I think Pines was my favorite movie out of the three. I saw it in my film class last Thursday and it was great. One of the many things I love about my film class is, for the most part, we don't have a lot of previous exposure to the films we get to watch. I walk in around 6:50 and get a flier with a breakdown of that night's movie and a bio of the person we have the Q&A with. I hadn't heard anything about Pines before class aside from the few pictures that surfaced of Ryan Gosling with bleached blonde hair. And it was. So. Much. Better. that way. For the sake of all things beautiful and film-related, I'm not going to break down the plot or spoil anything about the film. I loathe spoilers and this movie is definitely one that I would suggest you do ABSOLUTELY NO PREVIOUS RESEARCH ABOUT. There are a few surprises that I'm afraid would be given away somehow in a plot description that I think need to be experienced in theaters. I'm not sure when it's coming out but I definitely recommend it. It had amazing character development and emotion and you find yourself feeling for every character even when you know they've done something wrong. It was a commentary on morale and integrity and corruption and love. It was fabulous. Cianfrance is basically a genius who encourages his actors to "fail" and improvise and have real feelings and relationships. He doesn't want the actors to read the script - he wants everything to be authentic. He also directed Blue Valentine and his talents are so obvious in his direction. He captures those moments that feel so REAL (and we may never know if it's acting or if he just happened to turn on the camera) and those moments are so full of emotion, they just get ya. Oh, and Ryan Gosling is extremely hot with bleached hair, a stupid amount of tattoos and an EXCEPTIONAL BODY. Like, take Crazy, Stupid, Love (you know, the 'Oh my god you're, like, photoshopped' scene) and then quadruple it. Plus I was weirdly turned on by the "heart throb" tattoo on his neck. Weird, but hot. I'm not going to pretend I wasn't silently squealing like a schoolgirl every time he revved up his motorcycle and I'm also not going to apologize about it. This seems like a nice transition into our next film...
I am the target demographic for this film. I can't say how a seventeen year old is going to feel about it and I can't tell you how a forty-five year old is going to feel about it. But as an-almost-twenty middle class college student who's turning 21 in almost a year (a year and 65 days to be exact), this movie was perfect for me. I saw it at 10:20 on Tuesday night with three of my girlfriends and I was keeling over with laughter throughout the whole thing. And okay, one of my friends called it "A Hannah Film" afterward, but that's not important. While most of the humor was very sharp and maybe a bit offensive, it all worked. Justin Chon played the really smart pre-med who can't celebrate his 21st birthday because he has a med school interview at eight am; however he actually may not really be all he seems and his friends find this out while he's passed out, flying out of windows and eating tampons. Miles Teller played the token lazy asshole douchebag dumbass who always does everything wrong (with extreme confidence) and says all of the things you feel really bad for laughing at. Skylar Astin played the uptight Stanford cutie who isn't celebrating "the best years of his life" like he should and can't close a girl. It was Project X and The Hangover combined, but for college students. It's one of those movies that sort of make you glad you're not the characters but also kind of make you feel like you're doing college "wrong." There were definitely some plot holes in the end that they sort of just wrapped too quickly (the gun plot line was one they just kicked under the bed) but overall I thought it was a very entertaining movie. Plus there's a sort of sorority torture scene where Skylar and Miles are stripped down to nothing but socks on their co-, well, you know, and as an almost-twenty-year-old who fell in love with Skylar when he was crooning in Pitch Perfect and denying taking Zosia Mamet's virginity in Girls , this entire scene was much, MUCH appreciated. Miles isn't too bad to look at either... I could watch that scene for a week straight and not stop drooling. But uh, anyway... You can't go into the film and expect something you know it's not going to be. It's a fun film about college and screwing up and getting too drunk and learning that your "lifelong friends" may not actually last your lifetime. Or maybe they will.
I really enjoyed Oz. We saw Jack the Giant Slayer in my film class last month and while I definitely enjoyed it at the time, this was far superior. While they're both 3D films based off old stories with great casts, Oz definitely beats out Jack. The use of 3D was FAR more successful in this film - the land of Oz is breathtaking and it makes me really really jealous of vfx people. The story isn't anything like the movie (because it absolutely couldn't be anything like it for legal reasons) so you need to go into it with an open mind, not with the original Judy Garland movie in the back of your head. It's definitely a bit cliche in some parts but I found myself cackling throughout the entire film. The magic though was definitely in the q&a with Zach and James. Both are actors and filmmakers and while this is the first big film that Zach has been in (and he was a monkey for most of it), James has a very very very large career. They talked about the process and their wonderful interaction with their director Sam and the incredible aspects of 3D filming (i.e. they had multiple football field long blue screen sets). Also, Zach Braff is absolutely hilarious. I wanted to take him home and make him tell me jokes for the rest of my life. But back to the film- it's a blockbuster and I think it's very successful in what it was trying to be. Zach was a monkey in the film but it wasn't just his voice - he was in a sort-of motion capture suit and he had to be there for each take and every little nuance Finley does, Zach did. Also Joey King is fabulous as a china doll. And Michelle Williams is the most elegant, beautiful and perfect Glinda and I would kill for her white dress. I enjoyed it and I think it's going to do really well at the box office. And if only their legal team allowed James to say "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" at the end of the film - ah, well. One day the film will be public domain and until then there will be no ruby slippers in sight.
