My One and Only

I saw this movie with my grandma yesterday and I don't think I would have felt the same about it if she hadn't been sitting right next to me. Although this wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, and I've definitely seen some better ones with lesser actors, it was strangely sentimental and familiar to me.
Seeing the era and the stereotypes of women at the time made me realize what an amazing woman my grandmother is, understand how she must have thought about herself and how to raise her children. I've started to spend so much time with her, I really truly enjoy it, she can really be a lot of fun and VERY funny, especially when she drinks. I don't know, I guess this movie really helped me appreciate my family, which was its point. My favorite line was, "I love my sister, I just can't stand to be around her." We all love our families and would do anything for them, we just most of the time would prefer to do it from far away.
At times it felt disjointed, not knowing when or how to portray it's tragic and light-hearted moments equally, so it just plunked down on one extreme or the other. The characters were either incredible sad or incredibly care-free and the sentimental moments inbetween were not long enough. Also, the movie seemed like it couldn't decide if it were going to tell this story from the mother's perspective or the son's, a great example of this balance was in Riding in Cars with Boys (which Logan Lerman also stared in). Unfortunately, Renee Zellweger did not deliver like Drew Barrymore. The ending was a little weak, also, and I started to feel like I was watching Lord of The Rings when it didn't end with the second tie-up.
I am particularly glad to see Zellweger playing someone her age, some many times (Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock) actresses continue to try to stay in their genre or role of young female, but she played an older woman with 2 almost grown boys, and she looked the part and though the character was sad, it wasn't a sad role for her.
Not to mention the kid in this movie was SO CUTE. Logan Lerman has one of the prettiest faces I've ever seen on a boy, yet still maintains that masculine quality. I also loved him in the TV show Jack and Bobby and 3:10 to Yuma, one of my all-time favorite westerns, even though it's a remake...

Top 10 Favorite Christmas Movies:

That have nothing to do with Christmas...
(in order of relevance  to Christmas and quality of movie)

10. Peter Pan
9. The Phantom Of The Opera
8. Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind
7. While You Were Sleeping
6. Little Women
5. Bridget Jones's Diary
4. Sleepless In Seattle
3. Just Friends
2. Someone Like You
1. Die Hard

Adam

This film was a bitter pill to swallow. I liked it, I really did, it was just not a feel good movie. It was sweet and in many instances funny, but the ending was painful. I loved Hugh Dancy's portrayal of Adam, he is a really great actor. I've known a couple of people with Asperger's and my cousin is autistic so I feel like I can say it was an accurate representation. So many parts were so powerful, the mirror scene or when he finds out she lied, in the lawyer's office, or him in the doorway, the extreme anxiety of it, the literalness of his feelings. Everyone always talks about how they feel in metaphors but he put those feelings into real actions, it was scary yet understandable, that's what was so scary. Beth's character was very interesting and intense also. It would be so hard to love someone and never know if they loved you back, to never be able to share feelings with them and have them understand. I just can't even imagine what it must be like, but it was so inspiring, seeing them learn from each other and grow. They both started out so selfish and immature and by the end they had grown up so much, so independent and with purpose, but separate. That's the part that hurt, they meant so much to each other, but they had to be apart to learn how to be better for each other, and then they weren't together. But I think they ended up together, I think that's what the end alluded to. And it was so great, those last 30 seconds, when Adam opens the book and you see his reaction and you know he's just realized something, but you don't know what it is. 'Mind-blindness' like he says, but this time it's the audience that doesn't know what he's thinking, I loved it.

Were The World Mine

HO-LY. SHIT. This movie was the most incredibly sincere, real, out of this world fantasy ride I have ever seen (next to peter pan of course). Probably my favorite Shakespearian play of all time is A Midsummer Night's Dream and I was so excited and intrigued at how they turned the story as they did, made it totally relatable, real, and still so OUT OF THIS WORLD! Not only were the characters charming and wonderful, Timothy and John have the sweetest harmonies and voices! UH! I am, obviously, the least judgmental person, especially when it comes to matters of the heart, and I LOVE GAY BOYS. I love a good gay romance, especially when the boys are as cute as the ones in this movie! But also, man, I don't know I just love seeing people find love, especially those who are discriminated against. And like they said, "The course of true love never did run smooth!" Oh my goodness, and I know there were silly, cliché things about this movie, but I just loved so many things about it! The costumes, the music, the characters, the actors, the set designs, the choreography, the special effects, the PLOT! I realize a lot of it was taken from the play, but really turned on its head and made so much more! I liked it so much more than I Can't Think Straight, like, a million times more. Were the World Mine was everything I could ever want out of a movie and in great quality. It was sentimental and sweet, while still giving the content the seriousness and involvement it deserved as a homosexual film. It makes my heart sing.

Timothy was such a wonderful character to relate to and live through for that two and half hours. Everyone knows what it's like to love someone who you assume you don't have a chance with, and then to have that chance to make them love you, realize its wrong, and has to give them up. I mean, no not everyone has THAT experience, but you get my idea. I loved it. I'm buying it. The end.

CoCo Before Chanel: Chance

For Christmas my senior year, my sister gave me a bottle of Chanel perfume, Chance. I never got so many compliments as I did the year I wore that. It was such a great scent: mature, but still young and sassy, and still sophisicated. That summer I went to Cabbo San Lucas and accidentally bought Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche, almost the exact same perfume, but a clear green and with a much fresher, springtime edge. Now it's all I wear. I don't think I'll ever buy anything else. It literally is my signature scent. I have a friend who, every time I see her, never fails to say, "Oh you smell like a Bonnie!" I love that feeling. Chanel makes every girl feel classy and fabulous. And yes, she did say that. Very smart lady.
I really loved this movie, but definately found it lacking. CoCo's transformation and struggles were heart-wrenching, hillarious, and real. But some how on film, they came off half-heartedly. It was great to see her start out in the bars singing with her sister, I really knew very little to next to nothing about her, so Audrey Tautou's depiction of her seemed true enough for me. Not to mention I am totally obsessed with Audrey Tautou. Anyway, it was just strange how she just seemed to slink into situations and then slink out. I know it's hard to be in someone's mind and really depict their inner genius, but it literally felt like I was just watching someone stumble into their fame. Like her successs was almost completely coincidental. I guess I thought they should have shown more of that progression, the actual process of culminating a style and forming a fashion sense and style. Instead it was just like, yes all these things happened, then she made her own label and then she was famous! And I do realize it's titled CoCo BEFORE Chanel, but I'd like to have seen a little more of that than just, ya she got lucky with who she slept with...
The cinematography was heaven, all the sets and scenery were so beautiful, just breath-taking. Most noteably was when they go to the ocean. Not to mention, how much did I love her English French-speaking lover? I don't know how I feel about how they romantisized that...
It was also so much fun to see how her style made her such an icon. She truly was just so ahead of her time and now I understand why I love her clothes and fashion so much. Her clothes are flattering for most forms, simple, sophisticated, timeless and classy. What's not to love?