Quick Recs

I’m back!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been on my blog and I’m still busy with exams so I might not be back again for another week or so but I just had to write a post. I wanted to recommend a show and a movie, both of which blew my mind at how great they were.

First, a show.

Daredevil is a new Netflix show and is based on the original Marvel comics. The Marvel fatigue is probably setting in right about now and you’re probably apprehensive at the thought of yet another superhero movie/show. That’s what I thought too until the reviews came in. It was called fantastic, great and a hundred and one other synonyms so I thought I would give it a try and I don’t regret it at all.

There’s thirteen hour long episodes that carry a great plot well over the course of the season. The characters have interesting and witty dialogue and I found their personalities appealing to watch. Probably the thing that stood out to me the most about the show was the action sequences during fight scenes. In any other superhero or regular action movie the actual action seems lost on me because there aren’t any stakes. The hero gets hit multiple times but looks seemingly fine after every punch. Not in Daredevil – the action is so realistic, Charlie becomes tired, bruised and battered and the violent fights seem to have real impact on the hero. On a side note, the action is quite gritty and bloody so if that’s not your thing I wouldn’t recommend the show! (Or maybe you could just skip past the fights)

The season was really great and included some great villains that had real depth. I’m so excited for its second season!

The movie I’m recommending is Mad Max: Fury Road. Before watching the movie in theatres, I knew nothing about the thirty year old series but had read up before-hand that it wasn’t required to know its previous plots (in case you were wondering the same).

I watched this two days ago and it still hasn’t left my mind. Mad Max is probably the greatest action movie I’ve seen in a long time and is my favourite movie of 2015 so far. If you’ve heard that this movie is feminist “propaganda” and that makes you turned off towards the film, please don’t feel this way. I think propaganda is a strong word when all people are really saying is that females have a strong presence in the film and are portrayed as equals to the male counterparts. The women in the movie are empowered, strong and smart, and by the women, I mean every single one of the women in the movie. There are no “weak” characters and it’s very refreshing.

The movie has minimal dialogue as it relies on the strong visuals to tell most of the story. You’ll be surprised at how little actually needs to be said to have a full and complex understanding of the plot. Speaking of dialogue, the few times Max, played by Tom Hardy, did utter a few words you could clearly hear his Bane voice leaking through and it amused me.

The action is insane. The majority of the movie is practical effects and there’s little CGI, in fact, CGI was mostly used for the landscape. It’s crazy to think that it was almost all practical effects as some of the stunt work looked incredibly dangerous. The movie is out of this world bizarre and insane and it’s work every minute of it. I highly recommend it. Even my mum, who doesn’t like movies that aren’t realistic was really into it and she didn’t fall asleep in the cinema – a surprise to myself and my dad!

Those are my two recommendations! Watch those while you wait for more posts from me as I’ll be sitting my exams this week. See you later!

Life Lately

I borrowed the idea for this post from a blog I love reading, Like Neon Love, who every so often writes an update post talking about things from life events to music, film and television, and things around the web. So basically, my typical update post but a bit more systematic.

Life

It’s been a while since my last post and I’m sorry about that. School has been very busy and IB life does not take a break. From stressing about coursework, presentations and the extended essay on top of that, it has been a struggle. Most of the time, school has been taking over my life.

Music

Music is a real stress reliever. I take any chance that’s available to listen to music and I really enjoy singing along, especially in the car. I do it often enough that my mum probably gets annoyed. Recently I’ve discovered Fifth Harmony and I feel that I’m very late to the party. Fifth Harmony is a girl group that formed on the X-Factor and they just released their first album, Reflection which I’ve been loving. All of their songs are so fun to sing and dance to, and trust me when I say dance because it’s hard to sit still while listening to songs like BO$$, Worth It and Top Down.

Other than them, I haven’t been discovering many new artists but mainly just listening to current pop songs, the new Fall Out Boy album and Pentatonix (surprise surprise).

Film and television

The past month or so I had a slump where I didn’t watch any movies at all. It was a sad time and kind of hard to get out of until a friend of mine suggested the film Leon: The Professional, a film that I had heard of previously but had never looked it up or took the time to watch it. I forced myself to watch it one weekend and had no regrets. It was exactly the type of movie I love – a crime drama with interesting characters and plot twists. One of the stand out performances of the film was Natalie Portman who was merely a child at the time but delivered her lines so well and made me very emotional at times. She was a very impressive child actor which is quite rare.

I finally got around to watching The Theory of Everything, and I have to say, I do think Eddie Redmayne deserved the Oscar. I’m still bitter at the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal was not nominated because he would have been my first choice for Best Actor though after watching Eddie Redmayne’s performance as Stephen Hawking I think it was well deserved. Arguably, I was watching Cinefix and they discussed the fact that the Oscar would have been given to any actor who had taken on the role as it is more likely that the role itself is prestigious and there are actors who could have done a better job, which I agree with but ultimately it is the Academy’s choice.

I recently saw Chappie which was interesting to say the least. It was a science fiction action movie which I am not usually into but I was pleasantly surprised by the film. It had a lot of humour in it which was unexpected and there are problems with the plot towards the end that I thought could have been better. In the end, it was enjoyable to watch and you should watch it just to form your own opinion.

Television hasn’t been jaw dropping recently but I’m really loving Better Call Saul. It’s lived up to the hype and in my opinion is doing justice to the character of Saul, and even Mike who I love. Vince Gilligan is a genius and I’ll leave it at that.

Around the web

Okay, I have a couple of videos for you to watch

All of Me (Cello/Beatboxing Cover) – Kevin Olusola

You may know Kevin from Pentatonix but he just released his new EP, The Renegade, which is full of cello and beatboxing covers of popular songs with an added original called “Renegade”. His covers are beautiful and he has the ability to make the cello sing. In covers like this All of Me cover, he carries the inflections in John Legend’s singing voice on to the cello and it’s stunning.

To This Day Project

This is a poem in video form about bullying and the effects it has on children’s futures. It’s very powerful and the artwork accompanying the poem is beautiful. It’s well worth the watch.

Shia LaBeouf Live

Honestly the strangest but greatest thing I’ve ever seen. Go in with no context, it’s a rollercoaster.

Lia Kim Choreography – La La Latch by Pentatonix

I find dancers so mesmerising. I love the fluid movements and sharp routine that these groups of dancers have. The fact that it’s to a Pentatonix song is an added bonus. The rest of their choreos are so great as well and I definitely think you should check them out.

 

That’s all for now, thank you for reading!

Best Movie Youtubers

As a lover of movies and every thing film related I tend to watch and read a lot of other people talk and discuss film – their opinions, reviews, discussions, everything. A lot of people use the Youtube platform as a place to do this and well, I watch them. I decided to round up a list of youtubers that I really enjoy and I think you should definitely check them out. They host some pretty cool discussions and are a lot better than what I write about on this blog.

Every Frame a Painting

My favourite movie youtuber has to be Tony from Every Frame a Painting. On his channel, Tony analyses specific film techniques used to create a shot or part of a film, how it is done and what effect is has on the rest of the film or on the audience. His editing is seamless and I think the way he presents his information and findings is really interesting and I learn a lot just from his 5ish minute videos. I could watch all of his videos at any time of day just because I find them intriguing. If you ever want to understand or learn more about film technique you should definitely watch his videos to get a feel of what directors try to achieve in scenes.

Cinefix

Cinefix has a mix of videos all related to film (and sometimes television) with a bunch of different and lovable hosts. Their videos range from reviews, recaps of episodes, roundtable discussions, movie news and more. My favourite type of video probably has to be roundtables as they touch on a bunch of different things in each one and you get a chance to hear a lot of different opinions from each of their cast and compare their thoughts on topics. I really enjoy watching any video with Ti in it as she probably has the most similar taste of movies and TV shows with me and I tend to mumble “same girl” when she says anything to be honest. Cinefix has a great mix of people and cover a lot of topics that are really interesting for any film buff.

YMS

Adam makes me laugh a lot. On YMS (Your Movie Sucks) Adam reviews movies, especially bad ones, and basically explains everything wrong with them if the title didn’t already give it away. He’s extremely cynical, as I am, but he delivers reviews in a humorous way that I love. I completely agree with almost everything he says and he goes into detail with each point he makes. YMS reviews are entertaining and the quickies are pretty much the best way to find out if a new movie is worth seeing or not because you can always be assured that Adam will give you a 100% honest review.

Screen Junkies

You might know Screen Junkies from the “Honest Trailers” segment that they do every few weeks that goes viral quite often. The segment recuts a movie into a new trailer that breaks it down into the points that show it’s clichés and tropes. What you might not even have bothered to find out is that Screen Junkies has a variety of videos that aren’t just limited to the 3 minute hilarity fest. They make top list videos, supercuts and my personal favourite, movie fights. Movie fights are a panel of people in their crew and sometimes guests that argue over the answers to user submitted questions. Their most recent one led them to fight over the question, “Do the Hobbit movies suck?”. It definitely got heated and ended with the best one liner I’ve heard in a while and it was pretty funny to watch. For the record, yes they do suck but let’s not get into that. They have some well made videos so go watch them and don’t just stick to Honest Trailers!

Bobby Burns

It’s hard to believe that Bobby is almost my age and doing as well as he is. Anyways, this is Bobby and he loves movies. One of his videos went viral a while back where he recut Frozen to look like a horror movie but he also makes a lot of great reviews. Again, I feel like we have really similar taste in movies so I enjoy seeing his comments on movies I haven’t even seen because then I can get an idea of whether I will like it or not. His reviews are in depth and fun to watch and I can pretty much marathon a ton of his videos because he is far from dull. I know he’s been making a short film series which I haven’t been able to check out yet but I’m sure it’s good so you should!

Mentions: Cinema Sins, GoodBadFlicks, Jack Howard

So this list was more of a ‘Top 5’ kind of thing but I just want to quickly mention these 3 channels as well! Cinema Sins has more of a nit picky version of a ‘review’ that points out everything bad in a movie. I find watching his videos on films I hate to be more enjoyable because I tend to revel of the shared hatred but that is besides the point. He makes a lot of good points and hey, it’s nice to see someone taking the mick out of conventional reviews.

GoodBadFlicks also has some pretty good reviews but I want to point out one of the videos they made called “WTF Happened to PG-13” which really opened my eyes about what actually did happen. I find it a lot harder to enjoy modern day action and drama films after having these things pointed out to me but you should just find out for yourself so please watch this video!

Finally, Jack Howard gets a mention because he’s a great youtuber and film maker! He talks about film a lot just because he loves it and doesn’t really do full reviews of movies. He does share his opinions on a lot of movies though and I find it enjoyable. Jack’s video layout is much more relaxed and doesn’t particularly have a strict outline of how he does things but it’s great nonetheless.

Thanks for listening to me ramble a bit more about things I love.

January Favourites

Welcome to the first favourites post of 2015! It’s crazy to think that this month has gone by and we’re already in February. Anyways, here are the things that I’ve been loving and been obsessed with this month –

Movies

I’ve seen very few movies since the end of last year but out of the ones that I did watched I really loved Whiplash and Good Will Hunting. I’m extremely late on the bandwagon for GWH as it came out in 1997 but I finally got around to watching it on the plane to Bangkok this month. It was an entertaining movie and I got really emotional towards the end. Robin Williams played a really wonderful character and I enjoyed watching him play a more serious role and take on a complex character. This is also my favourite Matt Damon performance.

Whiplash is probably my favourite movie of 2014. There were so many elements to it, the performances were downright amazing and the music was impeccable. I was so tense throughout the movie when I was watching it and the third act of the film is probably my favourite of any. How many other movies can end like that? It was an experience.

Music

I spoke about some of my music favourites in a previous post, Happiness, and those are pretty much my music favourites for January. I’ve made a playlist for you guys so you can listen to all of my favourite songs this month because I really think you should check them all out.

TV

In January all of my existing shows have come back on air after the long holiday so I haven’t started any new programs. However, I’ve rekindled my love for Parks and Recreation as well as How to Get Away with Murder. They’re two great shows in their own way. Parks and Rec has immensely funny characters who I’ve grown to love so much. The final seasons has a ton of callouts to previous episodes and I’m sad to see the show go.

HTGAWM returns to finish it’s first season which has completely killed it so far. I was sketchy about the show at first but I’m sure I can trust Shonda Rhimes with any show after watching Scandal and now HTGAWM. The characters are dynamic and the dialogue is really great, there are so many quotable lines! I really recommend watching it.

Beauty

For beauty this month I don’t have specific products. I’ve been really enjoying bronzer recently. Bronzing and contouring didn’t used to be my thing as I always found the idea daunting and have experienced putting way too much and being very obvious. After that horrible experience I stayed well away from the bronzer just incase anything went wrong. The past few weeks I’ve been gradually adding bronzer into my makeup routine and even though sometimes it can look like it’s not even there, I’m proud that I at least made an attempt!

I’ve also been liking wearing my hair naturally straight with a slight wave to it. Most days after I wash my hair, when it’s damp I used to twist it into a bun so when it dried it would be pretty curly. It may be because I’ve just been lazy but wearing natural hasn’t turned out so bad and for some reason my hair seems to be more tame recently.

Video

I don’t really know what to call these categories but I have 2 Youtube videos to share with you! Well, they’re whole Youtube channels to be honest.

First and foremost, it’s my ultimate obsession – Superfruit! I’ve mentioned them a lot on the blog as you may well know but recently they released a video with Shoshana Bean, who plays Elphaba in the Broadway stage production of Wicked, where they sang pop songs (Blank Space, Jealous and Break Free) in the style of a Broadway show and it was hilarious. The three of them have incredible voices and their acting is entertaining to say the least. I’ve watched it an unhealthy amount of times since it release and you probably should too.

A channel that I recommend and I’ve recently fell in love with this month is Wonderful World of What. It’s a channel run by Ryan Parma and Mario Dominic who are also friends of Mitch and Scott from Superfruit. They started a channel together and talk about an abundance of things. I really like their segments at the end of each video where they talk about their favourite restaurants, movies and songs of the week. They’re so cute together and hilarious as well!

Food

Finally, the last couple of favourites for January is a food item! My mum bought home a spread from the grocery store which I fell in love with. It’s called Ovomaltine and it’s kind of like Nutella but crunchy! I’m not even sure what it’s made of but it’s so good. I think I like it better than Nutella. What I’ve really been obsessed with though, is the combination of the spread with apple. It might sound kind of strange but just try it, trust me!

That’s all for this month’s monthly favourites, I really hope you enjoyed reading it! Also hello to all the new readers :)))

Connected

Technology is an integral part of life now there’s no denying that. It’s impossible to shy away from the use of technology as everyone is connected these days.

One thing that I often think about is the incessant need to constantly check and be involved in social media communications. What technology brings about is easier access to other people and that is one of it’s many advantages. Despite this, the need for connection to the world is overbearing sometimes.

When I go out of the house to see friends my phone is always by me. When I go to school and sit through classes my phone is always by me. Even when I go downstairs to sit down and eat dinner with my parents my phone is always by me. It’s at a point where if I’m not connected to the internet and constantly seeing what is happening in the world, I feel like I’m missing out.

On social media, you share your life and what you are doing in the moment. Being connected to other people makes you see how you fit in other people’s lives as well. On snapchat, for example, people post pictures to their ‘story’ and it’s usually of their current activities and whatnot. There’s a reliance on social media to share what they’re doing and that they are in fact doing it with other people. It’s almost like an obligation to share every moment. Looking at what other people are accomplishing also gives a feeling of being left out. If you aren’t where other people are and sharing and connecting in that moment it can feel as if you’re in isolation. It really shouldn’t be like this.

It all comes down to self control, I think. Controlling the urge to check if anything new has happened since the last time I checked (which was probably just 2 minutes before) and controlling the need to wonder what your friends are up to.

We shouldn’t have to rely on technology and social media to feel like we’re involved and experiencing what we should. We don’t have to have connections 24/7. We don’t have to be connected all the time.