If you’re spending the week of Thanksgiving in the Urbana-Champaign area, then you should be thankful for the Boardman’s Art Theatre for they are screening the beyond delightful film Happy-Go-Lucky until December 4th. The movie has received raving reviews from all the critics, and was one of the main attractions at the Toronto Film Festival.
Hailing from the United Kingdom, Happy-Go-Lucky is directed and stars people that Americans wouldn’t really know much about. Mike Leigh? Sally Hawkins? Ring any bells? If they do, then you are much wiser than me when it comes to foreign films. It tells the story of Poppy, a 30-year-old school teacher who is full of life and enthusiasm for new experiences. We follow the day-to-day routine of the character as she’s confronted with things that may break her optimism, but she seems to be able to take everything in stride. There’s much to be happy about during the holiday season, but if you don’t have much to be happy for, you can learn a little something from Poppy. Happy Thanksgiving!
From the director who brought you films such as Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain, comes the story of a professional wrestler who gets too old to wrestle, and tries to live his life outside of the ring. Mickey Rourke, you might remember him as the biggest badass ever in Sin City, portrays the main character Randy “The Ram” Robinson, and his fall from fame after a heartattack prevented him from wrestling again. As time goes on, he begins to lose sense of his identity, and he tries his best to battle with himself in finding out who he really is and what matters most to him in life.
The director, Darren Aronofsky, has been someone who I’ve had mixed feelings about. After seeing Requiem, which focuses on the terrible effects drugs can lead to, I wouldn’t even let myself take advil for weeks in fear that I might get addicted and start selling myself on the street for just one more pill. Maybe I’m exaggerating….but that movie definitely was made so well that it left me feeling very uncomfortable and fearful of any illegal substance. It was a remarkable movie to say the least. I then ventured to see the film he made before that called Pi about a man who figures out a way to crack the pattern of the stock market by using the pattern of the number pi through a series of a calculations. How fun! This sounds like it could be an awesome Bruce Almightyish kind of Jim Carrey movie with tons of laughs, but actually it is dark….very, very dark. This film, though it was made with much less money and wasn’t as good of quality as Requiem, was still entertaining none the less. But his most recent film, The Fountain, starred Hugh Jackman and some other girl who are in love throughout time, in the past, present, future, and I don’t know what other time. I’ll just say I was really confused throughout the whole thing even though it was visually beautiful. In the end though, I can’t really say I enjoyed it much.
Yet, this film looks to be nothing like any of the ones I just mentioned. It seems to just be a profile on one man and the troubles he faces. My friend, who was also apprehensive about seeing an Aronofsky film, saw a prescreening of the film and said it was one of his favorite films this year. I feel that if Hulk Hogan came out with a documentary in 5-10 years detailing his life after his son’s imprisonment and the divorce from his wife, that it would look very similar to this film. I have high expectations for the movie, and I hope Rourke and Aronofsky don’t trick me into a match and totally piledrive my head into the mat which would leave me regretting ever even associating myself with them. Gosh why would they do that to me? Well hopefully, they’ll let me be their tag-team partners. The film opens to limited audiences on December 31, and then to wide release on January 16, 2009. In the words of ring announcer Michael Buffer…”LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEE!”
I like Baz Luhrmann a lot. I’m not going to lie. I really enjoyed both Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge. I know, I know…I’m not the main targeted demographic. But Luhrmann is able to make magic come through the screen, and show you things that you’d never seen before. This film seems to be taking a different route visually than his previous films, but I don’t really care. He can do whatever he wants and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. I mean come on….have you ever even heard that song “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”? That was him. You know the one…it’s just a guy giving a speech to a graduating class? Alright well I guess you’ll just have to see Australia when it comes out on November 26th to know why Baz is the coolest.
So as each year goes by, I’m beginning to realize that I’m actually growing up into an adult, and quicker than I’d like to. Every year seems to be flying by that much faster than the one before it. I see my grandma and wonder how she feels as she nears the later stages of her life. How have her experiences shaped her into the woman that she is now? What if she had led a completely different completely and I wasn’t even brought into existence? These things you start to wonder as you grow older by the day. If you’re a college student reading this, you must realize that after college end, the rest of your life begins. You will technically be an adult and must be willing to take on the multitude of responsibilities that come with maturation. But what if you didn’t have to grow up?
In the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Benjamin Button, played by the always-entertaining Brad Pitt, has the curious condition of growing physically younger as he grows chronologically older. In the trailer, we see that he’s born into the world as a frail old man/baby , and in each year that passes, he becomes less wrinkley and more youthful. I’m excited for this film because I want to know what they can do with this type of story. Aging has always been a topic that has fascinated me, and when regaining your youth naturally as opposed to using Rogaine and receiving Botox injections, the life of that person would be unimaginable to anyone else. This movie directed by David Fincher, who also directed Fight Club is one that I’m greatly anticipating and can’t wait to see how a person could reminisce about being old again. It hits theaters this Christmas.
