AFI Top 100 Movies #6: Singing in the Rain, the Triple Threat

Posted in Teen Lifestyle by cardigansandnecklaces

Me as Kathy

Today my family and I decided to get back in the swing of things and continue watching movies from the top 1oo list. The next movie we all decided to watch was Singing in the Rain. I remember watching this movie a few times in my 8th grade chorus class but we never got to finish it. It was always fun watching it with some of the boys in that class because they would certain comments like “you see these moves” or “that leg work though” while they were dancing and for some reason it would always put a smile on my face. I also remember how every time I watched that movie a good friend of mine would copy my face when I saw Cosmo Brown’s eyes. I have to admit that I always did swoon at the sight of his eyes and guess my friend found it funny enough where he had to reenact my body language and the little shriek I made the first time I saw them. I guess I’m just a sucker for blue eyes that look like a tropical ocean! Look at this dudes eyes! I mean am I wrong?!

I really enjoyed this movie, definitely my favorite of the top 100 that I’ve watched so far. But of course I am a musical girl so add singing and to me the movie is ten times better. I can’t tell you enough how many times I’ve watched this movie and just laughed. It’s not supposed to be a comedy but there were so many scenes that had me laughing and smiling. One of the characters that really made me laugh was Lena, Cosmo said that she was a triple threat because she couldn’t sing, dance, or act. When Lena Lamont would talk for the first time in the movie I just laugh, and when she practices her diction and says “I can’t stand em”, I try and imitate her voice. Tips on how to sound like Lena Lamont:

1. Get a sinus infection or hold your nose to where you sound nasally

2. Pronounce as many words as you can wrong (Ex. them- em sue-syou)

3.Complain about everything

4. Say Don in almost every sentence and now you’re talking like a conceited and annoying celebrity

What I loved about this movie is how they always came across all these problems (which were all due to Lena) and they always seemed to have a plan for it, but they thought of the plan together. They seemed to stop at nothing to make sure that everything that needed to be fixed was fixed. I also loved the strong relationships between the characters. Don and Cosmo were best friends since they were children and you can see their strong bond as they grow up. Also Kathy’ s relationship with Don became more trusting as the movie went on, which isn’t really that hard seeing how the first time they met she thought that Don was a famous gangster.

As I watched the movie I kept looking at the 20’s fashion and I just loved all the different dresses and outfits. I just wish I had some of those dresses 3 months ago when I had to dress as a flapper for my spring chorus concert. One of my favorite outfits was this white silk dress worn by this mystery woman when Don was going through some ideas in his head. I thought it was really pretty and I just loved the shine coming from the silver rhinestones.

The next outfit I absolutely loved was Lena Lamonts’s grey dress that she wore in the end. It had a lot of fluff on the bottom and crystal embellishments in the top and to me it was just gorgeous. I also loved that it was a high-low which made it pretty unique for a twenties dress.

During one of the songs in the beginning they had shown a bunch of different outfits with different uses and there was this one plaid and yellow and plaid dress with a matching blazer to go over and the long pearls. I loved the hat that goes a long with the outfit so well! I just think that she looks so elegant and pretty!

Another dress that was in the same song as the one above was the one that Kathy and the other girls wore while they were dancing. They wore these purple dresses that had a shiny material underneath and a sheer cover up over the top which looked really cute. I also loved how good the shoes looked with the outfit. Definitely could have worn something like that to my spring concert.

When Kathy was recording a song for the Dancing Cavalier she wore this green dress that had this leaf like print. I loved how it went all the way to the neck and how the sleeves had little leaves sticking out. I also liked the way that the top and bottom connected and then had two green triangles on opposite sides. Totally something I would have worn in the twenties.

Another one of my favorite outfits in the movie was the dress that Kathy wore while singing Good Morning with Don and Cosmo. I just loved how the dress had a lightning bolt shape of white at the top separating the blue. I also loved how the skirt was folded. Now the shoes are just super adorable with the little bows! Totally something I would have wore! I think this dress would have also been great for my spring concert. Wish I could have worn something like this because with all the dancing Kathy did in it I know it was comfortable to Charleston to.

27Jun2014

AFI Top 100 Movies #5: Unforgiven, A Gun Fighter’s Internal Struggle

Posted in Teen Lifestyle by cardigansandnecklaces

A few days ago my mom had me continue my cultural journey by watching another movie that was on the list. The next movie we watched was Unforgiven. My dad was telling me about how Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman starred in it. The minute I heard the name Morgan Freeman I was all ears. My school seems to be really obsessed with Morgan Freeman because of his voice. A lot of my friends tell me that if they had someone to narrate their life then it would be Morgan Freeman. That makes sense!

The movie goes back to the Old West. Cowboys and gun fighters roam the towns on horseback with guns in their holsters and saloons are THE place to hang out. Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) is approached by the Schofield Kid because the kid wants Will to help him kill a guy who cut up a prostitute. There was a thousand dollars reward offered by the prostitutes so he figured that with Will’s help they would be able to collect. The kid goes to Will because he has a past of killing people for money. He finds a man that “changed” his ways for his now deceased wife. In the end Will decides to go through with it because he needs the money to help raise his kids. Will had always had a partner (Ned-Morgan Freeman) when he did his killings/jobs, so he brings him along and decides to split the money three ways. The whole movie is these three men going around looking for the two guys who cut the girl up without being caught by Little Bill, the town sheriff. No guns are allowed in Big Whiskey (town) and this is a law that Little Bill is going to enforce even if he has to kill a couple of people in the process. That guy was an idiot, I mean what cowboy isn’t going to bring a gun wherever he goes? I guess that my takeaway was the question: can a bad man really change his ways?

All through out the movie the kid, Ned, and some of the prostitutes offer Will liquor but he turns it down. He gave up drinking a long time ago because his wife wanted him to give it up as well as his bad guy past. Near the end he finds out that his best friend Ned was killed by little Bill even though Ned backed out of killing anybody. When he finds out Ned is dead he goes into town to seek revenge. When he first rides into town he drinks a bottle of whiskey and when it’s empty he throws it on the ground. This shows how some events touch a person so much that it causes them to lose sense of what is right and wrong although in my opinion he lost sense of right and wrong at the beginning of the movie when he decided to take the law into his own hands. In the movie one of the prostitutes offers him a “free one” and he turns it down because he still has loyalty to his wife. I find it cute that even though his wife was dead he still wanted to remain faithful to her, no matter what. The man had some deeply rooted convictions for some things and no moral for others. Yikes! I think that the movie is called Unforgiven because even though he acts cool about killing people, at the end of the day he really can’t forgive himself for the bad things he has done. I don’t think that there can’t be anything worst than a person’s internal guilt because conscience can be harsher than any judge out there.

I did enjoy the movie because the effects weren’t bad and the story was interesting. There was some action but for a western movie I kind of wish there was a little bit more. I also feel like the story didn’t concentrate enough on Will, Ned, and the kid but a bit more on Little Bill and his past than they needed to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they included some of his violent history but I wish they didn’t include so much. I do recommend people to watch this movie because it was a decent movie and I enjoyed putting myself into some of the characters shoes.

One of the funniest moments in the movie was when Little Bill kept calling the book about English Bob the Duke of Death the Duck of Death, the writer who showed him the book kept trying to explain to him that it said Duke but Little Bill would just ignore his little comment.

24Jun2014

AFI Top 100 Movies #3: Saving Private Ryan, Earning It!

Posted in Teen Lifestyle by cardigansandnecklaces

I was really excited about watching this movie because I heard about it a lot and a few of my guy friends had told me it was their favorite movie. One of them even told me that this movie was the only to make him cry. I’m really into emotional movies that make me cry because that means that the message and the acting is so powerful that it sparks up an emotion in me, plus I saw that the movie had Tom Hanks in it and that moved me to watch the movie as well.

So far out of all the movies I have written about, Saving Private Ryan has been the best by far! I really liked this movie and was hooked from the very beginning. Let me tell you guys a little bit about myself, I’m really into action. You throw action into a movie and I’ll have my eyes glued to the screen no problem. Saving Private Ryan was packed full of action. One of the first scenes from the movie is them fighting on the beach and everyone was getting killed. Blood and guts rained over the soldiers as they fought for their lives and their country. It was a very gory movie seeing how soldiers were being blown up into pieces, limbs were being torn off their bodies, and blood was everywhere. Another thing you guys should know about me, I’m not very good with blood. Even if it’s in a movie, I see a lot of blood and I feel sick to my stomach. I know I’m weird, I like action movies but get sick at the sight of blood. Something I found interesting was that while the soldiers were getting shot at, there were medics on the battlefield trying not to get hit by bullets and perform surgery at the same time. Talk about high stress levels! I know I wouldn’t be focused enough to try and get a bullet out of another man, I’d be running around like a headless chicken and praying I don’t get shot. I’ve complained about the other movies having cheesy effects but the effects in this movie were on point and fantastic! Everything looked so realistic which didn’t help with my blood situation but still cool. Seeing this movie has helped open my eyes to see the kind of risks that our soldiers put themselves in every day trying to protect us and our country. I really salute you all that are currently fighting or have fought in a war. You guys are true heroes and I appreciate everything you do. Something that connects all three movies is that they all mention World War II in them. Citizen Kane talked about the Germans and soldiers, Casablanca was a place that rich french people went to during the war.

Me as the little girl 🙂

While watching the movie I have noticed a lot of themes in the movie which I found very touching. In the movie one of the men that were on the mission went to go try and save this little girl even though his captain said to leave her. The soldier felt like he could help the little girl but instead he got shot. So I started thinking, can someone afford to keep their humanity on high risk situations like this or should they stick to their mission? I feel like this showed that once you go into war your main focus is to try and get rid of the enemy and protect your country so everything else that would seem right is not done because they have to stick to their specific mission. Something else I found interesting is how this movie portrayed the saying “one for all and all for one”. Basically the whole movie is these 8 soldiers risking their own lives to send private Ryan back to his mother because his other three brothers had died int he war and they could not put Mrs. Ryan through another heartbreak of losing four sons. All of the 8 soldiers stuck by each other and protected each other from harm as best they could and went to go save another one of their fellow soldiers. This shows how in the army you can form such a tight bond with each other that it becomes a brotherhood.

One of the saddest parts in the movie to me was when they went to go tell mama Ryan that three of her sons had died. This took place in World War II so they didn’t get a phone call, they would have a vehicle drive up to your house and someone would tell you. They showed an army green car pulling up the drive way and mama Ryan looking out the window at the car so you could tell that she knew one of her sons had died but she was praying that it wasn’t true. The worst part is that the audience knows she lost all three of her sons but she doesn’t so I’m waiting there crawled up in a ball imagining how difficult it must be to know that three of your sons died and you still have another one fighting in that war.

Now I’m about to rant a little here about this soldier, Upham. He was taken on the mission because they needed someone who could speak German to go along with them. I liked him at first because he kept the soldiers in the group sane and tried to restore balance and good in them. The soldiers were going to kill a German soldier because he shot and killed one of their friends but Upham spoke some sense into them and they ended up releasing him. Later in the movie that same German soldier comes back and is fighting another one of his fellow soldiers and Upham knows. But what does he do? He is so scared that fear paralyzes him, hides behind the stairs and listens to a friend of his get killed by someone he gave a chance to live. Don’t just sit there and listen to your friend get beat up! Try and help the poor guy! I know that Upham was afraid of killing people but instead of killing the guy you could shoot him in the leg or the arm so that he stops beating up your friend. The worst part is that after the German soldier killed his friend he just watches the German soldier go down the stairs and back into battle. He then sits on the stairs and cries some more. Life as he knew it changed forever as he ends up killing that same German that he saved in the beginning towards the end of the movie. His decision to save that German ended up costing the lifes of many of his fellow soldiers. I’m going to leave you with a question that I don’t have an answer to: Do you think it is possible to keep your humanity during times of war? Can you afford to keep your humanity during times of war?

There really wasn’t any fashion to look at in this movie since they were concentrating more on the action and the soldiers that were fighting. I think this movie was a great movie for people to watch because it opens your eyes to look at it a little more from a soldier’s perspective. So now I think about how people complain about how much they hate their jobs but soldiers are risking their lives fighting for a majority of people they don’t even know but they still sign up. I am so grateful for the life I am given and to know that these soldiers help me live it and keep me and the rest of the country safe.

22Jun2014

AFI Top 100 Movies #1: Citizen Kane or Citizen Lame?

Posted in Teen Lifestyle by cardigansandnecklaces

My mom is a huge stickler about teaching my sister and I how to become more cultured. Last summer she had us learn all the different art periods and the top 100 paintings and artists. Having to learn this was a major bore and I threw a fit every time she called us into her room to learn more. She also had us read a huge book on mythology which I actually enjoyed because I loved learning about the different Greek gods and the stories associated with them all. This year my mom has decided to have us learn all the classical music periods. I have really enjoyed listening to all of the different styles of music but could pass up the music lectures any day! My mom also decided that she is going to have us watch the 100 greatest american films of all time. She wants my family to finish all 100 of them before I go off to college but at the rate we’re going at we’ll probably be done by the end of the summer. Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit.

The 100 greatest films of all time are movies that have been chosen by an American Film Institute’s panel which includes more than 1,500 leaders of the film industry. When I first heard about my mom telling me that she wanted to watch all 100 movies I was super excited because I don’t have to go through any boring lectures and I get to lay back and enjoy movies that have been picked by many actors and directors. My mom had me watch the movie that was rated number one on the list, Citizen Kane. I kid you not when I tell you that it was difficult for me not to daze off. It felt like the movie lasted forever and as if it was going nowhere! It took place in the 1940’s so the effects were pretty cheesy and I can’t stand cheesy effects. Plus the movie was in black and white and I like being able to see my movies with color. It adds more life to the movie and even personality. I do understand that this was a gigantic achievement for the film industry when it came out but I’m 14 and let’s face it, all the movies from my time are in color and with way cooler effects.

I didn’t like the movie but I do remember that afterwards my dad, sister, and I started making fun of it. In the beginning of the movie we get Citizen Kane’s last word which was “Rosebud”. We laughed because it was a really odd choice of words to say when you die and of course we couldn’t stop from thinking of a certain biological need (if you catch my drift). I also remember that after the movie ended my dad and I were so bored that we took a champagne bottle cork and his flip flops and started playing a ping pong like game that we called flip flop pong! Every time we hit the cork we got a point and the points where scored in “rosebuds”. I know, it is stupid but we needed some sort of exercise to wake up. 🙂

Of course as a little fashionista, I had to pay attention to the clothes that the girls were wearing which was pretty much the only fun I got out of the whole movie. There was not a lot of fashion as the movie concentrates mainly on the main character, Mr. Kane. However, because Kane was pretty rich, he was able to buy his wives a lot of things. Some of the things they got were nice looking clothes and accessories for the era and I can always appreciate nice vintage pieces. In the first picture, his first wife Emily is wearing a dress where the sleeves come down to her shoulders with lace and flower details. The other two pictures are his second wife, Susan Kane. In the first picture Susan was wearing some sort of shawl with a fur detail and a hat with waves in the front. The second picture shows her in a sheer shawl with crystal embellishments. This last outfit was my favorite outfit that came out of this movie because of how elegant it is.

And here I am as Mrs. Kane!