The Artist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The-Artist-poster.png

I went to see The Artist today, after it won three major awards at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, I couldn't resist! Well it was fantastic - definitely deserved every award it won! The acting was superb, the music was beautiful, the sets were detailed and the costumes were gorgeous.  The director, Michel Hazanavicius, did a wonderful job bringing the 1920s to life on screen.  The story is about a famous silent film actor, named George Valentin who slowly fades from the Hollywood spotlight as talkies replace silent films.  At the same time a young woman named Peppy Miller, who Valentin wanted in one of his films,  begins to rise to stardom in the new talking pictures.  Both actors do a wonderful job of being extremely expressive on screen and, even though you can't hear what they are saying, as an audience you truly get the emotion and feelings of each scene.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, but I was completely aware of the fact that it is silent throughout (except for a small part at the end).  I enjoy film scores and was eager to see why the film had won it's awards.  However, my roommate went to see it last week and thought it was "boring" - I'm pretty sure she went into it not knowing that it was a silent film.  So be warned - if you want to watch the film be willing to enjoy the entire film experience and it's lack of audible dialogue.  I loved it and would recommend it to fellow film lovers everywhere!

Alex
xo

In Time

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688

I went to see this movie last week – My friend and I decided to go because it was Cheap Movie Tuesday, there weren’t many options, and we’d already seen the new Twilight movie the week before.  One of my roommates had gone with her boyfriend the day before and said it was pretty good, so we were willing to give it a shot.

It ended up being exactly what I thought it would be; a cool action/dystopian movie with moderate to bad acting by attractive people.  It met my expectations, as I wasn’t expecting much to begin with.

Important things to know

• The movie is set in a future where people are programmed to live for 25 years, and after that they have to earn more time to continue living. 
• There are substantial class differences, with people from Dayton, the ghetto/poor “Time Zone” that live day-to-day while other people in the “New Greenwich” Time Zone live for hundreds of years 
• Justin Timberlake (who isn’t a half bad actor – I just wish he would make some new music...) plays Will Salas, who is from Dayton. 
• He lives with his mother Rachel, played by Olivia Wilde. (Who is 50 years old, but as the characters do not age, looks 25.  Even though it is part of the story, it was weird hearing Justin call her mom)
• Amanda Seyfried plays Sylvia, the daughter of a millionaire businessman, who lives in New Greenwich.
• Cillian Murphy (the bad guy from Batman Begins) plays a Timekeeper – a policeman in this world. 
• The catalyst of the film is when Matt Bomer (from the TV Show White Collar) gives the rest of his time (100+ years) to Will.

Things I found frustrating/funny

• The time is displayed on each character’s forearm in fluorescent green digital format.  It looks just plain weird.
• Throughout the second half of the film Justin and Amanda’s characters do a lot of running.  Amanda just so happens to do it while wearing 4+ inch stilettos.  I had to stop myself from shouting out multiple times during the movie -  “PUT SOME SNEAKERS ON!!  AMANDA - your heels are hot but you’re going to break an ankle!” (Practicality aside, she had some amazing footwear throughout the film...)
• I feel as though Andrew Niccol’s (the director) instructions to Amanda consisted solely of this; wear this outfit, show your legs, hold this gun and look hot. 
  In all it was a decent movie; it had action and romance.  It was nothing fantastic, but I don’t regret spending my 6.50$ to go see it. I would recommend you wait until you can stream this movie online, or download and watch it on your computer. 

Time to Start

Finally – Fall semester is finished and I can now breath.  It also means that I can now blog! I’ve been following & reading blogs religiously for the past 8 months; getting ideas and inspiration to create my own.  I think that I am finally ready to (and I finally have the time to) enter into the world of blogging.  I realize that it is going to take some time and effort to get a following, and I also realize that no one is reading this yet – but hopefully eventually my blog becomes a part of someone else’s daily blog reading routine!

Some things that I will include

• Movie Reviews (because I love movies and watch a lot of them. No seriously, it’s kind of unhealthy...
• Recipes (I love baking – I routinely try new recipes and test them on my roommates – haven’t heard a complaint yet!)
• Outfit Posts (I need to put my obscene amount of clothing to some use...)
• Product Reviews (Makeup & Hair/Body Products – I’m a sucker for a nice drug store/department store display)
• Travel (tips, memories, stories – I love to travel)

I am sure that my blog will grow and develop on it’s own – and I look forward to sharing with you!