Inside My Head

The blog's been a little film-heavy lately. That's probably because we've been watching a lot of movies (insightful!). Things need to be mixed up, and since Alex is leaving tomorrow morning for a backcountry camping adventure with his bros (not literal bros, since that would be Chase, and Chase doesn't 'do' camping, I assume), it's up to me! Have you ever wondered what songs are stuck in my head? Probably not. But I'm going to let you know anyway. Be warned: these are weird. These are the songs I've been thinking about for the past couple weeks. I'm always curious about what songs other people have stuck in their heads, so let me know yours! Isn't it cute how I pretend people read our blog?
First off, a smooth R&B breakup jam:

Then, something by an iconic gay band. I can never get this song out of my head once I hear it.

Listening to All Songs Considered on my way to work sometimes means that I get a non-soft rock song stuck in my head. It's been the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Zero for the past few days.

And my favorite Prince song (besides I Would Die 4 U). I love this song more than I love almost anything in my life. Since Prince usually checks the youtubes for his music and removes it, I expect this song to be up for a few more days at the most. He won't even let people post videos of their friends singing karaoke to "Kiss." He obviously doesn't understand anything about how internet promotion works, but whatever, he doesn't need promotion. He's Prince. He can sell his latest album exclusively at Target and alienate people by giving a possibly-homophobic interview, but he's still Prince.

Uh Oh.

I was all set to make a post about Charlyne Yi and how awesome she is. I used to not like her because I heard she was dating Michael Cera, and also for some reason I thought she was older than she is. Then I found out that she was 23 and not dating Michael Cera and I decided I could like her. I mean, I love Zooey Deschanel as much as the next person that likes looking at pretty things, but I think it's cool that an actress/female comedian (comedienne, if you will. Do people still say that? I don't think so) can be the lead in the film without putting the focus on her appearance. And I'm really looking forward to Paper Heart. Alex and H. are probably getting tired of my oft-repeated "Where are the smart, realistic romantic comedies fronted by women?" rant, because it's something I complain about all.the.time. I was kind of thinking that maybe Paper Heart would be that movie. Except then something happened. I read an interview with Charlyne Yi, and she said this:

“I think a lot of girls are very catty and just weird and sassy. I prefer to hang out with guys. I like calm hangouts like playing instruments and talking.”

Oh, no. I think all the ladies know: it's bad news bears when a girl says she "just doesn't get along" with other girls. Or that girls "just don't like her." Or that she thinks guys make better friends. Why the hell would you say you can't be friends with an entire gender, let alone a gender that includes you? Ugh. That whole sentiment just reeks of pretentiousness and that whole "I'm not like OTHER girls" vibe just makes me want to barf. Also, 95% of the time the girls who say this don't have girlfriends because they are MEAN. Sure, Charlyne Yi. Because girls can't have "calm hangouts" or "play instruments" or "talk." Most of my friends right now are ladies, and they aren't catty at all. They are sassy, though. She's right about that.
I've not given up on Charlyne Yi yet. She probably thinks I have, because I'm so catty and all. I'll still watch her movie.

John Hughes

Pretty in Pink was my favorite movie in high school. It still is, kind of, I just don't watch it every week like I used to. Molly Ringwald was divine, and I absolutely wanted to be her character Andie. Except that, like most people, I've always wished they stuck with the original ending where Andie ended up with Duckie. Poor, poor, Duckie. I mean, Blane? That's a major appliance, not a name!
I'm really sad that John Hughes died. He seemed like a nice person and his movies always made me (and probably a lot of other nerdy high school kids) feel a lot better. Here's one of my favorite scenes from Pretty in Pink.

Let's Bore Winfreys to Death

I work hard for the money. When Friday night rolls around, all I want is to relax, put my feet up, and watch a movie with Alex. Sometimes we find the movie we want to watch on Papa Winfrey's endless DVD shelf, but sometimes we have to go to Blockbuster. We have pretty similar tastes, but it can still be difficult to find something we both want. Like, Alex loves action films and the only action film I like is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. And I always want to rent a movie just because Kyle Maclachlan is in it. Alex, not so much. So usually we settle on a horror film (preferrable low-budg!), a comedy from the 80s, or something that just looks God-awful. And I haven't really ever been disappointed.
Except for this Friday when we rented Let's Scare Jessica to Death.

This was easily the most boring movie I've ever seen. Even more boring than Blow Up, and I was really bored by Blow Up! Seriously, I kind of picked this movie out and I feel so bad about it. This trailer makes it look kind of interesting, or at least like something I would like. Made in the 70s, stars a bunch of weird looking dudes, irritating music, ramshackle house...but no. Just no. Absolutely nothing happened in this movie. Also, nothing is explained. Why was Jessica in a mental hospital? Why did they take her to a cemetery at the beginning? Why did Jessica marry Todd Barry? How old is she? And how the hell does the title in any way relate to the movie? Watching this was an excrutiating experience, and not in a fun way like most of the bad movies we see.
But there is one bright spot. This marks the first time I've ever laughed out loud because of a youtube comment. Read them, and then watch the video at 2:22. Alex will laugh at this, I guarantee.

More 500 Days of Summer

500 Days of Summer has one of those trailers.

By that I mean that it involves some fast-paced dancing, a song that sounds vaguely like "Where the Streets Have No Name," and a lot of running. Running in a trailer will always sell me on a movie, but even without that I would have still wanted to see this. Ever since this teaser trailer came out in January, I've thought about movie nearly every single day. It seemed like July was never going to come.
So I guess it's inevitable that I was going to be a little disappointed. But overall I loved it. 500 Days of Summer reminded me of why movies are sometimes just better than books. On paper, this would have been one boring story. But it worked on film, mostly because of all the things that Lexie already mentioned. He spent very little space talking about the clothing, though! The clothing was marvelous! I am currently on the hunt for a sweater vest for H.
Two things: Roger Ebert's review was right on the mark, as per usual.
He liked it. Also, he was a total sassy bitch about the punctuation in the title. I love it!
Secondly, this person is an asshole. Seriously. I don't want to be one of those people who claims that anybody who doesn't like what they like just doesn't "get it." But this person really obviously didn't "get" the dance sequence, and there isn't even all that much to get. Also, they dared to insult the parade sequence in Ferris Bueller? Barf.

I'll Watch This Until My Dick Falls Off

I'm not going to stand here and tell you guys to go see Point Break. I know that you've all seen it already, and I'm the one who has been missing out. This isn't me trying to defend it or convince you to watch it. This is me honoring a great piece of film.

Sometimes a sum is greater than its parts. That's the case here. Sure, it's a great cast (Keanu, Gary Busey, Swayze, Anthony Kiedis from The Red Hot Chili Peppers), but that's easy to mess up. They just did something right here. The stars were aligned. It's not the kind of movie that you watch just to laugh at either, which is weird because it's about a group of surfer bank robbers. Watch the movie and get lost in its wonder.

(500) Days of Summer: A Review

Winfreys get excited about things. Generally it's dinner, but sometimes it's a movie that we want to see. (500) Days of Summer was a movie that I can safely say excited almost everyone in the Winfrey family. People have been lovin' on this movie since it premiered, and my hopes were high going in. It was pretty good, but it was not as good as I thought that it could be. I should just post this review by Dr. Evil and be done with it.

But I will continue. There were parts of this movie that were great. I liked that it was totally subjective. That was nice. Also, it wasn't subtle at all, but it wasn't trying to be. There were goofy sound cues and and bright contrasting colors everywhere. Scott Neustadter, the co-writer of the film, said that he wanted to make the film version of a pop song, which is very much how the film felt. That's why the soundtrack in this film worked so much better than that god-damned grating soundtrack for Juno. (500) Days of Summer openly acknowledged what it was (beginning with the title) and used that to its advantage. It was a relationship story as told by one 20-something year old who was clearly influenced by pop culture.

There were really great parts to this movie, which is where my main complaint stems from. After watching this film it was very obvious that the director had worked in music videos. Sure it was bright, and it looked nice, but it also felt very uneven. The fun stylistic parts were great. The dance sequence was great. The split screen part was awesome. The part in the karaoke bar, not so much. Any serious, conversational part felt a little weak. It was like they used up all of their energy on the fun, energetic sequences before and after, and what was left were these bland in-between pieces.

There were things I didn't like about the ending, and his dramatic speech, but I did enjoy this film. Sure, there were annoying characters (his little sister?), but the film had so many strong parts. I would give this film a solid B if I were into giving letter grades to films.