Less Than Zero is a film I only watched so I could see Brad Pitt in it. LOL, ended up not even spotting him but I enjoyed this film. It was very eccentric.

Plot: Two friends work together to help their friend, a drug addict.

Before I get into my thoughts on Less Than Zero I want to compare it to a similar film that kept popping up in my head while watching it called The Basketball Diaries. It is a film about an addict who drops out of school as well….that is probably the only thing similar. Less Than Zero,to me, is way worst, in the drug story department of course.

I’ve seen films in the past that are balanced around addicts and their addictions like Leonardo in The Basketball Diaries and Halle Berry in Losing Isaiah but this was wayyyy worst than those, so much worst. Robert Downey Jr.’s performance was so complex and true, and his friends were just as dedicated to helping him as he was to avoiding that help, you barely ever see that in these kinds of films.

You can’t help but think that maybe Downey’s performance was so great because he, himself, had a drug problem in his own life around this time. Perhaps.

It is a rather long film, not a long drag that left you bored throughout, but a thorough visual with a profound storyline: poor little rich kid almost. It was kind of like a redemption film in a way. Everyday Julian went out and we, as the spectators, hoped that this would be the day he’d redeem himself and get better and take some advice for once. Instead he would continue to steal and run and do vulgar things to get his drugs. All he wanted to do was party and in return he gave his friends hell. Downey didn’t overact, perhaps because of dot dot dot, but only perhaps. I refer to him more than the other actors because he was the only one important to me, his friends were just ok; bunch of rich kids with nothing better to do.

It is a good film, very sad with no happy ending but good. It is way better than any other drug addiction films that I’ve seen. Other addict films are now a bit phony to me now that I’ve seen this. It is well written and a superb watch. The soundtrack was dope too. Rick Rubin whoop whoop!!

King Of New York is a popular film, even more popular if you are a Biggie fan. I am. Biggie was always talking about “Black Frank White” “I’m the King of New York like Frank” and everyone else would say that too like Jay-Z and Puff, continuously calling him that. Little me, I was about 12 when I started to pay attention, didn’t know why they were calling Biggie Frank or why he was referring to himself as “The King of New York” and being like a man named Frank White but a black version. When I found out it was a movie I was like “oh….okay….so what” LOL, like I didn’t really care, it was just odd to me. I guess that was because I hadn’t seen the film, and I was going to have to watch it to get the gist. Also I just found out recently that Biggie got his stage name Biggie Smalls from a film too, and of course we all knew the name “Notorious BIG” was from film. Biggie loved the films, he reminds me of someone.

That was some history on my knowledge of this film. I figured that if Biggie, Jay, Puff, and all of Junior Mafia liked it and saw it and thought that it was so cool that they would proclaim it as a film worth name-stealing from, that it’s a damn good gangsta film. But everywhere I looked, I couldn’t find it, ‘til one day it was playing on IFC.

I watched it, and I completely disagree with my hip hop fam.

This movie was kinda boring, drawn out, (which I hate…you all should know this by now, if you read my other journal posts), there were 3 good scenes:

1. Jimmy Jump (Lawrence Fishburne) shooting up some guys house
2. Frank White’s (Christopher Walken) crew shooting up some Chinatown neighborhood
3. The party scene when the cops send hit-men to murder Frank White and his crew

That’s about it, there was nothing big, nothing elaborate, nothing shocking, just plain old 90’s action flick with a great cast. But maybe that was it, maybe Biggie and them thought it was bad back then because of the time. It was new to them. I’ve seen 21st century action shit now, so this isn’t holding a candle to my experienced eyes. Modern Hollywood has spoiled me, or maybe it’s just wrongly written. Pity I took so long to watch it, maybe it would have wowed me as a 12 year old, because this 23 year old was not impressed.

Speaking of non great actresses but gorgeous women, Marilyn Monroe. Like Dorothy, I’m not a huge fan, and I don’t know much about her. She’s always just been a beautiful, iconic, and massively imitated woman. I always and only saw her as a sex symbol, meaning she was just for men to look at so why should I take interest in her films.

“Then why did you watch The Seven Year Itch ??”

The only reason I watched this is because my sister is a fan. Thank God I did, because this movie is funny. Marilyn Monroe is actually funny, because of her idiocy (blandness and cluelessness), and her consistency to keep that character throughout. The same character that she tends to always have; she is very tedious, very good to look at, but at times dull. Now in this film, not to much. She is still bland and boring but funny boring, and very random.

The guy in the film was funny too, hilarious actually, he reminded me so much of Jim Carrey; the way he acted and the way he looked. They can pass for father and son, thank God he was in it, Tom Ewell. I recently saw Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Marilyn was a bit funny in those to, just a bit. See it looks like I’m picking on her but in truth, all of her characters are the same: gold digging idiot that sings. You find humor in her idiocy though, like I said, she is not purposely being funny, or maybe she is, but we’ll never know because her characters are too similar to her real self so you just laugh at her because she acts, lack of a better term, “like a dumb blonde.”

This film is funny and that’s all I got from it. I was hoping to get some of an iconic break from it, since it’s Marilyn Monroe’s infamous comedy, The Seven Year Itch, with the infamous “dress blowing up above the vent” scene, but it wasn’t even a big deal, not a big deal at all, on her part. Though, like I said, she was for the men.

RIP Ms. Norma Jeane.

This movie was long as hell, when I started watching it I didn’t realize what I was in for: a good 4 hours. At least that’s how it felt. Whenever you’re watching a TV movie on TV it seems longer than it is. I just looked it up, it’s only 2 hours, it literally felt like I was watching it all night though.

Anyhow, this movie is good. I like it, I didn’t know much about Dorothy Dandridge; her career, her life, nothing, and I like to watch films based on real people: Chaplin, Ray, The Miracle Worker, The Jacksons: An American Dream, 8 Mile, Monster, North Country, Alpha Dog, Into The Wild, A Beautiful Mind, The Basketball Diaries, The Social Network, Catch Me If You Can, Raging Bull, Milk. Just to name a few of my favorites, I know, I watch a lot of movies. But anyway I never knew about Dorothy and I always wondered, ya know. She is one of the first black actresses and the first black actress to be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actress category. Also, it is Halle Berry playing her so I wanted to see how well she could portray her and I was impressed, she did very well.

I learned a lot about her, I thought she was just a pretty face with a pretty voice, but as it turns out she had a rather troubled past, present and future. She was abused as a child by family which traumatized her her whole life, which led to her having problems with men, sexually, she also had a mentally retarded daughter, then her life ended tragically due to drugs. I didn’t even know she took drugs, but she was a part of that era. The era of mysterious overdosing: Presley, Monroe, Garland, Dean.

Aside from the truth aspect of the film, it was a good watch. The main role was Halle so I’ll just talk about her; her acting was superb. This is odd to me because as great as others may say she is I think that she is just a gorgeous woman and an okay actress; but portraying Dorothy she was great. I would assume that Dorothy acted this way now since this is the closest I’ll get to her as a person and not an actress because I’m not a Dandridge fan. I’ve only seen one of her films, the infamous Carmen Jones; lovely soundtrack in that film. The title, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge is a perfect title, this movie did indeed introduce me to her.

RIP Angel Face.

Fight Club is fantastic! It is what everyone says it is, a fucking bad ass movie. There’s nothing bad to say, everything is brilliant. David Fincher is an amazing director, Chuck Palahniuk is an amazing writer, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter and Ed Norton are amazing actors, whomever edited it is an amazing editor, the soundtrack is amazing, the cinematography is amazing, the comedy is amazing, the knowledge is amazing, the quotes are amazing, Helena and Brad’s hairstyles are amazing. EVERYTHING IS AMAZING!!!!

Can you tell that I loved this movie??

I have been neglecting this masterpiece and I am ashamed of myself, all these years I’ve been avoiding it, I’ve been putting it off, putting it aside. Little did I know this would become one of my favorite films. Yes, in 2012 I’m still choosing favorites. I saw this movie for the first time wholly in 2012, 13 years after it came out, I am soooo late! Everything in this post will be hyped!! I love this movie!! It’s called a cult classic, but to me, it is just a classic, I am not over exaggerating, anyone who has seen it knows.

I had to step away from this post for a minute. LOL.

After watching it the first time you already know I watched it over and over and over, like 9 times straight. I just kept rewinding and rewinding, I fell in love. Oh and, as always, I fell in love, temporarily, with the actors like I always do. This time it was with Brad Pitt…..again. Ed Norton was phenomenal, just so fucking funny, I choked laughing at him in the scene when he beats himself up.

This film is just so good!! The music, the story, the TWISTTT!!! OMG!!! I just……ugh! So good!!

I learned a lot from this movie, Tyler Durden was my professor for 2 hours, just teaching me everything about life and how fucked it can be and how I can control mine. This movie will make you its slave while watching it, you just can’t look away or let it go; you want to be feed its wisdom; from Palahniuk’s words to Pitt’s face and Fincher’s vision.It all comes together like magic, and a real eye opener.

People, like my mother, may react to its violence and say it’s too violent and confusing. Well that is because this film is for intellectual people, creative people, people who listen and take in what they hear. People who imagine things outside of themselves, Fight Club is for them. Other people who say this film is overrated are amongst the confused that I talk about.

The ending track is sick too, I can’t believe a music lover of all music like myself is just hearing it 2 decades later. It came out in 1992. I’m referring to “Where Is My Mind?” by the Pixies, sick track, and the way it comes up at the end of this film is addictive, dope and perfect. This film had all the elements: comedy, gorgeous people, great story, action, fighting (lots of it), romance, friendship, intelligence, and most of all conscience, this movie had a conscience. CRAZZYY!!

You know what was weird though: Towards the end of the film, Brad Pitt, very all of a sudden, had a different haircut, what was that about? LOL. It’s as if it were too reveal his true identity or something, very random.

August Rush……..cute movie. Weird story. By weird, I mean creative and original.

Plot: Kid sets out to look for his parents and hopes that his love, passion and ear for music will help bring them together

It’s not your average Annie story or duplicate where there’s an orphan kid, or a lost kid, or a “gave up” kid, or an adopted kid. It’s a “parents didn’t know about the kid’s existence” kid, whose parents always felt empty and alone.

This film has a good soundtrack, really good. It’s a film that is all about the music ya know, so there are some good musicians in it; very good young singers and composers as well. The acting was alright, not brilliant. I did however catch the little boy who plays August, Freddie Highmore, as a one-trick pony. I’ve seen him in films before: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland and he seems to act the same way all the time. He’s young and still learning but his acting isn’t up to par with the charisma of August nor with the rest of the cast whom are some great actors: Robin Williams, Terrence Howard, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Mykelti Williamson. 

It is a heart felt movie, very fantastical and artsy. I enjoyed it, it’s a family film. I’ll say, I didn’t like the ending, I wanted more; the whole film he is trying to find his parents and as soon as he does the film ends. I will always hate that about American cinema, always always always. You make us wait, you take us on a ride and then when we reach our goal you drop us. Like a rollercoaster, except you don’t go back up, you just go wait on another line, movie.

The Deer Hunter is way more than the title allows spectators to think. There is always a connection between my Film Journal posts, the connection in this one is titles. Misconceived titles. I didn’t watch this film, when I first found out about it, 3 years ago, because I thought it was about hunting deer. Deer is plural for deer. Turns out, this film has one of the most fucked up story lines I’ve ever came across.

Plot: Three deer hunting friends go to war and deal with their traumatizing experiences after they return home.

Another similarity between this film and Across The Universe is that they are both centered around the Vietnam war. It is the mutual back theme that causes all the craziness and confusion.

This is a very good film, I mean, it isn’t very modern Hollywood, well at least not 21st century modern, but it, also like The Exorcist, is one of the those films that is heavily known and copied in other Hollywood films and television, particularly the Russian roulette scenes.

This was a long film, and it’s hard for me to explain it without giving anything away, so I’ll just say I really enjoyed it, there were some times when it pissed me off. Not the film itself, nor the way it was made, just to story pissed me off. In which, I guess, it’s supposed too, otherwise it wouldn’t be a good film. I got very personal with it, my emotions were very involved, as well as my sister and mother because they watched it too and it disturbed them. The violence in it seems real, it’s cliché for me to say this because when you watch film you know everything isn’t real but they are supposed to look that way so don’t confuse me when I say “the violence in it seemed real.” I guess I mean the acting behind the violence seemed real.

It’s sometimes hard to watch actors like DeNiro and Walken because you just root for them so hard that if anything bad happens in the film, you automatically feel drawn. The scenes that fucked with us the most, and particularly me, were the ones that seemed like they could have really happened to US soldiers during this war. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. That’s the thing about war movies, they portray something that happened and as an audience we’re supposed to just take it.

Those last two paragraphs are way more than they need to be. Calm down fam, it’s just a movie. Move – ee. I guess that’s their job, to move you, movies. Move.

Anyway, great film, great acting, great writing. Sad middle, sad ending.

The thing about “Across The Universe,” it has a terrible title for people who aren’t Beatles fans.

I have had a thing with this movie for about 5 years. It always seemed interesting, it always seemed like something I would like, but I could not, just could not bring myself to watching, or watching it fully. I would watch one part of a different scene in it for the past 5 years, until one day I was like okay I got to see what this film is about already, it is haunting me. I did know a little about it: it was a musical. I love musicals!! And it was surrounded by the music from the Beatles, similar to “Mama Mia” and ABBA. Mind you, I was not a huge Beatles fan prior to seeing this, this film opened my eyes completely to them. Aside from “All You Need Is Love” “Black Bird” “Come Together” “I Want To Hold Your Hand” “Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds” (because of “I Am Sam”) and singing “Here Comes The Sun” in my junior high chorus line, I wasn’t really big on the Beatles. I didn’t know about their other songs, like “Across the Universe” in particular.

The film just had to be named after that one right??

If it was called “All You Need Is Love” then I would have known it was about their music and been saw it. I know a lot of their songs now, aside from just the ones in the film, so I can now say I am a thorough Beatles fan. The cast is amazing: great physical acting, great singing and performing. I always knew Tracy from “Thirteen” was in this film (Evan Rachael Wood) but I most definitely did not know that she could sing like that. She is not just a “sit down” actress to me anymore, or the kid from “Thirteen”, she is now an artist to me. The guy in the film that plays her brother was really cute too, Max, I liked him.

I also loved the unique way they stylized the classical tunes, they made them very urban and modern. I love the Beatles music now, after watching this they were all I listened to for a week. Their music is sooooo uplifting and spiritual and loving. Them and Queen are my favorite English bands, and this movie is now one of my favorite musicals. It’s up there with West Side Story, Grease, Rent, Hairspray, A Chorus Line, Sweet Charity, Annie, Chicago and The Lion King Musical. I told you I loved musicals. Across The Universe is one of those films that is just so joyous, even with all the bad things, like the war. They sing through everything and ended with the most moving track of all “All You Need Is Love”, because truthfully, that is all they needed.

These scenes were my favorites:

• Max getting shipped to the US Army – “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
• Jude painting – “Strawberry Fields Forever”
• Jude going to get Lucy out the crowd mob – “Across The Universe”
• Pretty much anything with Max, Jude, and Lucy in it together
• Jo-Jo arriving in NY – “Come Together”

All of the lights!! When you see a black-and-white film you don’t except it to be called City Lights, get it? You’re not going to see any lights. LOL, anyway….then you watch the movie and you recognize it’s greatness. Real recognize real.

City Lights is a black-and-white silent film from the 30’s starring Charlie Chaplin “The Tramp”.His famous persona, “The Tramp” is so damn funny and sweet. I loved this movie, I watched it in class, my Screen Comedy course. Definitely my favorite course this semester, and you appreciate black-and-white film when you see a movie like this because it’s fun. It’s a fun movie, but it’s also a little bit sad because there is a vision impaired girl involved and she just makes you feel so down whenever you see her and the music doesn’t help.

Plot: The Tramp is poor, obviously, he meets a rich guy who only sees Charlie as his friend when he is drunk and then completely forgets who Charlie is when he is sober (the comedy facet). Meanwhile, the Tramp meets a girl whom is blind and she mistakes him for the rich man.

It’s quite cheeky actually.

There is a lot of slapstick comedy in it, which I have learned thoroughly about this semester, which I have also learned that I don’t really like very much. Slapstick comedy is fun but after like 10 minutes you’re sick of it. The thing that I love about Chaplin though is, you don’t even care that it’s a black-and-white film because of how entertaining he is, and his slapstick doesn’t get annoying after 10 minutes like the three stooges, because his jokes aren’t prolonged way more than they should be. His jokes are like the third bowl of porridge, just right.

“Insidious” was some shit I tell you. I have never!!!!!!! I should have gave myself some time in between watching “The Exorcist” and this because, even though this is not a classic, it scared me just as much as The Exorcist did, if not more.

**I know I’m not supposed to put quotes around these movies but it’s my blog and I can’t help it. It seems wrong otherwise.**

This movie was so frightening, so scary, so suspenseful, I mean, I was screaming every 2 minutes. I was even screaming when nothing was happening because I was afraid of the movie; it could be the happiest scene like a bright sunny day and I was scared just because Insidious was playing. You already know I only needed to see this one time, and that’s what I did; one time and never again. It’s different with The Exorcist, I can watch that again. The Exorcist is more of a “Oh my God” film and this is more of a “(scream)(scream) OH SHIIIIIIITTTT!!!” film. Like a roller coaster.

The filmmakers did their homework on this one man, they really knew what they were doing. Very very well-written, shot and edited to perfection. It didn’t have one of those corny ass story lines like most horror films, there was a psychological aspect, mental and social issues here, which made you, as an audience, even more intrigued. I hope they make sequels because the industry needs horror films that actually frighten and this did just that.

I will never forget this film, like really, I can’t even elaborate how much it scared me, CRRAAYYY!

Holy fucking shit!! I have always always always ALWAYS wanted to see “The Exorcist” and also always avoided watching it. This movie is the mother of all modern horror motion picture. I don’t give a damn what anyone says about Psycho or The Wolf Man or whatever the fuck else. This shit Exorcist right here, had me about to run away from the screen.

Plot: Devil takes over little girl and possesses the shit out of her.

That’s pretty much it, sorry if I curse a lot in this post, but that’s all I did while watching this film so, to each his own. Writing about this movie is not going to be a walk in the park, unless that park is where murderers be.

The Exorcist scared me so much, not scary like I couldn’t watch, scary like I thought that girl was really possessed, like not acting, like REAL. That’s how crazy the shit was to me. I’m looking at this little girl, and she’s scaring me. One thing about horror, they make you wait, I said this before. They make you wait until the real exorcism happens; you see all the crazy shots of Regan actually being possessed, not very long, but long enough. The film is called “The Exorcist” therefore I expect an exorcism for at least an hour and a half of the film, but I’m not being brash. I love this movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It did it’s job WELL!!

The acting was really something else, no one couldn’t tell that that kid wasn’t really being possessed, fuck a movie, this shit really happening, what the hell! The infamous scenes from this movie, like the: rising from the bed, and the pissing in front of company, the crab walking backwards down the steps, the vomiting, the cursing vulgarly. It’s all been copied somewhere else either in film or video. We have all seen it before and even though I knew it was from The Exorcist I couldn’t connect with it until now. That’s what I love about going back and watching old films because you can always see something and say “wow so that’s where they got that from.” This film is timeless, 1973 to forever.

Such a classic horror film that is still thrilling and inspiring other horror films.

I touched on him in a previous post, Michael Fassbender. He was the German actor in Inglourious Basterds, he was also in “Fish Tank”. Funny story, I saw the trailer for Fish Tank years ago when it first came out; thought it was interesting; thought I might look at it when it came out; never did. Only cared to watch it this year after falling forFassbender, *sigh*, I’m a hopeless romantic. I love all actors everywhere.

Judge me, I watch a film if an actor I like is in it and so do you, anyway, Fish Tank, really good movie. I’m glad I fell for Fassbenderotherwise I would have missed out on a good film, I really liked it, I watched it about 5 times. It’s not a relatable story because it is a coming-of-age story where a girl falls for an older man and experiences things kind of “quick fast”, but it is age appropriate for me, meaning urban. I am 23, but still a kid at heart so I was always in Mia’s favor, though I never fell for any older men when I was her age.

Mia is the leading actress, and who the film followed. It was all about her: what she sees, what she’s feeling. I loved that aspect of the film especially, the way the director made sure to keep it urban and cool. Everything is seen though her eyes, she is the protagonist and everyone else is just people in her life that fill up the film.

Don’t let the title mislead you. It’s a metaphor.

Dance was a big aspect in the film and music, because it was a facet of Mia’s life, she reminded me of me, not as hard and heavy but her personality when it came to dress and art. She was always is sweats and she was always practicing dancing, that was me completely as a teen and sometimes still now, except for the dance part, college doesn’t let you have time for that, for fun. I loved this film, it’s definitely something you can watch over and over, or at least I, and I did. I do like English films so maybe I’m being bias?…either way, loved it.