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. Continue reading →
We’ll all come across this question at least once in our lives. Some more than others. For me, it’s quite often. I often think what my purpose in life is. I often wonder if everything that has happened to me means something. This 2004 philosophical comedy I Heart Huckabees by David Russell tries to deal with these questions. It follows the story of a Socialist activist Albert trying to save a certain land as he goes against Brad and the company Huckabees. Albert was played by the quirky Jason Schwartzman and Brad was played by Jude Law. I’ve been a big fan of these two ever since I saw Schwartzman’s participation in Wes Anderson movies like Rushmore (1998) and Jude Law’s films like Music From Another Room (1998) or Alfie (2004) among many others. Other stars include Dustin Hoffman, Mark Wahlberg, and Naomi Watts. Amidst all of this he comes in contact with existential detectives that investigate the meaning of his life. The movie shows two opposite philosophical views represented by the different detectives that the characters come across with. Continue reading 
One Movie A Day 