Day 2: Rear Window (1954)

I think I'm in love with movies based on short stories. Films adapted from novels have the tendency to be messy and leave out lots of detail (obviously, it's impossible in most cases to fit everything into two hours), but short stories are perfect! The simplicity of Rear Window is fantastic and Hitchcock really turns it into something memorable.

Nominated for four Oscars, this film is not only considered by most to be Hitchcock's best, but one of the greatest movies ever made, and I only watched it for the first time a few days ago. 

Day 1: American Beauty (1999)

Let me begin by saying this: it's physically impossible for me to pick a favorite movie. There are large sets of films by my favorite directors that I could chose from, however that wouldn't be much fun, and because I have already spoken of Wes Anderson so highly here, I've chosen this film as something that I believe can stand alone and represents a lot of what I enjoy about cinema as a whole. 

It thrills me to share with you the wonderful work of art that is American Beauty. This iconic American drama was written by Allen Ball over the course of the 90's and was directed brilliantly by Sam Mendes. In total, the film earned five Academy Awards that year and received great praise from both critics and audiences, specifically in regards to the production, writing, directing, and Kevin Spacey's performance. The plot centers around the life of a suburban family that includes Lester Burnham, a man experiencing a midlife crisis as he becomes obsessed with his teenage daughter's friend, his overbearing, materialistic wife, and their insecure daughter that falls in love with the boy next door.

I'm going to break this down into my favorite parts of, one, the substance of the narrative part of the film, and two, the captivating visual aspect, both things that I find are the most exciting parts of what make up the movie. Warning: some small spoilers and half-assed film analysis may follow.

Hey I'm Still Alive/30 Day Movie Challenge

Hi my name is Jenna, I'm almost 18 years old, and I've made it back to my blog finally. I'm going to blame it on my job and attempting to gain control of my life. I've missed writing greatly, even if it's unimportant musings that no one reads, so here I have returned.

My dreary life aside, I have decided to begin a little mini project to keep myself here. It's not at all original and is seen on the internet constantly, but will force me to write about things (films, specifically) that I love. Yes, I am referring to the 30 Day Challenges, this one in particular on movies.

Here is the complete list for my reference mainly but also if anyone is curious:

Music to Get Out of Bed On Sunday

Happy Sunday! Happy August! After spending all night at a wedding in Nevada, today feels like it should be the laziest Sunday ever, and yet...I still have work to do. But of course, I have a playlist for that--here are mellow indie and pop songs to start your day.

Listen now on either 8tracks Radio or Spotify.

it's sunday and i'm Feeling Ok from jennasbutt on 8tracks Radio.

I Saved Latin. What Did You Ever Do?

I ordered a book on Amazon today that's on film studies and I'm actually super pumped to get it. I think if I go to a university I could do something with film. It's a topic I've been more and more interested in since last year, but I don't know if I'd be good at it and that's weirdly scary to me because I hate to be bad at things.

In celebration of this small purchase I'm doing my favorite stills from my favorite Wes Anderson movies. I think Wes has an amazing creative mind. He was the first director to make me realize how carefully constructed every aspect of a film is, especially cinematography from the blatant symmetry in his shots and color palettes for each of his movies. For my film class two years ago a group of my friends and I recreated the most memorable scenes from Moonrise Kingdom and it was both hilarious and ridiculous. Basically, I know he's not technically the best director/writer out there but his films will always be some of my favorites because they mean a lot to me, and all of them are at the least very good.

Rushmore (1998)

This is my personal Anderson favorite and in general one of my all-time favorites, anyway. This was his first film shot in anamorphic widescreen format 2.35:1 used in most of his later films. It's also Jason Schwartzman's film debut.