Last night my sister and I decided to walk up the street to Clay Theater. It’s a one-movie theater and the film playing was My Week with Marilyn. I ended up really enjoying the movie.

Michelle Williams as Marilyn

My sister with the movie poster

I have to confess that I’ve had a soft spot for Michelle Williams ever since her role in Dawson’s Creek. Her character was more complex, interesting and likable than Katie Holmes and I’ve kind of adored her ever since. She plays a lovely Marilyn Monroe. She gets her voice and flirtatiousness down pat and is a joy to watch on screen as an actress playing an actress.

Marilyn’s Tortured Side

The film does a terrific job of looking at Marilyn Monroe’s tortured side, focusing almost entirely on her insecurities and her neediness of the men in her life. To be honest, I guess I don’t know all that much about Marilyn Monroe. I have some general knowledge that somehow seeped in through basic pop culture awareness and I definitely knew about these insecurities but I haven’t seen her movies or read long biographies of her so my knowledge is a little limited. This portrayal of her made me more interested in reading up on her in the future.

The Love Story

Ultimately this film is a story of young love. It’s about a twenty three year old man who gets lured in by the combination of Marilyn’s stunning beauty and her apparent need to be saved by a man. Their affair (reportedly a true story) lasted only a few days and was a really juvenile, innocent affair. However, the man’s feelings were certainly strong and it gives great insight into that intensity and wonder and passion that accompanies young love, the kind of time in life when it’s totally okay to feel completely consumed by another person and want to change your entire world for them.

Conclusion: Definitely a film worth watching. Lovely acting. Lovely story. Honest, touching without being melodramatic.

Tags: films, marilyn monroe, movies, my life with marilyn

I decided on a theme for January’s at-home movie watching. I’m going with indie films, emphasizing experimental films. I’ve pretty much never watched experimental films in my life so this will jumpstart me on the goal of exposing myself to new types of movies. Experimental films are really different, though, so I didn’t want to limit myself only to that genre. That’s why I opened it up to the broader category of indie films. I use to really enjoy watching indie films but have kind of gotten away from that in recent years and wanted to see what I’ve been missing.

Yesterday, I watched two films on Netflix, one of which was experimental.

Poison, Experimental Film

Poison is a 1991 drama that consists of three entirely separate stories that are played together throughout the film, moving back and forth between the three different stories. The three stories are called Hero, Horror and Homo. What ties them together is the fact that they are each about a main male character and have a theme of exploring the border between sexuality and violence. Each short film within the film is set in a different time period and has a different style of photography.

Hero is about a 7-year-old boy who has killed his father and then apparently “flown away” according to reports by his mother. It is set in the 1980′s and has the kind of grainy color that movies of that time sometimes have. This fictional story is set up consisting just of interviews with the boy’s mother and various other family members who reveal more and more about the boy so that we can learn what happened.

Horror is about a scientist who is researching sex hormones and accidentally ends up ingesting something in his lab. It turns him into a leprous sex fiend. Despite this, a female doctor falls in love with him the way that he is. The film is basically about him going crazy and her trying to love him anyway and the tragedy that occurs as a result. This film is done in black and white with lots of shadows and close-up shots. There’s not too much dialogue but what exists is mostly between them. I’m sure that there’s a name for this style of film but I’m not sure what it is. Film noir comes to mind but I don’t know if that’s right. Hopefully as this year continues I’ll learn more about different styles of film and be able to explain this stuff better!

Homo is about two men in prison who had known each other previously in a boys’ school. We learn about their shared past through various scenes. The other scenes are the two of them in prison developing a relationship of sorts. It’s set in the 1940′s and has muted coloring. There is dialogue between the two characters as well as some supporting characters and we can also sometimes hear the main character’s thoughts.

It took me awhile to get into the film. I’m used to the fast-paced dramas of television and mainstream movies. I tend to strongly prefer dialogue-rich movies (don’t watch much action) so it took me some time to slow my pace and really pay attention to the wordless details on the screen. Once I got into it, though, I ended up kind of liking the film so I’m looking forward to learning more about experimental films as the month continues.

Sabah: A Love Story

The other film I watched was a much more straightforward indie romance called Sabah: A Love Story. It’s a Canadian film about a traditional Muslim family. The main character, Sabah, is a forty-year-old unmarried woman whose role it is to take care of her mother. She ends up meeting a non-Muslim Canadian man and falling in love with him. Fairly predictable family drama ensues and there’s a happy ending. I was kind of indifferent to this movie. It’s cute enough. There were parts that were enjoyable. Mostly I found the guy that she falls in love with to be terribly unlikeable and couldn’t get into it because of that but that’s just a personal preference thing. It’s worth seeing if you like movies with this type of plot.

Do you watch indie films? Experimental films?

Tags: experimental films, indie films, movies

Continuing on with the A-Z Blogging Challenge … N is for Netflix … Here are some of the things I’ve watched recently:

Philly – because I love all crime and courtroom dramas!

Art 21: Art in the Twenty-First Century – terrific short documentaries about creative contemporary artists

30 Days – I wish this show had stayed on longer. Love the premise!

Felt totally inspired by this fashion film documentary

Saw this in the theater ages ago. Love the colorful cinematography. Wanted to see it again.

Milk of Sorrow – Watched this because I’m always trying to watch more Spanish language films. I didn’t actually love it but it’s interesting.

Loved the book, thought I’d try the movie. Did enjoy it but probably wouldn’t have liked it so much if I didn’t already know the book.

What are you watching these days?

Tags: a-z blogging challenge, movies, netflix

One of the things that I love about being in my hometown is that it’s a good time for me to go to the movies. I don’t go out to movies all that often when I’m in San Francisco. This is due mostly to the cost of seeing a full-priced movie there (actual cost plus transportation cost etc.) compared to hitting the matinee with my mom in Tucson. It’s also due to the fact that there are so many other cheap/free/similarly-priced events and activities to enjoy in San Francisco so it seems like a waste to spend that time and money on a mainstream movie. And I suppose it’s due a bit to the fact that I don’t ever find it all that easy to find a friend in San Francisco who also wants to spend the time and money on the same mainstream movie that I do. So going to the movies is something I don’t do much anymore but still love to do when I’m back with my family.

I wouldn’t say that we typically see the smartest movies although some of the ones that we go watch are certainly smart. I’m just as happy to see a dumb chick flick with my mom and sister as to see the latest smart indie film. It’s more about the experience and the time spent together than the film itself. So I wasn’t necessarily expecting much from Blind Side which we went to go see this morning. All I really expected was that it would be a decent story with decent actors and that we’d have a good time together just hanging out at the theatre. We did have a good time together but Blind Side ended up being better than I’d expected it to be.

For those who don’t know, the movie is based on a book which is based on the true story of a teenager who grew up in the ghetto and ended up homeless when he’s taken in by a rich white family. The story is fairly predictable … they become his family, they help him with school, he ends up succeeding and gets a football scholarship. It’s a pretty straightforward story line.

However there were definitely some smart things about it that I liked. The main thing was that the movie depicts the fact that these rich white Republicans have some self-doubt as to their own motivations for taking this kid in. They wonder if they’re doing the right thing and if they’re doing it for the right reasons. Are they just getting a feel-good kick out of helping someone out? Are they pushing their own expectations on to him? Although the movie doesn’t delve deeply into these feelings, it poses the questions and acknowledges the fact that this is an issue that people in their position would have to deal with internally. Although I think that we often see characters in films having to deal with this issue externally (which we see here as well when the mother’s friends question her choice and consider it a charity act) we see it less often in terms of how people themselves question their own motives. It’s a smart twist even if it’s not explored in depth.

There were certainly some aspects of the storyline that I wondered about. The movie depicts this seventeen-year-old kid just naturally fitting in fairly well with this new family. I find it difficult to believe that the transition into a family was easy for him at that point. Based on my own experience working with foster children, there’s just a lot of wariness and a period of adapting that we don’t see in the film. In that way, I don’t think that the film revealed enough about the issues that the characters must have dealt with. So it falls short of what my full expectations would be if I were going to write the film but it exceeded the expectations that I had of it as a mainstream movie.

Mostly I guess I the movie captured my attention less for what it showed than what it didn’t show. It got my curious about the life of Michael Oher and how it all really played out for him as compared to what the movie depicted. I am particularly interested in learning more about how college went for him, how difficult it was to adjust to leaving his new family as soon as they’d adopted him and how hard the transition was to living on his own on a college campus. I am curious about the politics behind the NCAA investigation of his choice to attend the alma mater of his new foster parents – why did the NCAA do this and what other cases similar to this have there been. The movie interested me because it left this questions open which makes me inclined to do more research into the topic now that I’ve left the theater.

Is Blind Side worth seeing? I probably wouldn’t have bothered in San Francisco but I’m glad that I saw it while back at home. If you saw it, I’d love to know what you thought about it! Leave it in the comments.

What other bloggers have written about Blind Side:

• Televisual – Interesting thoughts on why the movie is making so much money
• Be Happy NYC – Sums up the movie and talks about the fashion in it
• Online Film School – “Overall this film is full of inspiration”
• Scrap with Suzy – A visual post

Tags: blind side, diary of a smart chick, entertainment, films, movies

I recently did research into the relationship between movies and mobile phones. What I learned from this research is that there are three main ways in which movies and cell phones are linked:

1. People watch movies on their cell phones. More and more phones are getting advanced enough to be capable of watching streaming or downloaded movies. There have been a lot of recent announcements about this link between movies and mobile phones.
2. People film movies on their cell phones. This is just cool. Lots of people use their phone’s video camera to film movies. There are film festivals specifically for these phone-made films. I love the creativity of it!
3. The movie industry markets on phones. There are tons of different marketing ploys used by movie promoters that involve mobile phones include interactive mobile advertising.

Are there other links between cell phones and movies that I’m forgetting?

Tags: art, cell phones, entertainment, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, movies, society, Technology, Wireless

Every year I try to pick an actor or actress to study to learn more about their films. I always try to pick a star that is truly unique in the choice of characters and the way that those characters are presented. It’s actually not that easy to do. Most movie stars get typecast into certain roles and don’t really do much beyond that single type of character.

Last year I studied the films of Ryan Phillippe. I failed to pick a star to study this year but I’m thinking that I may start late and study up on Johnny Depp. He’s a really unique actor who plays very different types of roles than what most people are playing. And even with those roles that are stereotypical, he manages to spin them in a unique way.

I’ve seen some of his films. Ones I particularly liked were From Hell and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. But I’m interested in checking out more of what he has to offer. I’ve heard that he’s playing The Mad Hatter in an upcoming release of Alice in Wonderland and I think that’s going to be an amazing role to see him in so I’d like to gain some insight into his work before that comes out.

Any suggestions on the best Johnny Depp films to make sure to see?

Tags: actors, depp, films, hubpages, johnny depp, kathryn vercillo, movies