Archive for the 'Coming of age' Category

Raising Victor Vargas

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 4, 2008
in Comedy, Coming of age, Drama, New York and Romance
. 0 Comments

I’m not really sure why I added this one to my Netflix queue.  I think it was suggested to me as something I might like.  Writen, directed and produced by Peter Sollett - you might recognize his name in conjunction with a new film coming out, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist starring the ever-funny Michael Cera.  I wasn’t really sure what to think of this film.  I think part of the confusion was with the title.  Raising Victor Vargas would imply it might be about Victor growing up or his parents raising him or something.  The story starts off with Victor being ashamed everyone in the neighborhood knows he’s dating a “fat chick.”  So he heads to the pool with his sidekick to try and change his reputation.  We eventually get clued in to his interesting homelife and his grandmother who is raising him.  So I thought maybe the story would be centered on the grandmother, but it wasn’t.  I want to say I didn’t understand the point of the story, but that just sounds bad…even though I still feel that way.

If you check out the cast list on IMDB, you’ll notice that most of the characters real names are also their character names.  I’ve always though that must make the acting a little bit easier.  The two people I recognized were Melonie Diaz from Be Kind, Rewind, and Victor Rasuk from Lords of Dogtown and I’m Reed Fish.  I appreciated the effort put into accents and vernacular.  It seemed to fit the time and place, or maybe it’s just what I’m used to from watching TV.

Overall I wasn’t really thrilled with this one.  I know movies can just be entertainment; they dont’ have to always teach you a lesson.  This one didn’t seem to have a lesson, there wasn’t any major closure, there didn’t even seem to be much of a character change in anyone.

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Persepolis

Published
by
nathanshorb
on July 5, 2008
in Adolescence, Animation, Autobiography, Based on a graphic novel, Coming of age, Foreign, French and War
. 0 Comments

Persepolis is the animated film adaptation of the autobiographical graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi. It’s her coming of age story, living through the turmoil, wars, and revolts of Iran in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s

Simply put, it’s a lovely little film that really catches the viewer’s attention. Its animation is simple but thoroughly heartfelt and extremely effective. While few of us have lived through wars, seeing our relatives fight for their beliefs and die in the process, we can somehow relate to this story, perhaps because it’s told so candidly. The innocence of childhood, the ups and downs of adolescence, and trying to make sense of it all in adulthood are something each of us experience. Satrapi has said that this was one aim of the film, to show how much of growing up is a universal experience.

In the process of the film, though, we are treated to a little bit of a history lesson of the country of Iran. And while you don’t get all the ins and outs of the history, it makes you eager to learn a bit more.

My only complaint is that the storytelling at times seemed too fragmented. It felt rushed, each segment was brief before jumping to the next event at hand. Satrapi, obviously, is a talented and poignant storyteller, and I would have appreciated a more in-depth, detailed look at some parts of the story

So, this film comes highly recommended. It’s an enlightening and personal story that is absolutely beautifully told. I hope more animated works like it start coming our way.

Rating: ★★★★½

Saint Ralph

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 11, 2008
in Comedy, Coming of age, Drama, Religion, Running and Sport
. 0 Comments

I never thought I’d refer to a movie as “heart-warming”, but I think this one might fall under that category.  Saint Ralph is a story about a young boy who has just entered the 9th grade and is trying everything he can to help his mother wake from her coma.  He finally decides to train for the 1954 Boston Marathon in hopes of winning because it would be nothing short of a miracle.

Now you might be thinking this movie is all sap, but I beg to differ.  Ralph isn’t exactly the star pupil at the parochial school he attends.  Most of his time seems to be spent talking to Father Fitzpatrick about the latest shenanigan he’s been caught committing.  Little-known actor Adam Butcher does amazingly well in this role being emotional and intense at the same time.  Even though Ralph finds himself in funny situations, he himself isn’t really a funny character.

Ralph’s sidekick, Chester, is played by Michael Kanev.  You’ll probably also recognize Jennifer Tilly who plays Ralph’s mother’s nurse.  You might also recognize Campbell Scott, from The Exorcism of Emily Rose, who plays Ralph’s teacher, friend, and coach - Father Hibbert.  While I would have to say this film is a bit moving, it’s in no way sappy or cheesy.  It kind of reminded me a bit of Goodbye Lenin!, but they’re not really similar movies.  The only thing tying them together would be a boy looking out for his mother.

One thing I didn’t really think about was this movie is also about running.  The writer/director brought it up in the “making of” bit on the extra features.  I have seen a couple other movies that were about running and I found them completely uninteresting.  I think this was because I’m not a runner.  In the same way that Iron Man rocked the house because Jon Favreau directed it and it was a great movie about a comic book hero, Saint Ralph is a great movie about a boy coming of age, taking care of his sick mother, and he just happens to run a marathon.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Penelope

Published
by
Chalupa
on April 2, 2008
in Coming of age, Curse, Fairytale and Feel Good
. 0 Comments

Before I even get started talking about this movie, I must mention that IMDB has Penelope listed as a 2006 movie. Does anybody know if this is a typo or if it just got hung up in post-production?

I’ve been trying to think of another movie to compare this to and can’t quite put my finger on it. This is rated PG, so it’s definitely something safe to take the kids to. The story is about a cursed family whose next daughter will have a pig-face. The family went several generations with no daughters until eventually Penelope was born. The only way to break the curse was for her to be accepted by her own kind. Her kind would be the blue-bloods, the rich, the aristocracy. Sounds like a good fairytale story, right?

This also happens to be Mark Palansky’s first time directing a feature film and Reese Witherspoon’s first film she’s acted in as well as produced. I thought Christina Ricci did a fine job of acting here. She’s one of those actors/actresses that I feel like I’ve been following most of their career from The Addams Family to Buffalo ‘66 to 200 Cigarettes to Monster and Black Snake Moan. In the past decade or so I’ve finally gotten old enough that there are decent actors out there the same age I am. In fact, it was almost weird to see Ricci in an innocuous role for a change compared to some of her recent films.

Peter Dinklage is also great as always. If you don’t recognize his name, you might remember him from Elf, and if you haven’t seen The Station Agent, that’s a must see. The hilarious Catherine O’Hara plays another funny role as Penelope’s mother. You’ll probably recognize her from Home Alone or various Christopher Guest films.

Penelope has been hidden away her whole life so as not to be made fun of for her unique face.  Eventually she takes things into her own hands and decides to live her life the way she chooses and meets some friends along the way.  I can’t really say much more about the plot without giving stuff away. At first glance you might dismiss this as just a kid movie.  It actually wasn’t that bad.  I say give it a whirl if you have nothing else to watch.

Rating: ★★★½☆

The Education of Shelby Knox

Published
by
Chalupa
on February 20, 2008
in Coming of age and Documentary
. 0 Comments

The Education of Shelby Knox is a documentary about one girl’s growing up through high school and fighting for sex education and gay and lesbian rights. Shelby is from a very conservative, republican, town in Texas and ends up butting heads, to one degree or another, with her friends, family, and community members over sex education. She comes from an area where abstinence-only is taught. This may sound good, but doesn’t always achieve its goal. Coming from the perspective of once being a teenager, I can vouch that kids will do things they’re told not to do just because. The interesting bit is that Shelby agrees with abstinence, she’s just aware that’s not the reality for everybody else. What do you do for kids not practicing abstinence? The kids need a well-rounded education in this area to cover more than just “option A.”

It was very interesting to see her get involved in a student organization, setup by the city, to reevaluate these educational policies. It became very obvious early on that even though the city was behind them, the officials weren’t really expecting to receive any opposition from the students. When things got too hot, the city threatened to pull funding from the group if they didn’t settle down. The school board’s and the city’s unwillingness to recognize student wishes in this area eventually led to a lawsuit.

I’m sure some of you will love this movie and others of won’t, and all for different reasons. I think there could be reactions similar to those after people watch Jesus Camp. I found this one to be very interesting and would suggest you consider giving it a chance.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Juno

Published
by
Chalupa
on December 29, 2007
in Adolescence, Audio Review, Comedy, Coming of age, Drama and Romance
. 0 Comments

Liz and I just saw Juno. We did something a little different and recorded our review. Hope you enjoy.

Juno Audio Review

Into the Wild

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 4, 2007
in Adventure, Based on a book, Based on a novel, Based on a true story, Biography, Coming of age, Drama, Homeless, Loneliness and Road Trip
. 3 Comments

If you haven’t already read the book this movie is based on, then you should probably go pick it up at your local library. I myself haven’t read it yet, but my wife does own it and has been on me to read it for a couple years. I consider myself lucky to have seen the movie.

Emile Hirsch portrays Christopher McCandless, a recent college graduate who is dissatisfied with society and the business people fall into. He wants to experience nature and live off the land. He doesn’t want to be tied down by a job, money or useless laws and regulations. He wants to live a simple life and enjoy the beauty that can’t be found in bustling metropolises or busy cities. He wants to head North to Alaska where there are mountains, rivers and endless sky. This is a true story that includes many people that encountered Christopher, or Alexander Supertramp as he liked to call himself.

McCandless came from a less than perfect home. A home that can all too easily be summed up partially be Wes Anderson’s commentary on the American family, The Royal Tenenbaums. Christopher wanted to get out and see the world. In a way, maybe he left his family to get back at them. He greatly affected a great number of people he met on his way and befriended everyone in an uncanny Dude-like manner that the Coen’s created in their film, The Big Lebowski. On the other hand, there were also people he hurt like his sister that was abandoned along with his parents.

Throughout the movie though, we see “Alex” hitching rides from town to town, getting jobs to pay for what he needed, and even kayaking from Colorado to Mexico. He did all of this before the age of 25. That seems pretty amazing to me because I’m 26 and I can’t say I’ve accomplished many of those things.

To expound on his Dude-like qualities, I was really amazed how no one was too old, young or culturally different from McCandless to be his friend. Chris was always able to relate to people and be their friend. I think deep down inside everybody feels this way. Everybody wants to be liked. Everybody wants to have friends and be somebody’s friend. However, for some reason, declaring, “I want to befriend everyone I meet” just doesn’t sound very manly or macho. What’s wrong with that? I think it has something to do with being tough, showing emotion and making yourself vulnerable.

I highly recommend this movie and the book, even though I have yet to read it myself. One thing my wife mentioned after the movie was she wished they had shown some of the effects on people Chris had met after they learned of his death. She said everybody took it pretty hard. So I guess if you loved the movie, there’s some motivation to pick up the book and give it a read.

Superbad

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 20, 2007
in Comedy, Coming of age, High School, Romance and Teen Movie
. 2 Comments

I finally saw the long awaited and hoped-for Superbad and have to say that I was in no way dissapointed. I think this is by far, the dirtiest teen-genre movie I’ve seen and it wasn’t full of naked co-eds going at it like rabbits. In fact, the only nudity is at the very beginning of a movie when we see a magazine cover. One side note is that when Liz and I saw this, a guy walked in with his 3 or so very young children. We were pretty worried about them being in there, but he got up and ushered his youngtsers out before they were even out of the convenient store (couple minutes in). That made us quite relieved. He must not have realized what the movie was.

As I’ve said before, Judd Apatow is amazing. He didn’t direct this, but he did produce the film along with co-writer and star Seth Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg. Like most “cool” Hollywood people, Apatow and Rogen brought in tons of their friends from previous shows and movies. That’s one thing I’ve really enjoyed about Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up - I get to see all my favorite actors and actresses again. One of my favorites was seeing Steve Bannos as the math teacher. He was also the math teacher in Freaks and Geeks. Then there are also the new people brought in like Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Michael Cera, an upcoming comic genius to be reckoned with.

Story - this is probably the best high school portrayal I’ve seen in a long time. This is even better than Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused. Elephant is another amazing high-school movie, but it’s in a totally different league. One thing I love so much about things Rogen and Apatow are involved in is just the dialog. It’s so real. Yeah it can be rough around the edges and a little “dirty” at times, but it’s how I remember high school. Just the way people act, think and look is so amazingly perfect. I’m continually wowed.

The basic gist of the story is you have three fairly average senior high school students. One of them has just acquired a fake ID with the name ‘McLovin’ and the three friends have promised to buy booze for a popular girl’s party. This sounds pretty average. In fact it sounds way too average. What happens in between the promise and fulfilling it is what makes this a masterpiece. Store robberies, mistaken identities, crazy adult-parties, bar fights and a pair of buddy-cops that could give Hot Fuzz a run for its money and turn this into one of the best movies of the summer.

I know I can’t recommend this to a lot of people just because of the content. They’ll turn it off or walk out just like that responsible father did within the first few minutes or scenes. Even though this movie is pretty dirty, it’s still going in my top three movies of the year. The hard part will be decided which I like the best.

Knocked Up

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 11, 2007
in Based on a book, Based on a novel, Comedy, Coming of age, Drama, Drugs and Romance
. 0 Comments

Yet another amazing creation from Judd Apatow. If you’re a fan of Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared or 40 Year Old Virgin, you’re sure to love this one as well. It’s full of faces you’ll remember along with more side-splitting comedy.

In this film Ben, played by Seth Rogen, meets Alison, played by Katherine Heigl, at a bar and she gets “knocked up”. The story then unfolds as Ben tries to do the right thing and be a responsible father while Alison is trying to deal with an unplanned pregnancy and living with her sister who’s having some marital problems of her own. Mixed in are Ben’s stoner buddies and all kinds of hilarious one-liners that will probably have you laughing out loud. Most of this humor is pretty crude though so it’s something to keep in mind before going to see it. There’s a good chance you could be offended.

One thing I love about Apatow’s projects is they just seem so real and down-to-earth to me. I see these characters and I can relate to them, or they embody someone I know. I see realistic conversations and situations being played out that I could see happening or have heard similar stories about. I think this is why I like it much more than your run-of-the-mill comedy/romantic-comedy that creates impossible situations with unbelievable outcomes.

This has to be right up there with Hot Fuzz being some of the funniest movies of the year. I highly recommend seeing this one.

Little Miss Sunshine

Published
by
nathanshorb
on August 2, 2006
in Comedy, Coming of age, Drama, Drugs, Dysfunctional, Family, Feel Good, Independent and Road Trip
. 3 Comments

Little Miss Sunshine is in certain theaters now, and you should probably definitely go see it.

It’s a pretty preposterous movie, really. The characters are definitely contrived and over-the-top dysfunctional. But that doesn’t take away from the story.

The actors and more than capable and each one does a really really great job. Greg Kinnear is good as always, and Steve Carrell is perfect. It would be tempting to let Mr. Carrell steal the show, but he plays his role perfectly and fits in nicely. He’s hilarious without shining too brightly.

It’s hilarious. Even a joke that is repeated about 7 or 8 or 9 times throughout the movie never gets old; you think it would, but it actually gets funnier every time. And the movie is kind of like a snowball rolling down a hill in its hilarity. It starts out a little slow and you’re not sure where it’s going, but it gets funnier and funnier until the big ending where you can’t stop laughing.

And it has this really nostalgic, heartwarming feel by the end. I walked out of the theater and saw the poster in the lobby and it brought a smile of contentment to my face and I let out one of those, “Awwws” or “Ahhs.”

And Sufjan is on the soundtrack. And the other band that does most of the soundtrack, Devotchka or something like that, is really really great, too.

This is a terrible review, I know. But I kind of think this movie is pretty much perfect, and I can’t put that into words very well.