Easy A

This film is just…WOW (for a romcom)! Normally, I wouldn’t say this about such a massive Hollywood film, but honestly it was amazing. Emma Stone plays a rumour mill slut, Penn Badgley plays her crush, and Aly Michalka is her best friend. And all I know about where it is set is that it was in the sunny part of U.S.A.

So Stone’s character, Olive, doesn’t want to spend her weekend with her best friends hippy parents, so instead she makes up a lie of having a date with a college boy, and when talking about her date on Monday she tells a small lie, which is overheard by the strict religious girl in school, and so the rumours begin. Then she goes on to help her gay friend make a point of not being gay, so that he can get through high school in peace. This backfires on her as he tells a friend about how she helped him out, and eventually the whole school believes that she is getting paid for sexual favours. She is a nice girl though, so if a guy asks her for a favour because he can’t actually get laid, then she’ll help him out. She eventually begins making a point of the fact that she is the school slut and starts going to school in nothing more than underwear, basically. Then you think that the story is going to turn, because she actually gets asked on a date. So, she goes along and she pays but when they get to the car he tries to give her a gift voucher and then tries to make out with her, she pushes him away but he keeps on trying it. When he does eventually leave her alone, she is left in tears. From this point the film gets better, as she makes an attempt to redeem herself, but watch it and find out for yourself what happens.

I love the fact that throughout the film she keeps flicking back to the webcast, I think that it is an interesting way of breaking up the film and almost gives it book-like chapters. Also, the way that the editor showed the travelling of rumours was beaut. The way that the film was edited brought something a little bit different to the screen (for a blockbuster) and I appreciated the change.

Definitely a film to watch, especially if you liked She’s Out of My League, because it is that kind of honesty and comedy that is in this film too. Definitely worth a watch if you like romantic comedies of a slightly abnormal nature.

Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine is an offbeat romantic drama with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams taking the lead roles. It is set in both the present day, where you can witness their suffering marriage, and also at the beginning of their relationship, where you can see how in love they are.

The film starts with you seeing the present day family, and the roles that they play within the family. So you see that Dean (Gosling) is the fun parent and Cindy (Williams) is the stern parent. The next major part is when the film flicks back in Dean’s life. You see him working and the kind of person that he used to be. When we flick back in Cindy’s life we see that her family was broken and she doted on her grandmother, who is basically the reason that she meets Dean, it is sweet and kind of makes your heart melt. We see their marriage falling apart though; she no longer loves him, and definitely wants no physical connection with him, although she is completely faithful. All the while, he still loves her but picks arguments for no reason and makes her feel like shit. Then we realise that Frankie isn’t even his daughter…

The film is very offbeat and this is probably the reason that I like it so much. It was really well written and depicts a real life situation. Whether you like this type of film or not, it makes you think about the issues it looks at (for lack of a better word). After watching this I realised that I had no faith in marriage and that having a family means that your life is over. This is basically because once you have a spouse and/or a child, your life ends because you have to make money (doing something that you like or not) to make ends meet so that they can have a good life.

This film basically has a moral; don’t have a family, because it will ruin you. I really enjoyed this film. It is genuine and not a piece of shit, run-of-the-mill romantic drama. Whether you like romance or not, this is a film to watch.

Love and Other Drugs

This is a romantic film starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. Set in 1990’s Pittsburgh, it is a sweet, yet hard hitting film about the way illness can change a person and the relationships in their life.

We meet Jamie. He is clearly the player type, because he’s fucking his boss’ girlfriend. Then he gets caught, loses his job and changes his life path and decides to become a pharmaceutical rep. So you see him beginning his course, and then you see that he fucked his teacher, although he does still come across as being quite smart. And so he begins repping for Pfizer. He was given a shit drug though and you can see that he is struggling with giving out the samples. And when he finally get the proper chance to influence the doctor, he meets Maggie who is a 26 year-old with Parkinson’s. They start seeing each other in a ‘just physical’ kind of way and things heat up. Then she tells him about the drug that helps you get a hard on, he looks into it and begins repping that. Things are going well, he’s loaded. But she ends it with him. Watch the film to see what happens.

I genuinely really enjoyed this film. The story was immense, mainly because she was ill and it gave a kind of edge that romantic films don’t really have nowadays.

I am gonna say to everyone to watch this film. It is pretty good and pulls at your heart strings a bit. The film also kind of teaches you various things about different illnesses and ways of treating them.

Chatroom

I’m not quite sure how to classify this film, so the term thriller will have to do. It stars a few big British names, with Aaron Johnson taking the lead role. It also stars Skins’ Hannah Murray. And this may sound weird but the film is set mainly on the internet, because this film actually has a visual representation of what the internet is –TRULY AWESOME!

Our main character, William, makes a chat room called Chelsea Teens. Soon afterwards four people join it, they become friends and all is going well. They then make the room secure, to avoid paedophiles. You get cuts to what is happening in reality too, and you get to know William a bit more, and you realise that he is a boy that needs help. He wishes his brother was dead, for one. The story gets a faster pace when you see in to Jim’s life and when William tells him to stop taking the pills and talks about him behind his back; you can see that something is going to go horribly wrong. William then tells Jim to go to a different room, where he can talk to someone who can help him get over his feelings about his father. But when William takes Eva to this room, to show her what it is, you see that it is a suicide chat room. Things progressively go downwards from here and although the ending isn’t ridiculously profound and heartfelt, it does have a kind of moral (for lack of a better word).

The film was made differently, I loved this. Initially, the editing is all jumpy and the music is kind of weird but I thought that it set the film off on a really good note. I also majorly appreciate the film because it is a British film that isn’t about football hooligans or gangsters, and I’m not saying that this is what all British films are about, but there is a pattern emerging, right?

Anyway, I quite enjoyed this film, although it had a kind of primary school thing behind it, about being super careful on the internet and behaving yourself when you’re near train tracks etc. A good film though, give it a watch.