Camp Takota (2014)

“I just want to be me. But like a happy version.”

            I never went to a summer camp when I was younger. I think I went to day camps that last for like two weeks and I think I hated them. Me and the outdoors never got along I never would have done well in a three month long summer camp. Ugh, just thinking of staying out in the wilderness for more than a day creeps me out! (If this information surprises you, then you obviously have not looked at how many posts I have on this blog. Do I seem like an outdoor girl to you?) Naturally (no pun intended… or maybe it was), I am not a fan of summer camp movies. They are usually sentimental and sappy, all about growing up, becoming someone, first loves, jokes, and cracks on the food in the mess hall. I wind up running when I see a movie based around a summer camp, unless it is Wet Hot American Summer which is one of the greatest comedy movies ever made. So, why if I steer clear of summer camp movies would I even bother watching Camp Takota? For the three fabulous ladies who star in it, of course.

            Elise Miller (Grace Helbig) was content with her life. She just moved in with her fiancé to whom she was going to marry in two weeks. She had a good job at a publishing firm. And she had just finished writing a Young Adult novel she had been working on for a few years. On her way to work that morning Elise runs into an old camp director she knew as a kid when she went to Camp Takota. The director invites her to come back and work at the camp but Elise just sees it as a joke and says no thanks.

            At work her day goes down the dumps. Her boss is a bitch on wheels who has nothing but negative things to say to Elise as soon as she walks in the door. Elise overhears that there is an opening for a book release in the company in a few months and tells her boss about her book. The boss is not amused by the thought of even looking at Elise’s book but agrees to just because there is an opening. The boss then tells Elise she wants her to take pictures of a meeting between a very popular Young Adult author and his fans on top of doing two other things at the same time.

            Sometime after the meeting, Elise and one of her coworkers are walking down a hallway. They see the author and the boss furiously making out in the stair well. The coworker takes pictures. Unfortunately, Elise is the one who gets the backlash when she somehow mistakenly puts the photos on the company’s Facebook page. Fired and distraught, Elise heads back to her apartment. Her fiancé is home and walking around in just his underwear. He tries to get her to go down to the local bar so they can talk but Elise notices that he had two glasses in his hand. Before she can even turn around the other woman comes walking in from the bedroom. Elise grabs a bottle of vodka and heads to her old apartment.

            In a drunken stupor, Elise calls the camp director several times leaving messages that she has decided to work at the camp over the summer. She eventually passes out on the couch and wakes up to a horn blasting. She listens to her messages and one of them is from the director saying a family who lives in town is willing to pick her up and drive her to the camp. Elise gathers up whatever clothes are in her reach and throws them into shopping and garbage bags. When Elise gets outside the mother looks like she is from one of the Real Housewives shows, the father is a pushover, and the daughter is small and quiet.

            Once at the camp, Elise is greeted by two of her old camp buddies, Maxine (Mamrie Hart) and Allison (Hannah Hart). The three of them have not seen each other in eight years since they were last in camp but they talk to each other as if it had only been a few days.

            For the first few weeks, Elise is miserable and depressed. She has no cell phone service, some of the girls get on her nerves to no end, she is woken up every day by a blaring horn, and to make matters extremely worse she winds up getting poison ivy in the worst place imaginable. Elise eventually comes out of her mood the more she hangs out with Maxine and Allison. While drinking one night, a local farmer, Eli, who supplies food to the camp comes by the cabin. Elise almost stabs him with a broken beer bottle in her drunken stupor. The next morning he comes to get her up to get ready for the day. They talk with some flirting thrown in.

 

            Elise gets a call one day from her former boss. The photos have been a huge hit on the internet and the book sales for the author have skyrocketed. The boss wants the former employee back with the added bonus that she will publish Elise’s book. This stirs things up for Elise and she decides to go back. This news and decision could not come at a worse time for the camp. Maxine is desperate to be the camp director the following year but in order for that to happen the camp needs more campers or it will have to be sold. Maxine gets pissed and to get back at her Elise says that Allison wants to leave but is afraid since she (Maxine) scares people.

            To round up this story, Elise comes back, the camp is saved, she winds up with Eli, and her book about a girl at a summer camp becomes a success.

            I had never heard of Hannah Hart, Grace Helbig, or Mamrie Hart until two weeks ago. A few people I follow on Tumblr had been posting all sorts of things about the three of them. I got curious because some of the things in the posts looked hilarious. All three ladies are Internet famous for their videos on Youtube so I watched a few and all three of them are beyond entertaining and hilarious. I went on Netflix the other day and found out they made a movie together so I saved it. Finally got to watch it tonight (as part of a celebration marathon of me completing my grad school thesis and thus finally ending my school career) and I loved them and the movie. I was expecting Helbig and the two Harts to be extremely silly and out of control and not that great at acting. They were all surprisingly really, really good I was totally not expecting their acting to be so good. Helbig was incredible with all the drama she had to bring. Mamrie Hart is a damn panic she is such a goof. Hannah Hart is adorable. She can be silly like her two friends but she is more subtle. Their drunk dancing scene was so damn funny. I gotta say, Helbig and the two Harts are some of the funniest, coolest women around today. Just from this movie and some of their videos you can see there is no bullshit with them. They do what they do because they have fun doing it and do not care what people think of them. All of that comes out in so many of their scenes in the movie. I am looking forward to watching more of Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, Mamrie Hart’s videos, especially after watching them here.

            Camp Takota, even though it is predictable and not very original story wise, is very entertaining. So many scenes and lines had me laughing. Let me just say that I will now laugh whenever I see fiber cereal and will want a bottle of wine. Camp Takota is now available to watch on Netflix and I highly suggest watching it. 

Silent Sundays: Hell's Hinges (1916)

“One who is evil, looking for the first time upon that which is good.”

            The most basic of movie plots is good versus evil. It has been done since the beginning of the movie industry. One genre of film that uses the plot the most has been Westerns. The wild west of the late 1800s/early 1900s was a hot bed of sin and corruption, according to the movies anyway. With all this sin and corruption a priest/preacher/parson was needed to keep the town in line. But this holy person could never really do it alone so the one decent tough guy in town that both the good and bad respected comes in to keep the peace. Usually this holy person has a sister or daughter and the somewhat good, somewhat bad guy falls in with. Basically, I just told you half the plot of the silent film Hell’s Hinges.

            Robert Henley is a parson in a small town. His preaching is uninspiring because he does not fully believe what he is saying and therefore the people of the town do not believe him either. The other parsons want to send him away to a Midwestern town that desperately need a holy figure in their town to fight off the sin. Robert does not imagine being a righteous spiritual leader helping the faithful of the town, he imagines being the object of attention from the local women. His sister Faith has volunteered to go with him to help him get settled.

            The town Robert and Faith travel to is officially called Placer Center but to the locals it is called Hell’s Hinges. It is full of sin and corruption and a place many travelers are told to stay away from. To the corrupt in town, the respectable people are called “The Petticoat Brigade.” This “brigade” are the ones who called for a new parson.

            One man in the town of Hell’s Hinges is neither good nor bad. Blaze Tracey (William S. Hart) has done his fair share of killing and roughing but he can also have a nice side. The local big bad guy Silk Miller, who runs the saloon, has put Blaze in charge of running the new parson out of town. When Robert and Faith arrive, everyone in the town crowds around them to see the new blood. They are immediately taunted by the ruffians. Blaze comes over as well. As soon as he sees Faith is left speechless. For him it is love at first sight. He even takes his hat off in front of her to show some respect.

            That Sunday a swarm of townspeople come to a barn where Robert is holding service to throw him out. Blaze comes and makes everyone leave. He winds up staying for the service but it is not to hear the word of God. He is moved by Faith’s kindness and love.

            Robert had forgotten about his other “mission” to find women. He heads to the saloon under the guise of wanting to reform some of the women working there. The following morning he is not at the church for the service. One of the local bad guys tells the followers their new parson was down at the saloon all night and is a wild drunk. Blaze knows that Silk put Robert up to drinking. Robert spends the day in the saloon. Someone there calls to burn the church down. The sinful townspeople drag Robert out of the saloon to the church. A torch is put in his hand so he can burn what he had come to town for. The male followers of the church run to the building to try to peacefully hold off the others. Unfortunately a skirmish breaks out between the faithful and the evil. Robert is shot and killed. The church is set on fire. All the good people of the town are driven out into the desert.

            Blaze was out riding in the desert as everything was happening. He sees some of the people running away. Someone tells him that the church has been set on fire and that Robert is dead. All Blaze is worried about is Faith. He thunders into town on his horse. He finds Faith mourning over her lost brother. In revenge, Blaze goes to the saloon. Silk was tipped off that Blaze had come back and is looking for revenge. Silk is ready for the reformed cowboy to come for him. With two guns in each hand, Blaze goes to the saloon. It is quiet, he knows what to expect. He opens the doors and fires immediately killing Silk. He holds up the entire bar. As he walks closer to the crowd of heathens and they walk backwards away from him, Blaze shoots the oil lamps down setting the saloon on fire. He tells them all they should get used to the fire because where they are all going that is all that will surround them.

                                         

            Blaze, along with all the corrupt people, make it out of the saloon before it comes down. The entire town is now alight and everyone panics in the streets. Blaze finds Faith and takes her out of the town. In the mountains, far away from the town, Blaze watches Hell’s Hinges burn to the ground. Faith has buried her brother and cries for him over his grave. Blaze walks away and looks up to the sky and asks God to make Faith happy again.

            Hell’s Hinges was a decent silent Western. I just recently finished my thesis for my MA in Museum Registration on actor-based museums and whether they can stay in operation. One of the museums I wrote about was the William S. Hart Ranch and Museum out in Newhall, California. It is a very interesting museum and was one of the first actor-based museums in the United States. When Hart passed away he left his ranch and house to the state of California. Everything in the main house and the ranch house are all original from when Hart occupied it. I wrote about the museum and William S. Hart without having ever seen the actor in a film before. I had read about him before and had seen him in a photograph that was taken of him with Mary and Jack Pickford. I believe I had also read about Hell’s Hinges a few years ago either in a book or on a program on the history of the movie industry and since that time I had been very interested in watching it. It is a good movie. The action was decent. Hart made a very good cowboy. I can see why he is considered one of the quintessential movie cowboys. He had the look for a good guy cowboy. Hell’s Hinges is a silent film I recommend seeing despite the typical plot.  

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

“Fire is catching. If you burn, you burn with us!”

            Mockingjay sees the world of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) completely torn apart. She was part a rebellion she did not even know was happening and even became its face. She has been brought to the world of District 13, the very district that had risen up against the Capital 75 years before and created the Hunger Games. The president of District 13 Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and former Games master Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) want Katniss to be the face of the rebellion because she is fierce, loyal, has a strong will, and determination. Coin, Plutarch, and even people Katniss is close to push her to be the Mockingjay and lead the rebellion. They make her go to District 12 to see how is was destroyed and how so many people were killed. They even bring her to District 8 to visit the wounded to give them strength and a reason to keep fighting. It seems no matter what move Katniss makes though President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is right behind her with a counterattack.

            All Katniss wants is to bring Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) back. When they were taken away after the Quarter Quell Peeta was taken by the Capital while Katniss was taken by Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) and District 13. The Capital is using Peeta to taunt Katniss and District 13. The more interviews that are released with Peeta the frailer and frightened he looks which breaks Katniss’s heart and makes her more determined to get him back. But the more Katniss, District 13 and the Capital play cat and mouse the deadlier the attacks are against the lesser districts.

            Eventually Peeta, Johanna (Jena Malone) who had also been taken, and Finnick’s girlfriend Annie are rescued and brought back to District 13. Annie and Johanna are alright. Peeta has been brainwashed so terribly that he attacks Katniss almost killing her. The Capital injected him with Tracker Jacker venom to make him hallucinate and then made him fear Katniss to the point where he would kill her if he saw her.

            Mockingjay was a good movie. I will not say it was great because it is a set up movie for part two so it was a little slow with not as much action. Also Catching Fire was by far the best book and the best movie. I did like its message of fighting for freedom to not be oppressed anymore. It is amazing how much this movie is reflecting what is happening in America and several places around the world at the time of this writing. I can only hope that Mockingjay will have a cultural significance some day when we look back on the year 2014. Katniss is inspiring for so many young people. She inspires young people to believe they can make a difference in the world. And I believe we all can especially in this day and age with social media and mass communication being what it is today. Katniss and her story in this movie are definitely an inspiration for me. Even though the story is not my favorite Mockingjay was absolutely worth seeing. The cast is fantastic, the direction was exciting, and there were plenty of scenes that were intense. I am so looking forward to the second part of Mockingjay next year.