Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Room (2015)

“You're gonna love it.”

“What?”

“The world.”

            As we grow and become aware of the world we learn it is a scary place. Wars, violence, corruption, rape, kidnappings, gangs, bad people, etc. I have been fortunate enough all my life to have lived in a nice town and a nice neighborhood where violence and bad things are minimal. For as long as I live I will never forget the day when my parents put some fear into me about being out at night. I was a teenager working at the local mall. I would work closing hours at Old Navy and would not get out until after 11pm some nights. Sometimes I would have to park far away from where the employees exited the store. When I worked my first night shift my dad told me not to leave without anyone else and to have my key out between my fingers in case someone were to grab me I could punch them with the key as well as my fist. I realized then that the idea of kidnapping was extremely scary. When I think about it now it makes me shudder with fear. I never walk alone outside at night without someone. If I come back late at night from somewhere I run the few feet from my parking space to my house. Some nights there may not be spots in the parking lot across the street and I have to park down a hill. That freaks me out so bad because there are trees across the street from the parking spots down the hill and I am always afraid someone is in those tree waiting to grab me. I run like hell to my house when I have to park down the hill at night.

            I was hesitant to see the movie Room because it does deal with a woman who had been kidnapped when she was a teenager and forced to live in a shed where she could not escape. That is one of my worst nightmares and I am sure I am not the only one who feels the same way.

            The story is told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack Newsome. He lives in a shed with his “Ma” Joy Newsome (Brie Larson). Jack has known nothing but the room he is confined to for his five years of life. Every morning he wakes up and says hello to everything in the room. Ma makes him breakfast, they watch TV, she makes sure he exercises, and other things. Ma and Jack are being kept in the room by a man simply referred to “Old Nick.” Joy always makes Jack hide in the closet for the night whenever Old Nick comes to the shed. She will not let Nick touch Jack.

            Joy tries to tell Jack the truth about the outside world and he freaks out on her. He yells at he that she is a liar. The poor kid has no concept of anything but the room. After this spat, Joy decides it is time for them to be free of the room and Old Nick. Joy tries to make that Jack is sick so that Old Nick will take him to a doctor. She wants Jack to tell the doctors who he is and who is mom is. Old Nick refuses to take Jack to the doctor when Joy tells him Jack is sick. She comes up with another plan to have it appear Jack died in the middle of the night from his fever. She has Jack practice being rolled up in a rug and have Old Nick take it away.

            The plan works and Old Nick puts the rug with Jack very much alive in it. Jack is to jump out as soon as he can and run and yell for help. He does so but he waits too long to jump out and Old Nick sees him. Fortunately, there was someone out walking their dog and saw everything going on. Nick leaves Jack with the man and rides away. The police come and they figure out where he is from and are able to save Joy as well.

            Adjusting to the outside life is very difficult for both mother and son. Jack is socially awkward and shy around people and will not let Joy out of his site. Joy has issues of her own when people start questioning her about her time in the room and having Jack.

            Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay were incredible. Larson completely, 100 percent deserved her Academy Award for this role. You could feel all her anger and sadness and happiness and want. You can just see her tremendous talent in every one of her scenes. Tremblay seems like an old soul. It is as if he is an experienced actor beyond his years. Both Larson and Tremblay are tremendous acting talents. I am so looking forward to seeing them in future movies.

            Room is a good movie. I say good and not excellent only because it felt slow and the story was nothing to really write home about. I could be saying the story really is not that great because I found it unsettling and not in the very good way. I felt so awful and so sad for Joy and even worse for her parents. One of the reasons I am so terrified of being kidnapped is because I think of my parents and family and how devastated they would become. What makes Room a movie that needs to be seen is the acting. Besides Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay the rest of the cast is great.  Room is worth watching at least once for the cast.  

The Spectacular Now (2013)

 “It's fine to just live in the now, but the best part about now is there's another one tomorrow.”

            I was never one to live in the moment. I am still not really living in the moment. I am always worried about what will happen in the future or looking towards the following day or days to come. Maybe I am always looking ahead for a few reasons: I look forward to the day when I have a real job and can make money and not have to literally live pay check to paycheck, the day when I can move out of my house and into a place of my own (or with roommates whatever is cheaper), the day when I am truly happy with myself and do not feel like such shit about how I never lived my life. I am envious of my friends and relatives who have lived such exciting lives and have done things to have such fun. Some of my issues come down to having ADHD and its symptoms. Well, a lot of my issues stem from ADHD such as anxiety which is most likely the reason I never went out and had a good time. A lot of it also has to do with the fact that I am piss broke and cannot do shit!

            Up until maybe two years ago I always wanted to go out but then I would over think it and just want to stay home. Now if I go out with friends or out with my cousins who live near New York City I do not want to come home. The only reason I do want to go home is because of my bed. When I go out now I say yes to things because I want the experience. I never know what or where life will bring me. A few weeks ago I got to go to a great comedy show with three of my favorite YouTubers. I met such awesome people one of whom was a friend of a friend. She asked if I wanted to go out drinking with her after. If I did not have to go to Book Con the next day with my friend from home I would have had a fucking blast staying out all night. A few weeks after the show and I still wish I could have gone out that night.

            Now whenever I get the opportunity I will take it and live in the moment and just let (good) things happen. I want to have crazy stories to tell and adventures to remember. I want to desperately meet new people and expand my comfort zone.

            All this blabbering about my lack of living in the moment does relate to the movie The Spectacular Now in some ways.

            Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is a hard partying high school senior. He is the life of every party he goes to and drinks until he can no longer remember anything. He did have a girlfriend named Cassidy (Brie Larson) until she broke up with him because he was such a mess. One night after a party Sutter has somehow wound up a front lawn of a house. Aimee (Shailene Woodley) lives in  the house and she is a classmate of Sutter’s. She has a newspaper delivery route and brings Sutter along to drop him off.

            When he fully comes to sometime later Sutter realizes he likes Aimee. He goes to her house and sees she is a sweet girl who likes to draw and reads manga novels. It is not long until the two are dating even though Sutter still has feelings for Cassidy. Sutter teaches Aimee to have some fun in her life through his spontaneity.  He realizes that he is not good enough for Cassidy but he seems good enough for Aimee. He feels bad that Aimee is in love with him because he sees what kind of person he is: a kid with no plans for the future who just worries about what is happening in the now and does not take life seriously.

            There is a lot more to the story. Sutter is a bit of a dick. I really did not like him that much until he realized how much of a dick he is and saw that he needed to change. It was interesting that he lived in the moment and how much of a dick he was. I knew kids like that in high school and they always drove me nuts because they tried to be so charming and slick. In the end I did sympathize with Sutter probably because he decided to change his life just like I have been doing.

            Miles Teller was awesome. I have seen some movies he has been in (I have yet to see Whiplash at the time of this writing) and I think he is really talented. I hope he gets more attention as an actor. Shailene Woodley annoys me. She was not too bad but there is something about her that I cannot get into. To me she is a bit blah as an actress in most of the movies I have seen her in. Brie Larson is becoming one of my acting girl crushes. She is such a good actress and nailed her small scenes in this movie.

            The Spectacular Now is a very good movie. The story is about a high school kid but I think anyone can relate to it. You know people like the characters from either high school or your adult life. I liked how I sympathize with Sutter yet I could not stand him. The Spectacular Now is definitely worth watching.