Julie & Julia

     Julie & Julia was a movie that flowed like its portrayal of delicious meals throughout its length. It showed us the true passion these two people had for their food and its role in their lives. The spectacular performance by Meryl Streep was beautiful; she told me who Julia Child was, she showed me the life of Julia Child and her passion for french cuisine. Amy Adams was a soulful young woman of 30 who was seeking a way out of her daily routine which consisted of boring phone calls to angry people. A young woman who had friends that were only invested in their own lives who only saw their own path in life as valuable. She took the world on and decided to follow the footsteps of Julia Child's cookbook to show that she can complete something in her life with the help of her hungry husband.

     The film was filled with sequences of Julie and Julia following their passion to seek something new, to find their love at the bottom of a stew. We saw their differences in time and in culture but both from the same American soul. Julia from California living in France trying to make her change in french cuisine bumping into many obstacles that made her ponder her passion. Julie riding against a wall that always shouted at her that she was unable to complete this task, that she couldn't blog her way through Julia Child's cookbook! They both ventured through these obstacles seeking their bright light at the end of the tunnel with the support of their loved ones. Even Julie's cat helped her with a recipe that was pivotal in her journey.

     A short bump in Julie's relationship with her husband enabled her to realize her passion even more for food but didn't really sum up the husband's argument that she was being selfish and narcissistic. Maybe that plays into the role of the American husband.. "just shut up and weather the storm when the Mrs. is in the zone". Julia however, came into more obstacles trying to write her book on French cuisine for Americans than any relationship she had encountered. Acknowledging the difference in time and era that Julie and Julia were in might have played a big role in their different journeys through food. The contrast between the two points in time definitely keeps the viewer in tune with the story. You're left wanting more of the other story while watching the other and vice-versa.

     Upon Julie's fame with her blog she is later acknowledged by Julia Child herself; this, my friends, is the plot point that was never explained, or even given the correct amount of attention.  Julie's passion for food stems from Julia herself (as the viewer will most likely believe) but the subplot of the two in present time goes no further than Julia's comment of Julie's blog; it ends as quickly as it starts. Is this just something the screenwriter wants the viewer to wish upon and make up his or her own ending? That Julia begins to understand Julie's love for food and wishes her the best in her triumph through the culinary arts? Or is it best left untold? The life of Julie & Julia remain separate as it leaves us in the final moments with Julie's four word line, "I love you Julia". Does this work? Do these words cover everything she just went through? Does it give justice to the full strength and progression of her mind body and soul? Could Julia's cookbook have transformed Julie's life? After all, Julia transformed the landscape of American cooking and TV.  She is a legend.  But that is the true beauty of film my friends; the questions and debates that proceed the thousands and thousands of frames that have just been presented. I say bravo to this brilliant picture of two lovable characters that are consumed by measures of life and triumph that surround us everyday; this one just happens to appear in a cookbook.

The First stage

     We seek the opposite in a significant other that takes us to a side of our lives that will bring a new burning fire, a new side to all this craziness that surrounds us everyday and every second of our lives. Will he/she help us through to the other side? Through the other side of this day to day bullshit we live? Will this person bring us a calm tide to brush up against us when shit hits the fan and spreads all over the place? Will I be able to concentrate her bullshit and funnel it so I can handle it, I can treat it, listen to it; be able to survive the day to day with this person?

     It all takes place within that first impression, within that first clash of energies we experience, we know. We know what this person is about. We know how she’ll handle a death in the family, we know how he handles a nervous breakdown, but we don’t know it consciously. We blur it with physical and mental attractions. We blur it with our own curiosity of the other being, not focusing on the present signals that are being given to us.  To receive these first vital conscious impressions is a gift that few have, that many want, but most should not have, simply because the struggle to get the knowledge of someone’s everything is greater than the knowledge itself.

     A first impression is achieved. A simple, cute impression is established with each other and we’re both attracted to the other’s unknowns. What will he or she say next? What will she wear on the third date? The anticipation is so powerful we set our standards so high that the littlest thing about him or her is expanded to greatness; the true identity of puppy love. Which we can hopefully transform into a deep attraction that is stamped into our vision of the significant other. 

     We start to look forth. What will he or she act like when she finally meets the family? Will they hate her? Will they think he’s too much of a geek?  Will they accept the amount of time I spent getting to know this person and falling into a realm of compliance that only I can see? Will this fail? Is this all an illusion of someone I wish to have or someone I want and not someone who is individualized? 

     We need to find the love inside our own hearts to seek another’s. It’s a big reality bite to chew but it exists in all of us. Love for oneself will alter the path of the love search in another. The beginning days of getting to know someone is crucial to the everyday schedule you might spend with them, crucial to every emotion you will share with them.  We won’t see it, we won’t hear it, we won’t taste it or even feel it. We’ll have to foresee it. That’s the secret in beginning a relationship from the first appearance; there is no secret. Just your will to accept and breathe with another human being.


 

The Fighter (2010) Mark Wahlberg Christian Bale Amy Adams

     The Fighter gives you fights within the rink and within the fighter's heart body and soul. But most of all, this movie shows you the fight within the family.  The fight that must be fought before any fight within the ring can even be thought of. A main goal which is deteriorated by outside problems that seem minuscule to the main goal. The pressure of going behind your family to feed your dreams the right fuel, the want and need for the right path to go down where every other path led to disappointment. This epic film will show and conquer the fight within your mind body and soul.

     The phenomenal trio of brilliant actors and actresses allowed us to believe the frames shown before us are the actual people behind the story. The beautiful and destructive relationship between the two brothers grips us so deeply throughout the film creating an emotional attachment early on. The family surrounding the fighter brings us even deeper and further away from the ringt but to only hold us closer to the real struggle of a fighter.  A family that is there for their son in the ring on the outside but deep down they're a family searching for an out from their lives through their sons success which is limited to a non-existing one.

     A dreadful defeat causes the fighter to reroute his training options to an outside source that is more stable and reliable than his erratic family. A fighter's support system relying so heavily on a damaged family is not the right equation for a successful career as we see, only a caring family for the right reasons can bring a fighter to great heights. While watching we sympathize for the fighter in that all we want for him is a family that is there for him no matter where the money is, no matter if there's a check coming in or not.

     We might see a fighter in a rink as a bully who had to channel his fury into a career, which can be the point, but this so called bully will need to sacrifice every part of his body, every cell in his mind to endure the struggle through his career. This film takes you for a ride through every aspect of a fighter's life. The ups and the way downs. The times where rock bottom couldn't get any lower.

     Out of a desperate act to clean himself up, the weakest one in the family, the brother, redeems himself by creating an alliance throughout the whole family, allowing them to see what the whole thing was about, The Fighter, not their empty wallets. Its a great redemption to see a crack head brother who once was a great fighter bring a damaged and rotten emotional family come together to watch their brother/son become the great Mickey Ward.
   
     A fighter got in the rink with his family yelling at him for all the wrong reasons, do better, fight harder, win harder. Two hours later I saw a fighter get in the ring I didn't see before, he was changed, he and his family transformed through those two hours into something absolutely grateful for every breath they took and every smile they made. Call it a rocky film? Call it that. But I call it The Fighter because it shows us the real fight between a fighters gloves, himself.


The Louie Bee

    
 

The Beaver (2011) Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster

 
     The Beaver is a concept that will grab you with curiosity, enlightenment and sorrow. It's an idea that we've seen before but not in this manner. Putting a puppet on the lead actor's hand usually isn't a course of action a write is willing to take, but this writer did. It has the ability to hold your interests at the weirdest moments making you want more.

     It's slow start with a big gulp of depression which leads you to think "When is this guy going to pull the trigger?" only giving you a puppet and an English accent. WTF mate? We first become skeptical about the beaver character but learn there is a crucial point to this character. The other character's are all very well written, all providing great tools for the main character while maintaining a dynamic position throughout the film. The main characters youngest son has an odd edge to the film; he explosively indulges in wood crafting. He does it religiously; just from a little story his dad (the main character) tells him about a go cart named The Terd. Funny, but I think they didn't know what to do with the son so they just made him into a wood junkie.

     The beaver character takes the lead strong, the man only talking as if the beaver is talking, not his own voice. The wife had a caring and understanding personality towards the main character and the beaver while the older son wanted nothing to deal with the beaver or his dad. The beaver goes to great lengths to turn around the protagonists life and succeeds.

     The family goes back and forth not knowing if their husband/father is insane, which they do so he does spend some time in an insane asylum only because he was tired of the beaver and wanted to take it off, but couldn't SO he ---------- ( watch the movie ) -----. In there he's all better, comes out, mommy likes him, older son likes him, young son ( still chopping away) always loved him and the screen fades out.

     The Beaver is an interesting film which will grab the viewer with curiosity and a taste of sympathy, maybe more like empathy being that there's a puppet involved... Go see it,feats your eyes on a British Puppet yap about cool and inspiring stuff. Hey, you might find yourself going into work one day with a puppet strapped to your hand telling your boss that he's a butt licker, only to find out it only works in the movies.


The Louie Bee