Bully and queen Megan, star athlete Colin, artistic outsider Hannah and nerdy Jake. What do they have in common? They’re all in their last year of high school in Warsaw, Indiana. And they’re all struggling with school and life in general.
Being a huge hit at the Sundance Film Festival, Paramount is finally giving American Teen a proper release this summer. It looks like 'A Random MTV Documentary: The Movie', meaning bigger, better and probably a little more professional. Still, it will be a hard sell, since you can see this every other day at home. And it's not like documentaries attract an enormous amount of visitors these days.
From the first reviews however, there seems to be only praise for director Nanette Burstein. Making the 'ordinary' high school life something unique. It seems to be one of those documentaries that captures your attention from the start. And trough all the different characters, deals with all human emotions like Murderball did.
So while this might not be a hit at the box office, it might still be.. yeah, there it is again.. worth the popcorn! And if you are going to see this, you probably like those MTV documentaries too. So in the worst case scenario, you are getting an expensive MTV docu at a big screen with some delicious popcorn. Not the worst night out I can imagine.
Helen is living the life she has always wanted: working at a top modeling agency, living in New York city and enjoying life with fashion shows and nights out at the best clubs in town. Everything seems to be going just the way it’s supposed to be, but then she receives a terrible phone call. Her sister and brother-in-law died in a car accident. Her life is getting upside down when custody over their three children is left with Helen. Will she manage to change her life drastically to actually raise those three children, instead of being just a cool aunt?
Again a sweet movie with a happy ending. But although most of the Pink Popcorn Friday movies have something in common, every movie still has its own sparkle. It’s own unique aspect which gives you a different story every week, but the same happy and warm feeling inside.
This happens with Raising Helen as well. It would be horrible to lose your parents at such a young age in a car accident, but then being raised by your cool aunt isn’t actually that bad. It’s like going on a sleep-over for quite a while, but at some point the children need a little more than that. It’s nice to see how the children are handling the loss of their parents in their own way, and Helen helping them in their process.
This movie isn’t so much about pointing out the love between a man and a woman, but more the importance of having a family and the strong love between the family members.
Shin-ae just moved to Milyang, a place her new friend Jong says is just like any other. Self proclaimed new friend I must say, since he pretty much starts stalking her from the minute he meets her. Well, it might be a place like any other, but not for Shin-ae. Because when her little boy goes missing, her life really takes a turn for the worse (again).
I promise you to bring a more light hearted Asian movie next week, but for now I have a movie as or even more dramatic than last week.
I've now seen two movies of director Lee Chang-dong and both are about people with some major trauma. He's a director who must have had some pretty difficult times himself, capturing this troubled people in such an intelligent way.
You can describe this movie as the search for some 'simple' peace. Shin-ae tries being angry, believing in God and just going nuts. And meanwhile, all Jong thinks about is getting into Shin-ae's pants. Which doesn't actually make this as dramatic as I promised. A rather strange, but unique combination.
Morgan Spurlock goes on a McDonalds ‘diet’ for 30 days. Monitored by several doctors, he soon finds out the fast food is causing more harm than anyone expected. But the rules are he can’t eat anything that’s not on the McDonalds menu.
Morgan Spurlock, who is releasing 'Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?' next week, is one of those documentary makers who can get in the big crowds. Not because he has these genius points of view. I mean, we all know fast food is getting us fat. But it's the way he brings the facts that makes the difference. Because who would really think about going on a McDonalds diet?
What's the most striking about this story, is how the doctors react to the destructive effects of the fast food. Not nearly expecting anything like Morgan Spurlock ends up with. At one point you get the feeling he might even throw in the towel. Destroying his liver and seeing all the spiking charts about his other functions. But in the next scene he's eating a burger again. You can't sell half a documentary after all, right?
Super Size Me ends up being a mirror that was not only needed for America, but also for McDonalds itself. The sad thing is however, it didn't create more than a small unnoticeable dent in its big fat ego.
Two brothers are in desperate need for money, until one of them gets the perfect idea for a victimless crime. The place is insured and nobody will get hurt. But when one of the brothers gets an accomplice to do the job, nothing works out quite like they wanted.
I know the above summary is quite short, but I would hate to take out any suspense by spoiling something. Personally I like to watch a movie without knowing anything about it. I just need to know I'm going to watch something worth my time -- eh, popcorn. Some trailers can basically explain the entire story and that would ruin this whole movie.
If it wasn't for the two great actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke, I feel like we wouldn't be talking about this movie. What could have been an average thriller is taken to the next level by these two 'brothers'. Especially Philip Seymour Hoffman gets so intense, you question if anyone else could have pulled it off like him.
What they create is a psychological family drama. How far can people go when they are desperate, addicted? How do you solve something you caused by going too far? The story is told from different perspectives in different times and manages to give you a new fitting piece of the puzzle every time. All these pieces make for a pretty fresh and flawless suspense thriller. Except for the strange changes in time in the story, you wouldn't say this was directed by a 83 year old (Sidney Lumet). Certainly not when you see the first scene, but I'll leave that as a surprise for now.
"Hi
First, Im from Germany and I saw this little trailer randomly on YouTube ... and I loved it.
I love to see how the Schoollife in the US is and [....]"
