Boyhood

The life of Mason from the ages of 6-18 consisting of what the title is, Boyhood. Through the years we really get thrown into his life and what type of person he becomes. Mason has struggled with moving multiple times, seeing his mother make bad decisions with men, and be an outcast in his eyes. The fact that this movie is a 12 year epic it doesn't really have anything to else going for it. It's a typical story with a typical family. Unless you look deeper. Deeper into an element that most people pay attention to and think about after its done. Dialogue. Sit there and listen to what these characters say. Because yes this movie may seem too simple about Mason growing up to be a depressed hopeless boy, but his life makes us think about life as a whole with what these characters say. For instance when Mason is about to leave for college he is talking to his mother and she ends up breaking down and starting to cry. He then goes onto ask her why she is in this state, and his mother replied with, 

"Mom:You know what I'm realizing? My life is just going to go. Like that. This series of milestones. Getting married. Having kids. Getting divorced. The time that we thought you were dyslexic. When I taught you how to ride a bike. Getting divorced... again. Getting my masters degree. Finally getting the job I wanted. Sending Samantha off to college. Sending you off to college. You know what's next? Huh? It's my fucking funeral! Just go, and leave my picture! 

Mason: Aren't you jumping ahead by, like, 40 years or something? 

Mom: I just thought there would be more." This is one scene where we really see Mason's mother confess that her life is consumed by the idea of milestones and after sending Mason off her next milestone is dying. She then wonders why there wasn't more. More of life. And after seeing that one scene it really made me stop myself and ask the same thing. I may only be a senior in high school but it doesn't change the fact that I am about to hit a milestone of high school being over. You never realize you were living in the midst of a milestone until it's over and it's gone. There is another scene where Mason is developing his pictures in the dark room and one of his teachers walks in and questions what he makes of himself retaining to his career. 

"Mr. Turlington: I'm worried about you, Mason. 
Mason: [laughs] Why is that? 
Mr Turlington: I'll tell you why: The images you're turning in, they're cool. You're looking at things in a really unique way. Got a lot of natural talent. 
Mason: Thanks. 
Mr Turlington: Yeah, but that and 50 cents will just get you a cup of coffee in this old world. I've met a LOT of talented people over the years. How many of them made it professionally without discipline, commitment and really good work ethic? 

Mason: [Shrugs] 
Mr Turlington: I can tell ya. I can count it on two fingers: [Makes A-ok hand gesture] Zero. It's not gonna happen for you, Mason. The world is too competitive. There are too many talented people who are willing to work hard; and a buttload of morons who are untalented, who are more than willing to surpass you. As a matter of fact, a lot of them are sitting in that classroom out there right now. Hm? You know what they're doing? They're doing their assignments. Which is what you're supposed to be doing, but you're not. You're in here. Now, why is that? You're special, Mason?" Now this teacher seems to be very straightforward with Mason in this scene. We could take this scene in different ways, such as the fact that the teacher is right. It's true that the world is competitive and not a lot of talented people receive recognition for it. Or you could take this scene as if this teacher is just a stick in the mud and doesn't understand that people do receive chances to do what they love doing and are very good at it. All in all the teacher has a point, the world is competitive and it is unjust. So many paths, so many directions and chances of making it out with a life we always wanted. This scene really makes you think about how you should go about living your life and actually making a name for yourself. I found a scene where there wasn't a huge impact on the viewer but it stood out in some way. 

"Mason: I finally figured it out. It's like when they realized it was gonna be too expensive to actually build cyborgs and robots. I mean, the costs of that were impossible. They decided to just let humans turn themselves into robots. That's what's going on right now. I mean, why not? They're billions of us just laying around, not really doing anything. We don't cost anything. We're even pretty good at self-maintenance and reproducing constantly. And as it turns out, we're already biologically programmed for our little cyborg upgrades. I read this thing the other day about how When you hear that ding on your inbox, you get like a dopamine rush in your brain. It's like we're being chemically rewarded for allowing ourselves to be brainwashed. How evil is that? We're fucked." Now in this section of the movie Mason is really going deep into the whole idea that humans are slowly turning into robots and that we have our brains wired to technology and our life is already taken over. While the fact remains we are in the digital age, but we are not totally wired in, not just yet. But this scene is just going over it's limits with the whole idea of life being over. It honestly doesn't prove or influence anyone what life is really about. It could have been more developed to prove the fact that life isn't all about technology and being wired down. I honestly feel as though the director really knew what he was doing with this element since the only thing this movie was judged by was the 12 year lapse. The dialogue really lets the viewer understand the questions of life and it isn't just an exciting movie that doesn't relate to anyone's life. This one can be brought into perspective of everyone and make them uncover how they view life while viewing Mason's life. This movie doesn't appeal to some people because they believe Mason's life is bland and his character is this mope kid who does dopey things. But besides the fact that Mason is a bland kid, it doesn't change the idea that his life resembles the whole idea of life.

We all go through milestones and we all ask ourselves the question: "Is this it?" And most of the time the answer is yes. We can all sympathize with these characters and their life but we have to look at our lives and ask questions and hopefully find the answers. I have to say 
I didn't find a resemblance from this movie to another. This movie is one of a kind. This movie made cinematic history. We all can learn a thing or two from this film.

MYST #4: Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky is a story about David Aames(Tom Cruise) who has inherited his fathers business at a publishing firm who lives his life as a bachelor but hasn't really inherited the one thing he truly needs;love. He then meets the love of his life at a party by the name of Sofia(Penelope Cruz). They spend the entire night talking and getting to know each other. They fall in love instantly without a single doubt about each other. Now here is where things become a bit hard to follow. David's former lover, Julie(Cameron Diaz), hears of Sofia and attempts to commit suicide with David in a car crash. Julie dies but David survives leaving his face disfigured. There is no chance to do plastic surgery for David so he has to wear a mask to cover his injuries. One night David, David's friend Brian(Jason Lee) and Sofia go out to a bar and David becomes hopelessly drunk, which results him to be left outside to rot by his friends. The next morning David is awoken by Sofia who apologizes for deserting him the night before. They pick up where the left off as new lovers and his life seems to become more content by receiving plastic surgery from which he thought was impossible and Sofia is in his life and happy as ever. 

But David is experiencing brief visions of his disfigured face, Julie still being alive, and meeting a man(Noah Taylor) at a bar who tells David he can control his life however he wishes. One day David comes home and Julie is there convincing David that she is Sofia. David then becomes angry and confused which results him to suffocate Julie while having intercourse. David is put into an insane asylum with a man who he talks to everyday for a few hours by the name of Curtis(Kurt Russell). David tells Curtis his story but of course he doesn't believe David. David then sees a commercial on TV with the man he met at the bar who works for a company by the name of "Life Extension." Curtis, David, and a bodyguard arrive at this company and speaks with a woman(Tilda Swinton) who David has had visions vaguely about. The woman goes onto explain that they freeze people just after their point of death, by placing them in a lucid dream state. David then calls tech support which results him to be talking to the man at the bar(Noah Taylor) on a impossibly tall building given two choices for what he can accept. Either he can be reinserted to the correct lucid dream state or to wake up by jumping off the building. David then chooses to jump off the building and is awoken by a voice saying "open your eyes", David then opens his eyes and the movie ends there. 

This movie is very complicated and I didn't need to tell you every little thing that has happened, but there is no simple plot for this movie. Anyway, as I watched this film I noticed a element that stood out in the matter of camera. Within this production, I noticed times where a steady cam came into place to expose David's life and dream state. In one of the scenes in the beginning, David is driving to work and notices that nobody is in times square(NYC). The steady cam then moves in on Davids car from a distance and then David steps out of the car and he proceeds to jog into the street. The camera is following David in front of him, behind him, and on the sides capturing the emptiness of this street. This shot was very good in terms of composition. It started off in a medium shot by revealing the location, and then brought into a closeup of the actor showing his confusion as to what is happening, then onto a extreme long shot of the city and it's vast emptiness. 

There was another scene where David and all the other characters in the movie were on top of the building when David was deciding his fate. The sky had an effect of how the painting did in David's apartment. It really gave us a symbolic meaning of this scene. I enjoyed it very much to see this scene come into play towards the ending, really wraps it up and explains Vanilla Sky. I noticed a scene that didn't stand out as well as it may have. It was right after Julie drove off the bridge. The camera got multiple angles of the crash into the wall and then they let the camera roll for about 10-20 seconds of just the car sitting there and then finally people in the background realize what just happened. I wish they showed what happened inside the car, but I guess they wished for the viewers get a deeper symbolic meaning of Sofia "being alive" still later in the movie. 

I feel as though the director truly needs composition and camera to show to the viewers what the movie means, the actors feel, and what we all see in life. It captures the essence of what makes a true movie. Nobody would enjoy a movie in which everything was point blank and didn't make you think. A true good movie, makes the viewer think a little because then you find out all the little secret meanings of the plot and characters lives. 

I found a distinct resemblance from this movie to Memento. These movies both make you believe that nothing is true, or reality is really real. They both also end with the beginning in some way. Memento is told backwards and ends with the beginning and in Vanilla Sky we are greeted and left with the dialogue line "Open your eyes" as if the whole movie was played backwards as well.

All in all, great thinker. 8/10

Short Term 12

With Short Term 12 being a serious and touchy movie I noticed an aspect that seems to have brought a lot of attention to. With this aspect many viewers ask the question why this component was added or what bigger purpose does it serve? And that is camera. Camera is what makes the movie, the story all depends how the movie was shot. If camera shots are very quick paced, then you know in the story that pressure is happening. It all pays a toll to how the viewer sees it and understands truly what kind of movie it is. Short Term 12 is a residential treatment facility where teens are brought in because of depression, anxiety, or any other psychological disorder. We receive this genuinely moving story of Grace(Brie Larson) who works at this facility with her boyfriend and co-worker Mason(John Gallagher Jr.) providing need to these kids. Eventually a teen girl arrives by the name of Jayden(Kaitlyn Dever) who has a history of self harm and distancing herself from others. Grace feels a bond with her because she has gone through the same troubles Jayden once did in the past. The camera work in a specific scene creates a sentimental and real feeling for the viewers to view instead of using other components.

(Spoiler Alert) Towards the middle ending of the film, Grace reveals to Mason that she cannot marry him and is having an abortion with the baby. In this shot, the two actors are outside at night time. It's dark and gloomy, a professional production company would shed some light on them somehow, but not here. This production company just has the handheld camera facing these two actors using natural light to emphasize that these types of situations are real and can happen at any moment. Also after this scene (Spoiler Alert) Grace goes to Jayden's home to injure her father and she stops her and decides to bash his car with a baseball bat instead. With this event happening, Grace is on top of the car, bashing the car's front windshield over and over again. With each swing the camera moves slightly back and forth from Grace hitting it. The camera follows the bat, with each and every swing to break the shield, with glass everywhere.

At the end of it all, the viewer really understands the feelings of each swing and what damage Jayden and Grace's father have done to them. It symbolizes that each bash to the car, was each bash to their life. Although this movie had it's moments with amazing camera work, there was still a few shots that could have been better, but was still passable. I'm sure the director wished to have this authentic look to the film. And I have to say that there is a fine line between being emotional to making it feel insincere. I believe that Cretton didn't trust the actors as much as he should have. Focus more on the actors and less on the camera work. Don't just say, "Let the shot speak for itself," because in the end, if you wish for a film to feel real and heartwarming, all you need to hear are the words from the actors. The main focus seems to be on Grace the entire film and it's as if it is all about her. If the camera is on her always then it will seem as though we should only care for her when in the end she goes back to her friends and boyfriend.

 If the viewers were to feel more sympathy for everyone then I believe the camera should have focused more on the side characters in this film. Give it more of a real feeling of everyone's view of the situation. I believe that this component really pays a toll to how the audience gathers information as to what the story is about. It makes us believe in certain people, it makes us understand things that we weren't able to. With this component as I have stated before was that specific shots capture not only what is happening, but how the viewer sees it and feels. That's the beauty with film work, you can have components that give off different purposes then the original purpose.

I find that I see this component in the film High Fidelity quite a bit since it is shot by breaking the fourth dimension. The film focuses on all around Rob Gordon(John Cusack) about his past girlfriends and it seems as though it can be a real event that happens in people lives but the film also does not focus too much on other characters.
All in all I give it a 9/10.

MYST #3: Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

Scout's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is about three scouts who are the towns best hope to fight off the horde of zombies. Now this premise is simple enough, and so are the characters. You have the average teen who reasons with everyone, and you have the innocent fat awkward one, then finally you have the trash talker who somehow became friends with the other guys. Now when you come across a zom-com you expect a lot of action and zombie fighting, oh no, not just yet. 

This movie tends to have a lot of dragging on until you finally get to see a montage of zombie fighting towards the very end. Now let me be straight here, there are times when the montage sequences are important for the theme message of the film, it isn't just all about gore and tit jokes. There is a time in the movie where towards the beginning the three sophomores are spending time together by building a camp site in order for Augie (Joey Morgan) to receive his condor patch. In these short shots of the three friends making the campsite perfect and enjoying each others time together makes you believe that being a scout can bring friends closer. But this montage becomes ruined because afterwards Carter (Logan Miller) wakes up Ben (Tye Sheridan) to go to the "Secret Senior Party" and leave Augie. This montage becomes the one thing that defines their friendship and makes the audience know that. Then later in the film, they come together as one after Bens speech about becoming the heroes with their scout abilities and go to a department store and gather supplies to help the students at the party by killing the zombies.

This montage sequence becomes a time for all of them to use their scout's abilities to save the day and be best friends once again. After this montage the scout's head to the party and there is a montage of them killing the zombies. I felt as though this montage didn't serve a bigger purpose then what the previous montages did but it was there for the audience to enjoy as a "Hell Yeah" scene. It doesn't serve as effectively as it did about being close with one another but it does serve another purpose of actually showing them helping others out. This cinematic component helped build the movie to what it is by seeing all the good times the friends have and what makes them special in short montages to make the audience feel good and for them too. It gives off that important message that you should stick by your friends and come out victorious in the end instead of giving up because you are doubted by people around you. For these montages to go into full effect, I'm sure the director wanted multiple montages of the teens working together to save the day from the horrific zombie apocalypse.

I have to say that after seeing this movie, it makes me think that this movie is the result of combining Zombieland and Superbad together. It has that vulgar humor from Superbad from the POV of teens, and it has the guide tips from Zombieland. It's just a story of teens that should stick together, getting the girl in the end, and being happy together. Zimple and Zweet. 

All in all I give this movie a rating of 6/10

MYST #2: Black Mass

Everybody loves a Johnny Depp film, especially if it based on a true story. My grandmother really wished to see this film so my family and I went to go see it on a Tuesday at 5pm. Yeah you read that right. With no one else in the theater we got to enjoy the film to i's fullest without distractions. I haven't done any real research about this film except seeing the trailer in film studies. Also I knew it was a mob movie, so that's always a plus. We are greeted to a setting of 1975 in Massachusetts with the Winter Hill Gang talking to an FBI investigator recalling what happened in the years of trying to control the crime in South Boston. All of the gang members who were being interviewed admitted to the horrific things they did to become powerful in their hometown they grew up in. 

Throughout this film, it is all based around James "Whitey" Bulger, who is the leader of this whole organization. This gang was eventually charged with murder, extortion, racketeering, narcotics, and many more. Since this is film is based off of a true story I am glad they really focused on one component more then any of the others. And that is the makeup department. To fit the roles of each and every character to the actors makes the story better visually. To make Johnny Depp come off as the famed Boston gangster, they added prosthetics to the upper half of his face, multiple different headpieces to correctly match Whitey. Not only did they spend 20 hours on make up with Johnny, but they also gave him blue eye contact lenses to match Mr. Bulger's actual eye color. Now Johnny wasn't the only one who had to go through extensive time with make up.

Jesse Plemons was also told to gain weight and add a "spongy" look to make it seem normal and not just the weight to resemble Kevin Weeks. I find that makeup doesn't seem to be looked at carefully in movies, but if it is a true story, I like to see resemblances from the actors to the actual people they are based on.
Since this is a mob film expect to see killings, blood, sexual inferences, glass shattered, and much more to make you sit on the edge of your seat or cover your face in horror. There is once scene in particular that caught my attention by surprise and made me gasp a bit. Every crew member of Whitey knows that when Whitey gets his hands dirty it isn't pretty at all. The scene  where Brian Halloran(Sarsgaard) goes against the gang and rats them out to the FBI. The gang soon finds out and Whitey shows up to where Brian is at the time and shoots up the car he was in with a buddy. Whitey appears with a AK-47 shooting and walking directly at the car killing Brian's friend. Brian then puts the car in reverse and slams the pedal all the way till he bashes into the cars in the parking lot. Brian has been shot with the AK-47 bullets but is still alive. He then tries to escape the car by crawling out. Bad move. Whitey is getting closer and pulls out a pistol and bluntly shoots Brian and walks away with no rush. I found it important to the story because Whitey marked his territory and his name to the gang that nobody messes with them. Obviously back then it is easier to get away with crime like that if you are gone before the police show up.  

I see a few resemblances from this film to Wolf of Wall Street. First of which is the fact that they are both based on true stories that are recent. Also, they both start and end the same way. They both start with the ending and then go on to explain the story and then end with the official ending.

Whitey and Jordan Belfort seemed to be the leader of a group of people giving them what they want without a worry in the world.

Memento

If you love movies that make you dive deep into thinking about whether or not you can trust yourself or others. Then Memento is right for you.  Leonard has short term memory loss and we know that this movie has a non linear narrative structure. And with the use of editing we can really understand how Lenny's mind works. It gives off a very good and interesting pov for the viewers. One of the examples editing plays a great role is how the movie is played in short increments and out of order, just how Lenny's investigation for another John G. has come out to be. The scenes that appear second in the film actually happened first, and by connecting the start and end of those two scenes, the timeline stays the same even if it is edited out of order. The beginning of the movie is actually the ending and the ending is the start of the movie, so the timeline of the film will tell you everything in backwards. In a way, this seems to be a great way to tell the story simply because of Leonard's condition. Nolan used relational editing to make the viewer confused by seeing each scene, but then it would make sense when the next scene appeared.

Since this movie contains a sub plot involving Sammy Jankis, there are numerous black and white scenes of Lenny on the phone with a mysterious unknown cop(possibly Teddy) telling him the story of how he met/dealt with Sammy's condition. These scenes tell us that the black and white portrays the film in a chronological order. Throughout the film we see that Lenny recalls her wife and how she died while talking to Natalie. Eventually the viewers are presented with flashbacks that are remotely close to Sammy's situation. The former memories are faded and the new ones are in color which is very contradicting to the previous flashbacks with Sammy being only black and white. We soon find out that Lenny is Sammy and Lenny was just using Sammy as a person to make him feel happy about his condition and the vengeance for his wife, who is actually dead because of Lenny's condition. Throughout the film I noticed a particular set of scenes that did not really connect well with the editing.

The story of Dodd seemed irrelevant to the story. If the editing worked it's way with the story of the character more critically then it would give less confusing parts of the story since their is a lot to keep track of. But all in all, the component of editing plays an enormous role in this film. Editing is basically the only component that draws the viewer to realize something funky with this film. It makes the viewer see how Lenny's life is drawn to be with the reverse timeline. It connects well with the idea about how the viewer sees the film is the same way how Lenny saw his life and what is has come to be. It definitely raised better awareness to the theme of lying to yourself to be happy. Lying to ourselves is connected with the editing and how it was jumped around to make it believe that Lenny was telling the truth, but in the end we figure out that we don't trust ourselves and accept our life as it is, even if it has gotten you sunk in a deep hole. I found an uncanny resemblance between this film and Fight Club.

Fight Club is played chronologically in order, but it does include a story of two people ending up to be the same person. And in the end the protagonist understands what's going on and accepts it and cannot believe anyone, not even himself.

Formal Film Study: (Martin Scorsese)

We all love and admire Marty with his big time movie hits where we see references from in all TV shows, magazines, and articles. But, how did Mr. Scorsese become who he is today? How did he progress through out his films starting from the late 60's all the way up to 2013. I grabbed his first film, Who's that knocking at my door?(1967). His middle film, Cape Fear(1991). And finally his most recent acclaimed film, Wolf of Wall Street(2013). Scorsese develops as a director from each of these films and I am about to share the components with you.

Cinematography: We know the camera work is always amazing. And we also know that Martin tends to have a pattern in his films of long slow motion tracking shots from right-left or straight-backwards. The speed of each scene tends to build up and work it's way back up to normal motion. In Wolf of Wall Street, there is a tracking shot of Jordan Belfort(DiCaprio) walking straight at the camera explaining what he is doing with the company. It is portrayed as a long tracking shot of this one target while there is only one direction in this motion. Some of these tracking shots may be perceived as a lazy editing act but Scorsese wanted the viewer to really pay attention to this one target in the motion because of deeper symbolic reasoning. Such as in the beginning scene of Cape Fear, where Max is walking out of prison and the tracking shot is in front of him walking away while the camera rises above and shows a view of the prison to explain that max came out of a place that grew on him just as though a king walking out of his castle. While Who's knocking at my door? was an older film, Martin knew what he was doing when he had the photographer film long panning shots of grey cityscape's and interiors with objects of religion to emphasize that this story revolves around a Christian protagonist.

Culture: Martin has a heritage of being Italian-American and we all know that he tends to go against the important values in each of these films towards the end. Italian values consist of having family always be there and helping them in a time of need. Watching Who's Knocking at My Door?, I noticed that the protagonist seemed to have lost his way without having the support of his friends when he gets rejected by his wife and then results going to church but hasn't found solace there either. Even though his friends aren't technically family, any close person to an Italian is considered family. They build that bond overtime no matter the events. Especially in the ending scene of Cape Fear when the family survive the terrorism of Max Caddy. While they did survive together they still all feel alone because Max terrorized each of them at some points of the film and we can see the damage on each of the characters. The damage is done on the family and they are separated mentally. Being mentally broken, you can definitely relate that to Wolf of Wall Street where Jordan ends up becoming sober and leading sales events because he has been labeled as a drug addict who has corrupted his life with money and sex. His friends, who seemed to be family, basically deserts him because Jordan goes overboard.

Visual Effects: What's a good movie without a little disorientation to our eye. We all love those effects that make us go gaga, especially if Scorsese is behind it all. Watching the profoundly Wolf of Wall Street, I noticed quite a lot of special effects from green screens to color fading . I am simply astounded by this component in this film. I especially enjoy the effect in the beginning where Jordan is describing his life before he tells the whole upbringing. And a scene of a Ferrari drives up in a tracking shot and it appears to have a color or red but then Jordan says in his dialogue "No No No, my Ferrari was white" as he is saying these lines the car changes color to a Snow White. This seemed to be as a hook to the audience to make them believe that the shots are very intriguing and will make you wait for more effects like this. Such as the CGI and green screens as it is mentioned on http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/01/14/wolf_of_wall_street_visual_effects_reel_you_won_t_believe_which_scenes_were.html. In this article it explains that there are multiple shots of these types of effects and along with that, they provide a visual effects reel. Another effect I see in these films is the eery inverted effect on characters eyes in Cape Fear while we see a sudden or darkening feel to whoever the effect is presented upon. This can be taken into a symbolic meaning of feeling a darkening even when we feel safe, especially at the end.

Scorsese's films all have something in common, I just happened to come across these components since it very known. If I went back and re-watched these films once more, I am sure I would have come across more key ideas of common elements. I do enjoy the editing of Marty's films such as Wolf of Wall Street(2013) and Goodfellas(1990). Mainly because the protagonist breaks the fourth wall by talking to the camera. Although Henry Hall narrates the movie, Goodfellas, it still does give off the effect of him talking to the audience. We all see patterns in certain directors but I do enjoy finding them in movies that are very popular by one of my favorite directors. It is also intriguing and interesting watching more of Scorsese's films since I see him as a good role model for my career. I never get old of Scorsese's films, hopefully Sinatra will be a hit in 2016.