1)
Blue Jasmine
Another charming film by the one and only Woody Allen. Every single
one of his movies represents me somehow. In Blue Jasmine, we see the
troubled Jasmine French (played by the amazing Cate Blanchett) trying so
desperately to clench to what she has set for herself while her whole
life is falling apart. That is why I think Jasmine’s character lies
deeply inside all of us. We keep focusing on what we believe is right
for us, so when a better thing comes by we can’t even notice it. Jasmine
believes she is meant to be a powerful man’s wife, living the luxurious
life among Manhattan’s high-society. And yet, even when that didn’t
work out for her, she refuses to look for happiness somewhere else, with
someone completely different than her cheating husband. We see that
clearly when she refuses to give Eddie a chance and instead go out with
Dwight and accepts his proposal in a “heartbeat”.
Everyone thinks that you shouldn’t accept anything that is less than
what you actually deserve, and that moving on and forgetting about your
past is the right way to live. But in this movie, that is Jasmine’s
problem and what lead her to the miserable life she has.
Jasmine always picks on her sister Ginger and her bad choices in
life. ”You choose losers, okay? Because that’s what you think you
deserve and that’s why you’re living like this and that’s why you’ll
never have a better life.” The movie ends with a beautiful scene of
Ginger and her “loser” boyfriend Chili. Both of them are full of love
and full of life. Later comes a sad, intense scene of Jasmine, setting
alone in a bench with no one to talk to but herself.
This is why I find Blue Jasmine so fascinating. Life has no rules.
Sometimes looking for what makes us happy instead of what we believe is
right for us could be the RIGHT thing to do.
The acting is superb, the soundtrack is full of “blues”. And Woody
proves one more time that he is still capable of doing what he does
best; showing us what life is all about.
Well, there’s only so many traumas a person can withstand
until they take to the streets and start screaming. That’s right, boys,
they picked me up on the street talking to myself. They gave me
something called Edison medicine. Why Edison? Because they use
electricity to get you thinking straight. See, everything unraveled so
quickly. You know, I started experiencing anxiety and claustrophobia and
there’s an acute fear of death. You know I had nightmares and a nervous
breakdown. I mean, you must have heard of Prozac and Lithium. Well, all
those drugs just made me feel worse. Of course, I probably did suspect
that not everything Hal did was always a 100% above board. Christ, I
mean, you’d have to be an idiot not to think his phenomenal success was
too good to be true. But a cheat is a cheat. And when he had other women
I just flipped out and one thing let to another and… But that’s all
history, boys. I’ve met someone. I’m a new person."
2)
Captain Phillips
I’m conflicted about this film. After seeing Asad, a
live action short nominated last year, watching this film and just
having the pirates are bad, evil people who deserved what they got
storyline made me angry. I know the movie is obviously only focused on
making Captain Phillips the hero of the movie but it would have been
more compelling if they focused on other motivating factors. I also
personally thought it was too long. I do hope that Barkhad Abdi gets
nominated. That would be really awesome. There was a great article that
focused on the Somali cast and how most, if not all (can’t remember),
were immigrants. I’m sure this will get nominated in the major
categories but I’m rooting for Supporting Actor!
