The Fault in Our Stars

When you read a book, you are really putting together a visual story in your head of what the characters look like, the scenery around them, and the interactions between one another. The past books that I have read, what I envisioned was different from what the movie presented. However, the Fault in Our Stars book and movie were almost verbatim. What I envisioned Hazel Grace to look like was very similar to the way she was presented in the movie. Augustus too. The only character my mind was thrown off by was Peter Van Houten. When he turned around for the first time in Amsterdam, I almost jumped. I was picturing an old cute man, but he looked more like a young, wrinkled, monkey-looking man.

 

When reading this book, I also connected to Hazel Grace. Although I am not struggling with cancer, as a teenager, we all struggle with teenager things. One critic wrote, It gets everything right about being young and in love for the first time.” The first emotional connection that you feel when you’re a teenager, mainly everyone can connect to, which was heartwarming. For example, the word, “okay” meant everything to Hazel and Grace, and I know we all have had a little symbol that reminds us of the one we truly love.

In the book and in the movie, you were able to feel that connection that Josh Boone and John Greene gave to you. I applaud both of them on putting together a  movie and book, that the emotional connection with the viewer was strong enough to make it so well known and liked.

The Hurt Locker Review

Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker (2009) is a heart pounding, terrifying, and raw view into the lives of an American EOD team. Made up of three incredibly different characters, the film follows the team's work, documenting the struggles each character faces, especially the Staff Sergeant James. The film uses carefully selected shot types as well as a realistic setting to create a film to remember.

An especially underrated part of this film is the acting done by Jeremy Renner, who plays Staff Sergeant James. He is the main character of the film, however he is not your typical hero soldier who risks his life for his country and his men. He cares not for medals. Rather, he is a, bluntly put, cocky asshole who has no regard for his safety and will blindly go into certain death situations without a care in the world. Although this may make him look like a hero, Renner's character is meant more to portray the atypical soldier that many people will not envision when they think of a bomb defuser.

Another area of the film that makes it into what it is is the shot types that Bigelow choses. At times when she wants to build suspense as James approaches a bomb, she uses long, panning shots of the landscape and its surroundings to show how barren it is and how alone James is. She will also include quick shots of suspicious men watching James, giving the viewer a feeling that the maker of this bomb may be watching the exact same thing they are. Also, during violent or action scenes, Bigelow uses quick cuts as well as slow motion to speed and slow the action as to give the viewer a sense of what is going on as well as make them realize that complete chaos is unfolding. 

The Fault in Our Stars

Like No Country For Old Men, this movie was adapted from the book. However, this movie really stays true to the book and doesn't leave much out. It was a touching story about a boy and girl who fall in love, which is very classic. However, there is so much truth to this story. It's not really that cliche story about the unpopular girl who falls in love with the most popular boy in school and he doesn't see her or start to like her until the end. Or it's not that other cliche plot where the boy and girl fall for each other, but get in a really big fight and call it quits until the guy decides to do something big to make her forgive him, continue with the relationship, and live happy ever after. This story is beautifully different from all of the others.

Hazel Grace has been fighting cancer for so long and doesn't really have much hope that she's going to live. This is very grim, but when she meets Gus she has a much more positive outlook. Gus battled cancer too and lost his leg in the process. Hazel thought his fight was over, as did the audience. Gus kept his ongoing battle a secret from Hazel to protect her from the inevitable fate that was coming their way. It was an emotional plot twist because the audience probably thought that Hazel was going to die and Gus would be the one giving the speech at a funeral or that they were both going to beat cancer for the cliche message that love can beat the odds.

In the beginning of the movie, Gus mentions in a support group meeting that his fear is Oblivion, which means that once he dies his name will be forgotten. At the end of this movie, this is referenced again, but instead of Hazel saying she's sorry that he won't be remembered forever, she gets angry and asks him why he's unhappy for only being remember by her or his family and friends. This movie gives so many messages, all of them with truth while still being an incredible story.

The Hurt Locker

Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt locker shows the overwhelming boredom of army life, followed closely by the insane, stressful moments that come with war. This film uses music very sparsely in order to emphasize the soundtrack when something important happens; a sort of audio "white space", creating a very minimalist soundtrack. The film begins on a quiet Iraqi street, and an EOD (Explosives Ordinace Desposal) team disarming an IED. Sgt. Sanborn and Spec. Eldridge are talking about the lawn business they want to start. Suddenly, with very little warning, they are stressed, screaming and being blown up. This is really a good example of what Bigelow does to ease the viewer into a false sense of calm then thrust them into a heart pounding, adrenaline rushing sense of fear. This all plays into Sgt. William James' personality though. He craves the adrenaline. He cannot function without it. The last few moments of the movie, Sgt. James is home from war, shopping for cereal in a supermarket. for this scene they actually moved the aisles farther apart than would usually be customary to create a sense of hugeness, and him not knowing how to function outside of war. This is why the movie is called The Hurt Locker. A Hurt Locker is someone who is in a lot of trouble/ has lost it mentally, usually referring to people like Sgt. James who cannot function outside of war.

Django Unchained: Cameron Haber

Django Unchained, another Quentin Tarantino master piece. Staring Jamie Foxx as the notorious Django, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife with the help of a German Bounty hunter from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. Without  knowing who the director was of the movie,you could tell it was a Tarantino film. Tarantino's style of filming really popped out at me in this particular movie. All of his best known techniques, his style of angled shots, his use of violence, and his use of a creative soundtrack were used to the best of his ability. But what I found most interesting about the way he filmed Django Unchained, was his twist of giving the movie a modern day Spaghetti Western type feeling. Even though Tarantino kept the movie to a very 21st century perspective, he was able to also give it that early Clint Eastwood western feeling with his use of a creative soundtrack and use of color in the background. If he wanted to make the scene feel like more of a Western he would use more desert sandy colors, if he wanted it to feel more modern he would use a variety of colors. He did the same excact thing with the soundtrack. If Tarantino wanted a scene to have that Spaghetti Western feeling he would play a song that would sound like somthing  Ennio Morricone would have wrote. If he wanted a scene to feel more modern he would use something more 21st century for example rap music. Of course rap music defiantly does not fit the Western atmosphere but neither do sunglases in the 1800's which were worn by Django during the same scene the movie played the rap. Besides the cool modern day vs Old time Western effect the rest of the movie was very stereotypical Quentin Tarantino. As a master of the camera he shot his characters with low angle shots or hight angle shots depending on the individuals circumstance. For example when Steven, played by Samuel L. Jackson, was deciding Django fate the camera would shoot up at him and down on Django. When the circumstances were the other way around it did the opposite. This technique is often something Tarantino has done in his other movies. Of course this would not be a Tarantino movie without some Tarantino violence. His crazed amount of violence consisted of the most bloody gun shoot outs, to the biggest of explosions.  Violence is also a specialty of Tarantino's in all of his movies. The last thing to touch on in this film was it's dark humor. One particular example that sticks out to me was the scene where the KKK go hunting for Django and his German partner Dr. King Shultz, played by Christopher Waltz. They get to the wagon where Django and Shultz are supposed to be sleeping and they conference about the quality of their white masks. They take about five minutes out of the film to discuss and vote on whether they should wear their masks or not. Even though the KKK are a seriously evil and racist organization the movie takes time to make fun of them in a cold situation with light humor. Overall I thought the movie was great the story line was fantastic and the movie was shot extremely well. Also the suaveness of the main characters was something to take into consideration as well. Django Unchained is truly a cinematograph work of art. Great work by Tarantino and his entire crew. 

The Fault in Our Stars

There are a few reasons why I hate romantic films. One: I always cry. No matter how bad the movie is or how cheesy the lines are, I will always cry. Second: the main characters are always these perfect looking teenagers or these well aged adults who somehow defy odds to end up together. Yeah, okay that's great that you just magically beat 2 hours of traffic to stop your love from getting on the plane, but this is the real world. And, in the real world when there's 2 hours of traffic in front of you, there is 2 hours of traffic in front of you. Completely unrealistic. Third: they give such false hope. They give viewers this idea that everyone will experience this magical love in their lives and the world isn't that bad. But, maybe that's whats great about them. We live in a world where we need that hope. After a hard day at work where your boss was a total a** to you, it's nice to think that your life could one day be as perfect as a movie. Which is why I also love them.
The Fault in Our Stars wasn't like most love stories now a days. It didn't have the perfect looking teenagers or the happy ending where they defy all odds. No, The Fault in Our Stars was truthful. And it didn't need any of the things listed above to make it feel real.  We may not all have cancer, but we all have fear and hardship. We all have pain and dread our future. Its movies like this that make you not want what they have, but make you think about what they have. Because although we may not all get happy endings, we will all have a moment of perfection. And they may not all be the same length of time, but we will all have a little infinity.