Ruby Sparks

Starring leads of  Ruby Sparks who are dating in real life too

I jump from movie to movie based on what actor or actress I'm currently obsessed with, and this weekend, I was/still am obsessed with Zoe Kazan, whom I first encountered in The Pretty One. She is very famous among indie starlets, having been on Broadway and in B-list films like any good indie actress. She is the writer of this fantastic film, Ruby Sparks, which she wrote for her and her boyfriend, Paul Dano, who stars as the lead.


In this film, Calvin is a once successful writer who now has an awful case of writers block. His shrink tells him to write one page about someone who likes his dog, and he soon finds inspiration, writing a love story starring a girl who he made up while he was dreaming. He wakes up one day to find out that the girl from his book, Ruby, is alive and living with him in his house as his girlfriend. He finds out that everything he writes about her becomes real and he promises to never write about her again because he loves her, but as time goes on, his character starts getting feelings of her own. He thinks she is going to leave him, so he writes about her again, changing her emotions and making her seem less and less real. He finally tells her the truth and proves it to her by making her do many tiring and embarrassing things until he jams his typewriter and she is able to leave. He writes a new book on his experiences with her and months later, meets her in the park. Ruby has no recollection of their relationship and is reading his new book. When she finds out that he's the author, she tells him not to spoil the end and Calvin replies with "I promise".

My goodness, the chemistry

I'm completely smitten with this movie and these two people and the fact that they're actually dating in real life made me die a thousand deaths, I was so excited. They have been dating for seven years and it is my new favorite couple. Forget Brangelina, these B-listers are where it's at and this indie flick was amazing. I really loved this movie and it's been like I've unlocked this safe of amazing movies that no one ever talks about but really leave a poignant impression on me for days and weeks afterwards. 

The Pretty One

When I watched Let's Be Cops, I realized just how

much I totally love Jake Johnson, so in keeping with him as a theme, I wanted to watch some of his other movies. It turns out I've already seen most of them, but he is in quite a few indie films, which are awesome. I watched The Pretty One and I have got to say, it was the best movie I've seen to date, for many more reasons than just the stellar script. 

Laurel is a girl in her early twenties, still lives with her dad and his fiancee, doesn't have any friends, and is not over her mother's death. Her identical twin sister, Audrey, is the exact opposite, popular, outgoing, and a successful real estate agent. Audrey comes home for their birthday and they both get into a horrible car accident and Audrey dies. Laurel doesn't remember who she is, and everyone thinks she's Audrey, so when she finally remembers, she just goes with it and decides to become Audrey. She moves into Audrey's house and quickly befriend her tenant, Basel (Jake Johnson), who Audrey was very mean to. They fall in love and it's basically the cutest relationship I've ever seen, better than Johnny Castle and Baby, but when he proposes, she tells the truth and he leaves. She goes back home and tells everyone, they have another funeral, the right funeral, and she becomes Laurel again. She decides to still live in Audrey's house and tries to win Basel back. Of course, since they're in actual , honest to God love, he forgives her and my life was completed. 

Not only was my favorite actor the lead man in 

this movie, but the actress who played Laurel/Audrey (Zoe Kazan) is completely one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, in my sense of beauty. I will be watching more of her filmography. I think the reason I liked this movie so much was that I really saw a lot of myself in Laurel. I think it was mostly the fact that she didn't interact with people very well at first and also how everyone thinks she's a total oddball but no one even knows her. This movie was a comedy drama, my favorite genre, and there were some pretty good lines and scenes. Overall, it was a weird, quirky film, and  I LOVED it.

Let's Be Cops

Now, this movie was an action-adventure comedy, and I know what some people think about vulgar comedy movies like this, but I really enjoyed it. Let's Be Cops was a box-office hit and it was nowhere as stupid as The Interview (which I also liked). I thought it was a funny movie with an actual substantial plot that was fast-moving and perfect. 

Two thirty year-old roommates are about to give up on LA and move back to Columbus, Ohio when they wear cop costumes to a party (which, of course, turned out to be a black-tie party, not costume) when they realize that people think they're real cops. Ryan (left) takes it to a whole new level by buying a cop car and watching YouTube videos to learn official procedures. They pretend to be real cops, much to Justin's (right) opposition. They become friends with a real cop who gives them a case to take down an Albanian mob. In the end, the get in this whole shoot-out with the mob and bring it down. Their cop friends covers for them and Justin goes back to his life with more assertiveness in the workplace and Ryan becomes a real cop, going through the academy and everything. 

I loved this movie mainly because of the cast. The two main characters both star in one of my favorite shows, New Girl, and Jake Johnson(below) is one of my two absolute favorite actors (the other being James McAvoy from X-Men:First Class) and I watched this movie mainly for him. I love his face. I just got lucky that it turned out to be a really good movie

Whiplash

Whiplash is a true art movie, and I say that because when you are watching it, you know you are watching real art. It's not a painting or a drawing, not in that sense, but it is a beautiful movie, truly.

Whiplash is about a first-year music student, Andrew, who is recruited to play the drums in the most prestigious jazz band in his college. The teacher and composer is a guy who often uses fear to get the kid to play their best. He makes them practice all day long and has Andrew play the drums until he bleeds. Andrew messes up a concert and finally gets fed up and attacks the teacher, who then kicks him out of the band. He soon finds out that there is a family suing the teacher and school who want him to anonymously testify against the teacher to get him fired. He does it, but runs into the teacher a few months later in a jazz club. He invites Andrew to play in a band with him at a huge concert, but when Andrew gets there, he realizes that he was set up and he doesn't know any of the music that the band is playing. He almost leaves, but sits back down and play his own music by himself and he starts cuing in the other band members . At first the teacher is furious, but he realizes that Andrew is his greatest student ever and they play amazingly. 

The teacher is based on real jazz conductors who pushed their players to the edge.

I bought the movie soundtrack and I will forever love jazz music because of this movie.   

This movie was so powerful and it spoke to my soul. I couldn't move after watching it, I was so taken aback by this movie that I had barely ever heard about. It is absolutely the best film of this century.  

Friday the 13th part 1, 2

Lets just say I got exactly what I was expecting with this 1980 classic cult horror movie. What I wasn't expecting was the fact that I now never want to be a camp counselor.

Picture this: Camp Crystal Lake has a horrific past involving fires, drownings, and murders. It's called Camp Blood. It's being opened by a young man who's waiting for all the new teenage counselors and the chef to arrive. The chef doesn't ever arrive.  Kevin Bacon wears short shorts.  People start dying and soon there's only one girl left. PLOT TWIST: its not a hockey mask-wearing slasher, it's his mom. Teenage girl beheads mom, police arrive and there's one survivor.

Kevin Bacon in his 1980's cut-offs

New Movie: Starts off where the last one left off. The lone survivor from the last movie is in her house, she has a cat, Jason kills her as she goes for some milk. There's a new training camp for counselors and it's right next door to the last camp. Half the people leave for a night out on the town and the rest of the kids are murdered. Everyone comes back and they too are killed, except for one couple. There's this horrible moment when you think this dog is dead, but then it's alive and it distracts them. Jason jumps through the window and grabs the girl and later she wakes up in an ambulance and her boyfriend plus the dog are missing. 

Yay, it's alive!

These movies were not at all surprising, but they were entertaining and by the second movie, I was watching it mostly to see the creative ways people died. They did have a lot of cliches, like the lights going out, running upstairs instead of outside, couples do it then die, etc. Not the best horror films, but certainly not the worst.

Dirty Dancing

Let's start with the best movie ever made in the history of movies and you can try to argue with me about your favorite movie, but I doubt it will change my mind. When I first watched Dirty Dancing, I was expecting another movie like Footloose or Grease, which are good but not that good. Instead I found a movie with one of the shallowest yet substantial plots ever. It's a coming-of-age story so of course the main character is going to break of from her family and fall in love (saw that coming a mile away), but for some reason it appealed to me in my very core.

I also love this movie because it makes me forget for two hours that I'm forever alone

It's 1963 and a Jewish family is going to a Jewish summer camp and everything is dandy until the main character, Baby, develops a crush on the head dance dude, Johnny. His childhood friend needs an illegal abortion so Baby funds the trip, cause she's nice, but oh no! The only time she can see the doctor is on the night of a big dance routine with Johnny. Again, cause she's nice, Baby steps in to do the dance and as she is taught the mambo, they fall in love. The dance goes swell, the abortion gets botched, and Baby's dad, who's also a doctor, helps but bans Baby from hanging out with the dance help. Well she's in love so she stays with Johnny anyway. He's accused of thievery but Baby stands up for him and he gets fired for getting hands on with Baby. He comes back for the final show, says the world famous line, then they dance the pants off the resort, everything is forgiven and all is good.

This movie had two very important things that stood out to me: 1. a young Patrick Swayze, and 2. classic hits from the 60's AND powerful love ballads from the 80's, but they aren't sung by the characters, which is important for me because I don't like musicals. It was a foreseeable ending but so immensely satisfying that I watched it eight more times that week.