"Amèlie" Film Review

   Winter break is now in full swing and I plan to be watching a bunch of new movies. Out of the list of films I am currently trying to get through, Amèlie was one of the films I was looking forward to the most. I had been hearing nothing but good things about it for quite a long time, so after watching Nebraska and Trainspotting earlier today, I finally took the trip to France. 

   The film centers around the early life of Amèlie, a kind and offbeat but mostly introverted young woman who works as a waitress and seems more interested with the idea of love than actually trying to find it for herself. She really is obsessed with the subject, whether it is evidenced from attempting to figure out who in the neighborhood is currently having an orgasm, or manipulating her coworkers to "accidentally" run into each other and then proceed to have sex. The only thing is, when a handsome individual just happens to misplace a treasured book of photos, Amèlie must learn to let go of her major introversion and take risks to allow this new stranger into her life. 

  The editing and the cinematography are certainly the most interesting aspects of this film. The colors coordinate nicely, the lighting is on point, and pretty much every single detail is pleasing to the eye of the viewer. With regards to the editing, it was executed perfectly to match the quirky tone of the story and provide for an upbeat and pleasurable experience. Another thing I should add is that even though this film is quirky in its own right, it does not try too hard to achieve this factor of being "different", unlike other films such as Juno. You are not beaten over the head with the fact that Amèlie is a curious person, because the pacing and characterization do their jobs sufficiently enough that everything comes together nicely without being exhausting or overbearing. This film does not give the impression of having a huge ego, which was refreshing to see and is often the reason why most foreign, independent, or non-blockbuster films are usually critically acclaimed. (I said "usually"; of course there are exceptions). The movie does not try to be a big, grand reinvention of cinema, which makes it all the more enjoyable and helps it to really come together as an interesting piece of art. This was a charming little film and definitely one I would see again. 

Overall rating: 10/10

"A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)" Film Review

     I said in the last review that between John Wick and this film, one of them was great and the other was terrible. If you read my John Wick review you would know that I enjoyed it tremendously, so this leaves A Nightmare On Elm Street to be the awful one. 

     I had been wanting to watch this film ever since it hit the theaters, and I will admit that I did think it was okay when I had the chance to watch most of it on YouTube. I also understand that in a moment of weakness and stupidity, this film ended up on my "Top Horror Remakes" List, which I have now deleted. But after watching it all the way through, I was very disappointed in how it turned out. 

     The main issue I had with this movie was the pacing. It was far too fast to establish any context, and the script was so flat that you weren't able to gather any information about the characters before they ended up dying. Why should I care about these people if I don't even know who they are? Hell, for some of them, I didn't even remember their names. The movie was not skilled at all in establishing conflict or delivering exposition, and when it tried to, the entire film just stopped short. Even then, little was explained and the information we did receive did not fit well with what the film was trying to say. It was like watching someone with a throat problem trying to get the words out but being unable to. 

     In terms of the new Freddy, I felt that this one was painfully weak. I get that Jackie Earle Haley is capable of being a decent actor, but his character was not threatening and was really just confusing. I imagined that the reason they introduced him so early on in the film was to create some sort of shock value, the only problem being that it didn't work out that way. His prosthetic makeup was far from being believable and it made it seem like he was trying to move his lips under a giant pile of rubber, which created a sense of disillusionment and really kind of pissed me off. From what I understand, they tried to make the burns more realistic this time around, but the cinematography prevented us from seeing any of the detail. I paid attention to the coloration of many of the shots and felt that it was particularly off in scenes with Freddy. Many of the dream sequences with a red coloration were much too saturated and the lighting was so off that I felt as if Freddy was blending into the background, which took away from the shadowy and intimidating persona he was supposed to have. The dream sequences lacked a surreal atmosphere and did not feel like a dream or otherwise a different entity from the real world, which made for some confusing moments when I couldn't even figure out where the hell the characters were supposed to be. 

     With regards to how the other members of the cast portrayed their characters, I felt as if it would have been more believable if I had any idea as to who they were. Literally next to nothing was revealed about them and even though they made a point of trying to center it on Rooney Mara's character, I had a hard time believing that she was the protagonist. Everyone either switched from unemotionless and bored to an overacting mess of hysterics, and even the hysterical bits felt a bit underplayed. I also had a huge problem with twenty-somethings playing teenagers, and though it happens in nearly every high school movie, that doesn't mean it's a trend that we should be continuing. I really felt that this movie needed a lot of work and had to develop a lot more than it cared to, and unfortunately it just didn't seem to care about itself that much. An oppurtunity to make a mostly-campy movie into something darker failed to do its job by just not giving a shit either way.

     Overall rating: 4/10 

"John Wick" Film Review

     After taking a few weeks off to focus more on schoolwork and chill from the film reviews for a bit, I felt it was necessary to finally get around to reviewing two movies that I have seen recently. The films I will be reviewing today are John Wick and A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010), with one of them being great and the other being terrible. So first, I will look at John Wick. 

     Walking into this movie, I was interested enough by the trailer to see if Keanu Reeves would manage to bring himself back into the public eye considering that his career has mainly been surviving on indie films and box-office bombs ever since the Matrix trilogy ended. And to my suprise, I was very entertained. I expected this to be a rip-off of Taken, and to be fair, the main story does consist of the main character being bent on vengeance, but it's in a slightly different context. The film focuses on a former hit man (Reeves), who retired to care for his dying wife. When she dies, he finds that she left behind a dog for him to care for, so that he would have something to love in her absence, but when John Wick encounters a few assholes at a gas station and refuses to sell off his car to them, they break into his house, beat the shit out of him and kill his dog. He then gets pulled back into the world he once belonged to as he searches for the men responsible, who happen to be connected to his former employer. 

     Say what you want about Reeves, but in this case, his slightly stiff acting actually works for the character. The fact that he was broken up from his wife's death was not beaten over the head of the audience, and I really appreciated that the director trusted the audience enough to not do a flashback. Apparently the director did not perceive the audience to be complete idiots, and this helped to keep a consistent flow for the movie and made everything a bit more realistic. The movie was very stylish but not in an overt manner, and it did not have the huge ego that would have made the experience annoying. The cinematography was decent, and overall the script did its job pretty well to present the conflict in both the inner and outer dimensions of the characters. It seemed to be paying an homage to a lot of classic action films, but insead of this being cheesy, it came off as pretty interesting. Overall I would say that I was impressed with this movie and it made for a refreshing break from the other crap that has been coming out recently. 

Overall rating: 9/10 

Hiatus Announcement

  (No pictures for this post.)

  Here's the thing: 

 I began to realize that blogging no longer became fun or interesting to me. Perhaps I am just in a rut, or it could be that I am swamped with work, but one thing is clear: I need to take a break.

  Hope to see you when this semester ends. 

  Peace, 

The Gothic Bohemian 

Tanner Is Coming!

  Having followed the Takara "Blythe" culture on Pinterest for the past few months, I finally decided to get one myself. She is being shipped from China, so it will be at least another week before she arrives. I have named her Tanner. Good things have been said about the seller, so I hope she comes through alright. 

  So excited!!! Will definitely post an "unboxing" video on Youtube and link it to the GothicBohemian's blog. Some DIY Blythe projects may also make there way onto here in the future. My next post will probably be her arrival. See you in about a week, readers!

5 Things NOT To Say To Someone With Depression

  Depression is a cruel mistress I have often been in unfortunate contact with. It has stayed with me since I was a young kid, and over the years there have been a lot of ups and downs. While most certainly a struggle, depression is still stigmatized in society and sometimes looked at as not being a "real" disease. I am here to change your perceptions about this. Below is a list of things you should avoid saying to someone with depression.

1.  "What's wrong?" You should avoid this inquiry because most of the time, people with depression can't pinpoint what it is exactly that they are depressed over. It doesn't have a real rhyme or reason; it simply is, and we have to deal with it. Plus, if we knew what was bothering us, we could have devised a proper solution to help get rid of it. 
2.  "You'll get over it." Well, okay then, excuse me while I lift this incredibly large boulder off of my chest for the sake of your convenience. We cannot just "get over it", as that would imply that we have a specific reason to be depressed, and that the problem can be easily remedied with a certain solution. Depression is not some sort of infection that you can destroy with a pill; it takes time and effort, but most of the time you just learn to deal with it rather than get rid of it. Doing away with depression entirely is extremely difficult, as it can always bounce back. 
3.  "C'mon, smile!" This was (and still is) the most frequent statement people choose to say to me. As a kid, many saw this as just me having some sort of attitude. "Oh, don't mind her, she's just being a bitch", is basically what they were saying. We do not have an "attitude". We are not depressed because we seek to drain the people around us of any pleasure. 
4.  "I just saw you laugh and smile the other day, so you don't have depression." By this logic, I could say that you are never calm because I once saw you throw a temper tantrum. Depressed people get through some days with ease, and other times it is a huge undertaking to get out of bed in the morning. Plus, you may be one of the few things in life that temporarily relieves them of their depression. Think about that. 
5.  "People your age can't get depression." Since I heard this one a lot as a kid, I eventually stopped using the word "depression" and simply tried to convince myself that what other people said was true: maybe I did have a snotty attitude. But I never fully believed it, because in my gut I knew it was depression, or some form of it. There is no "right" or "wrong" time to get it, and it can affect anyone. Throw away your perceptions and recognize how prevalent it is. 

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