American Sniper

     Okay, so I know it has been a while since my last post. Believe me, I have seen a ton of movies in the past month or so since I've posted something; however, none of the movies I have viewed previously have been remotely good enough to even write about. Yet, one move I saw just last weekend really stuck with me. I am sure we have all heard of Bradley Cooper's new movie American Sniper. Kudos to you, Clint Eastwood, for directing one of the most horrific yet terrific movies I have seen in a while.
     I watch a lot of movies. Therefore, my standards on movies are relatively high. It takes a lot for a movie to truly stick with me. This movie did just that. Bradley Cooper did such a phenomenal job of portraying Chris Kyle. I am not one for war movies. My boyfriend makes me watch a lot of them and most of the time I try to stay in my own perfect world where war is dramatized and fictitious in movies. American Sniper was so gripping that it was impossible to go into my happy place. The movie encompassed every aspect of war: what happens to the families when a family member is out at war? What is going on over seas? What happens after a tour? Why do people want to fight in war? All of these questions were answered. Nothing about the movie was remotely settling. The happy scenes were something the viewer had to treasure because the rest was so sad and horrifying. I can't lie and say I didn't tear up in this film. This movie made me want to go out and personally thank every single veteran in the war. I have so much respect for people who want to join the military because I know it is a difficult job, but this movie made me open my eyes to it a little more. These people put their lives on the line every day and witness these horrifying events just to protect our country. That's a big deal.
     SPOILER ALERT: The violent scenes were so real to me, that I actually cried while watching them. This guy they call the butcher is shown drilling a hole into a little boy's head and all you can hear is this little boy screaming. Bradley Cooper's face said it all in the film. He could only sit there and watch. His first kill is that of a little boy and a woman. I mean to realize that this stuff is happening in our world is absolutely disgusting. I wanted to keep my eyes shut. The whole ordeal was disturbing. This was definitely one of Bradley Cooper's most memorable performances to me. He did a phenomenal job of portraying a man who is human just like us but loses himself once he experiences all of these tragic events. He dehumanizes into  a killing machine where he no longer has to think about who is the bad guy and who he is willing to save. I have never been to war, but I imagine that happens to many soldiers. My old history teacher used to tell me war stories of when he was in Afghanistan. He even admitted that it changed him.
      I saw this movie with my boyfriend and the first words I said to him as we left while I was in a puddle of tears were "please don't join the military." As horrible as that sounds, I have concluded that there is no way I could be an army wife. I applaud all of those who are capable of sustaining that kind of relationship, because I would be a mess. This movie just changed me in some way. I saw a whole new view of the world I never imagined I could. I would recommend this movie to anyone. It was horrifying and sickening, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Fight Club

First rule about fight club: you do NOT talk about fight club. Some may automatically feel that this movie is not for them because it is all about fighting. False! This movie is highly existential. On the surface we see Tyler Durden and the narrator and all these different characters who have nothing in common. There is violence. Oh there is TONS of violence. However, this movie is far from all fighting. The movie is based around the idea of fighting "the man." I saw this movie once when I was a kid, but I watched it recently completely forgetting how compelling this movie is. Tyler Durden seems like the bad guy throughout the movie, but in actuality we, the viewers, are the villains. He puts the brutal truth in our faces (my favorite idea). He says "You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your pocket." He is saying that the material things we own do not define us as a person, yet we always view this. The wealthy are treated better than the poor, but we are all God's children. He also says "Reject the basic assumption of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions." The entire movie represents how society has all fallen to the material world and no one is able to overcome it. Hence why Tyler Durden creates fight club. He allows people to feel something. When they fight they are no longer numb to the world. SPOILER ALERT! We are all Tyler Durden. The narrator creates Tyler Durden as his own persona because he is tired of his condo selling life. We all have the person in our minds that we strive to be. That person is who Tyler Durden represents. Plus let's be real here. Who doesn't want to see a young, shirtless Brad Pitt? I rate this movie 10/10 stars. It is a personal favorite of mine. However, it is hard to appreciate until you fully analyze the symbolic features throughout the film. Seriously, everyone should watch this.

The Fault In Our Stars

So I realize that technically the movie The Fault In Our Stars has not yet been released; I just want to discuss the book. I just finished reading it today. I decided upon this novel because I refuse to be a heathen who sees a movie before reading the book. I am not sure whether to be happy or sad about it. There are two sides I've taken to this book: one is that it is a love story about a girl and a boy with a tragedy at the end (basically every cliché romance novel) or two that it is a representation of death that no one wants to admit. The book was relatively pessimistic, but I guess that makes sense because it is about cancer. Then again the focus is far from a cancer novel. In fact, I was very impressed by the metaphorical aspect of it all. The character Augustus Waters was the type of character I have longed to see for a very long time. I have not loved a character so much since the Harry Potter books. He is the charming, charismatic type of character that everyone just wants to read about more and more. Yet he represented the brutal truth of death. The book tells us that we are all a statistic in the greater scheme of life. Time screws us all over eventually. All of us have a set number of days left on this earth (some more than others). However I think the scariest idea represented in the book was that all of us strive to make a mark on the earth before we die. We want to believe that when we die, people will remember us forever that it will be this great tragedy. Yet this is not true. It is such a pessimistic view but it is merely the truth that all of us hate to admit. When we die the world keeps moving. People mourn but eventually we are nothing but a forgotten memory to most. The sad reality is that all of us have this moral duty to treat the dying better than the living. Not to ruin the book, *SPOILER ALERT* but when one character is dying he sees people who have not talked to him in three years. They act like his best friend but no virtually nothing about him. Nevertheless, I have to say that I enjoyed John Green's pessimism throughout the novel. Not that I am a pessimistic. I have quite the optimistic view on life. John Green forces the reader to see beyond a cliché love story. He wants us to realize that we cannot live our lives until we can accept that one day we will die. I highly recommend everyone to read this book. After all the movie is coming out in about two weeks.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...to depression

Do you ever just get into a mood where you just need to cry? This is the movie for that moment. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close was one of the most touching dramas I have seen in a while. Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn, and Sandra Bullock give very powerful performances as the Schell family. The entire movie takes place after 9/11, so it is already set up for devastation. Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks) and his son Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) are the epitome of a father-son relationship. They are like best friends. Oskar is autistic, but he is so smart and adventurous. The son comes home early and hears the phone ring. It is his father repeatedly saying "Is anyone there? Hello? Is anyone there?" This is a huge theme throughout because the son is trying to go on the adventure that his father had originally set up for them to go on together. After 9/11 Oskar's mother, Linda Schell (Sandra Bullock), tries to pick up the pieces of her newly shattered family. Oskar asks everyone why someone who did not know his father would kill him. If that is not heart wrenching enough already, this innocent child goes around helping people because his father had always helped people. He travels to every place his father had taken him across New York City. Throughout the entire movie there are flashbacks to Oskar and Thomas Schell spending time together and sharing a very loving father-son bond. I literally cried like a baby throughout the entire movie. The saddest part is when Oskar talks to a lawyer whom he meets along his adventure. Keep in mind that Oskar is only a little boy. Oskar tells the lawyer of his guilt over his father. He says how the phone rang six times and he heard his dad say "Is anyone there?" The saddest part ever is seeing Oskar cry and say that he could not pick up the phone but he wanted to so badly. Oskar says that his father must have known he was there because he said "anyone" and anyone only means one person. I don't want to spoil anything else but this movie deserves 10/10 stars by my standards. I cried through the entire movie and continued to cry afterwards. It is not only a story of sadness but a story of happiness. You see how even through tough times that there can be happiness and joy. It is definitely a must see by everyone.

Blue Valentine: A Truly Blue Movie

So I just got done watching the movie Blue Valentine. This movie made me want to cry, smile, and flip tables all at the same time. I am a huge fan of the very attractive Ryan Gosling, so naturally I am always willing to sit down and watch any movie with his performance. He is the only actor that I know of that can make a balding middle-aged man look attractive. If you have not heard of this movie, it is about a woman named Cindy (Michelle Williams) and a man named Dean (Ryan Gosling). It is truly tough to look past Ryan Gosling's great look and maybe that is why I had such a hard time trying to rationalize Cindy's actions. There may be a few spoilers in this so be prepared. Dean meets Cindy unexpectedly which is just the perfect set up for the perfect love story. Well this story is far from perfect. They are complete opposites. Throughout the entire movie you see flashbacks of how they first met and see how much they were truly in love with each other. However, the main plot to the story proves otherwise. It is so sad because Ryan Gosling does an incredible job at showing how much he wants to change for the love of his life, but he just cannot seem to do it. At the same time, you can see how much Cindy wants to stay in love with him, but she is falling apart in the process. Michelle Williams did a splendid job in portraying what a woman will put herself through to stay with her man. You could really see how she did love him at one point but somewhere along the way their love fell apart. It was hard for me to understand seeing as I'm still young and it's also Ryan Gosling. If Ryan Gosling says he loves you, you should not test it. Yet, it is easy to see why she does what she does. Cindy is a very patient woman clearly. Dean drinks every morning and he has no ambitions towards his future. Cindy, in contrast, is very studious and has lots of ambitions. So maybe they were never destined to be for each other, but I was rooting for them the entire time.  Now how can we make this movie more depressing? They have a daughter together. If it is not sad enough seeing to people fall out of love, a daughter crashing and burning from it all comes into the mix.
I don't want to give any more spoilers away, but I will say this: if you expect happy endings in love stories, do not watch this movie. The ending was the most frustrating ending imaginable. It ends exactly the way you wish it didn't. However, overall it was a very enjoyable movie. I was so involved with it within the first ten minutes. I would rate this title 8/10 stars. It is definitely something people should watch.

Evil Dead (2013)

I had mixed feelings about this movie. If you've seen the original, you would too. The movie was not as scary as it could've been, and it definitely was not as great as I had anticipated. IMDB rates it a 7 out of 10 but I have to completely disagree. The gore factor for the movie was way over done. It legitimately has a scene where it is raining blood. The images, however, are terrifying; I cannot argue with that. The transformation done for the character Mia was shocking. If you haven't seen or heard of this movie, it is about a group of friends who go to a cabin to have an intervention for their friend Mia. Some idiot finds a book and reads the incantations despite the fact that it says "don't read it. Don't write it. Don't say it," on the page. All the happiness crumbles from that point on. Although you never truly see a demon, you can definitely see the possession part. I cringed in my seat a few times and definitely jumped out of my seat a few times. There is no down time though after Mia gets possessed; so don't expect any time to collect your thoughts. I would probably rate this 5.8 out of 10 stars. It was not the best.

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Where do I even begin to discuss this movie? It was ridiculously great. Scott Fitzgerald would be proud to see his book displayed in this way. What can you expect with a great cast: Leonardo Dicaprio ( Jay Gatsby), Carey Mulligan (Daisy Buchanan), Isla Fisher (Myrtle Wilson), Tobey Maguire (Nick Carraway), etc. If you've ever read the book, your expectations would be pretty high for a movie such as this one. Compared to the 1974 version, this movie captured way more of how  I had imagined while reading the book. Leonardo Dicaprio delivered quite the phenomenal performance. He really captured the essence of who Gatsby was with the whole idea of dwelling in the past. You could just see his passion for Daisy and how much he wanted her to change her mind. There were some differences from the book, such as Nick Carraway writing the story called the Great Gatsby to deal with depression. This movie truly revealed the carelessness of people and how disturbing New York was towards drugs, alcohol, and the treatment towards people. My sister even cried in the movie, because it was that powerful. Every bit of the book was exaggerated to how it should have been. The different parts of New York looked how they should have been and you could fully see the contrast between West Egg and East Egg. Each character was fully identified to how he or she should've been. For example, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) was exactly I had pictured he'd be in the book. He was very athletic and very self centered. Gatsby (Leonardo Dicaprio) had the mysteriousness that he had in the book. It was like I was almost reading the book. I would definitely highly recommend this to anyone whether you read the book or not. This movie gets 8.9 out of 10 stars on my movie scale.