Tarantino Wins

I decided to choose Quentin Tarantino as my director to emulate. He is one of the most iconic directors of modern time and has worked on some of the greatest movies ever made - the most famous being Pulp Fiction. His film Kill Bill Vol. 1 was actually the film that made me want to work in the film industry. 

Early History of Tarantino:

Quentin Tarantino was born Quentin Jerome Tarantino in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1963. He was in love with film from an early age and decided to skip college and go right into the filmmaking industry. His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed My Best Friend's Birthday. In the early 1990s, however, his career really began as independent filmmaker with his release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992 (which is regarded as a classic and cult hit and one of the best independent films of all time by Empire Mag). Then he released Pulp Fiction in 1994 which shot him into stardom. Then he released Jackie Brown (inspsired by the 1970s "blacksploitation" films). He then released a less popular, but still fantastic, From Dusk Till Dawn, and then took a while to come out with his highly admired cult following film Kill Bill Vol.'s 1 & 2. Later he went on to make critically acclaimed box office buster films such as Inglorious Bastards and Django Unchained. A Kill Bill Vol. 3 was in talks, but is said to be no longer a thing. 

Most Notable Film(s): 

- Reservoir Dogs (first official film)

- Jackie Brown

- Pulp Fiction

- From Dusk Till Dawn

- Kill Bill Vol. 1 (the movie that made me want to make movies. loved the "do whatever the hell you want" aspect of it) 

- Kill Bill Vol. 2

- Inglorious Bastards

- Django Unchained

Style: 

- Trunk Shot (From Below) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwO0rkbq_QU

- Above Shots 

- Close Ups (on mouths)

- ....Foot Fetish

- Long Takes/Tracking Shots 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfJx04mWMMY

                                           2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMhxayjtNz0

Fun Fact:

He dated Sophia Coppola (director) aka Francis Ford Coppola's daughter. Whoa. 

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We're The Millers is GOLDEN.

Thankfully, we are spared the dreary backstories in this saga of a small-time drug dealer who recruits a stripper, a homeless girl, and a neglected teenage neighbor to provide cover for crossing the border by posing as his family. But that is one of the few small mercies as we are spared very little else in a relentless onslaught of bad language and gross-out humor.  Everyone on screen is slumming a little in this silly comedy.  Jason Sudeikis is David, who started dealing pot in college and just stayed with it while his contemporaries got straight jobs, got pudgy, and moved out to the suburbs with their families, envying his carefree lifestyle.  Jennifer Aniston, who is clearly working through something after a series of roles that show more of her body than her comedy skills, plays Rose, a stripper who lives in David’s building. The homeless girl, Casey, is Emma Roberts, and “Son of Rambow’s” Will Poulter plays Kenny, the lonely, inexperienced teenager.

When David is robbed and can’t pay his supplier, he has to take on a gig smuggling “a smidge” of marijuana into the US from Mexico because “my regular courier is out on account of he got gunned down.”  He looks up drug smuggling on Wikipedia.  When he sees some clueless tourists get sympathetic treatment from a cop, he decides that the only way to get through customs without being checked is to appear to be a middle class family taking a vacation in an RV.  So he hires Rose and Casey and invites Kenny to come along.  They all dress up like an ad for back-to-school clothes from the mall, figuring that the border guards will wave them through.

Then come the problems.  The contraband is more than a smidge.  The people they took it from are mean men with guns who want it back.  Behaving like a normal family is not something that comes easily to any of them.  Those border guards have dogs.  And there is a relentlessly cheery couple with a pretty daughter keep wanting to hang out (and more *wink wink*).

Sudeikis is a gifted comedian with a likeable screen presence, even when playing a guy whose hostility is only thinly disguised by his slacker demeanor.  He’s the kind of guy whose barbed witticisms are mostly for his own enjoyment because he never sees anyone on his wavelength.  His response to an idiot who ends every remark with “Know what I’m saying?” is “I can hear and I speak English, so yes, I do.”  He’s even able to muster some vulnerability when he shows us that he has always liked Rose more than he was able to show her.  Poulter and Roberts are far better than the material they are given, and Aniston is reliable as always.

The movie begins with a series of YouTube classics like the double rainbow guy, as David aimlessly clicks through them while he is on the phone with his mother.  This movie merits about that same level of engagement, a time-waster and a talent-waster.

Parents should know that this film is a very graphic and raunchy comedy about drug dealing and smuggling with extended jokes about stripping, lap dances, incest, group sex, and wife-swapping, constant very strong and explicit language, mostly comic peril and violence including guns, chases, car crashes and mayhem, homophobic humor, and close-up shots of severely swollen genitalia.  There are some funny moments and clever quips, and it continues to put smiles on faces throughout the whole film. Two thumbs up for sure. 

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What does this ad have to do with playstation.....

David Lynch Directed this interestingly disturbing commercial. I know Lynch is...........experimental.......but like it's interesting why playstation would want him to direct a commercial for a gaming console. I was confused while watching it. Well, more unsettled than confused honestly. However, I thought this was cool at the same time. Unlike the commercial Angel showed us, lynch took a completely different direction. I don't know what that direction is, but i know it's very creative and interesting.

http://www.openculture.com/2012/02/david_lynchs_surreal_commercials.html

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Light One for The Union....one of the best documentaries I've ever seen

This is a documentary about marijuana, the marijuana industry in British Columbia, and the stigma that most of western society (especially the USA) places on this plant. The union referred to in the title is the commonly used name of the loose affiliation of groups and individuals that make the estimated 7 billion dollar illegal industry in BC possible.

This was a real eye-opener for me. I knew to some extent that marijuana wasn't as bad as everybody seemed to make it out to be; I knew that it is the only drug that has never killed anybody, and that smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol, two legalized drugs, are far more dangerous than smoking pot. However, I didn't know how ridiculous the situation really is. I don't usually do detailed summaries of films, but I think this needs to be known.

The basic message of the movie is that marijuana not only is not harmful (tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs, and even coffee are more deadly) but actually has medicinal and commercial benefits. In fact, these two attributes are part of the reason that the plant is prohibited. Drug companies hate to have a natural-growing plant have so many benefits that any manufactured drug cannot give, and many corporations would stand to lose a lot of money if industrial hemp becomes largely used. Because of these benefits, growing marijuana was not only legal before the 20th century, it was actually encouraged.

Another reason for its prohibition (at least in the USA) is that it was used by the government as a reason to be able to arrest people. This leads to very complicated issues regarding politics, war, and profiteering, which I would rather not expand upon, as it would greatly increase the length of this post. The documentary also explains why prohibition never works, using the prohibition of alcohol, which causes more problems than pot, as a perfect example of this. Needless to say, there seems to be no good reason why marijuana is targeted and treated far more seriously than hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin, and why it is not treated like legalized drugs.

The scary thing is that all of the information in the movie was confirmed by doctors, biochemists, scholars, former politicians, and former law enforcement officials, as well as scientific studies, all agreeing that marijuana poses no harm apart from what the its prohibition creates. This means that the facts, which have been put to study countless times, have been suppressed by the public because of the agenda of lobby groups.

Anyway, as for the film itself, it is a very solid documentary. It informs as well as entertains, and includes many documentaries and facts about the marijuana business, all of which are very interesting. It is put together very well, and flows naturally into each new segment. Most importantly, it gets its point across quite clearly. As strange as this may sound, this bears similarities toAn Inconvenient Truth, in that it exposes such an obvious lie by the people in power due to corporate interests.

I highly recommend this to everybody. It really turns the current views of this controlled substance on its head, and shows that marijuana is not even close to being as bad as the common belief would have you think.

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When Harry Met Sally. Not as cliche as I thought...for the time at least.

Love is something that can happen to anyone at anytime and with someone you never might have imagined. When Harry (Crystal) hitched a ride with Sally (Ryan) to head to New York to start a new life, they hated each other from the word go. Harry, was the womanizer and had a set of pre-defined rules on the behavior of men which did not agree with Sally, a lady who keeps her borders well protected. They mentally vowed never to meet again, or so they thought so. Life progressed, they met new partners, bumped into each other occasionally but maintained their distance. What they didn't realize is that them being away actually brought them very close and eventually made them best friends. Although the movie follows the conventional romance story line, is still very different and not like any run of the mill romance-comedy movie. There is a touch of practicality and it is not something that can only remain in books and movies and never to any individual. Great performances by both Crystal and Ryan and they truly had a strong on-screen chemistry to carry off the role. If a comfortable romance movie is what you seek, then this movie delivers but something that is sorely missed is the slightly more frequent appearance of humor (especially in the iconic scene in the dinner...if you've seen this movie you know what I'm talking about). 

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Now You See Me.....and you realize I'm not all that I'm cut out to be.

Magic is the art of manipulation of sight and nothing else. It is due to this very art of manipulation, 4 magicians are brought together to become the ultimate magic troupe in history. J. Daniel Atlas aka The Lovers (Eisenberg), Merritt McKinley aka The Hermit (Harrelson), Henley Reeves aka The High Priestess (Fisher) and Jack Wilder aka Death (Fisher) come together to form the Four Horsemen. The four travel throughout the country, thrilling audiences when suddenly during a show in Las Vegas they announce that they are going to rob a bank standing right there on stage. The troupe's antics and success in pulling off the stunt shakes the police force but are unable to pin anything against the Four Horseman on the basis of lack of logical proof. Dylan Rhodes (Ruffalo) is assigned the task to crack the case and assisted by Alma Dray (Laurent) from Interpol but no matter what Dylan does, the horseman are always 2 steps ahead of him. The movie is an example of when the trailer is far better than the actual movie in itself. The way magic looks marvelous at first sight but when you dig deeper you realize things are not all that great, this movie too follows a similar path. It is visually enticing and can keep you glued but the story itself is extremely shaky and is built upon co-incidents, assumptions, unrealistic occurrences and unresolved mysteries. The flaws in the story are pretty much endless and don't be surprised if you get up in the end scratching your head. The idea of a heist movie with magicians is definitely unique, but the movie lacked the strong story to support this thought.

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Documentary Treatment

Topic: Special Needs

Interviewees:
Will Pelic
Mr. Pelic
Mrs. Pelic
Annie Pelic
Teddy Pelic (sort of main)

Chelsea Vanderhaden

Overview: In order to understand the struggle behind being a special needs child, Teddy Pelic, 21, will expand on his experiences being a child who was under those troubling circumstances, in addition to commentary from his family/friends and how Teddy's condition affected theirs'.

Goal: I want the audience to understand that not only is the child affected by his/her condition, but those around him will be affected as well. I want viewers to not only realize the extent of being special needs when young, but also how it develops/gets better or worse as one ages. 

Film Outline: Will Pelic sits in a chair, discussing his brother's troubles as a special needs child. Shots of his room and personal belongings bring out some of his aesthetics and portray him as just another human being. He talks over these short shots, while shots change from the hands, eyes, and lips of his. I will ask questions about Will's experience having a special needs brother. He will talk about the moving from school to school, losing friends and gaining friends, going to the hospital so much, having to work for college now because his family's expenses are high (due to hospital bills). The film will then focus on Annie Pelic, Teddy's sister, for a bit for her to have her input on how she feels about her brother, and the stress it has put on her and her family. After her commentary, Teddy's parents will talk about their struggles as parents. Seeing as it is hard for parents to see their child go through such hard situations, I want to know their thoughts and emotions on whats happening to their son.

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