"Hellion" is Incredible

"Hellion" is incredible. It tells the story of Hollis Wilson, played by Aaron Paul, and his two sons, Jacob, played by Josh Wiggins, and Wes, played by Deke Garner. The family is in turmoil after Hollis' wife passes away. Jacob is a troublemaker, who terrorizes the town, with his voilent antics. And Wes is right behind him. But the only thing that keeps him tame is motorcross. Hollis tries to maintain adulthood and fatherhood.

This film is great mainly because of how great the cast was. This was Josh Wiggins first film and he nailed this role. His performance was one of the best on screen and he deserves recognition for it. Juliette Lewis is also a great supporting role for this film. One of the perks was having Aaron Paul in this film. Paul is one of the best actors in Hollywood right now because of his intense role on "Breaking Bad." He was so raw on screen and it is so visible in any role he has been in. This film is amazing because of the great characters and the raw edginess throughout.

Grade = 87/100 = B+

"Rear Window" Analysis

Rear Window is a film that has a distinct view on voyeurism. It explains the voyeuristic attitudes of a handicapped photographer named, Jeff. After an accident with his job, Jeff is forced to stay in a wheelchair and relax for a few weeks before his leg heals. He feels very distraught because he is forced to sit in his apartment, so he veers to spying on his neighbors. He is handicapped and he is not as well off as his girlfriend Lisa, so this makes him feel insecure about how much control he has in the relationship he is in.  Jeff is insecure about himself and his relationship because he is used to the “macho mentality” of how men are supposed to be the caregivers of the relationship. It is hard for him to realize that Lisa can provide for herself. Jeff changes this by the end of the film.

"Craigslist Joe" is a great documentary on Netflix. The documentary tells the journey of a filmmaker named Joe. He decides to take a journey from California to the East Coast, all relying on posts from Craigslist. joe decides to only bring a laptop, a phone, and clothes and without any money, on his journey. Over his trip, he realizes the generosity of people, and how he found himself, through his life-changing journey. It is exciting to see how he spends his time, and how he gets from place to place all through one website. It is a very entertaining tale of adulthood.

"Happy" is a great documentary. This film is on Netflix and itcexplains tge importance, and meaning behind being happy. It is a weird concept, to be "happy." Because we all should or want to be happy, but we don't always know how to become happy. The film also explains the idea of how happiness is up to interpretation on wealth, or the person. It is an amazing and interesting film, and should be taken seriously because it is an amazing idea come to the big screen.

Grade = 83/100 = B

"Dear Zachary" is gripping. This documentary tells the story of Andrew Bagby. Bagby was a fun, loving, caring, and funny doctor who was murdered in his late 20s. The film has all of Andrew's friends and family recollecting his life, all narrated by his good friend Kurt. Kurt was Andrew's lifelong friend, who has been a filmmaker all his life, and decided to make this film for Andrew's son Zachary. It is a fascinating look at a great man. It is a depressing but uplifting and one of the best documentaries on Netflix.

Grade = 85/100 = B

"The Dirties" is a Great Mockumentary Style Film

"The Dirties" is a great mockumentary style film. It tells the story of two best friends, Owen and Matt,  trying to get through high school trying to avoid the bullies, who they call, "the dirties." Owen and Matt are nice guys that are trying to withstand high school with everyday problems like schoolwork, and girls. Matt and Owen decide to make a movie for their film class about "the dirties"which can be a great idea because Owen thinks he can impress his lifelong crush, Krissy. Then, Matt switches ideas and tries to take down his lifelong bullies, through his movie and it gets out of hand.

This film is very exciting, and interesting to watch. The mockumentary style gives it a realistic look on high school life, and their lives in general. Matt Johnson, and Owen Williams give a stellar performance together, and they are already in the works of a new film. It is an intense film that keeps you on the edge of your seat with a twist ending.

Grade = 82/100 = B-

Things to Watch this Summer

"Hellion":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZqoW29SqMI

"Wish I Was Here"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCponfeWNOI


"Jersey Boys"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL2iILHUsG0

R.I.P. Casey Kasum

Casey Kasum was the voice of a generation. He was a great actor, and his voice was radio for decades. It is a shame that we have lost him, but he lived a successful life. He will be missed.

Netflix is an amazing thing. It is the future of digital media, and it is a great thing and a bad thing. It is amazing to see how popular and simple it is to watch amazing films and television shows at our fingertips. Especially the Netflix original series, including "Orange is the New Black" and "House of Cards." They are both amazing shows, and it is like watching a film  in an episode. Also it is a new experience to "binge" watch a whole season, I mean I watched "Orange is the New Black's" Season 2 in four days. This could be a bad thing because it is so easy to obtain films, going to the movies is a day in the past. It s easy to find any movie online, so people are realizing that they do not need to go out to find the best films. To me, I love going out to the movies because of the experience of the speakers, and the big screen, and seeing an amazing film with strangers. However, films are adapting to the modern world and it will be great to see what comes next.

"La Jetee" One of the Best Films You Ever See

Photography and filming have been working hand in hand in for over a century. They both deal with lighting, natural light, wardrobe, and many more. It is a great sight to see when they are put together. Chris Marker’s  La Jetée  is a film that only consists of still images coming together to create a well developed, philosophical, science fiction film. Marker tells a story that is set in Paris. It is destroyed after a third world war and survivors live underground, and living, are scientists trying to discover time travel by taking prisoners and conducting experiments mostly involving time travel. One man is forced to conduct an experiment that has him relive his old memories and go to the future.  The subject remembers a woman standing at an observation platform and someone dying. The experiment has him try to figure out what had happened. All this is shown with still images. La Jetee is a film that epitomizes avant-garde because the still images can still portray a well-developed story and film.

            The film does not need any video recordings for the viewer to understand everything that is going on in each sequence. The first scene with the narrator explaining what happened to the man at the platform is seen with a few images of the setting, and the people at the platform explains where we are and that a man has died. We then are enlightened about how Paris was destroyed. The images are displaying the destruction of buildings and homes and how desperate of a time it was for Parisians. The unsettling music, and the dissolves of each image clearly shows how unsettling the situation is and how Paris is destroyed and there are not many survivors because of how terrible the damage was to the city. When the scientist was explaining the experiment we see close-ups of the subject and the scientist. It is almost like we are watching the scene take place as a video recording because of how the narrator explains everything they are saying and how the two are placed. We can still clearly understand what is going on. When the experiment first starts we can see how subjective sound goes along with the still images of the subject resisting and feeling the effects of the experiment. Bordwell and Thompson explain, “Yet the film utilizes voice-over narration, music, and sound effects of a generally rapid, constantly accented rhythm” (283). While this scene was happening, we hear a heartbeat. The beat went along with the subject’s movement, and we can see how intense the experiment because of the scientist’s expression and the subject battling through it.

            During the experiment, we can see how trapped he was in his situation. The first sequence we see him with a woman he seems to be interested in. They walk around a park and romance blossoms. Each image we see them doing different things in the park, and we can see that the man really starting to like the woman. We see him staring at her while she is talking, and each scene they get closer and closer. At the end of this sequence we see the scientist looking over him, with the camera looking up at him suggesting that the subject is looking up at him. He is seen doing this many times but this part in particular shows how he is controlling his experiment and the subject’s whole situation he is in. We then are shown the woman in bed, sleeping. With many dissolves the sequence is shown very smoothly even with still images. Then we see the only actual video recording, the women blinks after she awakes from her sleep. And then at the end of this sequence we are shown the scientist again, looking down on the viewer but much closer. The scientist is becoming more powerful in his ability to control what is going on in the experiment. The fact that we do not see the subject in this sequence brings up some questions. Did the man and woman have sex; does the man want to be with the woman? The fact that the scientist controls the experiments, also relates to how the subject is trapped in this situation and he cannot get out of it because of the predicament he is in. We then see the man and woman in a museum of natural history. We see many different exhibits of animals trapped in this one place. The exhibits are put in this one place for consumer’s enjoyment. This relates to the subject himself because he is confined in this experiment, he cannot get out of it, and the scientist and the people helping him are there for the subject to take the experiment for themselves, and their own reasons for research. When he gets out of the experiment and eventually killed, we see him running towards the woman. We see him with a deep focus shot and far away from the camera, to show that he was being watched, which eventually led to him being shot. The eerie music in the background showed how powerful the shooting was because of how terrible his situation has become. Bordwell and Thompson further explain, “Despite the absence of movement, [La Jetée] doesn’t seem uncinematic, partly because it offers a dynamic interplay of audio-visual rhythms” (283). The peculiar music and how it went along with his running and getting shot really showed how well everything worked well not only in this scene but the whole film.

            This film had the ideas of still images and created a great way to make films that work well together. The experiment was an entrapment for the man in this film and we really could see how terrible his situation was even with still images. This film showed how you do not need to have actual video recordings to make a well-rounded film.

Please watch the new season of "Orange is the New Black." It is amazing and one of the best shows you will ever watch!

"The Fault in Our Stars" is Amazing

"The Fault in Our Stars" is amazing. Hazel, played by Shailene Woodley, is a teenager dealing with cancer. She was diagnosed when she was thirteen and has been surviving for five years, but each day losing hope because one day she will reach her own oblivion. After being pushed into going a cancer support group he meets, a boy named Augustus, played by Ansel Elgort, who is also dealing with cancer. Augustus and Hazel hit it off pretty well. They become great friends, and start spending a great deal of time together. It is the first time in awhile Hazel is feeling happy because she has found a person that loves to spend time with her, and feel herself around. The only problem they both do not know how long they have left until they are gone.

This film is great, and it is pretty similar to the book. They are great minor characters in this film including, Laura Dern, William Dafoe, Sam Trammell, and many others. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, were incredible together on screen. This is one Shailene Woodley's best roles, and she is really becoming a household name because of how she is transitioning from teen star to dramatic actress. Ansel Elgort was so loveable in this film. He was so good because you changed attitudes about him throughout, but by the end you felt for him being sick. This film is incredibly depressing. While watching in the theater, it will be very difficult to hear everything the actors are saying because you will hear sobbing in the background. It is very gloomy, but cancer is such a terrible disease it is relatable, and this film has a clear representation on cancer, life and death. It is a tearjerker but worth seeing.

Grade = 85/100 = B

Talking About "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbIonxdC-m0

Talking About "12 Years a Slave"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKVPxhN2wrg

Talking About "Her"

http://vimeo.com/87811807