Tallulah (2016)

Whip It (2009)

“But you don't have the balls.”
“I can grow the balls...”

            As soon as Whip It started I could not believe how hipster it was. I am so not into the hipster shit that has taken hold of people in their twenties… yes I am in my twenties… no I am not a hipster. Hipsters and their problems are annoying!!! Anyway the idea of having this high school girl go through growing pains of not fitting in and not being able to live up to what her mother wants her to be mixed in with her fitting in with women who are like fifteen- twenty years old than her who are on a roller derby team was good.

            Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is a seventeen year old girl living in the middle of nowhere in a small town in Texas where the only exciting things to happen are beauty pageants. Bliss’s mom enters her in these stupid contests even though she never wins. The mom was in beauty pageants when she was younger and thinks that they are the way to some money. She does not see that Bliss is not the pageant type at all; Bliss is shy and awkward and works as a waitress in a BBQ joint.

            Bliss gets her mom to take her and her sister to Austin to go shopping. They go into what her mom calls a “head” store (they sell smoking paraphernalia) where Bliss sees a flyer for a roller derby being held in town. Bliss goes back to her best and only friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) telling her they should go. The roller derby is held in an old warehouse with a ton of people there. Bliss is totally taken with the derby and decides to try out even though she is not twenty-one.

            For weeks before the try out Bliss practices on her new skates. She does not tell her parents what she is up because they would kill her. Pash drives her all over the place. Bliss is a killer at try outs and makes it to a team called the Hurl Scouts and they give her the name Babe Ruthless.

            Things go well for Bliss for a while. She is enjoying being on the Hurl Scouts and because she is small and quick she helps the team climb their way to the finals. One day a woman from another team named Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis) learns that Bliss is only seventeen and threatens to tell on her. Bliss has to tell the team about this so they do not hear it from Maven.

            In the end things turn out alright with Bliss and the team and she finds something that she loves and a place where she belongs.

            Eh the story was ok. I am so over (or maybe too old) for stories that involve a girl who is an outcast and is looking for somewhere to fit in. The roller derby scenes were the best they were fun to watch. They made me really want to buy a pair of skates and go to a roller rink! (God I am dating myself! I used to go to one every Friday!). I wish I could try out for a roller derby team but I weigh nothing and I would get killed!

            For as much as I did not really care for the movie I loved the cast they were amazing. Ellen Page has her moments; I wore her out with Juno a few years ago. Alia Shawkat was the best she is so damn funny. Drew Barrymore’s parts were small since she was also the director; she is her usual weird corky self. Kristen Wiig is always a panic to see. Jimmy Fallon had me rolling on the floor he had some of the funniest lines. Juliette Lewis just creeps me out she is so not good looking and so weird. The rest of the characters and actors were fantastic too.

            Whip It is worth at least one viewing since the cast is really good but other than that the movie is not that good. 

Inception



“Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.”

            Every once in a blue moon now it seems that Hollywood will actually allow an original movie to grace theater screens. Original plots and stories are becoming more and more rare with the studios playing it safe and releasing remakes or a dumber way to put it “re-imagining”-s of old movies or hell even new ones (seriously do we need a “re-imagining” of Spiderman or a remake of The Thin Man when both worked so well the first time they were released?). Last summer Warner Bros. released Inception, a totally original story written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

            Inception is a movie about dreams and almost violating someone’s deep subconscious thought. Leonard DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb. He can get into people’s minds using a device called Inception which gets in between someone’s dream process. This device makes Dom a world class criminal along with a team who helps to construct and plan the dreams. The plot of the movie is complicated to explain and if I were to even explain a little of the plot it would pretty much give the whole story away.

            I remember last summer seeing posters and advertisements all over the place when I was visiting England for a month. Advertising everywhere really does work because I really wanted to see it from all the posters. As soon as I got home I went to see the movie with my brother and I walked out so thrilled and amazed. I was in love with the movie I saw it again. Everything about Inception is brilliant. Very little special effects were used which adds more of a reality and did not add a cheapness. The acting by the entire cast was incredible. Leonard DiCaprio just gets better and better no one could have done as well as he did. Marion Cotillard was nothing short of amazing as Dom’s wife Mal. Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Ellen Page, and Tom Hardy were excellent as well.

            What I really liked about Inception was that I could not predict what was going to happen next I did not even want to I just wanted the story to keep going. To me a sign of a good movie is not being able to predict what will happen or if you think you know what will happen and the opposite of what you were thinking happens. The idea of going into someone’s dreams and changing their thoughts is so fascinating.

            Inception is one of the best movies to come out in the past ten years. I have seen the movie countless of times since I saw it in theaters and I am still blown away and in awe by its originality. Inception proved that movie audiences want something original that movies like this can be successful. Christopher Nolan created something incredible and possibly started a new trend of original ideas again in Hollywood. You can see Nolan put so much care into the writing of the script and the direction. I hope to see more writers and directors put more care into their works in the future.  I was so happy to see that Inception won for Best Original Screenplay and Best Effects at the Academy Awards because it totally deserved both ( I would have liked to have seen it won for Best Picture as well but…)

            Definitely see Inception. You do have to pay close attention to understand much of the plot… but if you are a true movie lover you won’t mind paying attention. After you have seen Inception go on to IMDB and check out the trivia section, there is so much cool information.