Soundtrack Wednesday - Frost/Nixon

Track: Beverly Hilton

Artist: Hans Zimmer

Movie: Frost/Nixon

Delusions to the rescue. Analyzing Jason Reitman's Young Adult.

"She was consumed by 3 simple things:

drink, despair, loneliness; and 2 more:

youth and beauty"

— Charles Bukowski (The People Look Like Flowers at Last) 

Jason Reitman's Young Adult tells a story of Mavis Gary, a woman approaching 40 and a former prom queen. Mavis never grew up - she was always told how beautiful and amazing she was, which cause her to rely on her looks and never getting a chance to develop strong personality. When she was in high school she was popular and everyone always assumed she will achieve great things. She was dating Buddy Slade, it was a love of her life. In the beginning of the movie Mavis gets a message from Buddy's wife Beth informing her that she and Buddy just had a baby. Mavis is shown pulling her hair out for the first time when she looks at the picture - it's a compulsion, she does it every single time something reminds her of how wrong her life went and when everyone moved on, severed their connections to their teenage years, went on to do new things and started families, Mavis is just standing still, still trapped in her old mentality. She prints the photo of the baby and sits on the balcony looking at it. You can see curious things going through Mavis's face as she looks at it - nostalgia, jealousy and confusion. Mavis shakes the good emotions right off and comes up with a plan - she will go back to Mercury, her old town and win Buddy back. She is convincing herself that Buddy is trapped in his new life and he still loves her.

Screaming Sunday: The Thing (2011)

Sati's movie rating - 62/100
Plot: Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region of Antarctica for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew's pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish. "The Thing" serves as a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name.
The heroes: The team of scientists and Kate Lloyd, played by lovely Winstead, who is actually quite strong and admirable horror movie heroine. I have not noticed her doing anything idiotic during the course of the film which is admirable. I'm omitting the fact that when the expedition stumbles across the alien organism that was frozen for 100,000 years instead of just leaving this in the ice and getting the hell away from there, which is what I would do, they can't wait for examine it. Oh, by all freaking means do so.
The antagonists: The Thing, creature from space that is able to imitate all the organic tissues and make itself look like anyone in the research team. It can't however replicate non-organic materials, like for example teeth fillings, which will be a basis for one suspense filled scene.

Saturday TV Special: True Blood

Plot: Based on the series of novels by Charlaine Harris, "True Blood" follows young waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who is able to read in other people's minds. The show is set in Bon Temps, Louisiana, in the world where vampires exist among people and actually fight for their rights. The title refers to the synthetic blood the vampires drink in order not to feed off people. But as there are those of them who try to live peacefully among humans - as Sookie's main love interest Bill Compton, there are also others, who miss the old ways. During the course of the show other supernatural beings make appearance - werewolves, shape shifters, fairies, ghosts and even a Meanad, straight from Greek mythology.
Structure: Each season is centered around different major issue - first season is the only one to follow the books closely and it deals with a serial killer who murders women associated to vampires, second season deals with the curious character of MaryAnn who takes over the town, third one introduces werewolves and fourth one - based on the best novel and unfortunately the worst season of the show yet - deals with witches, fairies and magic. There also major story arcs that last through the entire series - the addiction to vampire blood - V - which is a powerful narcotic when consumed by humans, Sookie's many suitors and her doubts about all of them, the people who want to destroy the vampires - the Fellowship of the Sun, which is essentially a church and a gathering of fanatics and Sookie's struggle to find out why is she a telepath.

100 things the movies taught me.

Inspired by this brilliant post I decided to put together my own list, which is essentially composed out of some of the memorable quotes that stuck with me after seeing the movies. You can make a guessing game out of it and try to remember what movie is the quote from. Emjoy!

1. The only person standing in your way is you. Black Swan

2. Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you may never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce. And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. And even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are only here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. Synecdoche New York

3. You've seen the films, kiddo. It ain't over 'til it's over. Love Actually

4. No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of. The Big Lebowski

5. This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time. Fight Club

6. Silencio... Mulholland Drive

7. I'm not the guy you kill. I'm the guy you buy! Are you so fucking blind that you don't even see what I am? I sold out Arthur for 80 grand. I'm your easiest problem and you're gonna kill me? Michael Clayton

8. That's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten.  Pulp Fiction

9. That six pound piece of shit stuck in your trousers would do more damage if you fed it to him. Snatch