A Time for More R&J

Pardon our hiatus, friends. But, we have the perfect way to make it up to you. Cross our hearts and everything. Brace yourselves, because this news is pretty fantastic...

THE NEW ROMEO & JULIET TRAILER IS HERE!!!!!

If you, like us, still swoon for a well-done Shakespeare adaptation, then you're probably giddy with excitement. However, there is one slight problem: the new R&J is standing alongside other power hitters. How can it possibly be as good as some of its illustrious predecessors?

Remember Franco Zeffirelli's lush, achingly beautiful 1968 Romeo & Juliet? God, that movie was great. Zeffirelli used young actors to depict the star-crossed lovers in order to add to the sense of authenticity and faithfulness that he painstakingly brought to every aspect of the film. (The young age of the actors made the sexxxy scenes not just awkward, but legally risky.)

Confession time: Yankee Belle spent an embarrassing amount of hours watching (again and again and again and again) Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo in Baz Luhrman's divisive adaptation/updating until her VHS tape wore out. (We say the film was brill; but haters gonna hate, especially when Elizabethan drama finds its way to the mean, flashy streets of Verona, CA). Luhrman's R+J was hip and edgy. It had drugs! It had drag queens! It had Toulouse-Lautrec as a full-sized person John Leguizamo in an expertly-acted dramatic role! IT HAD LEO! (Oh, and Claire Danes, too; but Beth March does not a Capulet make...) But, seriously, how hot did he look??

And, really, how badass was this poster??

So, as you can see, the new Romeo and Juliet has to forge its own way in a crowded pool of adaptations. This seems like an impossible task.

Fear not, friends, Romans, countrymen: Julian Fellowes-- yes, the very same Julian Fellowes who brought Cousin Matthew and Tom the Sexy Irishman and Maggie Smith's zingers into our lives-- "wrote" the screenplay to this new and very exciting movie version of William Shakespeare's most beloved masterpiece. And, boy, does this film have wattage! Douglas Booth plays the always-falling-in-love Romeo, while Hailee Steinfeld-- who turned many heads, including those of your devoted bloggers, with her impressive acting in 2010's True Grit-- is his Juliet. Plus, there's Damien Lewis, Paul Giamatti, and Chuck-freaking-Bass himself, Ed Westwick. Yes, we're not too worried.

So without further ado, we give you the Romeo & Juliet trailer.

The Oscars

Reader, we apologize for the delay in posting our reactions to The Oscars.  It seems life does not care when the biggest awards show is.  It will get crazy at anytime.  However, we're here now.

There were not many surprises this year, but, never fear, we still have our opinions on how things went down.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

1. So. Much. Singing!!!  Joseph Gordin-Levitt and Daniel Radcliff!  Chicago!  Dreamgirls!  Les Mis!    We're suckers for musicals, so the theme of the night was perfect for us.
2. Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep on the same stage.  They are legends.
3. Michelle Obama.  Move over Hollywood, the First Lady served up a huge portion of class and elegance.
4. Jennifer Lawrence:  Not necessarily her win, but her overall demeanor before, during and after the ceremony.  Prepare yourself, Jennifer.  You're America's Sweetheart now.
5. Sock Puppets....Just watch this:        

TOP DISAPPOINTMENTS

1. Argo makes us go "ugh."  So, you can imagine how we feel about this year's big winner.
2. Tommy Lee Jones not winning Best Supporting Actor.
3. Steven Spielberg going home empty handed.
4. Tony Kushner not winning for Best Adapted Screenplay

FAVORITE FASHION CHOICES

Jennifer Lawrence

Jessica Chastain

Halle Berry

Naomi Watts

The Color of Jennifer Garner's Dress

Fangirl Fridays: Pitch Perfect

We are not ashamed to admit that Pitch Perfect-- the outrageously funny, aca-awesome flick about college a capella groups-- was one of our favorite movies from 2012. Maybe it's because we were in choir and miss four-part harmonies (no one else? just us? okay then, moving on). Maybe it's because we miss our college glory days. Or, maybe it's because this movie is a constant laugh-fest from beginning to end. Whatever the reason, WE LOVE THIS MOVIE. We refer you to the trailer:

Still don't believe us that Pitch Perfect is worth your time? Here are four reasons why you should change your mind:

Skylar Astin as Jesse Oh, Skylar Astin, how we love you. If only we met a guy like Jesse when we were in college. (To be honest, we're not quite sure they actually exist, but that's a whole blog in and of itself.) Trust us, reader, you will fall for him the moment you see him jamming out on air guitar (which is an awesome way for a character to be introduced, by the way). Some girls may go for the brooding, mysterious type, but give us an adorkable guy who can sing. How did Anna Kendrick's character not fall in love with him immediately?!?!?! Becca had to have a will of steel. Or she was incredibly stupid for the majority of the movie. We're leaning towards the second option.

Fat Amy
We have two words for you: Fat. Amy. That is a character the movie gods thankfully decided to bestow upon us. We've loved Rebel Wilson since Bridesmaids, but this movie takes her to an entirely new level. Just watch this. Fortunately, the Belles had the pleasure of seeing this movie together, and Fat Amy brought us to tears.

La Musica
If you like to sing along with your movies, then this is the movie for you. From the beginning-- when they cover Wilson Phillips-- to the end-- hello, Bruno Mars!--Pitch Perfect is chock-full of stupendous jams that we know you, a.) blast in your car, b.) sing in the shower, c.) belt when you've had a few too many at the bar, or d.) all of the above. These are songs we love... and they've been made better by the magic of a capella. I mean, how could you resist singing along?

The Quotable Pitch Perfect
We thank Pitch Perfect for bringing words and phrases like "toner," "lady jam," and "mermaid dancing" into our lives. As we've mentioned, basically everything Fat Amy says is a riot. But, that's not to say other characters don't have their moments. We don't want to spoil any of the really, really good lines for you... but they occur about every three minutes in the film, so you will have plenty to soak up and enjoy when you watch it.

In conclusion, do yourself a favor and watch Pitch Perfect. You'll thank us later.

Hope and Strength

Here’s a confession: I don’t usually cry during movies.  I’m not sure why it is.  I’ve been emotionally moved by movies, but I’ve always been more of a “crying because of a book” type of girl. The Impossible, however, made me cry like a baby.  That is how powerful this movie is.  Which is why, despite having discussed Naomi Watts in our “Forgotten Few” post, I’m talking about the movie again as one of my favorite of 2012.

The Impossible  is based on the remarkable true story of a family who experienced the devastating tsunami in 2004 while they were on holiday.  The family is separated after the wave, with Maria and Lucas (the mother and oldest son) together while Henry (the father) finds Simon and Thomas (the younger children).  Throughout the film, they are not sure who is still alive, but they do not lose hope.  Maria pushes on for her son, Lucas shows fortitude for his mother, and Henry refuses to stop looking for the rest of his family. The Impossible is a movie about the capacity for human survival.  How, against all odds, sometimes people possess an unknown strength to face unforeseeable circumstances and tragedies. 

The acting by the entire cast is really superb.  Naomi Watts exudes maternal determination as she struggles for hers and her son’s survival.  The proverbial “they” always say to avoid working with animals and children on movies, but the real standout performances in The Impossible for me were from the children.  Tom Holland, most known for playing Billy Elliot in the stage production, was extraordinary as the oldest son Lucas.  From the moment the tsunami barrels toward the coastline, I believed his transformation from fear and hopelessness to perseverance.

The Impossible is not an easy movie to watch.  The wave sequences are realistic, the aftermath and devastation are saddening, and the never knows how the movie is going to end.  In spite of the difficult subject matter, it is an important movie to see.  It reminds the audience of this tragic event that happened nearly a decade ago.  I implore you to watch this film.  

-SB

"Amour," je t'aime

There is a heartbreaking moment in the middle of Amour when Georges, an octogenarian who is watching his wife slowly die, imagines her playing the piano. We the audience know this cannot be-- we've seen Anne navigate her way around their apartment in a motorized wheelchair, we've watched as Georges lifts Anne off the toilet, we've witnessed her rapid deterioration when even speaking is a challenge. Yet the beauty of this moment-- and the tenderness with which director Michael Haneke paints the grief, heartbreak, and immeasurable tragedy of a loving husband imagining his wife making music once more, free of her ailments, and exhibiting all the grace and dignity he surely loved about her-- is defining. Amour, as the title suggests, is about love, and, more profoundly, it's about what happens when the love you offer someone is not enough to save them.

If that sounds bleak, it is. This isn't a rosy movie about the transcendent power of love, or a syrupy, Nicholas Sparks-esque love letter to, well, love. Georges and Anne have been married for decades. They are an elegant Parisian couple, who have loved each other for so long, that they have established a comfortable intimacy with one another that, like a fine wine, only comes with age. Tragedy, that unwelcome intruder, strikes, and Anne suffers a series of strokes that debilitate and degrade her. Georges, her devoted companion, does all he can to nurse her and keep her out of a nursing home, but he inevitably confronts his own limits as he realizes how limited his life is without her.

Michael Haneke is known for his complex, unflinching films that try the tolerance (in every sense of the word) of his audience. Most recently, Haneke gained critical acclaim for his well-crafted, deeply challenging The White Ribbon, which portrayed atrocities that haunted a small German village on the eve of World War I. He grounds his films in a strong sense of reality, and Amour is no exception; I felt uncomfortable watching some scenes-- Anne's humiliation at the failures of her body and Georges's desperate desire to make everything okay are poignantly, painfully acted.

Indeed, Emmanuelle Riva has been nominated for Best Actress by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. (Earlier in the week, I identified Quvenzhané Wallis from Beasts of the Southern Wild as the youngest ever Best Actress nominee; well, as it happens, 2013 is a year of milestones for this category, since Riva is the oldest nominee ever. Way to go, Emmanuelle!) The role of Anne is a full-person role-- it's emotionally, physically, psychologically, and intellectually demanding. It took an actress as graceful, gifted, and sensitive as Emmanuelle to pull it off so flawlessly.

I've been throwing around words like "beautiful," "tragic," and "painful" a lot in this review. But those are the only words I know of to describe this film. Please, see it. If nothing else, it will make you hug your grandparents extra tight the next time you see them. But it will also make you contemplate the meaning of love and how it binds us together, oftentimes in impossible situations. Amour is a moving, exquisite film that stares love and death in the face and refuses to blink.

-- Yankee Belle

The Island of Misfit Toys

The Perks of Being a Wallflower snuck up on me.  I went into it with little expectations, thinking it would be another book adaptation that did not measure up to the original material.  I’m glad to say I was wrong.  There is something special about this movie. 

When developing books into movies, it is an extraordinary occurrence for an author to be involved in the making of the adaptation.  Stephen Chbosky, however, took his involvement to the next level.  Chbosky produced, wrote and directed the film, making it an absolute labor of love.  He even fought for the movie to have a PG-13 rating instead of the R it was originally given.  The audience gets the sense of that throughout the film.  You feel a sense of acceptance because you are watching what the author wants you to see.  

In terms of the actors, there are two standout performances in Perks.  Logan Lerman plays the main character Charlie, and he does so with such sincerity.  The audience feels as if they are voyeurs looking into a life they’re not meant to see.  We, the audience, are the "Dear Friend" he writes his anonymous letters to.  Ezra Miller also deserves to be recognized for his stellar portrayal of Patrick, the outgoing boy with a passion for life and secrets he has to keep hidden.  He plays the highs and lows of his character so brilliantly, and I hope to seem him on the big screen for years to come.  Chobsky gives the main characters time to develop, and I appreciated that as a moviegoer.  I believe in a story more when the people are flawed, and these characters certainly are.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower doesn’t shy away from the fact that life is hard.  Not just for adults, but for teenagers, too.  You go through this point in your life when you’re expected to figure everything out: what you want to do, and who you want to be.  That’s scary enough as it is.  But combine with that the outside word and all the crazy stuff that happens, and it’s enough to bring you to your knees sometimes.  This movie is about the people and the things that help you stand back up again.  It’s about the moments when you feel that you are a part of something bigger than yourself.  You may stumble and fall, as Charlie does, but you get back up again, determined to make the most out of the life you are given.

I know I sound like I’m gushing about this movie, and I probably am.  In my opinion, it deserves all of the praise.  That is why it is on the top of my list for favorite movies of 2012.  

-The Southern Belle

Beast It

And so it begins... HAPPY OSCAR WEEK!! Sunday, Sunday, Sunday is when it all happens! Awards will be given! Talent will be hailed! Celebrities Anne Hathaway will be judged! Fashion will be paraded! To mark the most wonderful time of the post-Christmas year, we're spending the week profiling/pitching/gushing about some of our favorite movies from 2012. To kick things off, Yankee Belle wants to introduce you to a very special movie:

I adored Beasts of the Southern Wild. What can I say? I can't help myself when a movie has a main character with a name like "Hushpuppy." Here's what you need to know about her: she makes Crayola-crafted "cave drawings" on cardboard boxes to record her story, runs around in undies and rain boots, and listens to animals like a forest fairy-- yes, she's just as down-home and irresistible as her namesake don't-tell-Weight-Watchers splurge food. Allow me to orient you: Hushpuppy is a tough-as-nails, cute-as-hell 6-year-old whose natural habitat is the "Bathtub," a swampy, backwoods community that exists on the wrong side of the New Orleans levee. This is a place that time has forgotten because it stubbornly broke off from the rest of the world to create its own pace of life, culture, lifestyle, and reality. Hushpuppy lives here with her father, a troubled, passionate, and complicated figure who insists that his wild pup of a daughter become self-sufficient to survive in an increasingly unpredictable and hazardous world. But the film's world is not our world-- the Bathtub is separated from us by myth, mystery, and, as it happens, a levee. The mythical qualities of the film-- giant beasts that race across the landscape, Hushpuppy's hero cycle, the journey to the mysterious light-- make it all the more mesmerizing. It's a smart film, too, tackling big themes (disaster, death, the natural world in disarray) with subtlety and grace.

But the movie itself is just as scrappy as its protagonist. Director Benh Zeitlin-- the 30-year-old wunderkind who found his way onto my shortlist for the most marriageable geniuses in Hollywood-- and his production team made the film on a shoestring budget in Louisiana. The movie was a sleepy summer "hit" (well, relatively) that, with the same stubborn waywardness of the Bathtub, defied Oscar odds and beat out bigger-name movies with established directors, classically-trained actors, fine-combed scripts, and well-timed marketing campaigns to garner four Academy Award nominations. Of these nominations, perhaps the most exciting is 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis's Best Actress nod. She played Hushpuppy with a fierceness, fearlessness, and effortless vulnerability that took my breath away, and she has become the youngest gal EVER to be nominated for Best Actress (sorry, Keisha Castle-Hughes!). Quvenzhané's (what a badass name!!) talent in this film is matched only by her off-the-charts cute index.

Now, this movie has plenty of admirers, including Stephen Colbert, MObama, and the self-proclaimed Queen of Media, Oprah Winfrey. But, their (our) enthusiasm is absolutely warranted. I mean, just watch this scene. The film's joy and exuberance is front and center, daring you not to smile, to laugh, to feel alive. (As a side note, I've adopted "beast it" as my personal life motto after watching this film. It's so versatile!)

The uninspired reviewer will call Beasts of the Southern Wild a coming-of-age film, or a survival tale, or a portrait of a disappearing world. But to pigeonhole this film is to reduce its power, snuff its sparkle, and tether it to the ground when all it wants to do is shoot into the sky and explode with all the awe and majesty of a thousand bursting fireworks. Put simply, Beasts of the Southern Wild is a magical movie. It is that rare film that manages to be joyous and tragic, fantastical and earthy, unreal and authentic.

Oh, and a final word: watch with caution. I guarantee it'll sweep you off your feet.