Fables and Reflections

Oh John Hurt, you are just the best.

Watching ‘The Great Gatsby’ just made me want to have a roaringly large party and get stonkingly drunk.

I think is I were to get a tattoo relating to a film, it would definitely have to be ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, but I wouldn’t get anything so kitsch as something like “Meet me in Montauk” or the poem that the film’s title is based on. I’d need to find something resonant, but not gimmicky.

Smashed

It has been a very long while since I have written anything, let alone a film review, so I’m picking it up with what I thought about this film.

Now to begin, Smashed is a drama about a young teacher, Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who after a couple of mishaps (like vomiting in front of her class and smoking crack) comes to accept that she is an alcoholic and decides to get sober.
First of all, this cast was absolutely stupendous; I mean Ramona Flowers  and Jesse Pinkman as a married couple is a dual fandom’s wet dream. Couple that with supporting characters including Ron Swanson and Tammy 2, and I had already fallen in love with this film.
To begin with, I thought the film would be centralised around the relationship between Kate and Charlie (Aaron Paul) and how it changes when their mutual love of alcohol is challenged, and it does do that very much so, but as the film progressed it became evident that this was really only a story about Kate and the struggles she goes through; in fact, Charlie seems like he’s pushed to the back and slowly becomes more insignificant in Kate’s life.

‘Smashed’ is a film that has really made good use of Winstead’s talent as an actress as before she seemed to do more fun, gimmicky roles; most famously as the subspace delivery girl and object of the eponymous hero’s affections in ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the world’ but also in more ridiculous movies I’d much rather forget about (*cough* Abraham Lincoln: Vampire hunter). Her drunkeness was somewhat exaggerated, but that helped to show her vulnerability and the comfort she finds in drinking. 
The story itself has very comical moments and I found myself chuckling at a particular scene when Nick Offerman’s character explains to Kate that it is good to be honest with each other before bluntly telling her that he frequently thinks, and I quote “about fucking your moist pussy.” That he did it so innocently just made me love Nick Offerman even more, and I still am on a high that Tammy 2 was also in the mix.
To begin with, I felt that the cinematography and look of the film was done so to give that “indie-film” feel and bring forth the realism, but as it is a very personal story, the camera work portrayed that very well. Many of the shots are very close to Kate’s face and the movement is quite shaky, particularly in the scenes where she is drunk, but as she becomes more stable as a person, the camera does too.
All in all, this is a simple film which generates great effect on the audience and every factor of it’s production is considered vividly and with expert care. If you feel like watching any film soon, put this on your list. 
 

I started listening to The Album Leaf as I was doing revision and now all I want to do is snuggle up in a big snuggly duvet and watch the rain as it runs down my window and listen to it as it hits my roof.

I’ve impulsively decided that on the day that I graduate (if I graduate), all the pictures that I’ll be in will be me hiding behind my graduation cape like dracula and I’ll steal around campus like a crafty batman. Guess that’s motivation enough. :D