Movie Review: Juno

November 7th, 2007

“Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual and bizarre decision regarding her unborn child.” -imdb.com

Tonight I saw an amazing film. I saw the trailer a couple times and wondered if I would be interested once I actually saw the film. I happened to be invited to a screening followed by a Q & A with Ellen Page, Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, and Allison Janney. I decided to cooperate and just go… either way it was a movie I could see for free.

What a surprise. The film is called Juno and I recommend EVERYONE to see it. It’s so offbeat and simultaneously it manages to keep your attention throughout. It’s a beautiful film! The script was so wonderfully well written that every character has it’s own trait that belonged to just them.

It’s a very unique film with a very unique cast. The acting is really special. Very natural. The relationships between the characters are so real and believable. I had my doubts about Jennifer Garner, but this film has completely changed my perspective about this woman. She did such a wonderful job with many subtle facial expressions. She said so much by saying so little. Jason Bateman had an incredibly strong sense of who his character was. Michael Cera was hilarious.

There were a lot of little moments that were truly noteworthy. The soundtrack helped so much to carry along the story. Very well chosen songs that really depicted the scene and the emotions that were occurring at the time.

The best part about Juno is that the subject matter is such a serious one. It could have been so simple to turn this into a dark comedy or a really dramatic piece, but Diablo did a fantastic job of making it so light and heart warming. The over all colours of the film created harmony and Jason Reitman did a great job of carving this wonderful project out of such a simple concept.

Honestly… this movie needs to be seen.

I am now a checkerboard chick!

October 24th, 2007

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a screening of Hairspray along with a Q & A with John Travolta, Amanda Bynes, Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelley and director Adam Shankman. It was awesome. The movie is so cute and flows right along. It’s very easy to watch. The screening was one of the most fun ones that I have been to, not only because of the q & a afterwards, but the whole experience. Everyone was very happy to be there. Anyway, I’m sure that by now everyone who has been wanting to see Hairspray has already, and those that don’t want to see it won’t see it regardless of any review I may write. I think that we can all agree with that. So I am going to move right along to the exciting part.

As I mentioned, after the screening was a q & a. After that we could talk to them and meet them and such. The most exciting part of all of this is that when I went out into the lobby I ran into Scott Halberstadt (AKA the Cingular guy from the Alltel commercials).

Okay. So maybe not… but he’s still really cool. I did meet John Travolta.

Elijah Kelley…

Brittany Snow…

And, of course, the director, Adam Shankman…

So I didn’t get to take a picture with Amanda Bynes (insert sad face here), but I did talk to her. She is pleasant to talk to.

Anyway, as a bonus, here are some candid pictures my father took of John:

My couple hours without electricity.

October 18th, 2007

I’m going to go straight to the facts. On the night of Wednesday October the 17th of the year 2007 at 8:50 PM the power went out on my block in my neighborhood. Quickly I panicked. My first thought when I heard that War-of-the-Worlds-alien-like noise outside of my window that occurred simultaneously with the power outage was that I was going to miss the new episode of South Park and the Sarah Silverman Program.

The neighbor’s dogs began to bark in the darkness and all I could think about was what Sarah Silverman would do tonight. Then I quickly remembered what I was doing right before the power went out; I was checking today’s lesson on ‘blackboard’ for my online class. I looked at the screen of my laptop and noticed the website was still open, but then I also noticed that my battery was in red mode. In other words it would die in one minute or two… or three. Point is it didn’t have much of a longer life in its future.

I fondled a bit to get out my chair and started feeling around my shelves to see if I could find my new little LED flashlight. Needless to say, I found it and then there was light…

I closed the screen of my laptop and looked at Anakin (my iPhone) with a sigh of relief and admiration as it rested at the corner of my desk. I grabbed it with my hands and touched it with love. I start texting and twittering, to let the people that I was talking to, know that I am still alive and that my power just went out, when an alert popped up on the center of my screen… “20% battery remaining.” So I went ahead and let everyone know that I would not be speaking much.

I went to the living room where my mother and her friend were talking. They already set up a large flashlight to sit on the table in front of them. I quickly left, seeing as they were speaking of nothing that interested me, and proceeded to the kitchen. I got some animal crackers and ate them all until I could see the bottom of the box. Then I followed up with Cheez-its for dessert. Yes. I know… delicious.

In any case, I began to get tired of carrying the flashlight. So I went in my closet and got a headband-thing and arranged it so that my flashlight would rest in it and on my head… like so:

Don’t mess with homemade head gear or it will eat you. My invention is amazing and everyone knows this.

This also might explain why I am hiding in my closet in this infamous video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo4q35WooL8&rel=1]

Onto more important things… I took the guitar out to my dad who was sitting alone. We started to play songs and sing Christmas music. Elvis, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, etc. were the artists we paid tribute to at that fine hour. I left my father to play the guitar a bit and went back to my room to see how Anakin was doing. He spoke to me and said “10% battery remaining.” I said “Thanks.” Then he said “I hate you” and did this…

And I started to cry because I was heartbroken. My one and only Anakin… how could you. I still had my monkey, Peter, and Finn to accompany me though, along with other creatures that remain unnamed to this day.

Regardless of the light that I temporarily installed on my head, this is as far as I could see in my own house.

Having the lights off, no phone, no computer, and no iPod (it didn’t have life either), made me realize that… I need to learn to charge things more often. Okay, no really… it taught me that I can’t live without my technical gadgets and thanks to Steve Jobs, my life is being made even more simpler every day. Yes, I am lazy… and I admit that, but how can I not be with so many things accessible to me? I love you Apple, Inc. I really do and I appreciate everything that you have given me. I have also realized that the individual that invented candles totally pwns Thomas Edison.

My power returned at about 10:27, which allowed me to turn on my computer and see Sarah Silverman make a compelling argument about the justice system and how we should all act now to fight racism. Thank you Sarah.

And in case you are wondering, shortly after they repeated the South Park episode, so I got to watch Cartman attempt to make Kyle Broflovsky suck his balls.

Reservation Road

October 15th, 2007

Reservation Road
“When his son is killed in an unsolved hit-and-run accident, a grieving father (Phoenix) spends his waking hours seeking vengeance against the man (Ruffalo) who perpetrated the deadly crime.” -Fandango

Today I went to a screening of the film Reservation Road directed by Terry George. Ever since I first saw the trailer for this film I was waiting for it with anticipation. Mainly I was anxious to see what this group of actors could produce together. I was extremely satisfied. It was everything that I had hoped for.

Mark Ruffalo’s performance (setting aside the spectacular performances from the rest of the cast) is really something noteworthy. He has such subtle facial expressions to the littlest of moments that he makes every scene he is in captivating and worthwhile. He is a classified scene-stealer. I hope that his recognition for the work he has done in this film goes beyond this blog.

As for the rest of the cast, they were wonderful obviously. With actors like Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly what can you expect? After the screening I was fortunate enough to participate in a Q&A with Jennifer Connelly and I must say that she is one delightful woman. Apart from her extraordinary beauty, she is incredibly intelligent. I am putting her at the top of my list of women in this business. I was completely taken aback. Jennifer explained the process she went through to create her character in the film. It was so extensive and detailed and her work truly does shine through the screen.

I must warn anybody who has intentions of viewing this movie though. It is a psychological drama. More drama than anything else, ergo there is a lot of emotion overflowing through this movie. When you are not feeling grief, you will feel anxiety, and when you don’t feel anxiety, you will feel fear. There is a roller coaster of emotions that, as an audience member, you will be forced to go through if you let yourself be taken away by the performance of these actors. Not only did they make this film real, but the script is very alive, intense, and it’s a beautiful work of art. That’s all I will say about the film, I wouldn’t want to spoil it! :)

Lars and the Real Girl

October 14th, 2007

Lars and the Real Girl
“A delusional young guy strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.” -IMDb.com

I was lucky enough to attend a screening of this film, which was followed by a Q&A with Ryan Gosling and Craig Gillespie. To be honest I had not even heard of the film until I received the invitation to the screening. Shortly after, I went to the Apple website and viewed the trailer for the film. It seemed interesting at the time and well… either way it was a free screening.

After having watched the film I really feel that everyone should watch it. It was delightful to see and the acting was surprisingly good. The cast members were so well chosen; every person in the film had an interesting face to look at. Ryan Gosling’s performance was spectacular. Unfortunately I never saw the film for which he was nominated for (Half Nelson). But I was really taken by surprise with how much he has developed as an actor. He was able to take his character and make him so real and give him life-like quirks that really made the character a likable one. Ryan also managed to make the doll, Bianca, seem so alive. By the end of the movie I had completely forgotten that she was a doll and hadn’t said anything.

To quote Gosling, one of the major themes of the film is that everyone can give love without expecting it to be returned, in the same way that Lars loved Bianca. Lars and the Real Girl is an interesting film of how people can come together for a cause and do something about it without receiving anything in exchange. But by the end of this movie we the audience realize that everyone did get something out of it, even if it wasn’t something physical.

Either way, it’s a great film and I highly recommend it.

Romina's Blog

A place to speak of cheese and things

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