Day 24: Your favorite movie and what it's about.
Yay! Fun question.
I am going to list 4 movies here, to give you an idea of how varied my taste in movies is.
I haven't seen Mr. Holland's Opus, but everyone online says this movie is just like that, only French.
Set in the late 40's, this movie is about a guy who goes to be a prefect at a correctional boy's school called Fond De L'Etang. Of course, the boys are all awful and none of them like him and they all do naughty things. The new teacher (Clement Mathieu), believes that the boys aren't as terrible as everyone believes they are, and decides to try and form a choir to give the boys something to work for and do well at. Of course, things go sour when the grumpy headmaster puts a stop to the the singing, but what would a movie be without an evil headmaster?
The thing I loved most about this movie is how clean it is. I mean, we are talking about a French movie here, and the French are not known for producing family-friendly flicks. But aside from a few boys singing a few, short, crude lines, there's not much objectionable content. A few profanities, but they aren't often.
Actually, I'm lying. The thing I loved most about this movie is this kid:
And now, off to the other end of the movie spectrum:
District 9 is about aliens. It's freaking awesome. If they don't make a sequel I will cry.
As far as plot, it's about a nerd named Wikus van de Merwe that gets alien goo on face and starts to turn into an alien. The end.
Really, though, you've just got to see it to understand why it's so cool. It's not a typical alien-invasion movie. And there are South African accents! What more could you want?
It's very light on sexual content, but there are buckets and buckets of profanity, so if that's not your thing than I wouldn't recommend it. I don't cuss myself, but I've been to public high school before so I'm kind of immune to profanity now. There's quite a lot of violence and bloody stuff, but you can usually tell when it's coming so you have enough time to close your eyes or look away if you want.
So I have a French movie about a boy's choir, and a South-African alien-invasion movie. What's next?
Another foreign film, of course!
This one is Spanish. I'm really globe-trotting here, aren't I?
The main character here is Ofelia, a little girl living in Spain during 1944. This movie falls into more of a fantasy genre than anything else, as there are fawns, giant toads, fairies, and a child-eating monster with eyes in his hands instead of on his face.
Overall, this one is rather dark and dreary, but the music and overall effects are fabulous and really make the whole thing. There are lots of interesting characters, and the girl that plays Ofelia does a pretty stellar job, in my opinion.
It's absolutely clean of sexual content, but there are plenty of bloody scenes to make up for it (it's rated R for graphic violence and some language). There are a few big profanities, but they aren't very often so it's not a constant barrage like you get in District 9.
And to complete out world tour today, let's hop along to... America! How exotic.
My favorite thing about this movie, hands down, is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. My second favorite thing is Zooey Deschanel. My third favorite is that it's not the typical "boy-meets-girl-then-they-fall-in-love-then-there-is-some-crisis-and-they-break-up-but-then-they-realize-their-lives-are-not-complete-without-each-other-and-they-reunite-and-live-happily-ever-after-the-end" type of chick flick. As the movie poster says, it's a story about love, but it's not a love story.
There is some sexual content, but it's nothing extreme. The camera always cuts away before anything graphic is shown. There are also some swear words but nothing too awful.
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In summary, I pretty much like any genre of movie. Maybe I'm just not very critical. :)
