Fifty Shades of Grey

I love bad movies. Whenever Nic Cage has a movie out, chances are sooner or later - I'll see it. So when something as atrocious as Fifty Shades of Grey shows up I naturally need to watch it. I did not read the 'book' this 'movie' is based on but I heard the comments that it's even worse than a film. I'm not surprised. What occurred to me during watching this film is that truly there are still some things that can surprise me.

12 Years a Slave

Based on true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty, as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon's chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.

50/50

88/100 (100 min, 2011)
Plot: Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis, and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.
Director: Jonathan Levine
Writer: Will Reiser
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick

With a Little Help from My Friends

- You could have totally fucked the shit out of that girl.
- No one wants to fuck me. I look like Voldemort.

The title of the movie refers to the chances of survival Adam, the protagonist of the film, has. He is 27 years old, he has a job, a girlfriend and a good friend he hangs out with. And then one day when he is running, he feels pain in his back. He goes to the doctor who informs him he has rare form of cancer.

"50/50" is a remarkable movie. Granted, I don't recall seeing many films about people dealing with cancer, but this is the first time that the movie about such subject matter has so many light moments and actually feels uplifting. Instead of focusing on the darkness of the situation and portraying Adam as victim, he is shown as a regular person that simply got ill. He doesn't break down, he doesn't cry all the time. Of course he is sad, of course he is mad at what happened to him. But life, however short it may turn out to be, goes on.

(500) Days of Summer

(95 min, 2009)
Director: Marc Webb
Writers: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Stars: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Geoffrey Arend
 

I want the one I can't have

"I want the one I can't have
And it's driving me mad
It's written all over my face"

- The Smiths, "I want the one I can't have"

Meet Tom. He writes catchy phrases for postcards, he likes the Smiths, he is a romantic.

Meet Summer. She's individualistic, independent. She never wants to get married and she doesn't believe in true, romantic love.

500 Days of Summer is a romantic comedy, told in nonlinear narrative structure, jumping between 1st and 500th day of Tom and Summer's relationship. There is one thing that will kill every movie, especially romantic comedy - lack of chemistry. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are a terrible match when it comes to personality and on screen presence. But it's not their fault - Zooey is like a separate entity - she is in the movie, but she is never a part of it. Sure, her character was supposed to be independent, but in the light of Summer's final choice, casting Deschanel was a big mistake. Zooey is a wonderful person but she is a terrible actress - I don't know if I can even call her that - her characters are exactly like her. Had I not made mistake of watching interviews with her I wouldn't know that. I never saw a single interview with her sister Emily (who plays doctor Temperance Brennan in well known show Bones) and I still regard Emily as a good actress. But Zooey is always the same, the only two times that I may, just may, admit she tried something new was in “Winter Passing” and “The Assassination of Jesse James..” but her performance there was very brief – I still hope we will get to see more of her in rumored Director Cut of that film, which is almost holding a legendary status, since only few saw it and no one knows if it's ever going to be released.

127 hours

(94 min, 2010)
Director: Danny Boyle
Writers: Danny Boyle (screenplay), Simon Beaufoy (screenplay)
Stars: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara

“One pound of flesh, no more no less. No cartilage, no bone, but only flesh. This task done... and he would go free."

“127 Hours” is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's (played by James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life .Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers, family, and the two hikers he met before his accident.

The human being will do anything to survive. It's our primary instinct – to live, to go on. Every single one of us would do anything to keep going. But Aron Ralston actually ended up in a situation where he literally got stuck between rock and the the hard place. He got on a trip one day, without telling anyone where he was going and he got stuck, in the middle of nowhere, with his arm crashed by giant rock. There was no one around, nobody heard his screams for help. He was all alone.

There are two reasons for which “127 Hours” is an extremely powerful movie – first, it forces us to think what would we do in such situation. Aron figures out what may be his only way to live very early, but he waits till last moment to do it. In order to live he will have to abandon part of himself and that will make his life considerably worse, not to mention the excruciating pain that comes along with his final decision. That scene is overwhelming to witness. In my life of movie fan I saw hundreds of gruesome, horrifying scenes but I'm absolutely certain that the rumors of people fainting during that sequence are true. I felt not so much sick as dizzy – the content of the scene and the way it is shot is nauseating and I myself experience vertigo during watching it. It's one of the best scenes of the year, it captures the horror and the gore of the unimaginable situation without tiptoeing around the terrible subject matter. And we watch it in astonishment – how much strength and bravery must one have to do something like that?