5 Movies that you probably haven't watched but SHOULD.

Here are 5 movies that 1 out of 5 people are likely to have watched.Why? some because they weren't successful at the box office,some because they weren't critically acclaimed and mostly because nobody has heard ever about them.Get ready to be pleasantly surprized,and in case of a few of them,pleasantly traumatized.

5.Consent  

Susan is an alcoholic.Mark is a philanderer.Josh is hallucinating his dead sister.Amanda is abused by her boyfriend.They are a family.

Consent tells the story of a well off suburban family that heads into a downward spiral after the death of the eldest daughter,Sam.Not only does the film portray the taboo subject of incest with extreme sensitivity ,it also manages to make the movie about more than that.A beautiful movie about complicated familial relationships, it manages to be touching at moments that would otherwise make you cringe.

4.Keith

Natalie is a popular high school student with dreams of going to college on a Tennis scholarship.Things change when she meets Keith,a boy with a yellow truck and a knack for getting into trouble.Before you dismiss this as just another love story you should know that this is so much more than that.Natalie soon discovers that Keith is hiding a life changing secret.As much as i'm dying to tell ya'll this secret that wouldn't be fair now,would it?

Have you heard that quote "Your life is a culmination of all the people you meet" .Well if i had to sum up this movie in one sentence, this is the cinematic portrayal of that one quote.

3. Mystic pizza 

 About a small town called Mystic and a considerably smaller pizzeria called Mystic Pizza ,this film follows the lives of 3 sisters who in the movie discover love among other things in life.This movie has a kind of old world charm that is barely ever seen today .A wonderful watch ,simple without the flamboyance of today's complicated relationships leaves you feeling a few pounds lighter (which now that i think about it is kind of ironic given that the movie's title).If you need more reasons to watch this movie, it was the debut film of both Julia Roberts and Matt Damon (who btw has just this one dialogue "Mom,do you want my green stuff").Watch it for Julia's youthful exuberance ,watch it for the town of Mystic and watch it because after you watch it you'll be delighted when you know that there's an actual Mystic Pizza in Connecticut that you just have to visit.

2. Speak

Based on the Bestselling novel of the same name by Laurie Halse Anderson,Speak is an independent film released in 2004 directed by Jessica Sharzer.It follows Melinda Sordino as she embarks on her freshman year and soon we realize that something's awfully wrong.She barely talks,most of her dialogues are voice overs and her class mates all hate her because she called the cops at her best friend's party last summer. Yet,nobody knows the real reason why she did what she did.What happened that night?

Having read both the book and watched the movie,i can wholeheartedly vouch for it.One of the best book to movie adaptations i have watched EVER.Also anyone who watched the Twilight series and thinks Kirsten Stewart cannot act,you should know 13 year old Stewart is a revelation in this.Watch it for the story,for her.

1.Marie Antoinette 

Follows the life of Marie Antoinette from when she was shipped off to France as the Bride to be of  Louie the 14th .If  you have grown up reading about this ruthless queen of France who could care less about the people of her country,you will be pleasantly surprised by this movie.It manages to portray Marie as heartbreakingly vulnerable,charming,funny and even kind to a fault.If for nothing else,you should watch this movie for Sofia Coppola's unique take on 18th century France.She takes all the conventions associated with a period film and throws them out the window one by one.Gone are the mile long dialogues and the subdued ambience,this movie is a candy coated confection welcoming you into a world of fantasy enter twined with historic relevance.

Marie Antoinette - A girl,a women,a beautiful tragedy.

No discussion about the French revolution is complete without Marie Antoinette's mention. She was the lynchpin many say,  responsible for the revolution breaking out as strong as it did .She was unconcerned about the misery of the common man, a spendthrift ,a woman more interested in matters of her corsets than her country's, immersed in merry making and luxury.That’s what I've heard, that’s probably what you've heard. And then there's what this movie will tell you

   .
                                      The story has been done and heard a million times ,a million different ways but none receive the treatment that this one does in the hands of the very capable Sofia Coppola .Sofia takes all the conventions associated with a period film and throws them out the window one by one. Maybe its just me and my biased opinion about my favourite director but I think everyone agrees that there are a lot of words that can be used to describe Sofia Coppola's style but conventional will never be one of them .The story is not a chronological biography - instead of  a birth to death routine it focuses on her stay at the court of Versailles - Her first introductions to the life of a Dauphine, her struggles to get along both emotionally and physically with her husband and finally her transformation into the queen that we have heard so much about, often nicknamed 'Madame Deficit'

      A lady in waiting draws open the curtains letting in the morning sunshine, introducing us to a sleepy Antoinne (a bare faced Kristen Dunst) as she wakes up, taking in the daylight . As she lies there lazing in bed , cuddling with her pet in a white virginal nightdress ,everything about her and her surroundings scream Youth ,even as the voice over tells us that the friendship between Austria and France needs to be cemented and Antoinne the youngest daughter of the queen of Austria, Marie Teresse,is going to be queen of France.14 years old,rest assured the giddy teenager looks like anything but the queen. Soon she is packed off to france to fulfill her duties as the future queen -to - be of a rival country, a duty that will consume her till her very end. 

    

  Everything about this movie is unique - right from the bold pink beginning credits to the subtle satire poking fun at the ways of the monarchy .There are few movies that manage to combine comedy and drama as well as this one does.This subtle brand of humour adds a different flavour to the movie - from Madam Du barry's eccentricities to Marie's brother Joseph explaining to Louie the techniques of lovemaking in terms of locksmithing " Well you know sometimes when a key does not fit a lock. . ." Gone are the boring mile long dialogues, the over dramatic acting, the classical music. Sofia's version is much hipper and not because it deliberately tries to be but because it just is. Allow me to quote a  gem -

Marie Antoinette: (about Du Barry) Where does she come from?

Aunt Sophie: (chuckling) From every bed in Paris.

              There is nothing here that Sofia gets wrong ,from the casting - a talented Kirsten Dunst perfectly portrays both the naivety of a teenager and the confidence of a young women who revels in her sexuality ; Jason Schwartzman ,who takes Louie the XVIth ,quite frankly a pumpkin of a king ,as weak and as naïve as his young bride and manages to evoke a few laughs and a great deal of sympathy for his character at the very same time ; Jamie Dornan, as Count Fersen, a soldier in the king's army, Marie's lover ,notoriously complex in his own right. Even the choices for  the supporting cast are inspired - Asia Argentine as Madam du Barry ; Rose Bryne as Duchess de Polignac ,Marie's main confidante ; Rip Torn as Louie the XVth are all a perfect fit.

                           Right from the beginning the characterization of Marie Antoinette is beautifully handled. While every single development in her character is obviously highlighted she never quite turns into the evil queen you might expect her to.She isn't selfish or obnoxious and definitely not the woman whose most famous words are perhaps "let them eat cake" (Ironic fact though : She never actually said those words).Instead we see her as a girl treated as a mere object exchanged in a peace treaty only to be  later referred to as an ' Austrain spy'.Someone charming, funny, heartbreakingly vulnerable, breathtakingly genuine, someone trying to get by, trying to make the best of the raw deal that she was dealt .She never choose this life for herself ,she was thrown into the middle of the chaos and asked to adapt. She chose decadence over depression.

                        Sofia has clearly spent a huge amount of time working out every single aspect of this movie and the result is for all to see in its exquisite attention to detail .The cakes look like edible pieces of art,the costumes are over the top ; the sets are larger than life,extravagant . It's almost like every tiny bit of these extra details manage  to make their royal life seem shinier,somehow brighter .Look a little harder and this honestly makes a bigger point than just serve as aesthetic pleasure. Marie immersed herself in this opulent lifestyle to compensate for her lack luster personal life, her inability to convince her husband to consummate their marriage ,in her own words - her "greatest unhappiness".

        

                      

                       There is a gradual shift that we see in her, from despising the royal protocol to finally accepting it, choosing to revel in the little pleasures that her royal life can bring her - the shoes, the clothes ,the luxury.(In a later scene while Marie tries on shoes Sofia manages to sneak in a pair of sneakers into the shot,in an rather unconvential nod to Marie's lost childhood) .The same can be seen in her relationship with her husband ,she comes to accept what he can or rather cannot provide her with.Over the course of the movie they develop an unlikely understanding ,a friendship.

She also goes on to find love.She finds passion missing from her marriage in Count Fersen ,a soldier that she first meets at a masquerade ball .Their chemistry crackling even as they barely touch ,the promise of something more looming in the air and the few words they exchange set to the background score of 'aphrodisiac' by bow wow wow  makes for a heady combination.

                  

 Which brings me to  another important component of this movie - its music .Sofia uses 80's rock music to bring the movie alive. music is used  not only to complement but take the emotions the characters experience  a notch higher , whether it’s the romance, the pain, the anguish or the thrill of first love described aptly  by "Fools Rush In".

            The most astonishing part about this movie is that there most scenes so delightful ,so bare, for instance take the one in which Marie along with her whole band of friends and Louie watch the sunset, bringing an end to an otherwise lavish birthday that could be stripped of all the adornments -the costumes ,the props ,the  make up ,everything that would be reminiscent of 18th century France and its emotions would still ring true today .

            

              This movie is a candy coated confection ,a sinful treat, a combination of all the feelings you could hope to feel in 2 hours and it leaves you with a lingering sense of nostalgia for when things were better for Marie.

So was she a callous queen? Or a mere victim of circumstance? Who knows? And by the end of the movie ,well,who cares. . .

A Family of Two : A review of the movie 'Consent' , starring Troian Bellisario and Peter Vack

"Happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

                                                                                                           - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.

He was a cheater. She was an alcoholic. He was hallucinating his dead sister. She was abused. They were a family.The movie "consent" pulls us into the lives of Susan and Mark and their children -Amand
and Joshua still reeling from the death of their eldest daughter Samantha. Her suicide throws the family into a downward spiral of drugs, abuse and inappropriate sexual conduct ,testing their relationships along the way.

While Mark keeps his mind off her death by philandering ,Susan finds solace in alcohol , Josh and Amanda are left to deal with the wreckage by themselves .By not paying the necessary amount of attention to them ,Susan and Mark grant their children the unspoken consent to behave in any way they like, which leads them into making some very damaging, destructive choices , especially true when it comes to Amanda who engages in a sadomasochistic relationship despite being advised against it by Josh repeatedly. Their mother chooses to relinquish any responsibility that she might feel towards them and their father is so involved in his extramarital affair that they have absolutely nobody to look upto. Josh tries to become this father figure  to Amanda that they clearly lost out on ,becoming a shoulder for her to cry on on various occasions,her only support system .He wants nothing more than to protect his little sister,the only family that he has left now.

                         Home does not bring a sense of comfort to them , instead this is where the chaos in their life stems from,the unsupervised teens substitute the void left by their sister's death and their parent's absence by indulging in all kinds of self destructive behavior .The word normal does not hold any meaning to them they try to adapt to their rapidly changing family situation as well as they can,leaning on each other for support .Josh and Amanda become a unit in themselves,a family within a family. The loss of this security blanket leads Amanda to look for some other "safe place" ,which ironically she thinks she finds in the arms of an abusive boyfriend .

                    Amanda seems to have accepted her sister's death much more readily than Josh who still sees Sam everywhere,she is for him what he tries to become  for Amanda ,an anchor to hold onto.We are given two contrasting views of what Sam was like, one from Josh who still remembers Sam kindly and one from Amanda who blames her for choosing to take the easy way out,a mere coward .Where Amanda doesn't seem to let anyone other than Josh in her life , Josh seems to welcome his best friend Seth into his closely guarded world who let's Josh in on his little secret too - he is a closeted gay boy who is too afraid to tell his military man father this because he fears he wouldn't be "calm about it", a subtle hint about what his family must be like.

                 
                   Josh wants to be a filmmaker and he finds his muse in Amanda ,he films her all the time,sometimes to the extent of being voyeuristic.His movie on her even gets him into film school ,she becomes more and more important to him as the movie progresses ,one of the only things he cherishes as much as his camera that he carries around everywhere with him .She dotes on him ,he becomes her only rescuer ,the only one who can truly understand what she is going through, close enough to not only watch but see who she really is. You start to understand why they become so close ,they only have each other,at this point in their lives.This is not a choice but a necessity ,pulling each other through is the only way they will ever make out of the mess that their lives have become.

                 The distant behavior of their parents is in contrast with the overly affectionate relation between Josh and Amanda and also between Josh and Samantha who he is clearly not  able to let her go of .As the movie progresses the question clearly is - how much affection is too much affection? The movie while always dark takes on a disturbing turn from here on ,choosing to portray incest  in a way that it seems almost justifiable ,understandable if not acceptable .After her boyfriend sexually abuses her at a friend's house Amanda comes home crying and turns to the only constant in her life ,her brother .Under the influence of drugs and alcohol the lines between the siblings  blur until Josh comes to his senses and pulls away. She slaps him, sobbing ,shouting that she hates him,both of them in tears now ,finally grieve - grieve the loss of  Sam, of their mother ,of their father,of themselves.

            Through flashbacks we know that the cracks in their relationships were already there right from the start ,Sam's death merely accelerated the unraveling of this family.Would it not have happened if she were alive? Or was it just a matter of time? Their family was never perfect.But then is any family ever ? Josh leaves for college , leaving behind Amanda and Sam.It is in this tender moment when they hug that we realise that even with everything that they have been through they managed to come off virtually unscathed , together and they always will as long as they have each other. 

The Fosters : Family.Love.Brandon.

It’s not about where you come from. It’s about where you belong.” #TheFosters 

The Fosters is centered on Callie,a 16 yr old girl who got sent to Juvie because she finally stood up to her abusive step father after watching him beat the crap out of her younger brother Jude,namely by baseballing   ( yes, thrashing with a baseball should be a verb now) his car. She is taken in by school principal Lena and her partner Stef, a gay couple.With a couple of children.Couple of children meaning -Stef's biological son Brandon ,two adopted twins - Jesus and Mariana . And by the end of the episode Callie . And Jude . So yeah, full house .



So she's all like

And their all like *AWKWARD*

Initially i was kinda on the fence about this show,i watched the promo a couple of weeks ago and was all "too dark,too depressing" but then one extremely boring afternoon when i had nothing better to do,i gave in.And thank god i did.This little show is a gem about familial relationships ,all kinds of them - the dysfunctional ones,the traditional ones and the  diverse - but- they-still- fit- together- like- a- puzzle ones.Yes,they exist.And yes,they are called the Fosters.

Characters :

1. Lena : Kind , sensitive , patient ,loving, basically a marshmallow. An adorable marshmallow at that.

2. Stef : Tough, smart, strong,a total badass .

   * ya honey i know,we have too many kids*

3. Callie: The kid from the wrong side of the tracks , makes her way slowly and steadily into your hearts.She  made quite the impact on me , considering she only had about 5 dialogues in the last 3 episodes excluding her conversations with a certain guy

*How adorable do i look when i smile *

Which brings us to :

4. BRANDON : Yes,his name is in caps.On purpose. Why u ask ? Just cuz he is the most adorable thing ever. He plays piano ,could totally be a jock if he wanted to ,while also rocking the i'm so sensitive i'll miss my piano competition that could win me a scholarship to save your little brother from your psychotic step father kinda vibe .Yes i love him.I could go on but well <3 <3 <3

P.S : In my defense i did not make this collage , so clearly there r other people who feel the same way abt this guy. . .

OK . Next.

5. Jesus : He has ADD. And a crush on his sister's best friend.DRAMA.

And he  takes the blame for his sister selling his pills to her friends to give money to their junkie step mother. Did i mention DRAMA ( which basically just translates to FUN)

6.Mariana : Comes across as sort of  bitchy at first but starts to grow on you. Sort of lacks a back bone.So no i don't love her yet, but i hold out hope.

7. Lexi : Mariana's best friend,Jesus's secret make out buddy ( girlfriend ? I don't knw. . . )

8. Mark? : I think his name was Mark or something really close to that . Anyways he's Stef's ex husband . And needless to say there is no love lost between him and Lena.

Why you should watch :

* Callie and Brandon's chemistry is crackling.

His piano + her guitar = prettiest musical duo ever

* So is Jesus's and Lexi's ( besides her name is Lexi which makes me love her already (shout out to Lexi Grey)

*Jude - because well LOOK

#That Smile

*  BRANDON

*   BRANDON

* I have seen 3 episodes so far and it  included -  Breach of school policy(by  the principal,several students),  amazing music, jealous girlfriend ,sneaky brother , psychotic step father, junkie biological mother,guns, drugs .You get the idea.On a serious note,this show is one of the most realistic high school kids based show i have ever seen. Plus the characters will crawl into your heart and refuse to leave.

* Ohhh did i mention BRANDON ?

So basically u gotta watch this show ,NOW

PEACE OUT

Why God Why ???!!! 5 TV characters that died and left us mourning. . .

5. Chuck my name's a pick up line Bass 

 Ok,so he didn't really die ,but was there ever a more gut wrenching moment than this on gossip girl ?  Plus him not really being dead meant he could have the awesomest comeback ever as Henry (seriously you couldn't come up with a better name than that).And keep in mind his death was due to an awww inducing moment -
He was all like i will not give up the huge engagement ring i bought for my high school girlfriend to a couple of thugs even though they will clearly shoot me and i can buy like a million of these along with 3 planes and still have enough money to buy a hotel with .Good thing he didn't die though . . .how could we live without his patent chuck bass humor.






 


Just a question though : Who falls down this prettily when dying in an alley. . .






4.  Alaric i'm their uncle Saltzman

 Damon's drinking buddy. Infact his best buddy. So much so that Wiki lists Damon under his relationships right after Aunt Jenna (!!!! , also dead btw : honarary mention) . He was our favourite non official gaurdian of his dead ex girlfriend's nephew and niece (A.K.A the world's most unfortunate teenagers). He taught elena to fight.He taught damon to bond. He dies while totally cuckoo but  got the most tear jerking good bye mystic falls will ever witness . ( for a little while atleast ,Jeremy's death and consequently Elena's goodbye meltdown sort of trumped his)

3. Denny Millionaire Duquette

Who can forget Izzie on that hospital bed in her princess prom dress clutching Denny. She was beautiful .He was dead. Dead after she had fallen head over heals for him,cut the lvad wire ,stole a heart for him,after he had proposed ,like an hour ago.




I was a Alex Izzie shipper but this scene still haunts me. It was painful . And perfect.
Denny also provided for one of the most adorable Alex-is-a-human  moments on Grey's when he carried her off that bed.




He comes back in season 5 . As a ghost .Izzie has sex with him.With his ghost. Ok,lets not talk about this ever again.

2. Lexi-pedia Grey

How could she not be on my list? Meredith resisted, not me. I loved her from the very first time she appeared on our television screens (actually not from the very first moment because then she was being just a girl in a bar part 2 which made me hate her just a tad bit ,so from the very second moment she ever appeared on our television screens). How could you not ? She was cute as a button and taught Mcsteamy to love.  Derek treats her better than any of his sisters (and that's remarkable considering he has like 40 of them).


Sometimes i still wake up in the middle of the night and i'm like





Not,not really,but i could be,that's how badly it hurt .

1. Mark i was born with 6 pack abs Sloan 

So ya another Grey's anatomy casualty . I wonder how the writers come up with this stuff. Hey,he's the most beloved character on our show. Let the plane crash,gotta get him killed !
He was gorgeous and  one half of the most perfect couple in telly land.
Mcsteamy you will forever live in our hearts .And when we start to forget we'll look at this :


(When asked who would he be with,when old and dancing at someone's wedding)




Or this :





It really is a matter of choice . . .


P.S : I will forever blame you dear writers for taking away my favorite people in the world from me. I now understand that this means all my favorite people in this world are fictional . Now i hate you even more.

Question to Shonda : Do you have special lets kill a character meetings once every month or is this a spur of the moment kind of thing?

Mistresses : Gossip Girl Reloaded

 Abc's Mistresses holds the distinction of being the lowest rated premiere for a scripted series since 2011's 'Combat Hospital '.Thus being the black sheep enthusiast that I am , i'm reviewing a show no one could care less about. 

Mistresses follows four girl friends. And,well that's pretty much it. Let's take a quick look at them :

1. Savannah : She's the bored housewife of the bunch. Actually come to think of it she wasn't really bored until about 3 secs till the ending .Well maybe she mentioned it a couple of times (not so subtly ) that she missed being looked at "like that". But i guess when the show is named mistresses the characters don't really have that much of a choice. . .


First who cheat's on this? Look at him.

 
First who cheat's on this? Look at him. Second who cheats on someone who names their restaurant after you? That's a close second to  write a song for me in my  i - will - marry- you - if - u  list .

2. April : Now here's where things get interesting or start going downhill ,depending on how you choose to look at it. April here is a widow .Who still gets calls from her dead husband . Or believes so . On the basis of the heavy breathing on the other end of the phone.Ya, i know .

3. Karen : Her storyline is a little bit more complicated than the others . I'll try to explain .Karen is a therapist who has an affair with a married patient who's sick and then decides to die by taking the morphine that Karen prescribed  for "when things get too painful". Did i mention that his wife was with him when this happened. (I think the wife totally murdered him ,just saying, i called it first ) And then his son stalks Karen till she finally agrees to meet with him so he can talk to her about the other women his father was seeing who ofcourse unbeknownst to him is Karen.Not confusing enough ? that's ok cuz there's more.This creepy dude then proceeds to fall in love with her.Like father,like son.

That's Karen at the said patient's funeral .A little tip Karen - Don't go to your dead lover's funeral who also happened to be your patient ,especially when the morphine you prescribed killed him.And definitely don't sit with his family.Not even if his wife insists.She didn't know you had that affair.

4. Joss: So saving the best for the last Joss is a real estate agent who climbs up the corporate ladder by sleeping with her boss but  is smart enough to kick him to the curb when he decides to buy her a love nest so that he can sleep with her whenever he wants to .Smart move girlfriend,smart move. Oh did i mention the boss is married too.
Atleast joss is funny,bad life decisions seem to be a pre-requisite for every character on this show.And not to mention single, i mean nobody on this show seems to be faithful anyway. Except, Savannah's husband ,who won't last long given that Joss is moving in with them. I mean have you seen that girl.I practically screamed at Savannah for being so stupid .TV wives i tell u.

Final word : So all everyone ever does on this show is have sex . All.The .Time . There are five sex scenes in the first episode. Four of which happen in the first 15 mins. Or maybe there were 6. After a point u lose count. Honestly,watch this show because its ridiculous ,so ridiculous that its almost funny ,so ridiculous that April's dead husband calls her on the phone every time he wants to stop her from going on a date and conveys this through mouth breathing .On the phone ? i mean really? Ur dead and you still use communication mediums that we humans do? I mean with the connectivity issues nowadays. I'm appalled. Oh wait, i remember now , that was actually her dead husband's girlfriend who was calling to talk to her about the kid she had with him . Ok writers ,we get it ,this show is named MISTRESSES .Way to prove a point.