I'm going to have to go against the masses on this one and say I wasn't a very big fan of
Happy-Go-Lucky. Sally Hawkins plays Poppy Cross, an eternally optimistic 30 year old who's nice to everyone and never has a bad day. Upon having her bicycle stolen, her only reaction is "didn't have a chance to say good bye." That part was actually kind of cute. I'd outline the plot for you, but there really isn't a whole lot going on story wise. We meet Poppy, we meet her friends, we meet the primary school class she teaches, we meet her very angry driving instructor, Poppy gets a boyfriend, we find out the driving instructor had had a crush on Poppy and then the movie ends. There's no real story arc. There's also an odd scene in which Poppy has an unnecessary conversation with a homeless man. My question is why the heck was she in the dodgy bit of town? It just didn't make any sense. I didn't find Poppy's constant happiness annoying. I'm not that cynical. Instead, I found her personality to be annoying. There seems to have been some kind of word quota she had to hit everyday, as she said some kind of flip and quirky remark after every single sentence another character said. Zip it and let someone else talk for 20 seconds. I also found her to be very immature for her age. She acted more like a 20 year old than a woman in her thirties.
After what seems like weeks and weeks I have finally seen
Changeling. A happy film this is not, but that's not to say it isn't entertaining. It is. Clocking in at over two hours, I was never bored and I never really felt like the film dragged at all. I think there was a scene or two that could have been cut out, but even those scenes did not slow the film down.
Changeling tells the story of Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a young woman in 1920's Los Angeles who witnesses firsthand the corruption of the LAPD after she reports her son missing. This is one of those movies that infuriates you when you watch it. You just want to jump into the screen and knock some sense into these idiots that run the police department and the psychiatric ward. It was unbelievable to see the amount of b.s. these officials fed anyone and everyone. But the infuriating nature of the film does make it that much sweeter when the bad guys get what they deserve, although I think they should have gotten a lot more. Although not as great as Eastwood's
Mystic River or
Million Dollar Baby,
Changeling is still quite good. What's disturbing is that this is based on a true story and injustices like these were not rare. What's even more disturbing is that there is an actual term to describe the process of substituting one child for another. How can this be so common that there is an actual word for this?
Last minute addition to this week's blog. Wednesday I saw
Role Models. After Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) get into some harmless trouble with the law, they choose to do 150 hours of community service at Sturdy Wings, a Big Brother like program, rather than spend a month in jail. This is a pretty funny and clever film. I didn't think it was full of belly-laugh level jokes, but it was pretty smart and snappy. I liked all the random innuendo lines and I thought it was really cute how it all came together at the end.
I'm going to have to go against the masses on this one and say I wasn't a very big fan of Happy-Go-Lucky. Sally Hawkins plays Poppy Cross, an eternally optimistic 30 year old who's nice to everyone and never has a bad day. Upon having her bicycle stolen, her only reaction is "didn't have a chance to say good bye." That part was actually kind of cute. I'd outline the plot for you, but there really isn't a whole lot going on story wise. We meet Poppy, we meet her friends, we meet the primary school class she teaches, we meet her very angry driving instructor, Poppy gets a boyfriend, we find out the driving instructor had had a crush on Poppy and then the movie ends. There's no real story arc. There's also an odd scene in which Poppy has an unnecessary conversation with a homeless man. My question is why the heck was she in the dodgy bit of town? It just didn't make any sense. I didn't find Poppy's constant happiness annoying. I'm not that cynical. Instead, I found her personality to be annoying. There seems to have been some kind of word quota she had to hit everyday, as she said some kind of flip and quirky remark after every single sentence another character said. Zip it and let someone else talk for 20 seconds. I also found her to be very immature for her age. She acted more like a 20 year old than a woman in her thirties.
After what seems like weeks and weeks I have finally seen Changeling. A happy film this is not, but that's not to say it isn't entertaining. It is. Clocking in at over two hours, I was never bored and I never really felt like the film dragged at all. I think there was a scene or two that could have been cut out, but even those scenes did not slow the film down. Changeling tells the story of Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a young woman in 1920's Los Angeles who witnesses firsthand the corruption of the LAPD after she reports her son missing. This is one of those movies that infuriates you when you watch it. You just want to jump into the screen and knock some sense into these idiots that run the police department and the psychiatric ward. It was unbelievable to see the amount of b.s. these officials fed anyone and everyone. But the infuriating nature of the film does make it that much sweeter when the bad guys get what they deserve, although I think they should have gotten a lot more. Although not as great as Eastwood's Mystic River or Million Dollar Baby, Changeling is still quite good. What's disturbing is that this is based on a true story and injustices like these were not rare. What's even more disturbing is that there is an actual term to describe the process of substituting one child for another. How can this be so common that there is an actual word for this?
Last minute addition to this week's blog. Wednesday I saw Role Models. After Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) get into some harmless trouble with the law, they choose to do 150 hours of community service at Sturdy Wings, a Big Brother like program, rather than spend a month in jail. This is a pretty funny and clever film. I didn't think it was full of belly-laugh level jokes, but it was pretty smart and snappy. I liked all the random innuendo lines and I thought it was really cute how it all came together at the end.
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