Movie Thoughts - Manhattan

Directed by	Woody Allen
Produced by	Charles H. Joffe
Written by	Woody Allen Marshall Brickman
Starring	Woody Allen Diane Keaton Michael Murphy Mariel Hemingway Meryl Streep Anne Byrne
Music by	George Gershwin played by the New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta and the Buffalo Philharmonic, Michael Tilson Thomas
Cinematography	Gordon Willis
Edited by	Susan E. Morse
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	April 25, 1979
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9 million[1]
Box office	$39,946,780[2]

Hey everybody, I'm back again with yet another Movie Thoughts. I think from here on out, I'm going to include the little box of info along with the poster (credit to Wikipedia) with all future Movie Thought posts. Just makes it look a little more professional. Speaking of professional (which I am not), I have been feeling rather trapped by using Blogger mainly due to the restrictions of website design. I'm not master of website making myself, but I am hoping that one day, the Wigwam can be moved to a better domain. So keep an eye out for that in the near future (or it may take a while).

Anyways, let's jump right into today's movie. Woody Allen's 1979 Manhattan. Shot entirely in black and white, it is a movie that grabbed my attention just from the look of it. I've always been a fan of NYC both older and modern renditions. I youtubed the opening scene of this movie and I immediately had to go watch it. A feast for the eyes with beautiful shots of Manhattan along with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and a magnificent narration by Allen himself sold me.

One of my favourite shots from the opening

And unlike many other movies who start out strong, this beautiful piece of cinematography carries throughout the entire movie. There are three scenes that stand out for me (aside from the opening and the ending which acts as a bookend for the opening) and they are the talk by the path under Queensboro bridge, the many driving scenes, and the carriage ride through Central Park.

I'm no Yankee myself but the atmosphere of New York that Manhattan captures is truly something magnificent. Allegedly, Allen wanted to create Manhattan after he felt that his more discrete attempt at a homage for New York in Annie Hall went unnoticed. Because of this, there are many people who feel that the setting of Manhattan is fairly irrelevant to the story. I'm not going to say something is wrong or right, but I will try to share my opinions on this. Although Manhattan is a fairly simple Romantic Comedy that can be interpreted quite literally, there are definitely some deeper messages throughout. Of course in true Allen fashion, the themes are found in the character to character interactions rather than the plot mechanics. I find that the opening and closing narrations capture the message of this movie quite well. My main takeaway is that Romance is often idealized but that is exactly what is required for it to work.

Allow me to explain. Throughout the movie, the handful of characters swap romantic interests more often than radio stations being swapped in a 5 hour car ride with 6 agitated teenagers. Each time their romantic status changes, their blind idealization is what compels them to do so. It is strong enough to compel a man in a 10 year marriage to divorce and pursue a woman who clearly is a detriment. More often than not, the relationship breaks and fails soon after because this idealized relationship has faced reality. The two are now no longer blindly infatuated because they must overcome obstacles and make decisions together. And they hate it. Off all the characters in this movie, there is only one character who maintains this idealization throughout the course of the relationship and that is Tracy, the high school girl that Isaac is dating. 

Isaac constantly belittle Tracy and reminds her that he is most likely not going to be a long term partner. Is this realistic? Probably. However, despite Isaac almost dedicating the relationship to breaking it apart, Tracy always holds Isaac in this romantic idealization. This is what makes their relationship (semi) work while the others do not. If Isaac could do the same (which he does in the end), their relationship could turn into a long term one.

This is exactly why the setting of this movie is important. Manhattan itself is a metaphor for this romanced idealistic world. It may not really be all that great but it certainly compels you to believe that it is. It is the city that never sleeps, the crossroads of the world, capital of the universe all in one.

All in all, Manhattan is a beautiful film that captures Manhattan in its truest form. With amazing cinematography, this is truly one of Allen's finest works. I would definitely suggest watching this film.

Movie Thoughts - Interstellar

Hey everybody, I'm back today with my thoughts on one of the newest blockbuster hits. Interstellar!
Since this movie just came out, I don't have any pictures to add unless I screencap from the trailer (which I'm not going to do). Once it's available for home viewing, I will add them but for now, this post will be mainly text.

One last caution, this "review" WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Let's begin.

Interstellar features the dynamic duo of Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer and boy do they earn that name. It's apparent that they've worked together so many times because the score matches the picture so well. One scene in particular that was really well put together was the part where Cooper is driving away from the farm while audio of the launch is heard. The rumbling of the engines and the music in the background. Man, the theatre was trembling and overall, it was really intense. Huge props to Zimmer for once again putting together a wonderful score.

A hard to describe ambiance that "Super 8" has

Another technical part of the movie that I enjoyed was the cinematography. Although I found the first act of the movie to be rather slow, I couldn't ignore the marvelous cinematography. For me at least, it really captured the essence of the early 90's American South/Countryside. I know it's supposed to be in the future but the striking parallel's with the Dustbowl leads me to believe that this was intentional. One shot that I really liked is right at the beginning when the truck blows a tire. Cooper tells Tom to go take a look at it and Cooper and Murph are leaning against the side of the truck in the sunset talking about life. It gave me a "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Super 8" ish feel. Kinda strange since the settings aren't that similar but that's how I felt. I really liked the shadows and sunsets, plus the colour correction was spot on; not overdone, but gave an extra oomph to the mood. The use of oranges and blues worked surprisingly well together.
I don't even have to mention the space scenes do I? It was phenomenal, especially the wormhole scene. In my opinion, they could have done away with Amelia (Anne Hathaway) shaking the ghost hand since it felt a little corny. It was like "Sunshine" but with the breathtaking realism that "Gravity" had.

A shot from Danny Boyle's 2007 "Sunshine"

The plot was pretty good, but nothing special. The time dilation concept was pretty cool but it didn't play that much of a role on the characters but was more used as a way to advance the plot. I really enjoyed the symbolism and motifs throughout. There were a couple that really struck out to me. The first is Discovery vs Sustainability. At the beginning, especially with the whole Apollo mess, there was definitely something to be said about how Earth became the way it did. Although discovery is admirable and adding to the collective bank of human knowledge, sustainability is equally important. My interpretation was that everyone tried to revolutionize the world but it's not possible for everyone to be a hero. There will always have to be people who at the end of the day, keep us alive with food, water, and shelter.

Another one that I found interesting was the Will of Life. First of all, when Matt Damon appeared, there were at least three people in the theatre (including my friend who was sitting beside me) who yelled: "WOAH! IS THAT MATT DAMON?" Pleasant surprise seeing him in the movie and he did a fine job. This theme is really open and the movie talks about different aspects of it. One was simply the measures taken to keep a species alive. With the whole Plan B, the idea of for the greater good couldn't be more evident. As well, the whole thing that Matt Damon talked about as you die and what you feel and see. His character itself is a testimony that says humans are incapable of sacrificing themselves for the greater good. It's kind of ironic because it seemed like he did understand with the whole "Humans can empathize with those they love but will never truly be able to do the same with strangers". Him continuing sending the green thumb shows that it is almost impossible for a human to just lie down and die. "Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night" indeed.

There's way more themes and motifs but I think I'll leave it at that. If you found one that I didn't include, please leave your thoughts in a comment below.

The cast was pretty stellar, I found Michael Caine's character to be the weakest, I literally could not hear a word he was saying as he died. Anne Hathaway's character was also not too amazing. Neither was the son, Tom. Cooper definitely has his favourite kid.

One last thing I wanted to go over, and that is the ending. The general consensus is that what was portrayed after Cooper went into the blackhole is literally what happened. As with most Nolan movies, I think that the ending has many different interpretations. I think that after he went into the black hole, he died and the ensuing events is a metaphorical depiction of him leaving this existential plane and going to the afterlife. Here's why:

What Matt Damon said about the instinctual thoughts that humans have as they near death nearly matched what happened after Coop went into the black hole perfectly. All major things in his life had closure in the most perfect way possible, showing that his body and mind making peace with the fact that he has died. The lighting style when he woke up on Cooper Station starkly contrasted the entire movie's up to that point and I noticed a lot of whites being used. This made it feel like it was representing heaven/afterlife. Not only that, it overall seemed too outrageous that they found his body since it is shown that NASA is okay with sacrificing astronauts. Either way you interpret it however, I think we can all appreciate the themes presented in this movie.

All in all, Interstellar is definitely one of the best movies that I've seen in the past two years. I would definitely bet on it being a big player in the upcoming Awards season. It lives up the Nolan name by proving an exciting yet thoughtful film. Nightcrawler is next on the list so stay tuned for that!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Dealing with Disappointment Part.2

Hello world! It's almost become convention to start these with "It's been a long time?". Well, it has! Like always, I don't have a good reason. This extended break however has given me a lot of time to think about my next topic. I was originally going to write a piece on dealing with happiness but things have taken a turn for the worse and now here we are talking about sad things again. Let's start with the story shall we?

If you may recall, I am a runner. The previous dealing with disappointment piece was inspired from a failed track season. In the fall, I run cross country. Up until about a week ago, the season couldn't be more perfect. I qualified for the big meet that I failed to even come close to last year. That night after the qualifying meet was one of the best nights in my life thus far. Everything was perfect and I couldn't be bothered by anything else. That's when I started writing the (now scrapped) piece on dealing with happiness. When the day of the big meet came around, I was ready to have a final good race to close an amazing season. However, things went horrible askew and I ended up running the worst race in my life. Now, this may seem petty but you have to understand what this race meant for me. For me, it was like making the Olympics. It is the biggest high school cross country race in Canada and I was ready to show off how ready I was for it. But since I ran so poorly, I was by myself for the majority of the race, getting passed by people that I normally am so far ahead off, I never see. It was more than a disappointment, it was humiliation, disgrace, and a kick to the gut all in one. I felt like I didn't deserve any of the happiness I had found this season because of this poor showing. Right when the world (or country) was watching, I choked and made myself look like a fool and an idiot. I wanted to slap myself for ever thinking that I was good at running. More importantly, I felt like this might be the only time I would ever make this race and I ruined it. To make matters worse, the week immediately after was plagued with tests and presentations for school. Most of which, I did poorly as well. These constant disappointments and blows to my ego all piling up on each other was big enough to put me in a slump.

And a couple days after it is all sorted out, here I am writing this on my computer. To be honest, I don't know what the reason is, but sometimes in your life, the whole universe comes together and says: "See that guy? Let's screw him over". Sometimes it is just a small thing while other times, it can be blow after blow after blow. And once you're on the ground beaten and defeated, life may just give you another kick to the face just for good measure.

But you know what? If life was free of struggles and pain, it would lose its value. Life is an extreme and lucky case of variables that shouldn't otherwise be. By looking at the numbers, it's amazing that we live as long as we do. There are so so so many ways to die but there is only one way to stay alive. That's what makes it so beautiful. At any given moment, you could lose everything; it's the most volatile thing in existence. Life. You know those rare moments when everything is just right? It could happen at any time but when it does, you're happy it did. You could be washing the dishes or taking your dog out for a walk but then it hits you. You're just happy. There's no logical reason for it, but you're just perfectly at peace with the world and enjoying being alive. Without disappointment and the other terrible feelings associated with it, there's no low point in our journeys. Imagine an action adventure movie where there is no conflict. What would it be? What would life be?

It's taken a lot of thinking and pondering to come to this conclusion. This isn't to say that I'm going to stop trying to improve my running and grades. But it does say that when you're in your lowest of lows, know that everyone goes through this process. And most importantly, remember that it's the reason that life is worth living. Thanks everybody, take care of yourselves. I'll catch y'alls next time.

Genre Fiction vs Literary Fiction

Hello world! Today we will be diving into a rather unspoken conflict among us all. That is: Genre Fiction vs Literary Fiction.


People read different types of books. That's a known fact. However, fiction books can be classified as either a genre fiction book or a literary fiction book. Genre Fiction are books that can generally be classified under a simple genre (i.e. horror, fantasy, sci-fi, ect). Literary fiction books are ones that aren't so easily classified under these. Some well known examples are the Sherlock Holmes series for genre fiction and The Catcher in the Rye for literary fiction. Now to summarize what the online community feels about this, many genre fans find literary books to be boring and the people who read them only doing so to be pretentious. Literary fans tend to think that genre books are written poorly and do not deserve any merit. Now obviously I'm taking the extremes of both sides here but you can probably see where either side is coming from. Genre fans will think "There's no way anyone actually enjoyed Great Expectations and anyone who reads it is just trying to look smart" and literary fans will think "How can some people even compare books like Eragon and the Hunger Games with books such as To Kill a Mockingbird and the Kite Runner?" Once again, keep in mind that I'm taking the extremes of both parties.

Now consider, what is your all time favourite (It's not spelled wrong, I'm Canadian | Je suis canadien) book? Where do you think your allegiances lie? For the intent of keeping this post as bias free as I can, I will not reveal my preference.

So what's the purpose of this post you ask? Well, I am hoping to clear up any stirring conflicts and help establish a clear definition for each and draw a border.

The major difference between genre fiction and literary fiction is that genre books have the intent of entertaining you. They are meant to whisk you away to this other world where you can escape reality and enjoy this world you are in now. Literary fiction on the other hand has the intent of sending a message, and idea, or sharing the author's feelings about the world. The book is used as a medium by the author to express something in the same way a painter would or a director. Now here's where it gets tricky, there is tons of overlap. Who's to say that a book can't be entertaining while still having a deeper message? The Catcher in the Rye is a great example of this overlap. You could read the book as a regular coming of age book and enjoy Holden's journey or you could read it and have it change your outlook on life. Both of these are achievable from the same book so what category does it fall under?

When things cross over like this, you should evaluate, what did you take away from this book more, entertainment or a message? And if you still can't make up your mind, screw it, it's probably a great book no matter it's category. Or just get a second opinion if you want to publicly voice your opinion.

Now that we've established some sort of distinguishment, let's address the major argument from either party.

First up, genre fiction fans who think literary fiction is pretentious. If you're a genre fiction fan who does not share this view, please continue reading because I do have some points that could benefit us all. The first thing we have to understand is that different people read books for different reasons. Some read as a source of entertainment much like tv or video games while others read to educate themselves about life and learn about other people's journeys through life and what they have learned. Both are valid reasons to read and in today's day and age where reading books is becoming less and less frequent, we shouldn't discourage anyone from from reading. Please understand that literary readers read so called pretentious books because it is a way of learning about the world that we are in. It's cool if you want to invest in learning about Middle-Earth but reading literary books is a way to learn about our world and honestly, it helps us avoid past mistakes and make more evaluated decisions in our own lives. Remember, that does not mean literary readers don't read for fun, it just means that they would rather explore their own world rather than another one.

Next, literary fans who disregard genre fiction as well written books. The reason so many literary fans feel this way is because there are simply more genre books than literary. This is because good and bad writers alike are able to publish genre books while literary writers cannot. Think about it this way, if a literary book is written in a subpar way, no one would read it and it would never get published. On the other hand, if a genre book is written subpar, it could still get published simply because the story is that captivating. Usually, these are the types of books that get marketed towards kids (*cough Magic Tree House *cough). Because of this, there are many genre books that well, are written poorly. That isn't to say that all genre books are written like this, just some are and still are able to get published. This is where literary fans think that genre books are not fine pieces of writing. Is there a valid cause of this misconception, yes, but that doesn't negate the misconception. There are definitely some genre fiction books that are still written well such as Ender's Game, and the Game of Thrones series. Another argument that literary fans use to show that genre fiction is not as good is that the majority of critically acclaimed or used for academic analysis books are literary. Simply put, there are a lot of books out there and it is easy to group all genre fiction together. Because of this, the process for choosing books for review and academic analysis often only selects from a pool of literary books. In summary, just because many genre fiction books are able to "get away" with being written poorly does not mean that they all are.

Whew, what a long entry we have today. If you're still reading, I would like to commend you. I have one last *brief point and if you're still with us, comment below your thoughts and I will 100% respond to you! This argument between genre and literary fiction is simply people with different appreciations and preferences arguing. The question boils down to, would you like to take a journey through an entertaining story or would you like to experience someone else's views and thoughts through life. Since the argument is quite universal, do you think that this border exists in other forms of art? Let's take movies for example, there are people who only like the watch explosion filled action movies (i.e. Fast Five) and Jennifer Aniston Rom-Coms as an entertaining escape from reality and there are others who watch classics (i.e. Dead Poet's Society) in hopes that they will learn something about life and often, themselves. Sound familiar?

That's enough from me now, leave your comments below (and I'll reply to all of them as a thanks for reading through this hunky piece), subscribe through email on the right side, and as always,

I'll catch y'alls next time.

Game Thoughts - Thomas Was Alone

Hey everybody. Today, I'm bringing you my thoughts on the indie platformer game: "Thomas Was Alone". Now, I know what you're thinking, isn't this supposed to be on movies? Well, this game is quite special because it is more than just a game you play for the mechanics, but a game that is truly a piece of art. Now let's begin. (Oh if you wanted some background music, here is the soundtrack. Click to listen while you read).

Thomas Was Alone was released in 2012, originally intended to be a flash web game. Now, it is available on Steam, mobile devices, and Playstation. With a first glance, it appears to be a budget run of the mill platformer. However, it looks simple because it is intended as a minimalist game. One look at the title screen shows that if the developers wanted, the game could have cool next-gen graphics, but instead, they willingly chose to have the game the way it is. Why? Because this game tells a story and sends a message that in one way or another will resonate with every one of us. I know this is probably the cheesiest thing you've ever read but you have to believe me here. If you play this game, please take a solid portion of time to play it, don't play it one level at a time on the toilet or something. The ambiance feel of the game's strange world mixed with the music is something so special and requires immense tweaking to get just right. And did they get it right? 100% yes. The atmosphere of the world makes you feel alone and tranquil, in a good way and a bad way. It's the type of feeling that compels you to go for a bike ride through downtown at 2am because why not.

An Ambient Setting

Clean Cut Menu

The game focuses on these block characters which all have their own unique abilities. Some can jump higher while some are smaller and can get into special places. Using them together, you solve puzzles that one would not be able to by itself. Each level starts with a narration by Danny Wallace describing the block's interactions. These little snippets are so fantastic that over time, you start to associate personalities with each of the blocks. It's truly something special when a game can make you call these block things by name and emotionally invest yourselves in them because they represent very real characters that all of us interact with or maybe are. They are all some sort of metaphor of a type of person, some fitting into some archetypes. There's the outcast, jock, but then there's more complicated characters. Over time, a story is formed. The interesting thing here is that it's not just some crappy story thrown into a video game but it's a story told through the medium of video games. The story is about friendship through all odds and how you don't always have to be alone. It's truly beautiful, there's conflicts both external and internal and then there's character development. All in all, it's about a group of strangers alone who come together and navigate an ever so punishing world to find where they fit in life. And they're just a bunch of blocks.

Once you finish this game, you feel this real connection with each and every member of the gang. It's one of the few games that I felt has made a profound impact on me as a person. And if you're still reading this, go and play - no experience the game now. You won't regret it.

Interacting with Others

Hey everybody, this post may contain some opinions that are unpopular so please try to keep an open mind while reading.

This past summer I've been dragged into the hit CBS reality show, Big Brother (as I am every year). The premise of the show is simple. There are 16 strangers that are locked away into a house, having no interaction with the outside world (no internet, books, phones) and each week, they vote to evict one of them until there is one left. The remaining HouseGuest (as they're called) wins $500,000. Now there are a lot of other things that go into the game so it isn't mindless voting. There are opportunities to win power throughout the week and the game becomes very political as a result. In order to win, HouseGuests end up becoming very deceiving, paranoid, and sneaky. Ever since I've started becoming sucked in, I started to notice these traits in everyday life.

Now before we go any further, I want to stress that the interactions that I'm discussing here aren't ones with people that you're close with but with acquaintances/strangers. If you're in school, I'm talking about the people you know but don't really interact with. The types of people where when you're talking to them, you are constantly restraining yourself from speaking freely because you worry about your appearance or image. There are some moments where I feel as if I'm just reading lines and acting out this "conversation" act with people. You know, the common "Hey how are you doing? I'm doing great, and you? Yeah me too". To me, conversation should be a time to get to know one another but it's become more and more common for a conversation to be a test if you can "fit in". If you're still confused on what I'm saying, consider this scenario. You're at a grocery store and someone's roudy kid (aged 9-12) comes up and spills juice all over you. The mother runs up and says something like "Oh so sorry about that". It is almost an unwritten rule that you pretend that it's no big deal even if it really is. Some kid just did something stupid and you're just supposed to say "Oh it's no big deal ma'am, I'm totally okay with this. I'm happy for this to happen everyday".

Why is it like this? Is it people becoming more sensitive or is it a courtesy thing? It's already pushing the boundaries to decline someone's advice because they will likely get offended or something. I feel like I'm playing Big Brother 24/7 where I have to watch what I say and I make decisions purely to further a friendship or improve my image. I don't even want to get into peer editing in English Class. I can barely even give honest opinions, much less expand on it.

Now my opinion on what people (and you) should do.

1. Don't judge people based off small things said. There's a common phrase which is "actions speak louder than words". If someone who acts kindly towards you accidentally slips out a contrasting opinion to yours, don't get mad at them for having a different opinion or view. If they have made efforts to comfort or make you happy, understand that they truly care about how they appear to you and there's no reason to hold that against them.

2. Think twice before you speak. While it may appear that I am trying to get people to be more willing to take "negative" opinions, also know that unless necessary, there's really no need to constantly vent out your true thoughts. It is human nature to feel uncomfortable if someone is vastly different than you, there's no changing that. So if there's no need, you really shouldn't be bringing up controversial topics with people out of the blue. That being said, when it matters, make sure to voice your opinion.


*NOTE TO READERS:

Sorry everybody for another substantial hiatus, the school year has started and I've been busy. Another thing, I understand that this piece was rather poorly written with thoughts everywhere, I wrote this one over the course of several weeks so that's why my thoughts are not as well collected as they usually are. As the regular schedule of school settles in, I will find time to continue this blog because it is honestly very fulfilling to work on. So I have a couple of drafts still that are pretty close to being finished so expect a Movie Thoughts soon. Thanks y'all!

Preserving a Moment

Hey all, sorry AGAIN for the absence. My family and I are currently on vacation in South Korea. Today's topic comes from something that I've encountered a lot while on vacation. And that is people desperately trying to save a moment for later and losing it in the process. That probably makes no sense so as per usual, I'll do a random line break and start a new paragraph where I go into detail.

When experiencing things that one has never before, it is almost customary these days to take a picture. If one has never seen snow, it can be assumed that when that particular individual does see snow, they will take a selfie with the snow in the background or whatever. I myself am an avid photographer so I can appreciate and understand this. However, there are some instances where this "preserving" of a moment should not take priority over actually experiencing it. Yesterday, I went to a banquet and at the end of the meal, there was a traditional Korean dance performance. There were many people in the room so it was already quite hard to see everything that was going on. That's when I noticed that the reason I couldn't see anything was because around 40% of the attendees were standing on their chairs with their cameras raised over their head recording the performance. The filmers all arched their head back to the point where it looked painful just see that they were getting a nice shot. These people where so intently focused on their recording they didn't even blink an eye when the highlight of the performance happened because they didn't even notice. I mean, if you're going to have the option of watching the performance first hand or watching a shaky recording of it, why would you choose the latter? I see this happening way too often, soon enough you'll see people going to a concert with friends only to record it! I mean who does tha-- oh wait. At the same time however, if you can record something while not distracting yourself and others, go for it. I mean, why not? I'm never going to be 100% against or for something because it is a rarity for things in life to work that way. (just contradicted myself there by saying never). There's always a happy medium. My main problem is with people that are so worried about losing a moment that they focus so hard on preserving it that they lose it entirely. If you're not totally confused on what my advice is to you and where I stand on this matter, just take this for a summary:

Take each moment in life as it comes and if it is something truly special, you will remember it better than any picture or video can.