13 Going On 30 (Gary Winick, 2004)

Although I’m not really one for chick-flicks, I actually quite enjoyed 13 Going On 30; possibly because I properly laughed in some places; possibly because I could relate to wanting to go both forwards and backwards in time; or possibly because the characters were just so loveable I actually wanted them to get together for once and didn’t mind the predictable ending.

I first watched it when I was a bit younger, around thirteen, but when I found it on a list of the most underrated films of the ‘noughties’ (2000s), I decided to watch it again. Just like a romantic comedy type film should do, it cheered me up and left in a good mood, so full marks and ticks in all the boxes for conforming to a genre. It usually bugs me when a film isn’t ‘different’ or exciting, but to be fair, it wasn’t promising anything except a chick-flick style storyline. Having said that, the storyline itself wasn’t too bad – the idea of being a 13-year-old wishing to be a 30-year-old is something most people can relate to, and despite having never been 30 myself, I’m sure there are many people out there wishing for the simplicity of a 13-year-old existence again!

Friends With Benefits (Will Gluck, 2011)

The best thing about Friends With Benefits is undoubtedly the flash mobs… Witnessing a flash mob is now on my bucket list, because there’s something about them I find really exciting!

The rest of the film is just… okay. I’m never particularly excited about romantic comedies, because they never have that little spark of something different, they don’t keep you guessing. Having said that, as a romantic comedy, Friends With Benefits is well made and the ideal film for relaxing to (particularly when you’re ill, which is exactly why I watched it).

One thing that bugged me about this film, though, is that the idea behind it seems to be that life is never like a film and how irritating that can be. The film then goes on to follow a typical romantic comedy structure, implying that life is like a film, even though it never really is..?

However, despite the annoying plot, it was occasionally funny, which was a nice change because I rarely seem to find comedies funny, oddly. Mila Kunis (Jamie) is a great actress, and Justin Timberlake (Dylan), although I still see him as a singer and not an actor, did a good job in this film too. They worked well together, with some very quickly spoken scenes seeming easy and fluid. Nolan Gould, who played Dylan’s twelve year old nephew Sammy, was also a brilliant actor, playing the part of a wonderfully naïve magician.

Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003)

Love Actually is such a sweet film. I’m not even ashamed to say that I like it, it makes me feel fuzzy and warm, and most of all, festive. It seemed like the best film to watch on Christmas Eve, particularly this year when I hadn’t really started to feel Christmas-y yet…

Love Actually undoubtedly has an all star cast, starring Alan Rickman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Claudia Schiffer, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Joanna Page, Keira Knightley, Marcus Brigstocke, Martin Freeman, Martine McCutcheon, Rowan Atkinson and Bill Nighy, to name just a few… Bill Nighy and Richard Curtis seem to be a very good team, particularly when it comes to romantic comedy, having worked together on ‘About Time‘, which came out earlier this year. They also did a Doctor Who episode together, which got me excited; Richard Curtis wrote ‘Vincent and the Doctor’, in which Bill Nighy played the part of a sweet art gallery curator with a ‘cool’ bowtie.

Love Actually is such a nice film. It’s definitely my favourite romantic comedy, because Christmas is usually the only time I choose to watch romantic comedies… I like the fact there are so many cute stories within the film…
My favourite is that of Jamie and Aurélia, who meet when Jamie retreats to a quiet cottage in France for Christmas, so he can focus on his writing and escape his failed relationship. While there, he falls for his Portuguese speaking housekeeper, Aurélia. Despite the language barrier, the subtitles show that they both have similar thoughts and get on well. When Jamie returns to England, he immediately takes up Portuguese classes, and eventually travels to ask Aurélia to marry him, in Portuguese. She replies ‘yes’, as she has been learning English for the same reason.

Another story I like is that of David and Natalie, although it is not as relatable as Jamie and Aurélia’s situation… After all, we’re not all prime minister. David and Natalie meet in 10 Downing Street, where Natalie works as a member of David’s household staff. They inevitably fall in love, but David pushes her away, as they are ‘not allowed’ to be in love. However, David realises he can’t fight it anymore after he finds a Christmas card from Natalie, and goes to her house in ‘the dodgy end of Wandsworth’. He takes her to the nativity that her family are on their way to see, and their budding relationship is eventually exposed when the curtain is raised on the two of them kissing backstage.

Love Actually is one of those films which ends and you’re left thinking ‘awh that was cute!’ …then a few minutes later you’re suddenly thinking ‘why does nothing this cute ever happen to me?’ But for now, I’m enjoying the cuteness of it, and forcing myself to be excited about Christmas… Merry Christmas Eve!

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Peter Sollett, 2008)

I was in one of ‘those moods’ the other day – a kind of pathetic, emotional mood – so I decided to watch one of the more pathetic, emotional films on my long, long list of recommended films.

The film takes place over the course of just one night, despite many, many twists and turns. It begins with Nick, a clearly heartbroken boy, ringing his ex-girlfriend, Tris, and leaving her a long, emotional message, while making her yet another mix tape. When Tris recieves the tape, she laughs scornfully and throws it away, only to have her ‘friend’ Norah listen to it and realise she shares exactly the same music taste as Nick. Despite having never met Nick, her friend Caroline observes that she seems to be ‘in love with him’. One night, they meet, and predictably fall in love, amongst many other events.

The main theme of the film is music, which I loved; I love music, and the way you can express yourself through it. Music is universal, beautiful, and most of all, infinite. Although I felt the film was a bit predictable, I did like the title – and the references to some of my favourite bands was quite exciting too!

Prezi: Films I Want To Watch

Ever since I asked all of my friends to recommend a couple of films for me, I’ve had 126 films suggested to me…
Some films intrigue me more than others; for example, Django Unchained, despite being regarded as a great film, is a long, long way outside my comfort zone.
So, below is a list of the top 20 films I actually do want to watch… all of which will (hopefully) eventually end up on my blog.

http://prezi.com/oqssbayehmyr/films-i-want-to-watch/

Wristcutters: A Love Story (Goran Dukić, 2006)

The film starts with Zia, the protagonist of the story, getting out of bed and tidying his messy room. He puts on a smart shirt, and it looks as though he is turning his life around as he looks in his bathroom mirror.
However, he then passes out in a pool of blood, and we see the sink full of blood and the blade he used to take his own life.
After Zia commits suicide, he finds himself a strange afterlife limbo situation. It is exactly the same as life before, just worse, which he says is ‘the perfect punishment’, in a dry voice. In this world, no one is allowed to smile. He gets a job at Kamikaze Pizza and meets his new best friend Eugene, whose whole family committed suicide, so are all in Limbo together. The new world is full of other people who have taken their own lives; when he is sat in a dark, almost empty pub on one of his first nights, a girl approaches him and asks outright ‘So how did you off yourself?’. He tells her, and then joins her and her friend, trying to guess how the other occupants of the pub killed themselves. There are flashbacks to show how each person died throughout the film; although graphic and serious, they are shown almost as comical.
When Zia finds out his ex-girlfriend Desiree (the reason for his suicide) also committed suicide a month after he did, he goes on a road trip with Eugene to find her. Along the way, they pick up hitchhiker Mikal, who is looking for the ‘people in charge’ (the PIC), because she says she is there by mistake, having accidentally overdosed.
By the end of the film, Zia has found Desiree and Mikal has found the people in charge. However, Zia has developed feelings for Mikal, and is heartbroken when she leaves. Luckily, along the way, the group made friends with an undercover member of the PIC, who can see that Zia desperately misses Mikal. He is shown taking a file out of a library, muttering about how useful it is to have friends ‘at the top’. Zia then wakes up in a hospital bed; he looks at his wrists, which are bandaged, and then sees that his parents are outside his room, talking to a doctor. He looks over to the next bed and sees Mikal, who smiles at him. He smiles back, for the first time since he killed himself.

Although the title sounds as though the film is going to be appalling, it’s actually really good. I like its brutal honesty, and the fact they don’t seem afraid to joke about suicide; given the context, it seems acceptable. I also thought the ending was incredibly cute, and while I’m not one for romance, this was a good love story. It’s surprisingly optimistic about life – some critics said it could be seen to be glamourising suicide, but I disagree with this; although it shows some really sad situations, the idea of Limbo shows that life could always be worse, and the characters within the film learn how to look on the bright side of life, even in their darkest moments. The end of the film in particular shows that suicide is never the answer.

My favourite review of this film called it a ‘suicidal Wizard of Oz’, and although I disagree, it made me laugh. Oddly, I found this dark comedy surprisingly cheerful.

Interestingly, Zia’s Russian friend, Eugene, is based on a Ukrainian man named Eugene Hütz, who is a singer and composer. Some of Hütz’s songs are featured in the film, which I thought was a nice touch.

Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)

‘People who LIKE movies have a favorite. People who LOVE movies couldn’t possibly choose.’ – Nicole Yatsonsky

Personally, I have at least six favourite films, and as I was looking back through my blog the other day, I realised I hadn’t talked about any of them.
If I did have to pick a single favourite, ‘Amelie’ (or ‘Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain’) would be a contender. It’s so wonderfully unpredictable and such a feel-good film. Admittedly, the subtitles can make it hard to follow, but if you happen to have a spare 122 minutes of peace and quiet, I thoroughly recommend it.

Amelie is a shy waitress, working in Montmartre. One day, she finds a box full of childhood treasures, hidden over fifty years before, and decides to track down the owner and anonymously return it. When she sees the effect it has on him, she decides to set out to make other people happy, and happily swans around France setting up couples, befriending lonely neighbours, returning objects to their rightful owners… and along the way, pursues a cute, quirky man who collects discarded photos from photo booths.
The end credits reflect this, with the lead actors presented on pages of a photograph album, showing pictures of the main actors which have been torn up and pieced back together, the way the man collected torn up photos from photo booths.

Another reason I love this film is because of Audrey Tautou, who plays Amelie; she is one of my all-time favourite actresses. After I watched ‘Amelie’, I also watched ‘Beautiful Lies’ and ‘Coco Before Chanel’, purely because Audrey’s films tend to be slightly quirky and unexpected. We then watched ‘À la folie… pas du tout’ as part of a French lesson, which was a brilliant film, also starring Audrey Tautou.
She is wonderfully quirky, which matches the roles she usually plays, and beautiful in a lovely, understated way.

“I never want to do the same things twice. I like surprises.”
– Audrey Tautou

She also doesn’t actually know how to skim stones, which she does a lot in ‘Amelie’; the stone-skimming scenes were made with special effects. There is an amazing high-angle shot of Amelie skimming stones in Paris, which brings me nicely onto the brilliant camerawork. The camera varies between balanced and unbalanced to represent how she is feeling, and at some points in the film, Amelie speaks directly to the camera, which is an uncommon technique, but it helps the audience to connect with her.

‘Amelie’ is my favourite feel-good film; despite the fact I feel that reading the subtitles detracts attention away from the film and that I never really do it justice, every time I watch it, I spot something new, and it never fails to make me smile.

About Time (Richard Curtis, 2013)

Last weekend I got bullied into going to see ‘About Time’ at the cinema with my friend. He’s a hopeless romantic, this film was right up his street. However, romantic comedies are not the type of film I usually go for; I don’t see the point in spending two hours of your life watching a painfully predictable film, and paying seven pounds for the priviledge.

Having said that, ‘About Time’ was sweet, and not overly cringe-y. It was directed by Richard Curtis, and starred Bill Nighy, both of whom are well known for their work in romantic comedies. One criticism is that it also starred Rachel McAdams… She’s a brilliant actress, but she was in a very similar film, The Time Traveller’s Wife, not so long ago. Most of her roles portray her in a very similar way every time. It would be good to see her take a different role for once.

I also feel there should be a mention for some of the main characters, who had wonderfully ginger hair…

It was a typically sweet Richard Curtis film, but that’s exactly what people were expecting… A shy but attractive man, a quirky and beautiful girl, a few complications and a life lesson, all wrapped up with a happy ending.

Despite it’s predictability, however, it was a nice enough film. It left everyone with a happy feeling, and their use of music added to the feel-good mood. While I don’t think it’s going to be a classic, highly regarded film, it’s still a cute film for a quiet evening in.