50/50

This is a movie I had been putting off seeing because of everyone telling me I had to see it. Quickest way to get me to never see a movie? Tell me I have to see it. However, I finally did see 50/50. This movie is wonderful. I also feel like in a year when movies were very weak, the Oscars truly snubbed this gem of a movie.

The plot of this movie, in case you've been living under a rock and know nothing about it, is pretty simple. A guy who works for an NPR like radio station finds out his has a rare cancer that only has a 50% chance of survival. It easily could have then become another movie like Terms Of Endearment and gone into tear jerker territory. Guess what? It doesn't. It never falls into the trap of making jokes about cancer, but it also never starts taking itself overly serious and sad. It is a truly moving movie at points, and has some extremely emotional scenes. But it is filled with humor and honesty. The main character, played wonderfully by Joseph Gordon Levitt, has a best friend, played in a very huge departure by Seth Rogan, who is helping him get through all of this. All the while he has a mother who is trying to smother him, a therapist he is pretty sure he is falling for, and a girlfriend who becomes an ex girlfriend when she realizes what being with him through cancer means.

The writer of this one based a lot of this on his actual life and the lives of others he knew when he went through this. in fact, Seth Rogan is essentially playing a caricature of himself, since he really was the roommate who helped him get through his cancer. Don't be any later to the party than I already was. See 50/50 and give it the support it is owed at least in home video.

Young Adult Fiction

So I know this is a weird subject for someone my age (29) who has no children to be writing about. But I actually, at times, enjoy fiction that doesn't take a lot of thought and just is a good read. Sometimes this can be found in fiction that is geared toward ages from 15 and up. Now the funny thing is some of the better science fiction writers of yesteryear wrote some excellent young adult fiction that was good fiction for the older sect too. These include writers such as Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Orson Scott Card. All three of these writers wrote books for adults, and books for all ages as well. Now as for today we don't have very many books that are good for all ages or really should be read by young adults. "Why shouldn't they be read by young adults?" you might ask. Well I will tell you. We have book series like Twilight that are poorly written and are written in a way that almost is calling the reader too dumb to understand more complex themes.

Fortunately we also have some series like The Hunger Games series that are well written, and have both simple themes and more complex themes for older readers who can handle those themes. Even Harry Potter is a great series for kids, because it pulls them in, maybe it isn't complex, but it is at least not pandering to people who aren't able to understand things that are slightly more adult. I may sound like a curmudgen here, but I just feel like kids these days should be challenged a little when they read, and shouldn't have everything handed to them. I remember reading Ender's Game the first time and thinking about the themes and characters for days after, because it stayed with you. This is an experience that writers steal from young adults when they write in a way that only plays to the lowest common denominator. Writers, please start writing for all ages, not for just kids who aren't able to grasp complex themes and characters.