It's almost the end of the year! I think now is a good time to see how I did in watching movies and reading books (in no particular order):
Movies:
1) Frozen
2) Maleficent - IMAX
3) The Incredibles
4) Her
5) Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
6) The Equalizer (very good!)
7) Belle
8) Big Hero 6 (good kids movie)
9) Guardians of the Galaxy (excellent)
10) The Box Trolls
11) Fed Up - documentary
12) Food, Inc. - documentary
13) Black Swan
14) The Help (very good!)
15) The Fault in Our Stars
16) Dolphin Tale 2 (Horrible - bad acting and cliche. Don't be fooled by Morgan Freeman's presence.)
17) Lucy (ok...but I wouldn't recommend it)
18) Annie
19) Alexander and the Terible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (awkward to watch - so many embarrassing moments - but cute)
20) The Grand Budapest Hotel (I enjoyed this film)
21) The 100-Foot Journey
22) Enough Said
23) Wish I Was Here (not that great...hoping for better from Zach Braff)
I've seen at least a dozen more, but I won't list them all. I've watched more movies this year than I have in the last two years combined. Maybe even the last three to four years combined.
Books:
1) Promise Land
2) Being Both - Religion
3) The Fault in Our Stars
4) Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It
5) All Your Worth
6) Freedom
7) Yes Please
8) Not That Kind of Girl
9) My Salinger Year
10) So You're Fat, Now What? (my doctor's book...I was kind of embarrassed to be reading it to be honest)
I picked up several books this year, but I didn't finish them all. They were either boring or I ran out of time. The ones listed above are those in which I made significant dents if I didn't finish them.
Conclusion: I made my goal on movies, but only got through about half the books I wanted to. Regardless, I am pleased with this. My real goal was to educated myself more and get active with cultural literature. I was surprised to learn that I can learn from movies, fiction or documentary. They give me something to talk about with other people, from superficial to deep conversations (i.e. How did you feel about the presentation? What did you think of the decision of [character]? What if something like [event in movie] were to happen, how would you deal with that? I could relate this instance to my life, how did you feel about it?). I'm not going to set a goal like this for next year, but I will try to read more fiction (there are only two in my list above).
And I will say that it's nice to have a list - makes me feel accomplished.
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Movie Report: Her
This is my first "report" on my list of movies I'm watching for the year. I won't report on all of them, but I felt this one was worth mentioning.
Her is about a man who falls in love with an operating system. If you're like me, you're probably thinking, "completely unrealistic," right? But surprisingly, it wasn't. In the way it was depicted, I thought the relationship resembled a long-distance one, as if one person was on the phone the entire time. It was an interesting thing about the OS, though, was how it adapted its tone, behavior, and actions (like pulling up files, turning on devices) to the desires and interests of its owner. It could make the owner laugh, make dinner plans, call his friends, discuss current events, etc. As an audience member, I could see how fake this relationship could potentially be, yet I wanted to believe it. I saw the OS as an invisible person who was nonetheless real. What makes the story even more interesting is the juxtaposition of the owner's failed marriage with this new relationship. He couldn't manage a relationship with someone who was dynamic, who changed, and who was outside of his control (a human in other words); yet he found it fulfilling to be with an operating system who adapted to him and his needs. (This makes me wonder if what he actually loved was another form of himself.)
The film makes you contemplate the complexity of love: how a human loves another being (the components of love and attraction) and how one can love even if the relationship is impossible to maintain.
Rated R for good reason, I still highly recommend this movie. Very thought-provoking on all sorts of levels.
Her is about a man who falls in love with an operating system. If you're like me, you're probably thinking, "completely unrealistic," right? But surprisingly, it wasn't. In the way it was depicted, I thought the relationship resembled a long-distance one, as if one person was on the phone the entire time. It was an interesting thing about the OS, though, was how it adapted its tone, behavior, and actions (like pulling up files, turning on devices) to the desires and interests of its owner. It could make the owner laugh, make dinner plans, call his friends, discuss current events, etc. As an audience member, I could see how fake this relationship could potentially be, yet I wanted to believe it. I saw the OS as an invisible person who was nonetheless real. What makes the story even more interesting is the juxtaposition of the owner's failed marriage with this new relationship. He couldn't manage a relationship with someone who was dynamic, who changed, and who was outside of his control (a human in other words); yet he found it fulfilling to be with an operating system who adapted to him and his needs. (This makes me wonder if what he actually loved was another form of himself.)
The film makes you contemplate the complexity of love: how a human loves another being (the components of love and attraction) and how one can love even if the relationship is impossible to maintain.
Rated R for good reason, I still highly recommend this movie. Very thought-provoking on all sorts of levels.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)