Two Movies I Loved in 2013 and One I Hated

I hardly saw any movies last year – there just wasn’t much that grabbed me, and I think television has well and truly surpassed movies for quality viewing these days. I’m sick of sassy Disney princesses and fed up to the back teeth with superheroes, and I couldn’t care less about Sandra Bullock floating around in space. There were a couple I really enjoyed and highly recommend, though. 

The Kings of Summer has a very misleading trailer. You think you’re getting some whacky comedy about a group of kids with overbearing parents played by (among others) by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. While it’s true that it’s about a group of kids, and it is funny, and the kids do have overbearing parents, Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are in the movie for maybe 5 minutes each.

The story itself is a pretty standard coming of age one – these are the best years of your life, chicks are awesome but then they ruin everything, your family isn’t really as bad as you think they are, yada, yada. What sets it a cut above is the charm of the three boys. Gabriel Basso in particular has been one of my favourite young actors since that scene in the first season of The Big C where he finds the storage locker with all of Cathy’s future presents for him. The Kings of Summer is lovely, funny and touching and worth watching - especially with a teenage girl because they just get so into those kind of movies and it’s rather sweet. 

The Way Way Back is another coming of age film, written by Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, and very loosely based on some of Jim Rash’s experiences growing up. A teenage boy spends the summer at the beach house of his mother’s new boyfriend – Steve Carell playing very much against type. The boy stumbles into a job at a water park run by Sam Rockwell and staffed by a group of easygoing weirdos. Again, this is a standard storyline about finding somewhere to belong, finding your way through the stumbling blocks, choosing your own path and so on. It’s more overtly funny than The Kings of Summer – Jim Rash and Nat Faxon are both pretty hilarious people. But there’s still enough gooey heartwarming stuff going on to make you feel all ‘Awwwwww’ by the end. I really loved this movie – it’s the best I’ve seen for a really long time. 

Now to the film I hated – The Lifeguard. I used to really dislike Kristen Bell, then a couple of years ago Lily and I watched Veronica Mars and I decided I loved her. I might be back to disliking her again after this mess. She plays an unhappy 29 year old who leaves her job and her married lover and moves back to her home town, with parents who are not overly thrilled to have her on their door step. She takes a job as a lifeguard at the local pool and strikes up a relationship with the 16 year old son of the pool manager. That in itself is problematic – there is such an ew factor there. It got worse, though. I don’t want to spoil it in case anyone wants to watch it (though I suggest you don’t bother), but Martin Starr’s character does something so completely disgusting and it’s just kind of written off as a bad judgement call that everyone moves on from pretty quickly. It was horrifying. Aside from that, the movie went nowhere – there were loads of interminably long scenes of Kristen Bell just staring out at nothing looking sad. She was insufferable, her friends were insufferable – it was not really any surprise her mother didn’t want her there. And of course it was Indie 101 – scene of people driving with music playing and someone sticking their head out the window to feel the air, scene of someone staring vacantly into a pool while thinking about how they were drowning within their own lives, scene of unhappy people sitting awkwardly and silently around a dinner table barely speaking, night time scene of a group of people getting drunk and revealing OMG SECRETS, and on and on and on like that. This movie just checked all the boxes and then called it a day. For many years my most hated all time movie has been Independence Day (don’t ask). The Lifeguard has replaced it. I cannot express in words how much I really, really hated this movie. 

Things I Like: A Semi-Regular Series - Podcasts

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I'm not really a big music person - I go through periods where I like listening to it, and then I'll go months without ever hearing any. And I detest radio to the point where it can send me into a frothing rage if someone at work is playing one on their desk (seriously people - it's 2012. HEADPHONES). However, I do quite often need to blank out noise around me at work (OTHER PEOPLE'S STUPID RADIOS), so I quite often listen to podcasts. Today I'm just going to list some of my favourites - mostly relating to TV, film, and pop/geek culture, so if you're interested in any of these topics, check them out and see what you think.

I'll start with my favourites - Bald Move. These guys have a bunch of TV show specific podcasts that come and go according to the programs' seasons. They have just wound up Breaking Bad and will be starting up The Walking Dead in a few weeks when that's back on television (yay!). They also do Mad Men, Justified, and Game of Thrones. The set up is that they recap the week's episode, discussing along the way any interesting points or interpretations that crop up, and then spend time on listener feedback. They're chatty and organically funny, and they're enthusiastic about their subjects, but not afraid to criticise something they don't consider up to par. They also have an older podcast called Blue Yonder (still available on their website and iTunes, though they don't update them anymore) that's more of a generic geek/pop culture show, and it's worth listening to if you enjoy their rapport in their more recent outings. They have quite interesting backgrounds (hardcore, intelligent geeks who come across as endearingly naive about some things due to having been raised in a strict religious environment).

Personal Arrogants is a podcast by two young guys in Seattle, the subject of which is 'bridging the gap between nerd culture and pop culture' or words to that effect. It's a pretty random cast, with a lot of discussion about gaming and beer (one works for a brewery and they both have an interest in boutique brews). Since I neither play video games nor really drink beer, it's surprising how much I like this cast. They talk about a lot of other things as well though, and like Bald Move, they have a great rapport and a funny outlook.

The Golden Briefcase is a film podcast, but rather than review a specific film, these two guys have a discussion topic each week inspired by a new release for that week. For example, if there's a big superhero movie coming out, they might have a discussion about comic book heroes and how successful their translations to the big screen have been. I like this one more than other film podcasts because I rarely see new releases until they hit DVD or a good download shows up on The Pirate Bay, so listening to them talk for 40 minutes about a film I haven't seen can be a bit dull at times.

How Did This Get Made celebrates terrible movies, with a podcast popping up about every two weeks dissecting a particular 'bad movie we love'. They've done casts on such gems as Godzilla, Cool as Ice (with special guest Vanilla Ice himself, who was wonderfully good-humoured), Burlesque, and Batman and Robin. Hosted by actor Paul Scheer (you might know him as Donny the head page in 30 Rock), his wife June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukis, they're invariably hilarious.

The Black Guy Who Tips makes me uncomfortable sometimes, I'm not gonna lie. My white leftie guilt goes into overdrive when they start throwing the 'n' word around. This is an incredibly meandering cast - they quite often spend 20 minutes or so just banging on about their sponsors, their Twitter handles, their website, etc. It's a husband and wife team, and though Rod the husband is funny, Karen the wife is really just there for him to bounce off. She has an annoying tendency to come up behind him and 'explain' his jokes. Having said all that, it's often screamingly funny. They just talk about random topics and read out weird newspaper stories, and then Rod comments on them and discusses them with whoever else he has there with him. And they do that for 2-3 hours several times a week. It's a good one for work because I can put it on and just tune in and out of it.

The Joe Rogan Experience is a podcast I've only started listening to recently. I only really know Joe Rogan from Fear Factor, and vaguely remember him from NewsRadio, so my opinion of him is 'overgrown frat boy'. I would never in a million years have bothered listening to a podcast of his, but I heard a couple of people talking about it and it piqued my interest. And I have to say - it's probably now one of my favourites. He's another one who just rambles - not least because he's generally pretty stoned - and he and his comedian friends sit around and tell weird, rambling, hilarious stories about whatever pops into their heads. The most interesting one for me so far was when he had Dave Foley on and they dished on all the NewsRadio gossip and Dave's disastrous first marriage. And the one with Bobcat Goldthwait was so funny I had to stop listening at work because I kept bursting into laughter and looking like an idiot. 

And finally, one that's more of a hate listen. Firewall & Iceberg is a general TV podcast, where the two hosts - Alan Sepinwall and Daniel Fienberg - discuss the most recent episodes of several of the week's shows, review upcoming new programs, and report any interesting or important TV news. I'm not entirely sure why I listen to this one, because I rarely agree with Sepinwall's opinions about anything (I often feel like I've watched a different episode to him), and Fienberg's halting, disjointed speech patterns and irritating habit of asking himself questions and then answering them ("Do I think she's the best character? No. Do I think she's a good character? Yes - I do - but - ") drives me mental. I think I just keep going with it because it's an easy one to listen to at work - I don't really need to pay attention to what's being said and I can tune in and out.

Attack The Block

For quite a few years I worked with young people in a government welfare agency - primarily teenagers, and often teenagers in crisis. As part of that job I spent a lot of time visiting schools, drop in centres, homeless shelters, prisons and juvenile detention facilities (terrifying places - if you are trying to deal with a wayward teen take them to visit one; talk about scared straight). The biggest issue I ever had with teenagers was their irritating tendency to mumble responses when I spoke to them, making me feel like an old lady because I had to keep saying, "Sorry? Beg your pardon? Can you say that again?"

As soon as I stopped working with teenagers, they started to scare me. If I was walking down the street and I saw a group of young people I would become instantly tense, and if there were any possible way of not having to pass them I would find it. I don't know why - I've never been bothered or harassed by a teenager. I read an article on Cracked a while back that confirmed this was not just me. I think it's something to do with their air of confidence in groups, and the fact that they are (I'm generalising here) so fearless and impulsive. You never really know what teenagers are capable of.

The teens in Attack The Block are the kind you should be afraid of. They are menacing and violent, and the film opens with them robbing a young woman at knife point in a dark street. It's interesting that this film sets up these very unlikeable characters and then turns them into the heroes, and quite successfully. These are definitely the people you want on your side in an alien invasion. And that's exactly what this film is about - aliens attack a council housing estate and the kids battle to save their home and themselves.

There is not a moment wasted - it's lean and fast-moving and takes off running right from the beginning. Little is revealed about the characters, though the leader of the teens, Moses, gets a brief moment that sums up his personal backstory beautifully - it's a lovely, spare use of exposition.

It's lucky there is so much action going on as it's easy to miss plenty of dialogue, thanks to the heavy slang. I don't normally have a problem with accents (English and Scottish family and many years working with migrants and refugees), but I found myself rewinding a few times to catch what was said and it definitely benefits from a repeat viewing. However, missing chunks of dialogue doesn't detract from the story - it's pretty clear what's going on all the way through.

Although it's not strictly a comedy there are quite a few laughs - Nick Frost as a bewildered drug dealer provides many of them. Again, a lot of the comedy is in the throwaway lines of dialogue, which is why it is worth trying to pay attention to what's being said.

I'd never heard of Attack The Block before reading a Top 10 films post on Fruitless Pursuits, and it didn't sound like anything that would be my cup of tea but I had nothing better to do so I gave it a go. I was amazed by how much I loved it - I can't remember the last time I was so completely blown away by a movie (probably True Grit - another Mumbly Joe one).

Parenting Sacrifices: Where Is My Damn Medal?

Recently Noodle Arms and I were out for a walk and she was yakking away as she does about this and that when she suddenly came out with something that shocked me so much I didn't know what to do.

She casually said, "Mum, I quite like chick flicks."

I was floored. FLOORED. She's grown up watching all kinds of artsy subtitled weirdness (thanks to film reviewing ex) and has also spent many hours with me watching the latest offerings from wanky hipsters like Wes Anderson and highly stylised film makers like the Coen brothers, Tim Burton and so on. It's not that I'm a film snob - I love a Judd Apatow bromance as much as the next person, but I detest chick flicks (and chick lit) with a rage that borders on pathological. They are so ridiculous that I'm angry they exist. Not kidding - ask any poor sucker who had the bad luck to casually mention a chick flick in conversation with me at any point in time.

Of course I asked why. "Why, Noodles? WHY? Where are you getting this from???" She just shrugged and said they were fun. Then she dropped an even bigger bombshell.

"I'd like to watch The Notebook."

That's where I drew the line. I agreed to watch some chick flicks with her, but I'd eat my own vomit before I'd sit through The Notebook. She agreed to watch that one with her friends, and I sat through 4 others on the weekend - probably more chick flicks than I've watched in the last 5 years.

Valentine's Day
There's something oddly likeable about Ashton Kutcher - I was watching him in Two and a Half Men the other day and I think he's actually improved that show. He's the main character in Valentine's Day, one of those dog's breakfast movies where there are a dozen different plots going on at once. This was riddled with the usual clichés - it was blatantly obvious from the first few moments where his story was going, and the same with pretty much all the others, though I will admit the Bradley Cooper storyline surprised me. Nice one - didn't see that coming. We had the dash through the airport to get to the girl (after helpful airport employee lets him through), the "Oh my god, he was under my nose the whole time" story, the comic relief best buddy... they even ripped off the lonely kid story from Love, Actually. And it seemed to go on FOREVER. I thought it would never end. Even Noodles was over it by the time it finally finished.

Friends With Benefits
I thought this one might not be too bad, as I'd read a lot of good reviews and I like both Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. This movie wallowed in smug Community-ish meta and was just infuriating. The main characters spent so much time mocking romantic comedy clichés, only to indulge in them all the way through the movie. It was so annoying. It even managed to almost ruin one of my favourite things (flash mobs). And why do people in movies always live in these MASSIVE apartments in New York city? The Justin character had been headhunted to become the editor of a magazine so maybe I could understand him having the bucks, but Mila's character (the headhunter) was nothing more than a recruitment consultant, yet she lived alone in this fancy apartment that had a bloody atrium in it! I just hated this one so much. Noodles didn't like it either - she said it was too long. Oh, and can I just have a wee rant about THE most annoying aspect of this movie? Woody Harrelson played a gay guy. We know this because he felt the need to mention his gayness EVERY SINGLE TIME HE SPOKE.


What's Your Number?
I thought this one might not be so bad. I love Anna Faris - she was great in The House Bunny. Two minutes in and I realised my mistake. Oh, the annoying but hot neighbour. I wonder where this is going? Oh look, icy, judgemental mother! Sleazy boss! Quirky hobby! 80s song! She's beautiful but a total klutz! Soooo tiresome.

Going The Distance
This was my choice - Drew Barrymore movies are usually watchable, and I like Justin Long. Unsurprisingly, this was the one I liked the most. It was smart and funny and had Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as whacky sidekicks, always a bonus. There were still the usual clichés - guy running through airport after helpful employee lets him through, judgemental female sidekick (Drew's sister), the cute-meet where they get together in the first place, and so on. However, as chick flicks go this was definitely one of the better ones. Surprisingly, Noodles didn't like it, and her reasoning: "It's not a chick flick." I don't know how she came to that conclusion, but I feel validated.

In the end she watched The Notebook with her friend at a sleepover, then came home the next day and went on about how it was 'soooooooo sad'. Pass me the sick bucket.

5 Movies I Always Stop To Watch

I was reading Tracy from Beauty Reflections' blog this morning and she did a great post on the 5 movies she would always stop and watch no matter what. I love this idea, so I'm stealing it. There aren't that many movies I can sit through over and over again, but there are a handful (aside from Burglar, which I've mentioned recently) that I watch every single time they are on television.

1. Miracle In The Rain
When I was a little kid I used to watch old movies on weekends with my mum while she was doing the ironing, and this was in the days before video recorders (also known as the 1850s) so you watched it when it was on TV or you didn't watch it at all. This one was shown every year or so and I would always make sure I watched it - even when I was older and had a life and places to go on a weekend afternoon. It's about a mousy spinster who meets a soldier and they fall in love. That's really all there is to it (though it has a weepy, tragic ending of course, as all these films do), but there's something so charming about it that it's always been my favourite of that particular genre.

2. This Is Spinal Tap
I'm not sure if this was the first mockumentary film ever made, but it was certainly one of the earliest, and I distinctly remember walking in when my brother was watching it on video, sitting down for 10 minutes and then turning to him and saying, "These guys are idiots!" Yes, I thought it was real.

3. National Lampoon's Vacation
This is such a silly movie, but that's what I love about it. My favourite scene is probably the one where Audrey's hillbilly cousin (a very young Jane Krakowski) talks about how she can french kiss and Audrey scoffs that everyone does that, and the cousin responds, "Yeah, but Daddy says I'm the best."



4. Calamity Jane
Words cannot describe how much I love this film. Another one I used to watch with my mum, and in my late teens Doris Day was my style inspiration. She still is really, I'm just too lazy for the upkeep. I have the soundtrack on my ipod and it is frequently played, let me tell you.



5. The Wedding Singer
I don't like Adam Sandler at all, I'm not overly keen on Drew Barrymore, and I usually hate rom coms, but this movie is one of my all time favourites. It taps into my penchant for nostalgia beautifully (I spent a year or so walking around dressed the way Christine Taylor does in this movie), and it's such a sweet, funny, likeable movie that I can't resist watching it every time it's on. And it has Billy Idol in it! Any film that has Billy Idol in it is good enough for me, frankly.

So that's me - what are your 'always watch' movies?