Meredyth Hunt - Hand Analysis I read hands because doing so brings me a greater understanding of myself and a deep satisfaction in helping others realize their potential.
I haven't see that many outstanding films this year and was beginning to wonder if I'd find a film that knocked my socks off. I'm happy to say that I did find one film to suggest this holiday season: The Blind Side.
This film succeeds on many levels for me. The first success is the fact that it's a true story - which makes the story all the better.
Not to give anything away - make sure you stay for the end credits. You get a treat of seeing photos and video from the actual family - which is so heartwarming.
What opens your heart to help others? How do you filter your heart decisions?
What's interesting about this particular Australian short is that is loosely based on an actual event.
Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes the short, Summer Breaks:
Summer Breaks is a highly visual portrait of teenage kids hanging out in the burbs. The film is a glimpse into the lives of two 15 year old boys, Benny and Sam. Loosely set somewhere in the late 80s, the story follows two friends as they wander the neighbourhood streets on a sweltering summer’s day. An unexpected encounter with two of the neighbourhood’s most sort after girls and a local teen thug leads them to a trip to the local oval and a late night swim. Their day turns to night and becomes a little more interesting than they expected.
It's amazing what a person can do with 12 minutes of film time. One scene merits an "ouch" award - this award is given when something in the film looks so real that I actually feel the pain while watching. Without giving too much away, it involves a platform and spring board at a swimming pool. Ouch.
I love getting an insider's look into the lives of non-American teens. It's amazing how nothing is all that different with the Australian teens - just a little slang and location.
Oh how I love a story where the ridiculed girl has the last laugh.
Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes the short film, Top Girl:
Truthful, tender and punctuated by ill advised sexual
encounters, TOP GIRL is a coming-of-age story about girls growing up in
a man's world.
Set in Brixton South London, and shot using a
cast of new and non-actors, TOP GIRL is a raw, truthful and tender
coming of age tale. Fearless fifteen year old Donna and her best mate
Felicia set off on a mission to find Legz, a supercool 20 year old with
a recording studio in the bedroom of his mum's flat. The idea is for
Donna to MC on a track but events don't go according to plan. Starved
of attention, Donna impulsively lunges at Legz and ends up in an abrupt
sexual encounter in the toilet. Afterwards she's thrilled and bursting
to tell Felicia but at school the next day, word has got out and
suddenly Donna finds herself a playground pariah. Unable to handle the
humiliation in front of her friend, she lashes out at Felicia. Now
totally alone and reduced to hiding from the world any way she can,
Donna is at rock bottom. Will she manage to salvage her TOP GIRL status
and win back her best friend? With irrepressible moxie, TOP GIRL
captures the intensity of youth and the reality of growing up as a
teenage girl in a man's world.
The short runs 18 minutes, yet there's so much story and emotion packed into this short amount of time which makes Top Girl shine as a must-see short.
Here's the trailer for Top Girl:
How important is your reputation? How does your reputation shape your view of yourself? Or does it matter?
I love short films and I saw a wonderful grouping (shorts 5) at the film festival. Love You More is one of my favorites.
Here's the Los Angeles Film Festival description for Love Your More (it's more of a play-by-play):
Georgia sits in a Geography class covering her exercise
book with graffiti. Her classmate Peter watches her with longing.
Georgia turns and catches him - but ignores his gaze. After school
Peter goes to the local record shop to buy the new Buzzcocks single,
'Love You More'. It's the day of its release and he's desperate to own
it. As he's flicking through the rack of 'New Releases' Georgia comes
in. She's after the same record... But there's only one copy. And
Peter's got it. Georgia quizzes him on Buzzcocks. She's quietly
impressed that this seeming geek knows his stuff. But there's still
only one copy. Georgia slips it into Peter's school bag and they hurry
out. In the street she invites him to listen to the stolen record with
her. He hesitates and admits he's supposed to be going straight home.
Georgia laughs and leads him to her place - a flat above a pub. They go
to her bedroom and listen to the song. It's loud and quick and it ends
suddenly. Georgia throws herself at Peter and they devour each other; a
frenzy of skin and limbs, the energy of the music propelling them into
losing their virginities. Georgia walks Peter home. Peter wants to know
if she'll continue to ignore him at school. Georgia says, 'Don't be
poxy'. They kiss, tenderly. Peter watches Georgia depart. He's madly in
love. Georgia walks away.
I love how this short focused on listening to a particular song on a record.
The writer also wrote Notes on a Scandal and the director is directing the upcoming John Lennon biopic.
One of the first films I saw at the Festival was A Week Alone.
Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes A Week Alone:
Presenting a world nearly devoid of adults, Celina
Murga’s beguiling feature allows the mercurial openness of its young
subjects to determine the mood and pace of the film. A group of teens
and pre-teens is left alone in their over-landscaped, gated housing
development while their parents are out of town. Although they still
attend school, the children spend most of their time swimming, drinking
too much chocolate milk, and breaking into empty houses. When a
housekeeper invites her less-privileged younger brother to visit for a
few days, Murga reveals the artificial environment to be less Edenic
than it first appeared.
Willfully obscuring needless details
(the parents’ absence and the children’s relations with each other are
only gradually and partially explained), the film focuses on
microscopic incidents that chart moments of social or sexual awakening.
Featuring uniformly superb performances from its first-time actors,
especially real-life sisters Magdalena and Eleonora Capobianco, who
provide the film’s emotional center—this is a coming-of-age story
devoid of sentimental triumphs or tragedies, but redolent with the
fleeting beauty of empty days free of consequence.
I found the film to be an interesting "fly on the wall" piece where I was witness to all things the kids did to entertain themselves. I give it three out of five swimming pools.
Here's the trailer for this Argentinean film:
What would you do if you had a week alone in a gated community where rules didn't exist? How would you use your time?
I'm a sucker for French films...and this one gets 4 1/2 disco balls out of five.
Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes Stella:
It’s 1977,and
11-year-old Stella Vlaminck is handed a lucky break when she’s randomly
assigned to a prestigious secondary school in an affluent area of
Paris. But the working-class Stella is more streetwise than booksmart,
and she is shunned by her new classmates who view her cheap clothes and
academic struggles with disdain. Meanwhile, her home life consists of
poker, pinball, pop music, and an odd menagerie of damaged adults. Her
parents run a rooming house and rowdy café frequented by ex-cons,
drunkards, and prostitutes, where she witnesses nightly barroom brawls
and the never-ending drama of her romantically-troubled parents.
Stella
seems destined to follow in the footsteps of her barmaid mother until
she befriends Gladys, the daughter of Argentine-Jewish intellectuals,
who exposes her to literature and a whole new world of possibilities.
Aided
by a superb cast, especially young Leora Barbara, who gives a low-key,
assured performance in the titular role, writer-director Sylvie
Verheyde’s semi-autobiographical film is a remarkable portrait of a
young girl’s intellectual awakening.
The little girl that plays Stella is years more mature and wiser than most children at her age. She's the main focus and gives a performance that's almost impossible to ignore.
One thing I appreciated about this film is how the viewer gets an insider look as to why Stella reacts to situations the way she does and how her outlook on life is a bit twisted compared to the average girl her age.
Here's the trailer - it's in French - yet you can get a feel for the film if you watch it:
How do your surroundings shape who you are? What's one insight you have about how your surroundings influence who you are?
Probably one of the best films I've seen all year - Paper Heart delivers quirky heart-felt comedy that's sure to please.
Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes Paper Heart:
Los Angeles-based comedian and performance artist
Charlyne Yi brings her winning and quirky “woman on the street”
approach to a subject that has plagued humans for centuries—the search
for true love. In this lovingly crafted hybrid of road trip documentary
and quasi-fictional romantic-comedy, our heroine and her friend and
intrepid director Nicholas Jasenovec criss-cross the country
interviewing experts and everyday folks about the meaning and nature of
love.
Yi employs her disarming persona to draw vulnerability, insight, and
humor from her subjects, who range from biologists to bikers, lifelong
couples to lovesick singles. Yi’s quest is underscored by her own
dawning romance with actor Michael Cera, which is amusingly staged-for
and interrupted by Jasenovec’s all-seeing camera. The couple’s awkward
courtship and a few lo-fi animated sequences of handmade paper puppets
lend some gentle humor and a generous, expansive spirit to Paper Heart’s weighty investigation.
Thankfully, Paper Heart will hit theaters on August 7th - so mark your calendars.
If you want an up-lifting and fun movie to watch this coming August, then Paper Heart is the movie for you.
Here's the trailer:
How does love show up in your everyday life? Where would you like to have love, but don't? How can you make that happen?
