MYST #6: The Other Woman

Alrighty, looks like I'm finishing off these Movies in Your Spare Time posts with a tear jerker, because I am not talk about the comedy The Other Woman with Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann--just so y'all know.

This past week in Rhetoric, we watched V for Vendetta to inspire us for a JOT essay. It luckily also inspired me to finally watch the Natalie Portman movie, The Other Woman, that had been sitting in my Netflix list for a while now. Natalie Portman did a fantastic job in V for Vendetta (which by the way is a great movie in my opinion), so I was intrigued to see more of her work.

Most of us know Natalie Portman for her roles in Black Swan, No String Attached, and my favorites Star Wars Episodes I-III. Her list of roles in very long besides that and she has also taken to [executive] producing, like in this movie. It took me a lot longer to place where I had seen her co-star Scott Cohen, who it turns out was in The Carrie Diaries, among other things. I can't talk about the cast without mentioning Lisa Kudrow, who I should not even have to explain more. Charlie Tahan also did a great job of being a slight comedic relief and a serious part of the plot.

Speaking of the plot, it was very different from what I was expecting. I had not looked this movie up much prior to watching it, so I just assumed it was going to be some comedy about a girl dating a married guy and her friends maybe talking her out of it. I was completely wrong, but not at all disappointed. The Other Woman shows Amelia Greenleaf (Portman) as she tries to move on with the death of her newborn daughter, Isabel, while also trying to maintain her relationships with her husband and step-son. What makes the grieving process harder than normal is, as we find out, that Amelia and her husband Jack (Cohen) got married basically because of the baby after conceiving her during an affair. Jack's son, Will (Tahan), initially has trouble with understanding how much sadness surrounded the death and why it caused Amelia to react the way she did to certain things, like selling the baby's things.
As Amelia moves through her stages of grief, she learns a lot about herself and her new family. Jack's ex-wife, Carolyn (Kudrow), gives Amelia the most trouble--which it is kind of easy to see why, but she does go a bit overboard. At this troubling time, Amelia's mom happens to decide to start to date Amelia's dad again, who basically used to be a sex addict. It takes a very long time, and some yelling,  for Amelia to understand this-all of which puts more strain on her and Jack's complicated relationship, who is also grieving and keeping an eye out for Will. In addition to all of that, Jack has to find out that Amelia thinks she killed their baby by suffocating her, but we find out it really was SIDS all along. We follow Amelia as she gets one blow after another, but it all boils down to what we started with: a family. By the end it is a happier one, even if they are broken once or twice.

Like I said, this movie was a tearjerker. It would have been even more so if I had to see Natalie
Portman's face as she told the story of how she killed her baby (because her acting crying face is better than my real one), but the movie did something with that scene that I found interesting. They show a majority of the flashback to the events following Isabel's death through the couple's bedroom doorway. It would have been too much for anyone to handle if the camera was closer into the scene. We see different times through the doorways while the rest of the screen stays black--like we are standing in the hallway. I still had my hand over my face in shock as I watched, but seeing someone else actually cry would have been just personally more heart wrenching. I felt that this use of lighting, perspective, and storytelling was very well done. The movie also uses this set up during the end of the scene as Amelia leaves her husband crying in their bedroom as he grieves from the new information of how his daughter died.

To be completely honest, I shed a couple tears during this movie, which I do not do for just any sad films. I am thankful for Will because he had his little moments of kid talk and logic that lightened things up a bit. I thought the actors all did very well, especially Lisa Kudrow (coming from the happy world of Phoebe) and my girl Natalie Portman. The only reason I am not giving this movie a 4 is because I gave Manhattan a 4 and Manhattan was just so beautiful (don't get me started on the bridge scene), so I give The Other Woman 3.5 out of 5 stars!

MYST #5: When Harry Met Sally

I love 80s movies. I haven't seen them all, but the ones I have-The Breakfast Club, Back to the Future, Dirty Dancing to name just a few-I adore. I actually have Three Men and a Baby on as I type.  I do not know why I love that decade of films. Maybe its just the way that my curly hair makes me feel like I belong in the 80s or the happy endings to the stories that make my day.

When Harry Met Sally (1989) was on the other day and with it being an 80s film and somewhat of a Rom-Com classic, I decided to watch it. Billy Crystal & Meg Ryan star as Harry Burns and Sally Albright, respectively. Other actors include Carrie Fisher (Marie) and Bruno Kirby (Jess).

The film starts when Harry meets Sally, or course. Harry's girlfriend at the time set them up to drive halfway across the country to New York City. They do not get along well during the 18 hours drive as they both view the world very differently, including the idea that men and women can or cannot be just friends. They end their trip with a simple goodbye.
Five years later, they run into each other at the airport. Sally is in a relationship with Joe, who Harry actually knows, and Harry is engaged. They end up chatting on the plane about their road-trip years ago and their current lives. It does not lead to anything significant.
Another five years later, Harry is getting divorced and Sally is newly single. They run into each other again at a bookstore and grab lunch. That lunch turns into a great friendship where they help each other get over their ruined relationships and just really enjoy each others company.
One night after Sally finds out that her ex, Joe, is getting married, Harry comforts her. That same night they end up sleeping together. Their friendship is almost completely ruined because Sally loved it and wanted to start a real relationship with Harry, while Harry wanted to pretend it never happened.  This goes back to Harry's initial opinion that men and women cannot be friends due to sex. Harry eventually realized that he loves Sally, resulting in him frantically running to confess that love for her. She rejects him at first, but she cannot help but forgive him and let their true love relationship begin.

With it being that 80s movies are not known for necessarily being cinematographic pieces of art, I did not noticed many scenes with something special. I actually found myself thinking that a continuos shot would have been good for some shots, but that might have been because we had just talked about Children of Men in class. I will point out that it did a good job of making the characters grow through their wardrobe and hair. Although it was no Citizen Kane for how many years the story covered, the almost twelve years were made more realistic with mostly Sally's head hair and Harry's facial hair. It was a simple touch that I appreciated. 

There are also the true love stories that break of the film. Other than being completely adorable, the way that the story ends with Harry and Sally in position talking about themselves makes the rom-com just that much more romantic.

I really enjoyed this movie. Crystal and Ryan both did a great job with their characters and I felt like their chemistry was great for the story. It met my expectations and really made me laugh. For that I give it 4/5 stars!

MYST #4: About Time

I had been interested in seeing About Time since it came out almost exactly a year ago, but I never got to see it. I remembered the trailers from then, so when I saw the movie on t.v. recently I decided it was finally meant to be that I would see this movie.

One of the main character, Rachel McAdams, has been in a lot of good romantic movies like The Vow and The Notebook (not to mention Mean Girls). Being that she was the only American actor in the film, I did not know the other actors by name-or even face-most of the time. It turns out that Domhnall Gleeson, who plays opposite McAdams, was in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and 2 as Bill Weasley. The fact that he is going to be in Star Wars: Episode VII (According to IMDb) would have sold this movie to me so more, but Rachel McAdams and the story of the film was enough to pull me in before I found that out.

Tim and Mary meeting for the first time, which they will
do two more times,

About Time follows Tim (Gleeson) through his life, basically starting from when his dad (Bill Nighy) tells him that the men in their family have a special gift: the ability to travel back in time through their own lives. Where the movie could have taken a weird sic-fi turn (or turned into another version of McAdam's film Time Traveler's Wife), it instead gave the awkward character of Tim several second chances. It initially does not help him as much as he hoped, but Tim eventually gets the hang of his gift and meets Mary (McAdams) in the process. Time traveling is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to a perfect life, but Tim eventually finds out that some things do not need to be re-done to be perfect. While Tim and Mary build a life together, we also see Tim having to decide whether to time travel again in order to prevent things, like his sister (Lydia Wilson) getting into a bad car crash. The story becomes more than about love between a man and a woman as Tim also looses his dad and cannot go back in time to visit him, but Tim learns to live each day as great as he can, so that he does not even have to think about redoing it.

Tim and his father about to time travel together
for the last time.

There were a couples scenes in the film that did a good job of utilizing a hand held camera or different lighting to match the mood, but what really stood out was the editing of the film. The whole time traveling thing could have been made to be completely cheesy, and having to stand in a dark closet and clench your fist almost made it, but the way the filmmakers kind of rewind the scenes that Tim was traveling through helped make the experiences easier to follow and almost more realistic.

Tim's experience with time travel, although sadly unrealistic, ended up being relatable in the end as he explains that we should take advantage of all of our time with people and make the most of everyday. The movie managed to be funny, romantic, sad, well cast, and just well-made. The only faults remain in what I also mentioned to be good. The time traveling aspect got to be a bit confusing is the logistics of what Tim could and could not do, to me anyway, so for that I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

MYST #3: A Long Way Down

I watch a lot trailers for movies that I never actually end up seeing. I binge watched a lot of trailers recently, and a lot of the films looked great, but I could not find many in theaters or even planned for wide release, until one night I was browsing Netflix and one of the first titles I saw was A Long Way Down. I instantly recognized the title from a trailer I saw earlier and decided to watch it.

My little brother, Wiley, asks me almost every other day if I have started watching Breaking Bad yet (I haven't), so when I saw Aaron Paul in this movie, I figured this was a close as I was going to get to that show without totally engrossing myself into that obsession. Pierce Brosnan also stuck out to me, (although honestly I've only seen him in Mamma Mia and part of one of the bond movies) but surprisingly only just as much as Imogen Poots, who I saw in Zac Efron's most recent bad movie, That Awkward Moment. She stuck out to me in the trailer because these two movies are so different. Toni Colette has most recently been in The Way Way Back, which is a movie I enjoyed a lot. All of the actors attracted me to the film.


Aaron Paul, Pierce Brosnen, Imogen Poots, and Toni Colette all meet on a rooftop on New Years Eve as JJ, Martin, Jess, and Maureen, respectively. They are all on the roof with one goal: to commit suicide. Martin is a TV personality turned hated pervert who misses having loving attention, Maureen feels hopeless in her repetitive life, Jess initially wants to get away from her boyfriend, and JJ has brain cancer (there's more to their reasons, but I don't want to spoil them). Fortunately, none of them end up jumping. By the end of the night, they all sign a pact to live until Valentine's day--the next most popular day for suicide. Due to Martin's celebrity status, and Jess's father's political job, this is brought to the media's attention. Besides one disaster of a talk show appearance, the four go back to their normal lives. We slowly learn more about these four people as they do so. The group eventually takes a trip together to get away from their lives. It is easy to forget that we are on somewhat of a deadline with February 14th as they drink, laugh, and even throw a few punches in the tropics. They return home to their normal lives only be brought together again on a faithful day, that ultimately changes their lives.

As the story developed, I started to feel connected to the four main characters (it took a while for Martin, but even him too). The four strangers also begin to strongly care for each other as well. Prior to this, when they make the pact, they sit along a wall facing a window. The sun is just coming up as their long night comes to an end. As Jess convinces them to make the pact, the lighting very slowly getting brighter in time with a sun rise. The camera sticks to only capturing the group on the one wall, until we finally get to see the sun when JJ points it out. This stuck out to me in a way of representing a new chance for all of them, even if they may be promising to kill themselves in almost six weeks. It was a positive use of lighting that also captured the mood of the scene, which managed to stay light-much like most of the film. It was very much appreciated that the film did not get weighed down by the heavy subject, but was rather just a dark comedy.

I liked the movie, but I feel like it could have been taken to a whole other level if we were given a deeper look into JJ, Martin, Jess, and Maureen's pasts. In addition to that, if we spent more time developing their present stories, I feel like the movie could have taken on a deeper meaning. That is why I give this film 2 stars out of 5.

MYST #2: 10 Things I hate About You

With the stresses of college applications, I was looking for a movie that would entertain me enough to keep my mind completely off of my impending work for a couple hours. I had heard about 10 Things I Hate About You several times in the past couple of years, especially when the TV show based off of it aired for a short time on ABC Family, so when it popped up in OnDemand, I decided to give it a shot.

The movie follows new-student Cameron in his attempt to date Bianca Stratford. One of the many problems with this is that Bianca cannot date-that is until her protective dad says that she can go on dates whenever her sister Kat does. Bad boy Patrick Verona then comes in as the guy who gets paid to go out with Kat, because she is known around school as a "Heinous bitch" that no one would ever think about dating, but she has no idea about his deal as they truly begin to fall for each other. Both Cameron and Patrick will do almost anything to be with their girls, who learn to have each other's backs through all of the boy chaos.

I knew there would be many familiar faces as I started the movie, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the only face I could actually put a name to. Now having done some research, I know that Julia Stiles played Kat with the late Heath Ledger at her side as Patrick. A couple more recognizable faces make their appearances, like the main elf from Santa Clause (David Krumholtz) and the principle from Max Keeble's Big Move (Larry Miller). Although I couldn't remember their names, having seen Stiles in The Price and Me, Ledger in The Dark Knight, and Gordon-Levitt in Brick (and 500 Days of Summer), I was expecting a good story and film.

The movie did not fail me, but it did not wow me either. Besides the unavoidable 90s clothing, a stand out element of the film was the use of continuity editing and the 180 degree rule. I know that continuity editing is supposed to be unnoticeable, but once I noticed it once, I decided to try to take a mental note when it happened again. 10 Things I Hate About You did a nice job at keeping a nice flow in the scenes. The film failed to bring much else to the table as far as unique technique or style-as far as I could notice anyway. I find this to be true with a lot of teen films, but gosh I still enjoy 'em anyway.

As Pat and Kat got to know each other, I found a key scene for both their relationship and the movie was after one of their dates. First the camera moves along in front of them as they walk from a car over and up to a porch where they sit down. While doing so they are asking each other about secrets, but the real magic is the smooth moving camera that stops moving when they sit down on some steps. We get a few shots from different angles and close-ups, but it maintains the 180 rule from the porch looking out at the pair on the steps. If this rule was not utilized, it would have being too much commotion in edition to what turns into a heavy conversation about Patrick's motivations. 

Like I said, this movie did not blow me away (and it apparently did not do much for the critics). I am glad I checked it off my list and it had some nice messages, like about how people can surprise you, and to be nice to people whether you find them attractive or not. It was not your typical boy meets girl movie and for that I give this movie 3/5 stars, or only 2 stars worth hating about it.

Formal Film Study: Award Winners: Cannes VS Sundance VS Academy Awards

"I never make a movie for awards consideration. I will use the hope of getting an Academy Award a) to honor the people who work so hard and also b) it's the greatest Good Housekeeping seal in the world. It's the greatest brand. It's as good as Louis Vuitton and Dior in the world of moviemaking. It's the Super Bowl." - Harvey Weinstein

Films of a given year reveal a lot about what is going on in the world at the time and in what direction film is heading. Each year, people gather to celebrate these films for their beauty and recognize the filmmakers' hard work. Since 1929, the Academy Awards have represented the best of the best as all of Hollywood make way for the night of film celebration. On the beautiful coast of  France, the Cannes film festival has occurred annually since 1946, but it has since then not lost its touch for choosing more controversial, but artistic, films that capture the audience. The Sundance Film Festival, a baby compared to the latter (established 1978), is arguably the American version of Cannes for the unique independent films that cover the ballots. Each annual award show or film festival reveals the films that encompass that year and help us to take a look at film's current approach to styles and techniques that have been around for decades, and also what innovations people have come up with.

The Cannes Film Festival's Palme D'or, or Best Film, went to Blue is the Warmest Color, a french film directed by Adellatif Kechiche with the original title of La Vie d'Adele - Chapitre 1 & 2. The story is a coming-of-age film that follows 15-year-old Adele as she discovers what passion and feelings lie behind true love. Adele, after entering and ending a relationship with a boy, experiences what some might call love at first sight with 'the girl with the blue hair'. The color blue plays a strong roll in the film, but that is really the smallest of Adele's problems as she falls more in love with this girl, whose name is revealed to be Emma. 

Back in the states, The Sundance Film Festival has many different categories which could all be considered best film, but U.S. Grand Jury Prize for a dramatic film is often a title to shoot for. The winner for 2013, Fruitvale Station, shows the true story of Oscar Grant III on the last day of his life, on the last day of 2008, as he tries his best to stay out of trouble, but is ultimately unable to escape both his past and the prejudices that surround him.

The Oscars, star studded and all, holds in its highest regard the Best Picture winner. With Ben Affleck playing lead both on and off screen, the award went to Argo. The film takes in inside look at the historical Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979-80. With the job of a big time Hollywood filmmaker as his cover, CIA Agent Tony Mendez (Affleck) risks his own life to save six U.S. Embassy workers who escaped when Aggressive Iranians stormed the Embassy in rage of the United State's granted asylum to the Shah. It is Tony's job to make their story believable because if the Iranian were to find out that they were lying, or even that the six workers escaped, they might not return home.

The year of 2013 in film was more than a year of revealing reality in story-lines. Blue is the Warmest Color, Fruitvale Station, and Argo all used raw editing/camera movements and color to better highlight the more intense and sensitive subjects of the films.

One of the first things that I noticed while watching Blue is the Warmest color in the seemingly raw pacing, editing, and lighting of the film. There is no background music where I would assume there should be. We see Adele eating dinner with her family for a good minute with nothing but the sound of eating and silverware hitting the plates. It takes on Adele's reality as it really could be in her real life. The filmmaker must have wanted us to relate to Adele as much as possible, being that the topic of a young lesbian and the politics around that could really go both ways as far as being relatable or not-or he wanted to make sure we were paying attention like some do with discontinuity-like shots.
Going along more with the camera work, there were a lot of close ups throughout the 3 hour film. I assumed this was to make us further invested in the emotions of the characters. There is nothing to distract us from the tears on someone's face or the glow in their eyes. 

"Blue is certainly the film's warmest color" (Wolff), as the Huffington Post's Spencer Wolff put it. More so than in Emma's hair color, the color blue is seen throughout the film. As Adele becomes attached and dependent on Emma, the blue could be seen as a comfort to her.

All of these elements brought the story to life 
and not only made the story Palme D'or 
 worthy, but were used in other films to give the same amazing, award-winning affect.

Like Blue is the Warmest Color, Fruitvale Station, directed by Ryan Coogler, takes advantage of enhancing the storyline through camera work and color. Being that the plot of the film is based off of a true story, there is already some restrictions to follow in order to do the story justice. The angles cannot be too experimental because at the end of the day the movie is about Oscar. According to Kodak, "the entire movie was filmed handheld to lend authenticity, much in the way that [a use of] organic film grain [did]" (Fruitvale Station: A Tragic Tale Retold Thoughtfully). This camerawork definitely payed off in the portrayal of the story and making it feel real-almost documentary like.

Throughout Fruitvale Station, we jump between time and locations. The filmmakers highlighted this with the use of color. When we visit Oscar in jail a year before his death, the duller lighting matches the mood as Oscar's mom visits him. We revisit this again after Oscar's accident, when colors turn grayer to match the mood. These changes reflect where Oscar is in his life and the filmmakers must have really wanted to pay

homage to Oscar because their techniques seemed like the best way to show the improvement in his life and the love that ultimately surrounded him. Filmmakers have a tough job when they have to retell a true story, but doing so well-enough for an award shows real talent.

Argo, due to it's setting in the late 70s and early 80s, tried its best at making it feel like we were really watching a movie made in that era. This, again, is seen through the use of editing, camera work, and lighting. The makers of the movie used a lot of different cameras and techniques for filming the movie, according to Arri.com. According to Rodrigo Prieto, the director of photography for Argo, "I like to find a different visual approach from movie to movie. With ARGO, I was able to find three styles within one movie!" (Exposing Argo). I noticed this as the lighting changed between the movie's 3 main settings: Near D.C., Hollywood, and Tehran (Iran). It created a different tone and atmosphere for the different locations, especially as the story helped support this. Prieto planned this as he said, "it was very important for all of these locations to possess a subtly different look to help orient the audience through the fast paced narrative" (Exposing Argo).
What I am assuming were handheld cameras were probably used to really capture what a camera at some of the actual events would have captured. As Iranians stormed the Embassy or as the Iranians found out about the 'film crew', a slightly shakier camera helped make it feel like it was a documentary crew trying to catch the action.

In some of the final scenes of Argo, the technique of cross-cutting is used to add suspense. As the 'film crew' is about to board a flight home, we get to see multiple cross cuts to people obtaining or missing information on their situation that could ultimately end badly, but only we know that the whole story. I found this interesting as it swayed a bit from the reality of the rest of the film, but it must be why it was called a thriller.


Blue is the Warmest Color, Fruitvale Station, and Argo did a great job at enhancing their stories, real or not, through the magic of film. All three movies contain subject matter that could be considered controversial, but they managed to make it all an art and likable enough to become some of the best films of 2013. Argo total lifetime grosses now add up to $232,325,503 worldwide, Fruitvale Station has gotten $17,385,830 worldwide, and Blue has  gotten $7,379,806 worldwide (probably due to the NC-17 rating), according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, but that obviously does not compare to the pride these films have for going down in history with their prestigious titles.

Love Has No Price (1935)

While out and about to grab a newspaper in the main part of city, William notices a girl who he later comes to know as Peggy. He insists on buying her a cup of coffee. Although Peggy is struggling to get by, she initially did not want "Billy" to buy her anything. Little did she know that he was a very wealthy heir to a company, so he did not have to worry about money for something as small as coffee. She also had no idea that his parents expected him to eventually fall in love and marry a family friend, Ruby. William's charm and persuasion leads to him buying her the coffee for several days in a row.

One of those days, Ruby happens to see them. She knows that her and William are not in fact in a relationship, but she had always imagined them to end up together. In order to make that happen, she takes the time to find out where Peggy lives. Ruby then tries to pay off Peggy, who needs the money, to stay away from William. Peggy does not take the bribe because she likes William for who he is. Ruby keeps trying to get rid of Peggy.
Ruby's persisting plans leads Peggy to fear for her well-being and she decides that she needs to leave town. Billy insists on coming with her, and they leave town together.
Although he only plays a small role as Billy's friend through most of the film, Carlton  jumps at the opportunity to comfort Ruby, the love of his life, in her sad state.

The story of the film allows for an underlying message to shine through: Money is not everything, especially when it comes to love. The timing of 1935 fits perfectly as it was before the market, as well as everyone's lives, started to pick back up again after the great depression. People could relate to something that does not involve people who depend on of money for everything, because that was not realistic at the time.

The big production does not take away from the true beauty of falling in love in a time of trouble. The romantic drama that is sprinkled with some comedy keeps within the bounds of the Hayes code by maintaining an innocent love between William and Peggy and clarifying that William and Ruby are not actually in a relationship.
Although the film's poster is in color, the movie will be black & white in order to be a timeless, classic film and this allows for other things to be available with the budget and be highlighted, like makeup & costumes. Jack Dawn and Adrian, both of whom were famous for there work in the 30s, will be in charge of those to things.

All of these things tie into the chosen studio, MGM, and the actors that were tied with it. MGM was known for big productions, due to how financially sound it was, and many big names came out of the studio. Famous couple Clark Gable and Jean Harlow will be reunited again as William and Peggy. Jeanette Macdonald and Maurice Chevalier will also add appeal to the film as Ruby and Carlton. Above all of them will be director Victor Flemming, who will go on to direct MGM's Gone with the Wind. All of these people will play a big part in portraying the whole story of the film.

If I were to take on making the movie by myself, I would have taken the time to develop the plot more. With a better and more unique plot, we could have taken all other aspects onto a deeper level so that they all make perfect sense and work well together in order to make a box-office hit that the critics could like as well.