Tuesday, March 25, 2008

"Little Miss Sunshine"

The movie, "Little Miss Sunshine" is about a middle-class family dealing with financial problems. The dad is trying to support the family by giving people motivation from his nine step program for success in life. The mom tries keeping everyone calm and satisfied without actually helping the money issue, stating that she doesn't have a job. Dwayne, a teenager, is their son, who took a vow of silence until he succeeds with his dream of becoming a test pilot, which his dad thinks he is following his nine step program. Their little girl Olive is just trying to find herself in her messed up family.

The story begins by the mom picking up her brother, who was in the hospital for attempted suicide. They sit down for their evening meal and the family is just plain weird and awkward because they go from the serious father to the son who doesn't speak, and the grandpa who is doing drugs. The parents get in a fight and then Olive gets in the middle because of her Little Miss Sunshine pageant. The entire family decides to go to California for the pageant because the mother fears that another attempted suicide might happen. They don't have a lot of money so they decide to drive their olden day van that barely runs. The van ends up malfunctioning along the entire trip. First of all, it completely stops running, and they get to the point that they have to push the van in order for it to work. They all start by pushing the car until it gains speed so it can start up, and then one by one they jump in the car. Another instance with the van occurs when it honks uncontrollably, and they even get pulled over. They stop at a hotel and decide to call it a night. Olive the little girl interrupts her parents' sleep and tells them that her grandpa is dead.

The family's next course of action is at the hospital with all of the papers to file about the dead body. They only have a few hours until the beauty contest so the family steals the grandpa's dead body and puts it in the trunk. They manage to get to the pageant and are bewildered with all of the girls, who look nothing like Olive. Olive performs her dance routine exactly like her grandpa showed her and the audience is awe struck because it isn't like any of the other girls' routines, it is more of a strip show. Olive's parents are told to take their daughter off the stage but instead they join in on the strip/porn dance. The police end up coming and Olive is allowed to go on the condition that she never enters another beauty contest in the state of California again. The family quickly obliges and is on their way home.

The trip seemed to bring the family together, even though they all did not want to go along in the first place. Even though the grandpa ended up dying, dwayne broke his vow of silence because he found out he was color blind and is now unable to become a pilot. The uncle seemed to be okay with this family even though he saw his ex with the new boyfriend. The Little Miss Sunshine pageant did wonders for the family.

The article entitled, "In High Fear on Low Funds" was an all right article. It dealt with talking about a family with limited means. Most movies don't talk about money issues or if they do, its not a matter because they have so much money. This movie was more down to earth with the middle class folks. The family in this movie didn't have a lot of money, but they still worked things out and tried to make everyone happy.

The other article talked about the five vans that were used in the film. I thought this was a very interesting article. I would never have imagined that they had used five different vans because they all looked the same in the film. I never thought about something going wrong with them but in reality it was an older type of van and it was in a climate that is very warm. Overall, it was a great article and an overall great movie to watch!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

"The Full Monty"

The movie is about a guy named Gaz, who used to work in a steel mill making all sorts of different steel products. The mill soon goes out of business and Gaz loses his job along with other workers. So Gaz and his friend Dave try looking for a job or a way to get money. Gaz wants money for child support, so he can continue to see his son and Dave wants money to support his family. They start off the movie by stealing a big piece of steel, but instead it sinks their car in water. When this stunt turns out bad, they stumble across Chippendales, a men's show for women. This show involves dancing for women, but the men are not completely naked. Gaz and Dave decide that dancing for women would be a very good way to get the money that is needed. At first the men aren't too excited to do the strip show because of their physical bodies(mainly Dave, because he is fat), but they continue with the show. Next, they quickley get Lomper to join their show, who was was introduced to the film trying to kill himself by fumes going into his car. Gaz and Dave stop him and he goes along for the ride of the strip show. Soon, Gerald joins the dance show, he worked with Gaz and Dave at the steel mill. The guys sabotage Gerald's interview and Gerald was lost with no alternative but to join the show. The reason why Gerald also needs money is because his wife is still spending money like crazy and doesn't know that he lost his job. So, the strip show seems like a fast and easy way to get the money that he needs now!
The men start interviewing guys for their show and decide to have horse and a couple other guys join. They practice in an abandoned factory and are really worried about their appearances. They get caught practicing their strip show and the town of Sheffield finds out who the men are that were having the "real, naked show," so now they have to perform especially since 200 tickets were sold.
They perform the show and are nude, as in full monty, and that is why the movie is called, "The Full Monty." Also, in the end the last thing that was taken off was the hat. In addition to that, throughout the entire movie, music was played from when the guys are strolling down the street and come across chippendales to the time when they are performing their show.

The article talks about how the movie was based upon olden times when employment was a tough thing to find. It goes from talking about men that are steelworkers to men that take their clothes off in public, since society doesn't have a "role" for them anymore. Also, the article talks about how the men of this day and age, felt as if they needed to support their families, and one of the best ways to do that was to strip down, although this movie wasn't just about stripping down, it was also about creating a bond between these men and fulfilling their need of money for their families.
The article continues to go on to talk about bodies of men and women. It started off by talking about how men were presumed to be the tough, strong, built, and the hard gender; while women were perceived as light, feminine, soft, and weak gender. This image is soon changed with the guys showing off their bodies. The women turn into this wild beast that don't need men in their lives anymore, except for performing strip tease shows. An example is when a woman came in the bathroom of Chippendales and used a urinal. Altogether the article explains that the different relationships between men and women, and men with their sons is very important to society and men will do about anything to keep it going. The Full Monty was a prime example of someone being considered low class in the society to someone becoming a hero in the end.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Amelie

1) I think some of the things that stood out to me about the movie first off was the subtitles. They were translated to english differently than how Americans would normally talk, because the french language has different sentencing of words than what I am used to. I thought that storyline was also a little different because it was confusing and weird at the same time. I disliked Amelie because she seemed more less like a creeper and stalker than someone that was just trying to do go deeds for others. I was somewhat intrigued by the movie as well because it was nothing like American movies, especially in the sense that we don't flat out say, "sally likes these things and sally hates this." The plot was very confusing until the end when I figured out what she was trully doing with all of these peoples' lives and the end is when I figured out that she was actually trying to help all of these people. The movie was simple yet very complex. Also, it was very surprising!

2) I thought the movie was about a young girl whose parents sheltered her from the world because they thought she had heart problems and she was forced to be home-schooled by her mother. Her mother dies and later on she moves to a new apartment, by herself. At the apartment, she finds some treasure in one of the walls of the bathroom which was left by a former resident. She returns the treasure and she loves how the guy was so happy that she gave the treasure back to him that she decides to devote her time to doing good deeds for others throughout the movie such as writing love letters, helping the guy with the treasure box, helping two lovers unite, and also helping the guy who is said to have brittle bones and paints. After all of this, Amelie decides that she also wants to be happy, so she does so by doing little deeds to "tell" her lover that she likes him. It isn't until the very end that the guy figures out who has been playing these tricks on him and they begin dating.

3) I learned from Amelie that you should do good deeds for others to make them happy, but to also make yourself happy. In addition to that I learned to follow your heart and everything will come out in the end.