Little Miss Sunshine

First of all, I would like to say that “Little Miss Sunshine” was the funniest and most weird movie that I have ever seen. It was crazy and the whole family was dysfunctional. The mother had an addiction of “chain” smoking and the grandfather was addicted to snorting coke. The son (Duane) was strange, and did not speak because he took a vow of silence until he met his goal of becoming a pilot. The uncle, Frank, was a homosexual male who tried to kill himself because his student crush decided to be with a colleague of his and then he was fired from a job. Olive, the child was a chubby seven year old who adored her family and yearned to become Little Miss Sunshine. I think she was cute but compared to some of the other girls she was running up against, she lacked all the skills to become a beauty queen.
One part of the movie almost broke my heart when Olive asked her grandpa if she was pretty. Olive was so worried about losing because her father hated losers and she did not want to be one and was thinking about giving up. Her grandfather told her that “a real loser is someone who doesn’t even try”. In some odd way even though the grandfather was a drug addict he seemed to be an inspiration for the family and a role model for Olive. That was strange!
The entire movie centered on the trip to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant from Albuquerque to California. The family traveled in a dysfunctional yellow bus (go figure) and throughout the movie yellow was used many times. I think that yellow signified unresolved problems. The bus carried the family across state borders and broke down several times. Every time that the family wanted to use the bus they had to work together to push start the bus. When the father tried to use the bus by himself he was unable to push start it and took a moped to Scottsdale trying to get his plan sold. Olive was wearing yellow during the beginning of the movie until she found out that she was a contestant for the Little Miss Sunshine contest and then she wore other bright colors. Duane was often found wearing a yellow shirt until the last few scenes when he started to appear happier (at least until he found out he was color blind and could not be a pilot). Duane finally spoke to his family (actually screamed) and his problem was resolved and he wore white for the rest of the movie. During the scene where the parents were fighting at the hotel, all of the walls were yellow and the furnishings. The use of yellow in this movie was strange for me because when I usually see yellow it is during happy scenes not problematic scenes.
In the end though I think that the yellow signified unity because things seemed brighter for the family and the bus door was fixed. I think that the main lesson I found in this movie was that…. the strength and love of a family can help the members of the family overcome every obstacle that they will face! I know that in my own life I have found that my family has helped me through everything from good times to bad times. I really liked the message of this movie.
Another message I found was in the last few scenes when the family danced together at the pageant to help make Olives experience more rewarding. The family danced and laughed and didn’t care what other people thought of them at the time. I think the message that was portrayed here was that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To other people at the pageant Olive wasn’t so pretty but to her family she was a beauty queen.
Oh, one more thing, did anyone else think that grandpas death was way out there. The grandfather dies probably from a drug overdose and then the family steals his body and takes him with to California. That’s sick! I understand that they wanted Olives dream to come true but sometimes things need to be postponed. (Although, if they would have stayed with grandpa then the movie would have sucked!)
The music in the movie was excellent! I loved the fact that Olive danced to the song “Super Freak”, the music choices truly made the show funny! And I was impressed because again I was not annoyed with the pitch of the music and admit to listening to many of the songs that played within the movie.
It was interesting to read the article about the actual yellow buses used in the movie. I cannot believe that they had to use five different identical buses. The Volkswagen bus was definitely and important character in the movie. Its comical that all buses had to be on set because they kept breaking down, I’m sure the mechanic loved working on this set.
Until I read the second article I did not realize that it was Arndts first movie. When I read about how movies generally do not talk about money, I realized the significance. It is true normally in movies everyone is rich or else money is not talked about. This movie was made on a low budget and was about a family that was near bankruptcy. (I think that is probably why it is so great, it’s about real life problems.)
This was a great movie and I’m sure that I will watch it again.

The Full Monty

The Full Monty was/is a great film, I have not watched a movie in a long time that made me laugh so hard. It was both a comedy and a drama that kept my attention throughout the entire two hours. It was about 6 men who were unemployed because as former steel workers the industry was not doing so well, so they were unable to seek employment. The men tried to keep their pride by not taking jobs such as cashiers and security guards and instead decided to form a striptease act. Many of the women enjoyed going to watch young men strip so when Gaz had the idea not everyone was willing to join, there were a few old man, a chubby man (Dave), and two homosexual men that formed the group. Throughout the movie the men practiced over and over to the same song and tried to get all of the steps in sync but were unsuccessful until their last show when Gaz finally got in with the beat. The movie’s use of music was excellent, the music was upbeat the entire movie and I often caught myself tapping my foot with the beat of the music. I thought it was especially funny when the men decided to give up before the big show and go back to the unemployment office but had a change of mind when their song came on and all of them started to dance. I laughed so hard! The music also led us into and out of scenes by the beat and loudness of each note. In many older films I think that the music is overdone but I enjoyed the music in this movie, it flowed with the scenes very well.
The film was in color and the costumes for the performance were red which lead me to believe it would be a great performance. Through most of the film the colors were harsh and not very uplifting but during happy scenes the colors were brighter and much softer.
During scenes that were supposed to be happy there were shades of yellow in the background and the cover of the movie is actually yellow too which gives off the “come watch me” vibe.
In the article about the Full Monty the author voiced her opinion on the men’s self-esteem and also about the women’s place in society at that time. She commented on one part of the movie in which the men snuck into the club to find Dave’s wife and three woman entered the men’s bathroom. One of the woman decided it would be funny to use the men’s urinal and the ladies shared quite a laugh. I thought it was funny but Gaz and Dave said that they felt men were useless and felt women were taking over their positions. Dave struggled with feeling inferior to his wife throughout most of the film but the problem resolved in the end.
I think that this movie told many different things to the audience. The first lesson that jumped out at me was that every one is beautiful in his/her own way and that not every one has to look like a model to feel sexy. I think that this was Dave’s biggest challenge because as he said many times “I’m just a fat bastard, no one will want to look at me”. It took until the last few scenes for Dave’s wife to convince him that she thought he was sexy and that she was actually proud of him. I liked that the two were able to have a happy ending! Also I think an important lesson was about self-esteem. The six men’s self-esteem was severely diminished because they felt ashamed and worthless because they were unable to find “decent” work. Gaz was trying to prove to his ex-wife that he was suitable to take care of his son and that he could provide a good home and I think that his son helped him to achieve this. In the final scene Gaz did not want to go out and perform but his son encourages him and he found the self-esteem to perform the full monty!
The movie was great!

Amelie

I thought that the way the story was told was brilliant. The director started with the birth of Amelie and led the audience through her childhood until she was a grown woman (it was told in narrative form). It reminded me of the way a painter builds a masterpiece, starting from the birth of the idea to the brilliant and beautiful picture. The way the movie was told is completely different from other movies that I have seen, I have never watched a movie in which a narrator made comments throughout and I did not really care for it. I did not like that the movie was a subtitled film, in fact I hated it because I focused more on reading than I did on evaluating the scenes that were occurring at the same time. I thought the music was an excellent addition to the movie, for most of the film the music gave off a happy vibe and often made me smile. I also liked all of the bright colors that were shown throughout the movie.
Amelie grew up as a sheltered child because her father thought she had a heart defect so she was homeschooled. One day her and her mother were leaving a building and a suicide victim fell on her mother and she died. I thought that the director could have come up with a better way to film her mother’s death, it was too bizarre.
Amelie was different from most children and grew to be an imaginative young woman. The movie starts with the move to Paris and Amelie’s new job as a waitress at the Windmills café. One day while in her bathroom she discovers a small box with childhood trinkets that was left by the previous owner and decides to find the person it used to belong to. Amelie is soon inspired to change the lives of people around her by helping them. In one part of the movie Amelie helps out a blind man by telling him about everything she is seeing as they go for a walk and cross the street. She also decides to help out her father by stealing his gnome and sending it around the world (which was a dream of her fathers to travel himself). Then Amelie decides that she wants to find love and falls in love with Nino. I liked that the movie was a comedy, drama, and romantic film, (those are my favorite!).
I think that the movie is about life lessons. Every individual has an impact on another whether they realize it or not. A stranger can change your life forever. A smile from a stranger can make someone’s day brighter and happier. Amelie touched lives of many individuals and helped to make their lives happier. The lesson I got from this movie is that everything I do has an impact on other people. I should model my life so that I positively influence the people I care about and those I do not know. If everyone was willing to be nice to each and every individual they crossed on the street than there would be a lot less crime and more love to share. This is kind of why I want to become a nurse so that I can positively influence other people by caring for the sick, helping mothers bring their babies into the world and by counseling patients about their health and psychosocial needs.
Amelie taught me that despite life’s challenges and tragedies there is still good in the world, sometimes you just need to open your eyes to see it. Amelie was refreshing with her childish and imaginative attitude and was fun to watch. Despite all of the things I hated about the movie, I actually enjoyed watching it, although, I don’t think you will find me renting it again.