If I Stay

What are we really without the sappy teen romance stories that pull at our heartstrings and lead us to take bets on how many in the audience will cry by the end.

Mia was blessed with the gift of music. Her skills started so young when from all the rock roots she had been born into faded away with her introduction to the cello. It dictated her every move and drove her life. Then she met Adam. The rock and roller with a heart of gold Adam. He spent his every waking moment trying to make her see how beautiful she was. Mia and Adam, though, were being torn apart for their loves of music. Adam's band was getting the attention it needed and was signed close to home, but Mia's cello playing was taking her to Julliard, a whole world away from Portland. They were on the break and it was painful. But that didn't matter for too long, because in an instant both of their lives were torn apart by a devastating car crash involving Mia's family. Spoiler! Mia's family is killed by the collision leaving Mia all alone. She is unconscious, but through an out of body experience, Mia is able to see herself from the outside and see all the people that come to surround her in the hospital. It's up to her. If she stays, Mia will be an orphan. But if she goes, she'll never get to tell Adam that she loves him again.


I am not one for sappy, bring a tissue kind of movies. I openly hate on teen romances (though I secretly love them), and I don't often see them in theaters. But this one had a book. And I love books. A lot.  If I Stay was not entirely unlike the novel, though there were details that it strayed in so that it could make the plot a bit more sappy and suspenseful. Such as the fact that her family was D.O.A. in the novel, but in the movie both Mia's father and little brother made it to the hospital. Also there was the bracelet. Text says it was a gift from Teddy, Mia's little brother, but in order to propel all things love(!) it was from Adam in the film. Minor details, however, do not a story make. I'm just a pain in the butt for recognizing them. Sorry. Something cool to look for though- the color of the family car is the same color as the cello case when it is in transport on the bike, and it's the same color as Mia's bike. You know, just in case you were wondering about color again. Which I often do.


The really cool thing about this story (and yes I said cool) is the set up of the mix between present and past. Mia's journey opens with the crash. The rest of her life is presented to us through flashbacks of her time with Adam. We get to see the pretty parts and the ugly parts that lead her to make her decision. There is also narration on top of these scenes which comes from the book. It's not the "this happened and then he said this and we did this" kind of narration. It's the "let me tell you what this makes me think narration."

 

As an added bonus! I am the daughter of a music teacher which means that when there is music playing you bet I'm trying to see if it's real. And I have a nasty habit of naming the chords guitar players are using in their scenes. Mia's cello scenes were well done. The actress's head what digitally placed on a real cello player's body which means all her playing scenes are as realistic as possible. Her vibratos are real people! And also Adam plays a G chord. And an Am chord, and it looked like an Em too, but the angles were a bit off on that camera so I couldn't tell you for sure.

Stream of the Week- Bigger, Stronger, Faster

I think it is important to note that any one of us could be a hypocrite at any time.

Chris Bell takes a look at his family and examines the use of steroids in popular culture and in the various sports industries. Chris Bell has good fearing parents and two steroid using brothers that spent their entire lives trying to look like the famous athletes they saw on TV growing up. It didn't take long for whispers of steroid use crept on to the TV replacing their heroes with cheated, corner cutting, body builders. Those contradictions led the Bell boys to taking the drugs needed to get big too. The controversy surrounding steroids is what keeps the boys from telling their mom about the behaviors they had since their first years of college football and wrestling. To them, steroids are great tools that make you your best, but to everyone else it seems to be immoral and wrong. In order to get to the bottom of it, Chris grabbed a mike and interviewed everyone he could think of that would be involved with the two sides of steroids. There are the guys who have the cases and instances where steroids were involved in deaths. They compile evidence and keep other factors out of it. And then there are the other guys who claim that steroids are safe enough, and it's the other factors in one's life (ie medications or behaviors) that lead to the problems often associated with steroid user's deaths. Bell's research takes him to his congressman and even Arnold S. himself. And in the end all he has done is learned the both sides of the argument, and left his brothers to live their steroid induced lives.

Though this film is unfulfilling at the end, it's very interesting to see how far the idea of performance enhancement drugs have driven into out culture. There are drugs for calming down musicians, and there are drugs passed out in school that help students focus. They're everywhere, and they are just as dangerous. Americans have the most medicines sold to them than any other country. And according to Chris it's not because we're sick; it's because we hate to lose. This is the world that has built us and the world that built his two steroid using brothers. Like it or not it's as much integral in our culture as reality TV.

Capture of Culture- Mademoiselle C

When someone says that there is more to fashion than clothing they are oversimplifying the lives of the high fashion magazine editors of the world. People like infamous Carine Roitfeld live their entire lives for the shots that those magazines hold.

Carine Roitfeld spent her entire life in fashion as a muse and editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris. But with an artistic departure, Carine moved to New York to launch her own fashion magazine named "CR" after her own initials. Mademoiselle C follows the early beginnings of the first issue all the way through printing and distribution. The documentary makers are there for the first meetings where titles and themes are discussed as well on every shoot for the pages of the magazine. Intermixed with the footage of CR's birth is interview footage where Carine tells stories of her life and the struggles she deals with the start up of her new brand. Catastrophic issues arise like the loss of models and problems with contracting photographers. Roitfeld has a vision, she just doesn't know what it is yet. She rejects many of the shots until someone captures the moments she is looking for. Her concept is the birth of fashion and its progression through life- Birth, growth, love, loss, death, and the ever after. All of it is very romantic and edgy with hints of fairytale intertwined through the pages. Roitfeld travels through fashion week and the various fashion seasons of Paris, America and Tokyo collecting the best looks for her pages before anyone else can scoop up her gowns all with her camera crew in tow. Everyone respects Carine and dozens of famous faces put in their input about her career throughout the film calling her a genius and punk mastermind which helps create the complete portrait of Mademoiselle C, editor and creator of CR fashion magazine.

The set up of this documentary is very interesting. There are strange moments where creative shots are used to set up the next location and in contrast have very strangely contradicting soundtracks. The footage is a bit mangled sometimes in its delivery of story, but the documentary appears just as artsy as its muse. I have always loved fashion documentaries because beneath the superficial face of fabrics and makeup is a cut throat industry of politics and game playing that makes it all very deep indeed.

Stream of the Week- A League of Their Own

Nothing says girl power like playing baseball in a skirt.

When they boys go off to war, Baseball team owners and businesses wish to keep the home front entertained so they devise a new league of All-American women baseball players. There are four teams and 64 girls drafted to play for audiences everywhere and a World Series at the end of the season. Two farm girls, Dottie and Kit, are the stars of the Rockford Peach team. The sisters go from playing in backyards to being part of a group of varied girls who all want to do the same thing- play ball. Their coach is washed up drunk, former baseball legend, Jimmy Dugan. At first, Jimmy takes no interest in the girl's team so Dottie takes over. She becomes the natural leader of the group. With Dottie at the helm, the Rockford Peaches start to win and get the media attention that the owners were hoping to achieve, but the war is almost over and when the boys come home the girls will have to go back to the kitchens. Tensions arise between Kit and Dottie due to Dottie's fame among the people. Kit feels like she will always live in Dottie's shadow and is traded to another team. Their teams end up going head to head in the World Series.

Each of the girls have their own story. Mae is the hot stuff, flirt with anything that has a pulse bad girl. But underneath that she is helping her teammates get out and live a little and even gives reading lessons to one of the other girls. Though her literature choice is a tad off the wall. Then there is her best friend Doris. Doris is the girl who doesn't get asked out back home, but has the attitude that backs her up at the plate. As she puts it- Mae was the dancer in the club and Doris was the bouncer. Dottie is the married golden girl who never seems to do any wrong except in the eyes of Kit. She desperately tries to hold the sinking ship above water and is the mother hen of the group. And you got Kit. She has little sister syndrome something fierce. She never wants to listen to Dottie because Dottie always seems to be right, which always makes Kit wrong. She'll never be as good or as pretty as her sister in her own eyes. And then there's my favorite- Jimmy freaking Dugan. Tom Hanks is hands down my favorite actor and he plays a great drunk. His speech is slurred and his morals completely thrown out the window, but when it comes down to it he can sober up for his love for the game. Because Baseball is all that matters.

I have always been a believer in girl power, and this movie is the ultimate girls rule film. The characters are captivating and sometimes extreme, but between the former burlesque dancer, Rosie O'Donnell, the warring sisters, and a drunk Tom Hanks there is a team of champions. If the movie was only about the sport or the history of the game there wouldn't be nearly the amount of comedy or fun that comes from this movie. This movie is about people (as all the good ones are). It's about people who have to step up and grow out of their slumps. It's about people who pull together to make up for the fact that there is a war going on. It's about people who all struggle and still make it out alive. Because we are people. And we need to learn these things. If that's not enough to tempt you, Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell play best friends.

Capture of Culture- Mortified Nation

Share the Shame.

Mortified is a trend that is sweeping the nation. Grown adults who appear perfectly well adjusted get up on stage and read their diaries showing how messed up they were as teens. Teens who didn't know who they were, or what they wanted, but who knew that at that moment it was the most important thing in the world to express those feelings. At its birth, Mortified was a few people with dug up diaries and love letters that made each other laugh, and now it is a steady show with chapters all over the US and one in Sweden. Audience members were eager to join in, and the live shows became well attended. Now there's a documentary and a season of episodes on Netflix. Embarrassing stories are just entertaining to the masses I suppose. Mortified Nation is a mix of personal stories and performances from the shows. You get to see average people stand up on a stage with an awkward picture behind them and their worn diaries in front of them. They stand at a mic and show a story arc that shows an issue and a resolution in their teen years via their thoughts when they were kids. They get a release from sharing their stories and being identified with by an audience. From wanting a boyfriend, to having "homosexual urges" Mortified covers it all in good fun and acceptance because deep down we're all the same really. We all go through an awkward hair phase and a poetic stage where everything we say rhymes and deals with poetry. Share the Shame.

Some of the stories are sad and others are just plain funny because the darndest things come from the mouths of babes. The first performer talks about how when she was a kid all she wanted to be was kissed. She was in Jr High and was surrounded by the media and people that told her that sort of thing should happen at her age. In her diary, she expressed comedic attempts at getting that attention. And because she wasn't being a rebel on the outside, her thoughts often turned to imagining her future as much more wild. Later in the show, the issue of the "middle child" gets expressed through another diary. She never felt loved or accepted, but through the course of being part of her mom's business she was able to deal with the lack of attention because she was told she was more trustworthy. We meet a man who at 17 was experimenting with his sexuality and a girl who was emotionally abused. Not all the stories make you feel good, because some of them are honestly sad, but they made it out ok. You can to.

Stream of the Week- Ella Enchanted

There is nothing better than a comedy fairytale. I mean come on watch the Princess Bride and Ella Enchanted and try to come up with something better.

When Ella was born, she was given a gift by a well meaning fairy. This gift was obedience and Ella grew up doing whatever anyone told her to do. Often it caused her very little trouble and nobody knew. That was until, of course, her father got remarried to a woman with two evil daughters. Once they learned of Ella's curse, they ordered her to do the most awful of things. Ella decided once and for all to get rid of her gift and find the fairy that bestowed it upon her. Ella's journey takes her into troubled territory. The ogres and elves have been enslaved by the dead king's evil brother which makes them untrustworthy of humans. Ella runs into some of these creatures in the woods and finds herself striking up a friendship with an elf who wishes to be a lawyer. Together they plan to address the sitting king and the Prince, Char, about the issues while finding the fairy that Ella so desperately needs. Ella and Slannen, the lawyer of an elf, find themselves captured quite quickly by hungry ogres. But fear not, because Prince Char comes to the rescue. Char and Ella had met previously and find themselves falling into a natural rhythm with each other. Ella convinces Char that he has the power to change things once he becomes king, but Char is blinded by his dedication to his evil uncle. The fairy is no where to be found so Char takes Ella and Slannen to the castle to find records of her whereabouts. While there, Char's uncle Edgar (you know the evil one, not to be confused with Wesley, though they are played by the same person) finds out about Ella's curse and decides to use her obedience to his advantage. Edgar has long wanted the throne and after he killed his brother the only one left in the way was Char. Edgar demands that Ella kill Char so that he can take the throne, and though Ella wishes with all her heart not to do so she knows that it will happen because she has been given an order. That night, in order to keep herself away from Char, Ella has Slannen tie her to a tree. But as she stands there hoping to avoid the deed, the very fairy Ella needs to find drops in. Ella pleads for her to take back the curse, but the fairy states that the only one who can break the curse is herself. The fairy they unties her from the tree and sends her to Char's ball. Once there Ella has to face everything she has ever feared and find a way to break her curse.

Clever narration, costumes, and two musical numbers- there is nothing better. This movie is a great blend of modern and medieval. There are wooden escalators in Ye olde mall and puffy sleeves on all the guy costumes. The humor is grand, though a bit juvenile, and the cast is perfect. I just love everything about this movie. Even Heidi Klum.

Twister: Errors and Theories

I have been in love with Twister forever. And I mean forever. It wasn't until recently that I started realizing there were some things I missed the first couple times. For example-

Bill has a nice new truck with a totally intact tailgate.

Then Bill and Jo go into the tornado. Then they have to lower the gate to get Dorothy out of the truck bed.

And then "on no!". A tree hits the truck and pushes the Dorothy off taking the door with it.

There is clearly no tailgate. It's gone.

Later that night after the movie theater tornado, Bill and Jo go to save Aunt Meg. And then what?! The tailgate is back.

When they take their last shot to launch the Dorothys there that gate is.

It's holding up the back Dorothy. So it has magically reappeared.

Continuity is so difficult to maintain within films with this sort of thing. The truck was obviously filmed in the destruction scene after these scenes were filmed so that they only had to trash one truck.

Here is another continuity error. When Jo and Bill are trying to avoid getting hit by the flying debris, the front window gets smashed in the corner.  

There is clearly a missing chunk of that window on Jo's side of the vehicle.

But then in the next shot, there is no window damage.

The last thing I would like to address is a really cool trick that was used to let us know that the main characters were okay after their tumble with the tornado.

 

Here is Bill and Jo running.

In the next shot Bill and Jo are running next to two horses. One is blonde and one is brown. Bill has brown hair, and Jo has blond hair. Coincidence?

The horses are freaking out and attempting to get out of their entrapment.

The horses start running.

Bill, Jo, and the horses are running in the same frame. These horses get a heck of a lot of screen time as each shot goes between the horses and the protagonists.

Then we lose sight of our heroes. They were in the tornado, but we have no clue if they survived. The first thing we see when the storm doors are open- the horses running free and safe.

The next shot is the hero shot. Our protagonists are alive and well.

The director doesn't want us to be worried about Bill and Jo, but he doesn't just want to show us that they are safe. He needs to give a little bit of suspense. Unconsciously, the viewer knows that Bill and Jo are okay because the horses survived. They ran together before the twister, and they kept running afterwards.

 

Stream of the Week- Freaky Friday

There are days where I wonder if my mom and I could switch places and still survive. Thank goodness I'm not Lindsay Lohan because that would make that process extremely difficult.

Anna and her mom have seldom gotten along. But now, Anna's mom Tess is getting married and their relationship is a complete wreck. While at a Chinese restaurant, Anna and Tess eat fortune cookies with an ominous message inside claiming that they are about to endeavor on a journey which only selfless love can end.  The next morning Tess and Anna wake up with their minds in each other's bodies. Now cool, calm, and collected Tess is in rebel rocker Anna's body, and snarky, carefree, sarcastic Anna is in Tess's uptight person. They are forced to live the day in each other's place and deal with the situations that arise on a daily basis for each other. There is also another issue. Jake, Anna's crush, meets Tess when she is being played by Anna. So now Jake likes Tess, not Anna because Tess is Anna's mind. If that makes sense. Meanwhile, Tess as Anna is sure that high school should be an easy task to tackle, but quite quickly she learns that everyone is out to get Anna- her teachers and ex-friends. It is not a piece of cake after all. That night is the rehearsal dinner for Tess's wedding. While there, the two have to find a way to break the cookie charm by using selfless love to change them back. It's a Disney movie so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't spoil anything if I say they live happily ever after.

 

As a kid, I left this film on replay all day long until the disc physically broke. Thank goodness for instant streaming. The performances are fantastic. Lindsay Lohan shows her ability to play two totally opposite characters within one setting, and Jamie Lee Curtis (aka Activia) plays a great teenager and seems to have some awesome chemistry with the character Jake. This film is 12 years old and it still looks like it happened yesterday (minus the pda's and organizers). In my mind it's timeless because you can curl up on a Wednesday night and watch it or wait 6 more years and watch it with a group. It would still be relevant and fun.

Page to Screen- The Picture of Dorian Gray

What was written as such a beautifully tragic novel is now a bit of a gory and unsettling film.

Dorian Gray was a beautiful man of 20 who inspired the great artist Basil Hallward to paint his very best work. When his portrait is complete, Dorian becomes aware of his own beauty. With the help of Lord Henry, a most cynically entertaining character, Dorian is quickly in despair of the loss of his youth. With each day he will grow older and his painting will remain young. Dorian hates the painting for having that advantage and in his frustration he verbally wishes for the painting to age in his stead so that he may have eternal youth. At the time, this statement seems trifling to Hallward and Lord Henry. Not long after, Dorian finds himself basking in the world of pleasure as suggested to him by Lord Henry. In his search of beauty, Dorian encounters the lovely Sibyl Vane. His love for Sibyl grows with each play that he attends to watch her portray the most wondrous of Shakespearean roles. When he introduces her to Lord Henry and Basil, he is embarrassed by her and how she performs in front of his friends.  That night he breaks off any ties with the young lady and returns home. Dorian still possesses a heart at this point and earnestly regrets his actions. His painting, however, changes that night. It adopts the lines of worry and anger from Dorian's face leaving him quite physically unaffected by his actions. The next day, Dorian receives word that Sibyl has died. His agony is short lived as he searches for the next "life high" to take away the pain. Through the encouragement of Lord Henry, Dorian begins to seek the pleasure of the senses. He learns of perfumes and studies tapestry, all the while living a slightly darker life which as a reader we are never enlightened of. Dorian finds that he cannot spend time away from his home for the painting has shackled him to England and home. While Dorian's friends grow old around him, Dorian remains young and troubled. The only one to question him of his secret is the painter who wishes to display his masterpiece. When Basil discovers the secret of Dorian's youth and the evil of the painting, he becomes a liability which Dorian cannot have. In a fit of rage, Dorian murders his friend forever staining the hands of his painting. When at last Dorian has had enough, he takes a knife to the painting and ultimately creates his own demise. There is no redemption for Dorian, and there is no happy ending for this novel. But for its lack of love, it is a most beautiful book. The words are so artfully arranged, and the characters are so very rich.

The visual adaption loses all this glory by making the dark deeds of Dorian Gray the focal point. No longer are we left guessing what it is Dorian Gray did to make himself such a sinner, but we are visually accosted with images of his sexual deeds. The imagination is no longer necessary. Lord Henry, now called Harry for some reason, is still the most delightful character. His wit and humor are almost refreshing, and his best lines from the novel are used in the film. Basil is a tad less needy then he appears in the book. When you are reading the novel, it almost seems that Basil's affections for Dorian go much deeper than that of a friendship. This is not portrayed in the film, except for in one scene in which Dorian makes such advances. As for Dorian Gray himself, much is different. The internal conflict which he has does not fully come across on the screen. Dorian Gray constantly blamed Lord Henry for his path, and was always at war with himself, but Ben Barnes plays Dorian as a man with no heart only beauty and vanity.


I loved the original novel by Oscar Wilde. I was enchanted by the style and was enraptured by the grace and beauty of the novel. I was rather disappointed in this film. The movie seemed like a rough adaptation that changed many details in order to create a full picture according to its own premise. My favorite character of the novel was Lord Henry, and though I thought Colin Firth did a really great job, my favorite character from the film didn't even exist in the novel. It's almost like they should be judged separately. Details like Dorian not being able to leave the painting and his first encounters with Sibyl Vane were completely tossed overboard in order to make the film more of a sensory overload than a piece of art. I always suggest reading the book first. Always. But I think if you want to like this film you should see it first.