brave again

this is a random post, but it's what i'm thinking about today, so there you go.

this afternoon i finally watched brave again. i saw it for the first time over the summer at the drive-in. a word about seeing movies at the drive-in: it's more about the experience/atmosphere than the actual movie. i also saw the avengers at the drive-in last summer, and it's hard to really pay attention when you're in the back of a suburban with 6 other people. i don't remember anything about that movie. with brave, i somehow totally missed the parade of bare animated bums in the middle of the movie, which definitely got a laugh the second time around.

i also missed a lot of the artistry at the drive-in. merida's hair is SO awesome in the movie. hair is one of the things pixar does best, in my opinion :) in fact, this picture is from an article all about merida's hair--apparently, it took pixar experts three years to figure out how to engineer natural-looking curly hair. sweet! and people kept telling me that her mom's facial expressions as a bear were really awesome, but i couldn't tell until i watched up close.

and i was critical of the story the first time. i still wouldn't say that brave is my top disney/pixar, but is a pretty cool movie nonetheless, so different from other pixar movies and other princess movies. it's a definite departure from the model to not end a princess story with a marriage/betrothal. instead, the focus is on merida's relationship with her mother and her own independence.

so, basically, i like this movie a lot more than i thought i did. now i need to see the avengers again :)

in other news, tomorrow i'm going to a charter school fair--nerve-racking! i'm hoping to get some good information and experience more than anything else, but it would be great to get some things moving on the job front. so we'll see. if nothing else, i at least know i'm going to eat a good dinner tomorrow night when i have my birthday diner with mom and dad--i think it's going to be a steak kind of night. whatever that means?

truly random spewings about movies and dvd players

for my birthday, meredith bought me (at my pleading suggestion), a new dvd player, since ours, a relic from my belmont days, has been out of commission since the summer.

so, last night, i set up the new machine for to watch penelope, which was basically why i wanted her to get the dvd player on my birthday--i really wanted to watch that movie.

i love movies, but i don't think i'm a movie snob. i like art films--sometimes i'll want to go to a movie like that, but i know meredith would be so bored, so i just go by myself--but i also like some of those cheesy, fun, moralizing movies that aren't about to win any awards. ramona and beezus is one of those; penelope is another. (there are obviously some movies that i really, really don't like--last year's horrid depp-burton collab dark shadows comes to mind. and, i'll get flak for this, a walk to remember. can't stand that movie.)

but anyway, we watched penelope and i had forgotten how great it is. at one point i said, i actually really love this movie.

well, this became more random than i thought it would be. i guess mostly i'm excited to have a machine to watch dvds on besides my computer, which we had to hook up with a special cable borrowed from tyler and then i couldn't work on my computer and it was kind of a hassle. and this is all pretty insignificant, really. but, that's it for now.

watch these: lincoln and lars and the real girl

i've been watching a lot of good movies lately, both old movies that i've been meaning to see forever and new movies that i knew i would love. these two each fit one of those categories.

last weekend, emily asked me if i wanted to see lincoln, and my answer was a resounding YES. i am a sucker for historical drama, and i'm especially fascinated by abraham lincoln, since i have realized that i really don't know much about him as a person. the movie was awesome, and now i'm obsessed with daniel day-lewis (if you want to know more about him and his process (which you do), read this great article from TIME.) his portayal of lincoln was thought-provoking and eye-opening. being the President in a time of peace would be hard enough; how impossible would it be during wartime, not to mention civil-wartime? all of the acting was great, with bonus joseph gordon-levitt, and lee pace of pushing daisies fame! obviously, les mis is amazing and groundbreaking in terms of movie musicals, but i'm all about lincoln and daniel day-lewis come oscar time.

we are still without a dvd player, so our home-movie-watching capabilities are limited to netflix these days. last night we decided to watch lars and the real girl. the premise is pretty wacky--lars (ryan gosling) is very socially awkward and lonely, so he buys a "real doll" who becomes his girlfriend. the reactions from his family and the town are hilarious, but even more endearing was how lars treated "bianca," a wheelchair-bound brazilian missionary. who makes up a girlfriend in a wheelchair? ryan gosling is great; he's adorable and lovable and you just want him to be able to make something happen with someone real.

so, those are my two new recommendations. see them as you will!

a quick word

the first key to writing is to WRITE, 

not to THINK.

finding forrester

"all my little peccadillos"

this weekend i watched good will hunting, without all the swears that i found out were in the movie when i was looking up quotes for this post. the editing made it a little choppy, though i am told that the cinematography is kinda choppy anyway.

but anyway. i liked the movie, especially some of its thoughts on love. i mean, when am i ever not thinking about love? so it makes sense that those parts of the movie stood out to me.

here's the gist: will (matt damon), a foster kid from the slums of boston, is a janitor at MIT who is secretly a genius. he catches the attention of a prominent mathematician who decides to mentor will in order to keep him out of prison. part of the deal is that will also has to meet with a counselor to work through some of his issues.

sean (robin williams), his therapist, comes from a similar background and is able to build trust with will. like i said, the best parts for me were those where sean and will talk about relationships. here's a discussion that i really like.

Sean: You'll have bad times, but it'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to. Maybe you're perfect right now. Maybe you don't wanna ruin that. I think that's a super philosophy, Will, that way you can go through your entire life without ever having to really know anybody...My wife used to fart when she was nervous. She had all sorts of wonderful idiosyncrasies. You know what? She used to fart in her sleep. [they laugh] Sorry I shared that with you. One night it was so loud it woke the dog up. She woke up and gone like "oh was that you?" I'd say yeah...I didn't have the heart to tell her...[cracks up] Oh [sheesh]... 
Will: [laughing hysterically] She woke herself up? 
Sean: [in hysterics himself] Yes!.... Oh [goodness]....aahhh, but, Will, she's been dead two years and that's the [stuff] I remember. [Will stops laughing] Wonderful stuff, you know, little things like that. Ah, but, those are the things I miss the most. The little idiosyncrasies that only I knew about. That's what made her my wife. Oh, and she had the goods on me, too; she knew all my little peccadillos. People call these things imperfections, but they're not — aw that's the good stuff. And then we get to choose who we let into our weird little worlds. You're not perfect, sport. And let me save you the suspense. This girl you met, she isn't perfect either. But the question is: whether or not you're perfect for each other. That's the whole deal. That's what intimacy is all about. Now you can know everything in the world, sport, but the only way you're findin' out that one is by givin' it a shot. You certainly won't learn from an old [crazy] like me. Even if I did know, I wouldn't tell a [kid] like you.

first, apparently that first part was totally improvised by robin williams, so the hysterical laughter is legit, not just really good acting. but also, this is exactly what i believe about relationships. i've been thinking about this a lot lately. i want to be in a passionate relationship someday, the kind you see in romantic movies. but, i also know that that kind of passion doesn't necessarily define a marital relationship, especially after the first few years. then, the passion hopefully becomes something deeper, and that's something that i don't fully understand now. i think that initial spark is important, but what's maybe more important is the life you build together in the years to come. i think that's what sean is talking about here, partly. getting to know each other, quirks and imperfections and idiosyncrasies and all, and still being so in love, is what i want to get to.

and i love those bolded lines sosososososo much. none of us are perfect! but that's not the point; it's about being perfect for each other. man, i really love that. i know this is only a movie, but i really believe that's how it's supposed to work, how it can work.

so those are my thoughts on good will hunting, one of the movies to cross off on my list of must-sees. next up: finding forrester and a few good men.

huh? october's almost over?

goodness, what happened to me over the past week? i told a friend that i hadn't blogged in over a week and he said, "that's probably good for you." i'm not sure what that's supposed to mean.

but anyway, what have i been up to lately, you ask? well, last week i took a test in the testing center for the first time in three years, i prepared an institute lesson, i went to a stake dance in a barn, i stayed home from the goth prom to fold laundry and watch 12 angry men, which was awesome, i went to a granddaughter tea party hosted by mom and nana, and i had a very successful shopping trip to h&m wherein i purchased a lovely lace skirt at half price.

mostly, i've been having little everyday adventures. i shall be detailing some of these shortly.


to end this comeback post, i'd like to direct your attention to this article, which helps lay to rest the argument that learning how to write well is a useless skill. i'm looking at you, friend!