how you think they're finally going to escape the castle but then the witch stops them, and then the biggest GAHHH!!!! moment of all, when Toto sees that stupid cat and Dorothy runs after him and the wizard flies away without her. Wow. Good filmmaking.

Top 10 Significant List

2009-06-12T11:51:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, I recently applied for BYU's Media Arts major. I decided to post my favorite part of the application, wherein the faculty asked us to list ten certain items: movies, books, TV shows, websites, music (etc) that had had a significant impact on our life. We could pick only ten (all together, not from each category) and write 5 sentences explaining why we had chosen it.
Despite fear of ridicule, I thought I would post my list here. I'm going to list them in the order that they occurred to me and originally appeared on my application. If you find something here that scandalizes you or shocks you or causes you to think "how on earth could you put that on a list of your top ten significant things on a college application," well, first know that it was really hard to narrow it down. Don't judge. (Also note that we were not allowed to put scriptures on this list.)

1. Gilmore Girls

TV today is filled with teenagers who smoke, get drunk, get high, get pregnant, swear at their parents, and/or kill themselves, and being smart automatically = nerdy. When I was in high school, I had no friends like that and was sometimes annoyed that there were no TV shows that represented teens like us. Then I happened upon Gilmore Girls, and the teenage character Rory was a breath of fresh air: witty not slutty, intelligent but not dorky, and able to make a reference out of anything from Edith Wharton to Gwen Stefani. The charming and believable characters of the show’s loveable fictional town Stars Hollow often provided me with very much needed laughter.

2. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson

I was ten years old when my fourth grade teacher read this book aloud to my class. I had always loved to read, but had never seen it as anything more than a somewhat engaging pastime. “Bridge to Terabithia” was what changed all that—it was the first time I had ever been so moved by a book and it was a feeling I never forgot. Going back and reading it again, I am still so impressed by how beautifully and capably the author captures the heartbreaking subject at the core of this children’s novel.

3. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

This book was sort of the “Bridge to Terabithia” of my high school days, in that until I read it, I was not aware of how truly brilliant a writer could potentially be. I was in awe of every page, every paragraph, every sentence of this book, and how Virginia Woolf could turn something as ordinary as a clock chiming the hour into something magnificent and beautiful (“the leaden circles dissolved in the air”). I usually don’t like to write in the margins of books, but I couldn’t help myself with this one: near almost every paragraph, I have written things like “wow!” or “amazing” and underlined phrase after phrase. I’d planned on writing the pages of my favorite passages in the back of the book, but when I realized I was writing down every other page number, I decided to stop.

4. fictionpress.com
5. "On the Waterfront" (1954)
I must credit this movie as being the first one I saw that made me realize films could truly be an art form. When I saw it at age 12, I wasn’t really sure what was going on some of the time, but I did know that the actors were so incredibly real and that black-and-white had never looked so beautiful. Before seeing Waterfront, I thought of old movies only in terms of Abbott & Costello comedies or The Wizard of Oz—but when I saw Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint on the roof with those pigeons, I was instantly converted to classic film.

6. "The Joy Luck Club" (book and movie), Amy Tan

When we talked about “Spirituality and the Media” during the last week of TMA 102, I thought immediately of this story. In every chapter there is ample material for a Sacrament meeting talk, and I’ve actually used this book (or referenced its near-flawless film adaptation) at the podium many a time. The novel/movie suits not only my appreciation for great storytelling but also my interest in Chinese culture and how it does or does not mix with the United States.

7. "Little Women" (1949)

No, this is not the heralded Katharine Hepburn version, nor is it the well-received Winona Ryder version: this 1949 version has sadly (and wrongly) been left in the dust by film critics. June Allyson’s Jo gave me the first fictional character I could truly identify with, in terms of her tomboyish ways and desires to be a great writer. Subsequently, I felt such a strong connection to Allyson that I shed genuine tears when she passed away in 2006. The performances of the actresses playing the March sisters were all so real to me that I felt as if Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy were the sisters I’d always wanted but never had.

8. The "Harry Potter" series, by J. K. Rowling

Initially I wanted to avoid putting this on my list because I was afraid it might make me appear shallow or unoriginal, but then I realized that no list of significant books (et. al) in my life would be complete without the works of J. K. Rowling. From the time I was eight to when I was seventeen, the day a new Harry Potter book came out was like Christmas morning and my birthday rolled into one. I could not wait to get my hands on it and devour the book as quickly as possible. Incredibly nerdy though it may sound, I felt like J. K. Rowling had created an entire world so real, it had to exist somewhere outside my imagination. Looking back as a writer, her stories were so deftly told, her characters so convincingly real, and her plots so endlessly engaging—she is truly an inspiration, and someone whose astonishing gift for writing I wish to emulate some day.

9. The paintings of Frida Kahlo
I can admire good artwork for a few moments before moving along, but put a Frida Kahlo painting down in front of me, and I could sit there and look at it for hours. Kahlo’s breathtakingly surreal imagery stared me in the face blatantly and fearlessly like no other paintings I’d seen before. I think the first time I saw a Frida Kahlo painting was the first time a piece of art had ever made me actually feel something: all of the artist’s pain and misery was right there on the canvas, depicted in metaphorical ways with a daring vividness I have yet to find in any other artist’s work.

10. Daria (1998-2001)

This TV show is what truly helped to shape my sense of humor. For years, I have often incorporated sarcastic one-liners from the show into my everyday vernacular. Also, its variety of characters cultivated my interest in imitating voices/voice acting. The other thing I loved about “Daria” was that its dialogue may have been cynical, but was never overtly cruel; the title character might make a crack about someone she thought was dumb or mean, but by the end of the episode, she had learned a lesson from them. So, in a weird way, this stereotype-filled show taught me to reserve judgment on other people. (note: the two kids pictured here helped get me through middle school and high school.)

Why I Could Use A Meal Plan

2009-06-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

I cannot cook.
Not for the life of me.
Since returning home, I've had a number of hair-raising experiences in the kitchen. This is a tremendous shame, because as some of you may already know, my parents are two of the most gifted cooks this side of the Mississippi. And, dare I say, the other side. Why didn't I insist that they teach me their secrets? Pity me or look down on me for not taking advantage of the potentially great lessons that lay at my disposal in my own kitchen.
My parents have pulled together some really fantastic recipes this summer: blackberry chicken, lettuce wraps, mango-chicken quesadillas, vegetarian chili, orange drop cookies, and a marble cake. All were flawless.
I, on the other hand, have managed to almost slice my hand open when trying to procure onion juice, managed to grill a cheese sandwich without melting any of the cheese, make crispy chocolate-chip cookies, and also nearly burn down the house by accidentally setting some angel hair pasta on fire. Right now, the only things that are safe for me to do are pancakes and macaroni. Sigh.

The Hidden Army

2009-05-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I am a tremendously huge WWII buff. This normally coincides well with my status as the resident movie afficianado. The war of the greatest generation has made for some incredible movies; some were impressive propaganda made during the war, others made in the late 1940s dealt with postwar depression (see The Best Years of Our Lives), and even now we are still making movies about this war, such as Saving Private Ryan or the upcoming Inglorious Basterds. Recently, Spike Lee has made a film about African-Americans in the war and Quentin Tarantino's is about a Jewish American regiment. Clint Eastwood offered us the rarely-considered persepective of the Japanese soldiers in the gut-wrenching Letters From Iwo Jima.

Yes. But... what of the Hidden Army? Women in WWII. During the '40s, a few movies related the troubles and woes of women left at the homefront. One such was called Since You Went Away, starring Claudette Colbert (who some of you may know from It Happened One Night). While I have deep respect for the sacrifices made by these women, and those such as rosie the riveter, I feel like there is very little out there about the women in the army. The army, navy, WACs, and the nurses. These women were just as brave as the men who went to fight, suffering and risking their lives on a daily basis, some even became POWs. Such courage, such people to look up to. And yet, I find that Hollywood has largely ignored them. This saddens me greatly, because I think it could lend itself so well to a movie.
I know of only one effort to tell their story (and if you know of any other films- not documentaries - please let me know!). Again, Claudette Colbert heads the impressive cast of 1942's So Proudly We Hail. She works alongside Paulette Goddard (Charlie Chaplin's lover) and the unique phenom that is Veronica Lake as nurses in WWII, who work in the most gritty and horrifying circumstances as they are shuttled from Corrigedor to Bataan and other wartime places. While some of the story may cause us to wince (a really lame love angle thrown in there to satisfy women's audiences, and the fact that one brave nurse dies because another one runs back to save her favorite piece of clothing), for the most part, it's a great film. It usually makes me tear up, because I feel like no one appreciates these women today. I certainly learned a lot from this movie, and though I know it was propaganda made during the actual war to drum up support, I've learned there is a lot of truth to what the characters suffer. The actresses are great, the story moving, and the staging really quite impressive. Granted, you may wonder how these glamour girls were able to remain so well coiffed and made up under enemy fire, but that's the studio system for you- but there are times in the movie where they aren't afraid to get a little dirty.
So Proudly We Hail is available on Netflix, and if you have any interest in 1) movies, 2) WWII, 3) the underappreciated role of women in war, 4) nurses, or 5) any of the actresses mentioned, I strongly recommend seeking this movie out.

(Another thing that interests me is that during this time, movies were prone to dehumanizing the Japanese, but in this film, Paulette Goddard's character acts fiercely protective of some orphaned Japanese children). Academy-Award nominated performance.

Not afraid to get dirt (or...fire?) underneath those carefully manicured nails. Atta girl, Claudette.

This scene never fails to make me cry (a little). Veronica Lake, usually more of a pretty (gorgeous) face than a true actress, actually pulls off a very convincing turn in this movie.

A New Appreciation for the Empire State

2009-05-08T08:41:00.001-07:00

I get the feeling that when most people think of New York, they think of the Big Apple (the City that never sleeps, the big one, the mafia, Spiderman, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, etc). Sometimes I wonder what it might have been like at school to say "Hi, I'm from New York." "OMG HOW CLOSE TO THE CITY ARE YOU" and then try to explain that actually, I was from upstate New York- you know, farmland, where we have much more in common with Midwestern fellers than those dapper NYC natives. Alas, this is not true. And has nothing to do with the rest of my post.

Without realizing it, there were a LOT of things about New York that I really missed while I was in Provo, living dorm life. Little things: things like waking up to the birds chirping merrily outside my window, to the train rattling down the tracks in the distance, even to the construction going on at 6:00 in the morning at my neighbor's house.
I missed places like Flint Park, Turtle Park, Central School, that golf park behind the Hommocks, MHS, the 9/11 Memorial on Myrtle, the Girl Scout House, the Harbor, Leatherstocking Trail, and even the Westchester Mall.
I missed the streets: Palmer, Post, Waverly, Weaver, Mamaroneck Ave, Central Ave, Orienta...
Names you just don't get very often at BYU, like Migliaccio, Chiaparelli, Goldfarb, Goldklang, Goldstein, Pizzamento, Ionio, Iacono, Delluomo, Fleischmann, Weinberg, Viazzo... (you'll notice most of those were Jewish or Italian. I love this place!)

I also love honking, which I get to do liberally while I'm here, because it's like a law in New York to be the most obnoxious, honking-est driver you can (unless/even when in the city, where the fine is now, what, $450 if someone happens to catch your license plate number while you honk? I'm still not sure how that works). Anywho, I truly love this place and all the simple pleasures I can get from being here.

Strike Up the Band

2009-04-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

In attempting to clean out my room (something that will probably take me the entire summer to do), I came across my OLD list of band names. By band names, I mean names I considered using for the day when one day, I managed to find a bunch of people who would let me be their drummer and we would become world-famous rock stars. So I thought I'd share this list with you, so in case you ever hear them, you'll know either 1) I hit it big, or 2) someone saw this post and stole one of my ideas.

-Two Pairs of Moose Pants
-No Cake For Katy
-Intransient Deafness
-Introverted Jesus (Christian Rock, anyone?)
-Sylvia Fowler
-Jungle Red
-KeeC
-Trapped In A Box
-The Wha...?
-1st Becky
-All Fall Down
-Lake Veronica

Juno Dos: Tracey

2009-04-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

As I prepare to go take my last final, I have reflected back on that day oh so long ago that I completed my first one. It was a group project for my film class, where we were required to make a photo essay slideshow that was 3 minutes or less. My group decided to take a light-hearted jab at BYU culture, with this result.

Easter Goodness

2009-04-14T12:31:00.001-07:00

HAPPY (belated) birthday, Katy Kathyrn!

My first Easter away from home (sob) was actually much more lovely than I could have imagined.
First of all, I was lucky enough to get a brief visit from my cousin Alison & my brother Graham, who I hadn't seen since Christmas! (YES!!) He came to my ward and I awkwardly introduced him to as many of my friends as I could. Such fun.
Then, the Taylor clan not only had us over for Easter dinner (/housed Grahm & Alison), but made sure to let the Easter bunny know we were staying with them for the holiday. What a great family. We also celebrated Katy's birthday, which was the next day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of my best friends. :)

Post-church on Easter

No one's eggs could quite match up to Graham's...

This is my brother's Edward Cullen glare

Our weekend actually started out with a trip to the MoA, to see an exhibit by Walter Wick (the I Spy dude). It was actually really cool, except we got to the musuem 15 minutes before it opened along with a large, really obnoxious family who continued to follow us wherever we went on campus as we waited for the MoA to open. Creepy. The exhibit itself was really cool though, but Graham got mad when 1) there were (literally) screaming babies in the exhibit and 2) he (we) could not for the life of him (us) figure out some of those optical illusions...
HOW DOES IT WORK

Blogophobic

2009-04-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well, go me. I finally caved and got a blog. Why? Why do I have a blog? How does one blog? Who blogs? What does one blog about? Am I going to regret having created a blog, especially right before finals? Could I possibly use the word "blog" in any more sentences without sounding too much like Diablo Cody?
e.g. "WHAT THE BLOG?!"