Chance of Sundance

I went to Sundance last weekend, and while I didn't meet any celebrities or watch any movies (sigh), I had a great time. It was fun to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.

Sky Bridge

The lights made everything pretty :)

A restaurant with a great light display and a the window of a store called Mary Jane's. My favorite thing in this store was probably the book How To Tell If Your Boyfriend is the AntiChrist: And If He Is, Should You Break Up with Him? (It sounds more severe than it is).

We finished the night off with some yummy diner food.

Anna loves pickles!

The diner had delicious hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream on top. The only thing that would make this better is if Emily got to see the cat narrator movie.

Currently watching: 30 Rock and Community

Back to School

I'm back at BYU. For my last semester no less. It's weird to think this could be my very last first day of school! So far the semester has been going pretty well. My classes are going to be a lot of work, but they seem interesting.

I'm taking Shakespeare, Adolescent lit. writing class (this is the same class I took last semester, but with a different teacher), British literature during the enlightenment, Art History (Part Two), and the senior course. The senior course subject varies by teacher and semester. This year I got a great professor who I've had before, and the subject is American Mystery Novels in the 30s and 40s. It's been really fun. I've already read one novel, The Maltese Falcon. We are also watching the movie in class.

So in honor of school starting up again I thought I'd compile five of the most memorable back to school movie scenes:

1. Never Been Kissed.

It's hard to be popular. Especially when your coworker tells you to wear a white feather boa outfit and you spill chocolate milk on yourself. Poor Josie.

Josie: That'll teach me to wear white jeans after labor day.

Popular Girl: I don't think you're supposed to wear white jeans after 1983.

2. Full House. Ok so technically this is not a movie. It's a sitcom.

But I can't help remembering DJs first day of high school. It was pretty awful. She wore the same outfit as the teacher and had to eat her lunch in a telephone booth. Alone. But because this is a sitcom, this horribleness lasts for one, two days max. Then DJ adjusts to the new school, and gets over all her awkwardness.

Update: I found a synopsis of this episode online. And it was the first day of seventh grade, not high school.

3. Nemo!!! I wasn't quite as excited as Nemo for the first day back, but I do love starting a new semester. It's always fun to go to all your new classes. Here's the clip of Nemo getting ready for his first day of school.

4. Mean Girls

So I love the first day scene in this movie, it does the whole introducing the high school cliques thing well (kind of reminds me of the first scene in Ten Things I Hate About You as well). I also love all the first day scenes with Cady and her parents. I threw in one of their conversations below.

Parents: Hey. How was your second day?

Cady: Fine.

Parents: Were people nice?

Cady: No.

Parents: Did you make any friends?

Cady: Yeah.

5. Footloose:

Ren has this conversation with his mom:

Mom: You about ready to go?

Mom: You gonna wear that tie?

Ren: Yeah.

Mom: I think you might want to dress down for now.

Ren: Why? I like the tie.

Mom: September, when you go to college, you can dress like David Bowie.

But you know what? He does wear that tie and he becomes one of the best things to happen to that town! Thus Kevin Bacon has taught us an important lesson: Be yourself, the rest will happen. Also, challenge any anti-dancing laws that get in your way.

Honorable Mention Back to School Movie Moments: School of Rock, Harry Potter ('Cause who wouldn't want to go to Hogwarts? lol), Sky High (mostly I just remember that their school bus is like a roller coaster ride), plus all those inspirational education type movies

Currently: adoring Ingrid Michaelson and obsessing over my kindle

Currently Reading: Red Harvest

Movies That Stick With You

So my friend tagged me in one of those Facebook notes where they write a list, then you write a list, etc. Well instead of making a note, I decided to put it up here. Here's the original fb post/instructions:

The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen films you’ve seen that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me, because I’m interested in seeing what films my friends choose.

So ignore the tagging part. Also I didn't read all the "instructions" so I def. cheated on the whole 15 minute time limit thing. Oh well. But I like making lists, so I am still posting it. Just so you know, these aren't in any particular order.

1. Some Kind of Wonderful

2. Girls Just Want to Have Fun

3. Say Anything

4. Sabrina

5. Yentl

6. Stardust

7. Goonies

8. Chocolat

9.The Chorus

10.Penelope

11.While You Were Sleeping

12.Where The Heart Is

13.About a Boy

14.The Little Mermaid

15.Swan Princess

Oh man, I wish this list was classier, or a little bit more Oscar worthy. But strong impressions are strong impressions right? Isn't it funny how strongest impression does not necessarily equal cinematic masterpiece? At least if you're me. My friend who did this first actually had a really impressive list of movies, but this was hard for me to put together. My list of best movies of all time would probably look different. Honestly if you asked me this two days ago or tomorrow the list would probably be different. Fun experiment though :)

I'd love to hear other people's movies that "stuck" with them. No need to be shy, I mean Clueless came *this* close to making my 15 (other runner ups: Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Labyrinth; I quote these soo much!).

Currently watching: Pushing Daisies (I know, I know, I'm like 3 weeks behind on Glee and I'm watching old shows on Netflix Instant...) and Community (2nd season's been a little disappointing to me, but I really liked this week's show)

Halloween

I've never been one to say "I hate scary movies" or anything like that. However lately I've realized that my favorite "halloween" movies are really just fun, cheesy movies that mention ghost/witchcraft/zombies and are not scary at all. Oh well.

So in honor of Halloween I give you my breakdown of Halloween/scary movies:

Not really scary, but always really awesome:

Hocus Pocus

Double Double Toil and Trouble

Casper (Remember when Hillary Duff did a TV movie sequel to this?)

Worst attempt ever at being scary:

Cloverfield

Over it:

The Ring

Wait, wait... there's a twist:

6th Sense

The Others

Is this really a Halloween movie just because it has a ghost/vampire/witch in it? Whateves, I'm watching it anyways:

Nightmare before Christmas

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Sabrina the Teenage Witch (90s Ryan Reynolds!)

I told you not to go there alone:

Prom Night

Disturbia

Bones (No this is not the awesome TV show Bones starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz. This is a terrible movie where these teens try to turn a haunted house into a club/dance party that I accidentally recorded on my tivo. Spoiler: Snoop Dog is the ghost haunting everyone! Whaa?)

Also, almost every scary/thriller movie ever made.

Don't talk to those people:

Carrie

Children of the Corn

I don't know why other people didn't think these were scary:

I am Legend

Beetlejuice (He's creepy and I don't like him. I really only like the Winona Ryder parts)

Freaked me out:

Return to Oz

So I could do this forever, there are so many "scary" movies out there ( I have friends who once did an October long marathon of scary movies). But I think I'll end it for now. Let me know if there is a good Halloween movie you think I should watch!

Currently baking: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Currently Reading: Glimpse, Carol Lynch Williams

I've Loved You So Long

It's been awhile since I've been to international cinema. Every time I've thought about going this semester something has come up. Tonight it worked out that I had nothing going on and they were showing a French film I've been wanting to see!

The movie was I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime). It's about a woman who is getting to know her family after being in prison for 15 years. Kristin Scott Thomas does a wonderful job playing the main character (Juliette), but I really, really loved Elsa Zylberstein, who plays the sister (Lea). I just thought her character seemed so real. I wasn't really sure where the whole movie was going to end up, but I actually ended up really liking the last scene.

Well I don't want to give anything away, but I liked the movie and I loved hearing people speak French again. Click here for the trailer if you want to see more!



Also: I realize it's been a while since my last post! But I promise I will be better!

Currently watching: Modern Family

Student Film Screenings

So this semester the student film association (SFA) started doing screenings of student work. My friend Caity's husband, Bradley, is one of the SFA council members. The one I went to tonight was the third one of the semester and they've all been fun to watch. They show films of all different types and lengths ( the longest ones are usually 15-20 min.). The commercials are especially funny. This was the first semester they've done screenings; hopefully they'll keep doing them next semester.

Here are some of my favorites:

Richard and the Bats by Judy Simmons (3:37)
This is a super cute stop motion film about the day in the life of one frustrated little kindergartner with a crush on his teacher. People liked it so much they showed it at two screenings.

Inspection by Brad Hall (0:60)
This one is a short, but very clever commercial.

My Amazing Script by Phillip Goodwin (9:56)
This film kind of parodies the typical student film maker. It's all about how everyone thinks their work is always so "original" or "avant-garde". They have dramatic moments, big tears, and "edgy" dialogue, lol. Btw...Bradley helped make it and is in the last scene.

Clean Break by Chas Kelly (15:31)
This is one of my favorite documentaries that they screened. I'm just going to use the Vimeo summary for this one: "It is a documentary about a young man of the LDS faith booked in the county jail for some serious misdeeds. While incarcerated, he goes through a journey of self discovery as he serves out his sentence and prepares for his release."

The Magic of Taxidermy by Caity Wasden Cummings. (4:55)
This is a documentary on taxidermy that Caity made for one of her film classes. Don't be scared away by the initial screen shot! She does show some of the less, um, appealing (?) parts of taxidermy, but there are plenty of shots with no dead animals. I promise. Plus the interviews she does are pretty fun. I got to see this film in little bits and pieces as she was making it so it was great to see it all together :)

BYU SFA Blog

P.S. I survived April Fools without getting pranked!

Currently: Psyched for General Conference

Catching up

So I spent the first week of school reading syllabi, buying supplies, and watching movies. Most of these are already out on DVD (my friend has a clearplay so we had fun with that), but I did see one movie that's in the actual theaters right now. Anyway, I thought I'd do some quick movie reviews on a few of my favorites of the week.

District 9- Despite all the cgi and crazy looking creatures, it seemed believable. They did a great job of meshing together the aliens with the real people. I also like how they threw some humor in amongst all the drama and action. My favorite character was the baby alien (Christopher's Son).

Adam- A quirky love story in which one of the couple, Adam, has aspergers. I don't know too much about aspergers, but you don't really need to know anything about the condition to watch the movie. Sometimes their relationship seems to be a little far fetched, but for the most part it stuck together and the whole thing was interesting to watch. Funny moments too. Harlan(Adam's father's friend) is one of the best characters. He can come and give me no nonsense life advice any day.

Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus- There were a thousand things going on in this movie, but I loved it. And that's not just because of the big name actors (although it was fun to see Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farell all in the same movie). In fact one of my favorite performances was from Andrew Garfield, who played Anton. It was just fun to try and figure the whole thing out.I mean, Imaginarium was definitely trippy, but it kept you engaged and drawn in the whole time. Plus visually it's just nice to watch.

Where the wild things are- The message of this movie is fairly obvious and simple, but I liked it. It was fun to see everything through the eyes of a child in a non- overly-bubbly-animated way. Oh and Max Records is just adorable.

Currently: Happy to see all my Provo friends
Currently listening to: Far, Regina Spektor and Sainthood, Tegan and Sara

Les Choristes

I saw this movie called Les Choristes (The Chorus) the other day and basically it was the highlight of my week. It's about a man who becomes a prefect at a boys' reform school. He tries to help them by earning their trust and teaching them how to sing. I won't get anymore specific because I hate giving things away, but I just had to say how much I loved this movie.

http://www.msm-gymnasium-krefeld.de/tricolore/index.php?id=36

Pepinot!

My favorite character is Pepinot. He's an orphan who sits at the school gate every Saturday waiting for his father to come get him. However all of the kids are equally adorable (minus this one creepy boy who reminds of one of the children of the corn)and it tells a great story as well. I've been trying to get my whole family to watch it, lol. I think they are sick of it.

Currently: Bruised and sore from paintball yesterday

Happy 4th of July

The last two weeks have been kind of crazy. There has been so much going on.
My mother decided to get new kitchen counters and paint some cupboards which means we had to clear everything out of the kitchen and family room. The office became a storage unit and you can hardly open the door to Gabby's room their are so many boxes. However this remodel did remind me of my love for the container store. It's ridiculous how much you want to buy from that store once you go in.

One of my old roommates moved to the Houston area, so I had to give her the Sugar Land tour. Which basically consists of town center and the movie theater lol. There were some great sales though. It seemed like every store was running some sort of deal. We also went to a drive in on the north side of town. It was so fun. I found out about it from some other FMC interns(We all went their one night after work). It is pretty cheap($5 for two movies). Lara and I saw Transformers 2 and Star Trek.

My friend Christie got married last night. Everything was so beautiful, I loved it. I know this sounds cliche but she and Derek are perfect for each other. The reception was alot of fun. They had it at George Ranch, and served BBQ with lemonade drinks in mason jars. It was semi casual, so people could wear jeans if they wanted. Her colors were all bright yellows, pinks, and oranges. She had all these cute centerpieces with cut oranges, grapefruits or lemons in the vases.

I finally made it to the movies. The Proposal was really cute;I love Sandra Bullock. There were a lot of sequels out this summer. I was really excited to see Transformers 2. I thought it was good, but not as good as the first one. I also saw Night at the Museum 2, which was cute. Amy Adams was a nice addition to the cast. Oh and I saw the latest Terminator movie. I thought it was an entertaining action-y film, but I haven't seen the original terminator movies, so I'm not a huge fan or anything. So far my favorite movie of the summer has been Star Trek. Which is weird, because I wasn't looking forward to it or anything. Still on my list: Up and the next Harry Potter movie.

Current SYTYCD favorite couple: Jeanette and Brandon

Currently obsessed with: Bones

Surfside

I finally made it down to the beach. It was kind of crowded but we managed to find a spot that was completely packed. We took Bella (my dog) and she freaked out. She ran around like crazy and loved it. It was actually really nice out, not too hot yet. Most of the damage from Ike has been cleaned up at the part we were out, but there are still one or two buildings that are completely trashed. But the beach was wonderful. The water was cool, clear, and seaweed free. The beach always relaxes me. Plus it's always fun to see the other beach people. Everyone says that the airport is the best place to go people watching, but the beach is definitely better. More questionable fashion choices, a larger variety of people, St. Bernards instead of Chihuahuas in purses, and more comfortable chairs.

I also saw Terminator Salvation this weekend. My favorite part was Anton Yelchin (Kyle Reese). I basically adore him. He was in Star Trek too(Chekov).

Currently bored of: Lady GaGa
Currently watching: Reruns of House

A movie that ends with a casino heist and doesn't star George Clooney

So this week was interesting. I went to another French movie, Bob le Flambeur. The International cinema was having a film noir week. Now I wish I could say that I am extremely cultured and was entranced by the cinematography or something like that. But honestly the whole time all I could think about was how can the main girl be considered so attractive, yet her be so mullet-y. Seriously it was distracting. But the ending was interesting. It wasn't your typical finish to a casino heist film. People died, the romance was definitely not true love, they didn't get away with it, and they didn't predict every move or plant fake cops ala Oceans Eleven. However they still kept it interesting and I thought it was an interesting plot twist, if not the most positive one.

Anyways I also saw BYU's modern dance concert, In Motion this week. I usually think that I am pretty open minded about that kind of stuff, however I just didn't get the final dance. For the last number they came out wearing tutus made of plastic grocery bags while surrounded by fog. Just as I was getting a handle on this the dance transitioned into a scene where a majority of the company was sitting on the floor while holding a balloon; this was followed by a giant ribbon acrobatic ensemble, and well, you get the idea. I felt like there was some big metaphor I wasn't getting that would tie it all together, but no one ever clued me in if there was. There rest was good though. There was a fun prop dance, and a couple of bench dances, as well as this one dance based around four women from Shakespearean plays. I didn't know all of the stories but it was still interesting to see them portray the characters. Although the music reminded me of one of those semi-electronic instrumental songs that they like to play in the background of eighties movies (Lady Hawk, anyone?).

Lara also shared an amazing bread recipe with me this week. It had a topping that was olive oil mixed with rosemary, Parmesan cheese, and garlic. Sooo delicious. Fresh bread makes me so happy; it's ridiculous.

Reading: Sister Carrie

Movie Marathon

In honor of my French classes I've decided to start watching some French films ( maybe they'll help me with my pronunciation!). Anyways I started today and the first one on my list was Persepolis. It was made in 2007, and won a couple awards. It was really interesting. Persepolis is an animated film. It's actually an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis. The story is autobiographical and follows Marjane's life growing up in Iran and Europe. It was completely fascinating. It discusses politics (of course!) but it also gives you a unique view of Marjane's personal journey. Through Marjane's eyes we see that Bruce Lee is her hero, Abba is for Wimps!, the Vienna underground is not the ideal place to try and find yourself, and guys are the same no matter what country you're in. I loved Marjane as a little girl in Adidas shoes proclaiming herself a future prophet and I also loved her as a serious young women protesting her university's double standard for women. Even though the film takes place in Iran and Vienna it is all in French, except for the memorable sequence where Marjane decides to call herself to action by singing Eye of the Tiger. Plus Marjane helped animate the whole thing herself (The film is a collaboration between her and Vincent Paronnaud). It's definitely something to try if you don't mind subtitles.