The Last Five Years

I watched this movie last night and it was an emotional enough experience for me to return to this blog after years of leaving it alone.

The soundtrack to "The Last Five Years" was a big part of my high school experience. With all the musical theater I did, my friends and I enjoyed listening to music like this as much as we listened to the radio. A few friends shared this soundtrack with me early, and I easily fell in love. I remember it as a pretty big part of my consciousness, even before I truly knew the meaning of heartbreak. I believe I sang "Still Hurting" for several auditions and even for a solo at one of in-between songs at a showchoir festival.

The emotions are palpable in the songs, and it's so well written, and I love how familiar parts of songs come back several times, weaved through the soundtrack. The use of the same phrases several times, but in different context (in love and out of love) is stark and genius. I love how "The Next 10 Minutes" starts with Jamie's comments and ends with Cathy's, showing how they're playing with the timeline.

Anyhow, going into the film, I had no expectations for it. I love the original soundtrack with Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott so much, and I still think it's the better soundtrack vocally.

I thought Anna Kendrick's interpretation of "Still Hurting" wasn't nearly emotional enough. She stared straight ahead, dead inside, but where was the head in the hands, hair pulling, horrible symptoms of true heartbreak? It started off the film pretty weak.

But though we can all agree that Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan aren't as strong as the original cast musically, their acting was pretty wonderful. Their chemistry was incredible, and felt like a real relationship. The musical format doesn't always lend itself to the best acting or plot building, but I think they did the best they could to make the viewers FEEL. I didn't realize how much it had pulled me in until I started all out bawling when I got to "Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You." It's such a heartbreaking reminder of the contrast between falling in love and struggling with heartbreak. That song enough is enough to make you afraid of committing and falling for someone.

This movie made me wonder something the soundtrack (or play version) never made me wonder. What will Cathy do next? What a sad, sad character... at least how Kendrick played her. Frustrated, dejected, insecure, unwilling to give up her dreams, but not emotionally equipt to continue along such an unstable path. Was it just me or did the movie make you almost side with Jamie, the lying cheating bastard? I don't know if it is how the musical was written or how this movie portrayed the story, but I felt like I was feeling more sympathy for him than I had before. Because it gives Cathy no real redeeming qualities other than her charm. More than anything else, I feel sad about this film because of this uneven balance in the relationship that I never noticed before.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

I talked to a few people about this film, and we all agreed we kinda had to wait for this movie to be over. It was very well done. It's poetic, day in the life gold. But you are just kind of waiting for something to happen -- for someone to die, for someone to leave, for something, something. And it just doesn't ever really come.

It serves as a really beautiful portrait, though.

And that little girl and her father... their acting was just prime. Glorious. Beauty.

Argo

I thought I wouldn't see a film I enjoyed as much as Silver Linings Playbook, but this sure came close. I was on the edge of my seat nearly the entire time. And while I could take or leave Ben Affleck's acting, his directing was superb. The movie was just so real, so intriguing.

I love when movies can take you into a real time in history and make you feel the same fear, anxiety, and love that people must have felt back then. The Iranian Hostage Crisis is an event I may have learned in history class, briefly, but I never knew it like I did while I was watching this film. I really feel like it gave  me a really deep perspective into the minds of Americans at the time.

The fact that this movie plot actually really happened is incredible, and makes for a great subject for a movie. The acting was all around solid, and this probably scores a close second out of the movies I've seen this year.

Silver Linings Playbook

This is quite possibly the most entertaining, enjoyable film I've seen all year. I'm not really sure why it was nominated for Best Picture, considering it was just a really great romantic comedy and not much more. I've had this discussion with a few people, and the only reason I can agree with the nomination is the fact that the story feels so real and doesn't shy away from the behavior of normal everyday people. It doesn't really poke fun at mental illness, nor does it minimize the difficulties.

Jennifer Lawrence was absolutely spectacular, really nailing the nuances of a girl who isn't afraid to say and do what she wants. It wasn't a caricature, but a beautiful portrayal. I can nearly say the same for Bradley Cooper. I've never seen him quite like this, and it was refreshing. I laughed, I cried, and tried not to blink. This was an absolute gem.

Lincoln

I also saw this movie quite some time ago. I slept through the first 20 minutes or so and had to chew gum the rest of the time to try to stay awake. Granted, I went to the movie with my parents after drinking and watching the OSU-Michigan game at a bar for a few hours, so that might have been the problem.

Although it got off to a slow start, I really enjoyed this film, and thought the acting by Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was pretty much perfection.

The Master

This begins my series of journaling the 2013 Oscar nominees that I've watched.

I saw The Master months ago. I remember it being extreme, tense, riveting, disgusting, emotional, and I remember walking out of the theater feeling depressed and strange. I think I did grow on me, but I would never want to watch this again. Well done, but whew, a doozy.

Movie I Watched Tuesday - Crash

It took me 7 years to see this movie, although I had wanted to see it when it came out.

Thousands of racist stories tied into one movie. It was incredibly powerful, incredibly depressing, and all too true. This is one of those films I think everyone should be forced to see every now and then just to keep in check with what's going on around them in the world. Fantastic acting, and I still hate Sandra Bullock. All I could think about was The Blind Side and cringe.

I certainly teared up when the little girl ran out to protect her daddy from being shot. What a tense movie.

Gilbert says it had a tiny ($6.5 mil) budget and raked in like $100 mil. The only place where I noticed it being "cheap" was the poor soundtrack choices. In very emotional scenes, the music did not have any impact on my emotions.