The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part I

The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Pt I
Directed by Francis Lawrence
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson
My Opinion: It's a good ride!

I can’t say I’m particularly impressed with The Hunger Games movies, but I have found myself looking forward to the annual red box release. I stopped reading the books after the first, yet I’m as intrigued by Jennifer Lawrence as I am by Katniss’s plight.

Mocking Jay lacks a solid structure, and is more of a chapter than it is it’s own story. Regardless, I was enthralled. Catching Fire, with all its thrilling darkness, might still be my favorite, but I’m once again anxious for the next installment.

The Theory of Everything

The Theory of Everything
Directed by James Marsh
Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones,
My Opinion: mushy and boring, but great performances

I stopped writing on this blog for a long time because each of my reviews read like broken records. Yet after seeing The Theory of Everything, I feel the need to re-express my grievances over the films that are perpetually oozing out of Hollywood.

Why is every film tailored for a simple-minded audience? Are we so stupid that we can’t comprehend a script that doesn’t swivel around an affair? Surely I am exaggerating, but the fact is we have a film that chronicles the life one of the most brilliant men in history, and it’s rather stupid. After seeing this film, I’m left with little more than the impression of wonderful performances. Our glimpse into Hawking’s life seems less factual then embellished and decorated with dramatic occurrences.

The Theory of Everything gives us little of Hawking’s own mind, of his struggle, of the developments of his theories – a retelling that offers little examination. It’s my fault for wanting an updated film as profound as My Left Foot, but it’s Hollywood who has done a disservice to Stephen Hawking. If it wasn’t for the stunning performances and the subject manner, I’m not sure there’d be a reason to see this film.

Obvious Child

Obvious Child
Directed by Gillian Robespierre
Starring Jenny Slate, Gabby Hoffman, Jake Lacy
My Opinion: Grounded in realism, heartfelt, brilliantly witty.

It's not often that I watch a romantic comedy gleefully. While Obvious Child is undoubtedly in that category, I hadn't heard of it until last I was home and my father handed me the Netflix envelope. "I've been saving this one for you," he said. As of late, my favorite films star strong women, sometimes American and others not, who fighting against the vulnerability that the harsh world demands of them until finally exposing themselves to their reality and ultimately prevailing, in the words of the pop goddess, "stronger than yesterday." In Obvious Child, Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) is like a young Liz Lemon, just a tad more comfortable in her own skin and getting laid more. 

Donna is a comedian, who spends her days working at a doomed bookstore and her nights opening the door to her personal life for a crowd of strangers at a comedy club. Her jokes are raw and crude: my favorite being the opening sequences which she describes day old underwear as something that looks like it has army crawled out of a tub of cream cheese. Fed up with the nightly exposé on their relationship, Donna's boyfriend dumps her. Soon, Donna finds herself pregnant from a one-night-stand and jobless, the walls of adulthood closing in to suffocate her

Obvious Child stands out from the plethora of mediocrity that descended on theaters in 2014. It's intelligent and wry, yet brash and wholly realistic. Without exposing the touching ending, I'll only share that it is essentially the adult's antithesis to Juno without a precious soundtrack. Hollywood needs more strong female leads like Slate if it's going to survive in the modern age. Feminists are watching movies too.