The Giant Mechanical Man

Gotta love Netflix. I went back through the quirky and witty sections, and ended up watching The Giant Mechanical Man. It was so amazing and awkward and real. I loved it. It also has an interesting pretense; the leading man is one of those painted street people (I forget what the correct term is). Also, Topher Grace (Eric from That 70's Show) is in it, as well as a few random folks from Gilmore Girls.

It is definitely a fun movie to watch, especially with all of the recent events going on in the world. It's weirdly inspiring.

Splinterheads

    A few days ago, I actually watched an entire movie intentionally and not for a class. Crazy, right? I bookmarked movies from the Quirky and Witty sections of Netflix so that the titles don't show up and I can pick one at random whenever I feel that weird urge to watch a movie. My most recent choice was Splinterheads. It's a little indie, and it definitely has an offbeat feel, which I love. Also, two of the main things in this movie are carnivals and geocaching (like modern day treasure hunting). How cool is that?

     This movie is indie until the end, which pans out a little too awkwardly for my taste. However, the scenery was nicely done, and the plot has a slight Hangover feel if you're into that. It was not one of my favorites, but its discussion of geocaching was intriguing and original. Basically, I'd want to live in this movie as opposed to watching it again (especially since Rachel Taylor and Thomas Middleditch, the main actors, are flawless).

Charlie Bartlett

In my popular film class, we were told to write a ten page analysis paper on our favorite movie. I chose Charlie Bartlett, because it is one of the few movies that I can stand to watch more than once. While I will not go in depth about it here (since I already wrote ten pages about the film), I will just say that it is incredible, and that you should all watch it. 

Here a few reason that you should definitely see this movie...

 It speaks directly to my soul.

Kat Dennings is in it.

 

The positive messages interwoven throughout this movie, and the witty ways that they are said/shown.

So many oldish Degrassi characters.

This scene.

""Hello. My name is Charlie Bartlett. If there's anything I want you to remember tonight, it's that you are not alone."

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

     As you can probably guess by the title of this post, I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind today. I have had this movie in my Netflix queue for forever, but due to my short attention span, I hadn't watched it until now (I am not really a huge movie person).

     I was a little wary of the cast line up, since I am used to seeing Jim Carey as more a a comedy actor, and a lot of the actors are familiar faces (something that weirds me out since I see them as the actor and less as the character). However, the movie was amazing. Everything was beautifully done, and all of the back stories came together in such a stunning way (especially Kirsten Dunst's plotline, did not see that one coming).

     Basically, Clementine and Joel (Kate Winslet and Jim Carey) start the film broken up and hating each other, to the point where they were both using a memory-eraser in order to forget about each other. But as the memory-eraser-people erase Joel's memories, forcing him to relive them (while they get shwasted and high), he ends up wanting Clementine back. Crazy stuff.

It's an interesting concept, forgetting someone that broke your heart in any way, one that I am sure most of us (myself included) have though about at some point or another.

My English teacher in high school said that all forms of literary expression (books, movies, etc.) have two purposes: two inform, and entertain. Too often, movies only entertain. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind does both. It made me think.

My second favorite scene barely lasts five seconds, but it involves this little old lady having memories of her dead husband removed. She is bawling, and my heart breaks for her. partly because she reminds me of my Oma (after my Opa died), and partly because it's an intense scene.

     The ending was by far the the part of this movie that made it the amazing picture that it is to me. When couples are broken up in most movies, they will be happily reunited like nothing happened, even if their problems aren't actually solved. Without spoiling the ending for you guys, this doesn't happen, making this piece a lot more honest.



If you could forget someone who broke your heart, even if they were a huge part of your life, would you?