WOW! Thanks Anniessa for reccomending this to me...Lets just say everyone needs to see this movie.

City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, is one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time. It shows a completely different world out there than Edina that’s for sure. However, the characters in this film are about our age. They show what it’s like to be a child in Rio de Janeiro, and a teenager. We seem to still be dependent on our parents, even though we are heading off to college next year. And the kids of Rio are running around just trying not to get shot, even if they are, lets say four years old.

I was really impressed with the acting in this movie. Pretty much the entire cast is under the age of twenty, and these days it’s hard to come by good teen actors and actresses. Lets just say Lindsay Lohan, Hannah Montana, and Zach Efron could never play a role in this film.

The lead role in City of God is Rocket, played by Alexandre Rodrigues. He is the narrator through out the film. He does a stunning job of portraying a boy growing up in the midst of all this crime. His brother is a “hoodlum” and ends up being killed along with half the cast through out the movie. The cool thing about Alexandre is that I noticed from the Internet Movie Data Base, most of the other roles he has played have been on television shows. In the U.S., there aren’t too many actors that play roles in all TV shows and then, “BAM” come out with an exquisite movie like this one.

Lil Dice, played by Douglas Silva, does a fantastic job of showing the dramatic and intense personality change into Lil Ze. Lil Dice is a young boy who follows around the older hoodlums, trying to be “in” with them, and dreams of becoming the “leader” of them; the gangster that everyone either fears or worships in the City of God. The scene when the audience finally sees the change of Lil Dice to Lil Ze is impressively scary. But, I will not forget it. The expression on Douglas Silva’s face, when this change happens, is stunningly creepy. It is hard to explain that change without giving away some of the movies surprises, so go and rent it! Once you watch the movie, you will know the scene and face expression I am talking about.

When Lil Ze is all grown up, played by Leonardo Firmino, there is a scene where they are messing with some little kids, who they overheard talking about Lil Ze. This scene was really hard for me to watch. It felt so real and very disturbing. Darlan Cunha plays the role of “Steak and Fries”, no not the food—that was his name. This disturbing scene is when Steak and Fries has to prove his loyalty to Lil Ze’s gang, if he wants to be accepted by them and become one of them. I don’t want to give anything away, but the expression and emotion channeled through Darlan Cunha’s face is devastating. I was really impressed that a kid his age is able to portray that emotion in such a powerful way. I felt this was through out the whole movie, with almost every character in one scene or another. It’s not really something you can write about in a review, so, the only real advice I have for you is to watch this movie and feel these emotions for yourself.

Citizen Kane

There were definately a lot of important literary elements in the film Citizen Kane directed by and starring Orson Welles. There were many conflicts through out the story of his life; his two failed marraiges, his social status, and holding onto his superego. In addition to those conflicts there were many symbols that stood out in the movie. One specific symbol that came up countless times was "Rosebud". There was much hype about this certain term and it turned out to be his childhood sled. At first I was kind of like, "okay..that's really relative..?", but then I tried to think why Orson Welles decided to create that a reoccuring topic. I think it was mostly because Kane's entire life was affected by his childhood, just like everyone else. The sled was one of the things in his life that could keep him happy. When his parents were fighting or what not, he always had his sled to go out and play with almost as an escape. So, for some reason Welles decided that would be a good thing to refer back to for his last word. It seems like maybe since he was finally "escaping" his life, since he was dying...he thought back to his sled-his childhood escape.

...Bias Movie Watchers... (choice blog)

For those of you who have seen Garden State directed by and staring Zach Braff, you most likely either really didn't like it or you absolutely loved it. This film is about a 20-something-year-old actor, Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff), who visits his hometown in New Jersey after being away for about 7 years for a funeral. For this adventure home, he is off his medications for the first time in a very long time, which leads him to realizing how numb he has been all his life. This unique and clever movie is all about letting go and living your own life. Many people have high expectations when they see this movie for the first time and I get comments like "it had no plot!" or "it was so boring, I fell asleep". What I say to them is, you must not know how to read a film, or at least appreciate the underlining message it is sending. The other thing is that this movie is not your typical "in-your-face" comedy; you have to see the humor in the smaller things, which I like. I think it makes more sense to watch a movie and laugh on your own account and not just laugh whenever there are "laugh tracks" added in. Garden State is an INDEPENDENT film, so yes, it is different, and yes it's not your typical romantic comedy, but try to step outside the box office and enjoy Zach Braff's subtle humor.

An Inevitable 80's Flick by Kari

Saying Anything, written and directed by Cameron Crowe, is a light-hearted romantic comedy with realistic “close-to-home” issues. Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) is a fun, free-spirited teen just living life as it comes until his meets Diane Court (Ione Skye), an academically driven valedictorian. After graduation Lloyd finally works up the courage to call up Diane and ask her out. Diane is eager to actually get to know her fellow classmates, now that she is not so caught up in her schoolwork, so she agrees. Lloyd and Diane click right off the bat, and Diane finally feels like she belongs. The ongoing struggle in the film is that her father (John Mahoney) has a considerably hard time letting go of his baby girl to a young boy with no drawn out plan for his future.

Overall the film has a pretty simple plot, but John Cusack’s light humor gives it a quaint, unique flavor. The basic struggle is something almost anyone can somehow relate to: falling in love. But the movie also has other pieces to it that other people can relate with as well; single parenting, money, success, finding happiness, finding yourself, loyalty, making choices, and the list goes on. Success is one that definitely stuck out to me. The reason Diane feels like she doesn’t know any of her classmates is because her father raised her to focus fully on school, which didn’t allow her much free time. This reoccurs later on in the film when her and her father have to deal with some mistakes her father made. He made these mistakes because of his desire for success, thinking it would help him and his daughter.

The film didn’t have many “fancy” camera angles or scene changes, which made the movie has a more realistic feel. I think that would have taken away from the purpose of the movie. However, I did notice the lighting through out the movie was mostly brighter, happy colors. It added to making the movie have a light-hearted mood. During one of the “lowest” moments in the movie, it was dark and rainy, which was also the feeling the audience felt for the characters. The music also really added to giving the movie the same light-hearted mood. Say Anything was made in 1989, so the soundtrack was definitely some of your typical fun 80’s music, which was also paired with Jane Ruhm’s 80’s costume design. I especially loved the famous scene where Lloyd stands outside Diane’s bedroom and holds up a boom box playing your typical 80’s love song, In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, which was written in 1986. It fit the movie and made the audience fall even more in love with Lloyd Dobler.

Even though this movie is somewhat under the category of “chick-flick” it is a funny, easy to watch kind of movie that anyone can enjoy. With it’s light-hearted comedy, and simple but realistic struggles, Say Anything is an inevitable 80’s film, which will brighten anyone’s day.