April 12 – Clueless (1995)

I’m a big fan of teen movies and tv shows. I’ve always been curious about how teens behave in different eras like from the 50’s to the 90’s. I like seeing how culture evolves along with ever changing fashion, dating methods, and teenage jargon. Let me share my observation for each era. I think the 50’s was the start of good teen movies much like today. I think it has to do with the after-war culture. Teen stories of this era get to be more liberated and rebellious. One major reason also was the downfall of the Motion Picture Code during the mid-50’s. Try to check out my favorite 50’s teen movie, Rebel Without A Cause (1955) starring James Dean. I think the 60’s kids started to get a little crazy with the FM radio becoming popular. All the cool kids would just cruise around in their cars windows down blasting the radio and hang out in parking lots. Notable movies are American Graffiti (1973) and Animal House (1978). The 70’s got a little bit chill thanks to the hippie generation. They just listen to good music and smoke weed all the time. Notable movies are Dazed and Confused (1993) and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). The 80’s teen movies started to get very similar to the teen movies of today. John Hughes was the king of this era. My favorite time for teen movies indeed. Now this observation is very narrow and based simply on movies. I’m not really sure if this was the culture of the time.

The movie for today, Clueless, was set in the 90’s starring Alicia Silverstone. What ever happened to her? I don’t see her around doing movies anymore. However she remains in my memory as my childhood Batgirl. The movie follows the story of Cher (Silverstone), a spoiled rich girl as she soon realizes that the world does not revolve around her. She is considered the queen of a Beverly Hills high school (Beverly Hills, 90210 movie much?) Her status is threatened when the new girl she places under her wing is becoming well-liked. This story sounds familiar. It’s like Mean Girls in the 90’s! The main difference between the two was the perspective. Think Mean Girls in Regina George’s point of view.

March 28 – It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010)

“If you’re not busy being born, then you’re busy dying.” First time I heard of this line was when Morgan Freeman said it in the Shawshank Redemption. The line pretty much sums up the entire film. Ironically, it was said in the movie too, twice to be exact. For someone who claims to listen to a lot of music, I never knew it was the lyrics to a song. Apparently, it’s a Bob Dylan song as mentioned in the movie. I guess we learn something new everyday. Cut me some slack, I was born in the 90’s!

The movie I picked for today is a 2010 drama film called It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. It was adapted from a 2006 novel with the same title by Ned Vizzini. It follows the story of a 16-year old depressed outcast, Craig, who admits himself to a psychiatric ward. In there he meets two friends, a teenage girl named Noelle and a middle-aged man named Bobby, who changes his outlook on life. Craig is played by the relatively unknown actor, Keir Gilchrist. Michael Cera would have played the awkward kid role better, but he showed different dimensions of the character in this film that Michael Cera wouldn’t have been able to pull off. Noelle was played by the beautiful Emma Roberts, and surprisingly, Bobby was played by Zach Galifianakis. Yep you saw it right. Who knew this guy had it in him to play a relatively serious role, apart from his usual comedic characters.

March 26 – Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Okay maybe my first entry was a little too risque. I decided to tone it down with my next movie, but still on theme of adolescence. It deals with  sweeter topics: love and growing up.

We’re all mesmerized by the thought of love. But what does it even mean to be in love? I don’t think anyone can really define it, aside from the obvious scientific explanations. We’ve got the best minds and technology of the time, and no one can give a singular explanation. I can’t blame them though, I think it’s really hard to find a way to measure love.  Is love simply a feeling or is it defined by the choices we make? As a psychology major, I have had the opportunity to be exposed to different theories on love. Some psychologists defined it as the amount of time you engage in eye contact with another person. As if saying that there is a minimum duration of eye contact to qualify being in love. I understand where they’re coming from and all that, but I can assure you that if I play a staring game with someone for a period of time, it does not mean that I’m gonna fall in love with the person. It’s not that simple, no one ever said it was.

I think I’m getting off-topic with my intro there. Anyways, the movie I picked for today was done by one of my favorite director/screenwriter, Wes Anderson. I’ve become a fan of Wes Anderson ever since I watched Rushmore (1998) starring Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray. Those two are probably in all of his films. The final scene of that movie was simply amazing with “Ooh La La” by The Faces playing in the background. There’s just something about his movies that leave a feeling of enchantment to me. He has the power of capturing emotion without the use of dialogue of background music. I don’t know how he does it, but he does it so well. He focuses on coming-of-age type of films, something I really like. Oh and if you’ve ever come across one of his movies, you gotta love the wide-angle tracking shots. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go watch some of his movies!

As seen from the movie poster, this movie is called Moonrise Kingdom, released only last year and received an Academy Award nomination. The poster kinda gives a vintage feel to it. His movies tend to be like that. It deals with the story of 12-year old orphan Sam and his experiences with growing up and love. The setting was in the 60’s during one boy scout summer camp of his. The whole movie was shrouded with the theme of innocence. As we follow his adventures throughout the entire movie, it can’t help but leave us with a sense of jubilation.