Short Term 12 or "Why the Oscars are run by idiotic old out of touch men"

Let me preface this by saying Short Term 12 was a gem of a movie, and is something that every single person reading this, or who loves movies should see.  However, it is also at times not for the faint of heart and will break your heart... repeatedly.

This little gem came out in 2013 and by all rights should have been Oscar bait.  It had a young cast with two up and comers to watch, it had a great score, it was clearly an indie movie with a heart, and it was about a serious subject.  These are the things that the Oscars usually love.  However, it was not seen by many people, it came out in a strong year for movies, and it was not championed by those who saw it.  It got no nominations, not even for the amazing Brie Larson who stands out in every role she takes.  I will now get off of my soap box and actually write this review.

Short Term 12 is about one of those group homes kids go to in between foster homes or when their home life has become deemed unfit for them to live in until certain things are corrected.  It is run by Brie Larson and her "boyfriend".  The first scene or so is the new guy getting there and being shown the ropes.  He is played wonderfully by Rami Malek, who is now the star of the new show Mr Robot and was the pharoah in the Night At The Museum movies.  Immediately you are shown that the kids in this place are troubled and truly just want to feel they belong somewhere and are loved.  Along with seeing what the kids are going through through their eyes we have a story line about how Grace (Larson) has found out she is pregnant and her own personal dramas start up with her boyfriend.  She isn't sure she wants to keep the child and bring it into a world that is so full of such awful things that these poor kids have experienced.  She meets a new girl coming in named Jayden, played by Kaitlyn Dever (if you don't know who she is you should probably stop reading this and watch The Spectacular Now, and the show Justified), this girl is different from a lot of the kids.  She comes from a home that seems just fine, rich father, well taken care of, etc.  Except she has some deeply seated issues that no one is quite sure what they are.  Grace begins to get to know her and realizes why this girl is there, why she has the issues she has, and ultimately why we have to keep trying to make this world better.  I won't give anything else away, you really should just go watch this movie.  It goes on and off of streaming on Netflix and is well worth your hour and a half of time.  This movie never fails to go from heart wrenching to making you laugh to making you think about deeper social issues.  It is not light popcorn fair though, and you should not go in expecting that.

Now for a little bit about the technical aspects and some trivia on the movie.  No spoilers ahead, no worries.  The music for this movie is perfect, and most of it was either written by or strongly helped by the director of the movie.  The movie started out as a short and the director used this to get some funding to turn it into a feature.  It was written by the director and strongly based on some of his own experiences growing up in the system.  Brie Larson wanted so badly to get the role of Grace she told to the director telling him she was volunteering to work with kids in a similar facility as this, but she had in reality been rejected by every one she applied to.  The film is a bit of a shaky cam sort of movie since the director did use a hand held camera for the entire shoot.

So that is all I have on this one.  It is an excellent little movie and when the Oscars were rolling around I did try and get it some notice on Twitter myself, and if you know me you would know that is a huge deal.  I just don't tweet, not my thing.  But it was ultimately ignored, and for many people that was a huge injustice.  This movie deserved to be recognized, I mean couldn't we have dropped the abysmal Amour from the list of films and add this?  You keep reading them, and I'll keep writing them.

Frank

This is one for the music buffs in us all.  Frank is a strange little movie I heard about almost a year ago.  It is about a man named Jon, played by Domnhall Gleeson, who wishes he was in a great pop band, and could write a big hit.  He isn't terribly talented at creating though.  He falls into a spot as a keyboardist for an underground indie rock band when their keyboardist tries to drown himself in the ocean (which does get explained why it occurred ultimately).  The bands name is Soronprbs, and is pronounced just like it is spelled (I couldn't figure it out either).  Their lead singer and main song writer is named Frank, played wonderfully by Michael Fassbender, who wears a huge paper mache head that he never removes, even in the shower.  So the band kind of railroads Jon into helping them record their album in the middle of nowhere secluded in a cabin in the woods.  While there Jon tweets, and posts Youtube videos of the band recording.  As time goes by the band starts to get a following and ultimately ends up getting an invitation to SXSW.  To say anymore beyond this could give things away, and I refuse to do this to anyone.  This is a movie that should be watched.  Between Maggie Gyllenhal, Franks muse of a sort, Fassbenders Frank, and Gleesons helpful but misguided Jon, this movie is a brilliant gem.

The real star of the movie is the music of course.  The bands songs are catchy, and you'll find yourself humming the main song long after the movie is over.  The use of tweets and showing Gleesons tweets as he writes them and posts them to show his innerworkings of his mind is brilliant.  The overall feeling of Frank as this misunderstood genius is so wonderful as well.  This is one movie not to be missed.  Oh, and remember, we can't all be Frank.

Jeff Buckley

         This is going to be about a musician this time around dear readers.  I know that normally I focus on films, but this musician has become all but forgotten by so many.  He deserves better to be quite honest.  First a little background on how I found him.  His name is Jeff Buckley and I first heard him covering a Leonard Cohen song, and this may be his most famous song, called Hallelujah in a movie.  I don't remember which movie it was, I don't even remember what part of the movie, but what I do remember is the first time I heard it I was moved.  The song already has some very moving lyrics, but Jeff Buckely's voice is so haunting and his guitar playing so perfect it just sucks you in.  So of course you would think I would go right out and look for everything by him, right?  Nope.  It took me years before I thought about him again.  A movie came out this year called Greetings From Tim Buckley.  It is about Jeff Buckley doing his first major appearance at a tribute concert to his father Tim.  For those of you who don't know either of these men, don't worry you aren't alone.  Tim Buckley was a folk musician in the 60s and 70s who never really got huge outside of certain underground fans.  He was, like his son would be and was, a musicians musician.  He was technically sound, lyrically poetic, and vocally he had a five octave range and knew how to use it well.  These are all things his son would prove later in his own life he had as well.  So Jeff gets kind of forced into doing this concert.  The reason he is sort of forced is that Jeff barely knew his father. His father left him and his mother before Jeff was even old enough to go to school.  He didn't see him again, ever.  Jeff wasn't even invited to his own fathers funeral by his fathers widow and his fathers step son. 

            So Jeff grew up hardly knowing the man, but looking a lot like him, and having a knack for music.  He had a 5 octave range like his father, he was extremely poetic, and his guitar skills may have even exceeded his fathers.  So Jeff does this concert, becomes an overnight hit, and puts out an album entitled "Grace."  Hallelujah was the big single from it, but none of the songs were truly ignored by reviewers or fellow musicians.  The album is a huge hit, it's called the best album of the year by many music reviewers, and was even on the ten best of the year by Rolling Stone.  So why haven't you heard of him?  Well here's the thing, he goes into the studio to make the next album in Nashville.  One night he and some of his bandmates and friends are walking near the river and Jeff jokingly says he's going in for a swim and jumps in.  Well the problem was he was caught in a ships undertow and drowned.  He wasn't and alcoholic, didn't do drugs, wasn't filled with unending depression.  It was just stupid dumb luck that killed him. 

            So go forth dear readers and look for him on YouTube.  The reason I say youtube is because you can find many songs he sang publicly that were never put on any album.  Some like his fathers Once I Was, or the wonderful song made famous by Billie Holliday called Strange Fruit.  Both of those you can tell he had amazing range and incredible talent.  If you'd like to hear something he himself wrote I suggest starting with Lover You Should Have Come Over or the title track to his album Grace.  Hallelujah is of course a wonderful starting point as well.  Thanks for reading.

Looper

So imagine a world where one day you may have to kill yourself for money.  However this wouldn't be suicide but rather carrying out a hit on yourself.  See in the world of Looper time travel is not only real, but is controlled by the mob.  The way it works is each looper is given a time and place to be and has to stand there and wait.  Then all of a sudden a man with a bag on his head appears and they have to shoot the man with their special gun given to them.  Then they open the back of the persons shirt to get their payment.  The only thing is if it's gold bars they find there instead of silver, that is their retirement money and it means they just killed their future self.  This is how the movie begins, explaining this with Joseph Gordon Levitt narrating.  Now this alone could be a great basis for a movie, but it isn't the only thing that occurs.  If I were to get into what happens next I may give away some of the fun surprises, but I won't give those away because you need to go into this film as fresh as possible.  What I will talk about is that Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis have never been better than in this movie, or if they have, it has been some time since they were.  The music in this movie sets a dark and brooding tone and is well suited for such a dark but also fun movie.  The set design and special effects (what few there are) are excellent and should have been recognized in some way during award season last year.  Each character in the movie is perfectly used and even as the film goes along you may see some of the twists coming but it never makes them any less great.  So if you are like me and didn't see this movie when it initially came out, please do yourself a favor and see it now.  You won't be sorry.

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.

Larry Crowne, Thanks Redbox for being out of everything else

So this is a movie I almost didn't watch. I didn't really want to see Larry Crowne, and didn't really care about what it was about. So tonight when I got to Redbox so I would have a movie to watch while I waited for the inevitable 2012 apocalypse, and found that most things were out of stock, I got this little movie.

First of all, a little about the movie. Its about Tom Hanks playing the title character being fired from his job due to lack of education. He decides to go back to college, and while there meets Julia Roberts. She is a teacher who has lost her way, in a loveless and pretty crappy marriage. She teaches his speech class, which is where about a third of the movie takes place. They of course end up starting to fall for one another, and so on predictably. This is the so so part of the movie to be honest. The truly great parts of the movie take place between Hanks and his friends he has made at his college and with his neighbor (played excellently by Cedric The Entertainer). These relationships are entertaining, and delightful. The movie in general because of these relationships is quite good. Hanks is his normal loveable self, Julia Roberts is charming as always, and the various costars are humorous and stand out.

All in all Larry Crowne is a pretty good movie, especially for 1.28 with tax on a night that could be quite boring. I definitely reccomend seeing it if you get a chance.