Triplets of Belleville

The Excuse: It's not that popular, so I forgot about it. Unless if you're an animation nerd, this is probably the first time you've heard of it, so you can see how I wouldn't of seen it yet.

The Review: It's obvious right away why it never became popular: it's French. And when people think French film they think artsy fartsy film that makes no sense. This is not the case with this film. The art style is very different than American animation, as it exaggerates everything so much. Plus, the first scene is an entirely different style than the rest of the film, which may jar some people. Also, in America animation=children, so it's possible that people who are into film skipped it due to bring animation and people who thought it was for kids turned it off two minutes in due to breasts.

However, none of this is really justified. Whether you see it in English, French, or subtitled there's little dialogue and it is very musical. Even without the breasts it wouldn't be a kids movie because children would get bored. I love music and I loved the animation, so I was captivated the entire time. I loved the energy; the exaggerations of size; how the movement, music, and art told me more than dialogue ever could. I love to read, and I consider myself a writer, but I love seeing visual media tell a story well. This movie gained so much from the musical aspect that I was very glad they decided not to have that much dialogue. And it didn't need it. Why they even bothered to translate it I will never understand. This inspired me both as an artist and writer, despite the lack of words. Another time, if I feel it is appropriate, I will rant about how Graphic Novels are as important as a book or a piece of artwork, but that's for another time.

I won't comment on the plot too much, as to avoid spoilers. It is a mystery, so be prepared to wait for answers. It's a very short feature film (barely 80 minutes) so the ending will catch you suddenly. The timing, overall, is very well done, letting the mystery hang long enough to get interesting and it does give you more information than the characters have.

Tea to Drink With: I'm not entirely sure for this one... maybe a very sweet wine instead. It is French.

Edward Scissorhands

The Excuse: I somehow got it in my mind that this was a horror movie. While by no means a kids movie it wasn't scary except for a few scenes a little more intense than the Lion King.

The Review: While I was expecting this to be one of the more "fun" movies on my list when I finally found out what it actually was, I found myself liking it for reasons other than it's entertainment value, and I fully blame Mr. Housely (my 12th grade films teacher) for this. DAMN YOU HOUSELY! Now that I'm finished with this outburst, the use of color, cinematography, editing, etc. is what made me glad to watch this movie. Also, it's not "fun" in the sense of sitting back with a bowl of popcorn and escaping life. It's a serious movie hidden behind pastel houses, humor, and Edward's naivety. All of this really comes forward in the 3rd act, which I can't discuss for fear of spoilers.

Johnny Depp gives a great performance, but I found Winona Ryder's role as Kim to be just as convincing. While I realize that Depp seems to have had the harder role, playing a teenage girl is just as hard because you walk a fine line between playing a teenage girl and making the audience hate you. Honestly, I tend to snub my nose at any movie with teens in main roles because they tend to overly them, turning them into whiny bitches, Mary Sues, or something else unpleasant. The fact that they have a teenager playing a teenager helps. I also saw how her boyfriend was a douchebag from the very beginning, so I wasn't surprised when they broke up. I still didn't see why she would go out with such a guy but then again I didn't date until college because I couldn't stand teenage boys when I was a teenager. The only way I could chalk it up to anything but "she's dating him for reasons unimportant to the plot" would be to give him more screentime and that would be irrelevant. Because he's an asshole.

Conclusion: I should never listen to my mom, who thought my 6 year brother would be able to see it with me. He was distracted by video games, so he didn't see the questionable scenes. I do wonder why they made it PG-13, and the only reason I can come up with would be to make sure people between the ages of 13-21 went and saw it, which is the biggest market group of people seeing movies, so it makes sense.

Princess Mononoke

The Excuse: I couldn't find it and the only time I had a chance to watch it was when I was playing a card game and I found it too hard to follow. Of course, she also set up the game in such a way that my back was to the movie and the sound was in Japanese.

The Review: This movie was beautiful, the story well-told, the voice-acting great, and I enjoyed it. Also, it's not hard to find; I was just dragging my feet because of the bad experience I had the first time watching it. Yeah, some advice: if you want to watch a movie with someone and it's subtitled, don't do something with them that requires concentration like Magic or Chess.

And this movie alone requires concentration, and not in a bad way. As you watch Prince Ashitaka try to make peace between the forest and Irontown your mind can't help but think about what this means, what his true motives might be, can the forest be saved, etc. And, of course, Lady Eboshi is incredibly intriguing as she employs ladies who used to work in brothels and uses lepers to make her guns as the men grumble about the women being spoiled and the women sing her praises. I wasn't that interested in the title character, though. I enjoyed following her story, but I was much more interested in Lady Eboshi, Ashitaka, and the wolf god. Actually, the only thing about the movie that I still find terrible is the title. The plot does revolve around her for most of the movie, but she's only doing what has to be done to save the forest. I guess it does make sense, but I think it sounds a little kiddish. Of course, that may just be my Disney-background talking.

Conclusion: 5 stars. Would watch again.

Watch it with: Jasmine Green Tea.

The Movie Per Week Resolution and List

During High School I almost never watched movies. I had few friends and I felt weird watching movies alone. When I entered college, it seemed as if all I heard from my friends was "What do you mean you've never seen ____???!!!" So I made a list, and resolved to see one per week. I didn't keep up with this resolution, but I did manage to see about 20 movies from the original list. This year, I'm serious. Once per week I'll sit down, watch a movie, tell my excuse for not having seen it, then review it. And what type of tea you should drink while seeing it.

Now, here's the list, and movies I saw last year. Every other month I'll edit this post to reflect what I have and haven't seen.

I plan on seeing a movie every Sunday or Saturday and updating this every Monday while I work at the library, unless if it's actually busy (it almost never is).

The Important The ones that I should have seen long, long ago.

-The Lion in Winter
-Blues Brothers
-Reservoir Dogs
-Cool Hand Luke
-The Maltese Falcon
-Pan's Labyrinth
-Being John Malkovich
-Edward Scissorhands
-Citizen Kane
-Psycho
-Raging Bull
-.Apocolypse Now
-American Beauty
-A Clockwork Orange
-Requiem for a Dream
-Chicago
-Moulin Rouge
-Gone with the Wind
-Scarface
-Schindler's List
-A Streetcar Named Desire
-Shawshank Redemption
-Stand by Me
-Chinatown
-Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
-The Verdict (Paul Newman)
-Saving Private Ryan
-Munich
-Big Lebowsky
-The Shining
-Fantasia
-Momento
-The Orphanage
-American History X
(By the way, this list alone: 34)

The Fandom Important to the genre I claim to love. Needs more fantasy, here.
-Original Dracula
-Batteries Not Included
-Willow
-Short Circuit
-The Last Unicorn
-Tron
-V for Vendetta
-2001: A space odyssey
-Close Encounters of the Third Kind
-Batman (Original)
-X-Men 1
-Original Godzilla
-Dune
-Nosferatu and then
-Shadow of the Vampire
-Alien
-Aliens
-Pitch Black
-Starship Troopers
-Metropolis
-Millennium Actress
-Tokyo Godfathers
-Paranoia Agent
-Perfect Blue
-Mazes and Monsters
-War Games
-Castle in the Sky
-Dark City
-Strange Days
-Young Frankenstein

The Fun Still have to see, but more for entertainment than anything else.
-Dogma
-History of the World part I
-Flash Gordon
-Night of the Living Dead
-Return of the Living Dead
-The Karate Kid
-The Graduate
-The Dark Crystal
-King Kong
-Devil's Advocate
-Blade Runner
-Citizen Ruth
-Donnie Darko
-Shaun of the Dead
-Clerks I
-Highlander
-The Toxic Avenger
-Plan 9 from outer space
-Senorita Justice
-The Birdcage
-Babel
-Triplets of Bellville

(Movies on List Thus Far: 87)

Seen Long Enough Ago I MAY See Again
-Goodfellas
-Pulp Fiction
-Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
- Dr. Strangelove

Seen THIS Year
-Princess Mononoke (Jan. 2)

Seen LAST Year
-Seven Samurai
-Godfather
-Casablanca
-The Third Man
-Blazing Saddles
-Up
-The Wrestler
-The Fall
-Dick Tracy
-Transformers the Animated Movie
-Coraline
-Batman Begins
-Back to the Future
-My Neighbor Totoro
-Who Framed Roger Rabbit
-Old Boy
-Italian Spiderman
-Clue
-Save the Green Planet
-The Gods Must Be Crazy
-Clerks 2