Books That Make Good Movies: King Dork

Personal Copy picture!

This is kind of a hesitant post actually. The thing is, I love King Dork. A lot. It is that kind of book, where you know that you are willing to devote however many days and weeks it takes to read it fully. And it has the kind of plot that would make for a good movie: High School Underdog constantly thinking about girls and bands while trying to puzzle out his father’s death (murder?)

What I’m desperately afraid of is that they would completely screw it up if they made it into a movie. Some of the best parts of King Dork come from Frank Portman’s utterly hilarious writing style, with little details stuck in that just can’t be filled in with a voice-over clumsily overlaid on the screen. Reading Mr. Portman’s new book (Andromeda Klein, due out later this month) made me remember how much King Dork, if done correctly, would make a truly unique movie about high school.

If you read it or have already read it, well then you will or already have the ability to understand where I’m coming from. I’m not sure how one would get a character like Tom Henderson and his bizarre sense of humor across the screen. I would love to see it accomplished though.

Ghost World

One of the few, I-Like-It-Better-Than-The-Book Movies.

Of course, the book is one of those angst-ridden realism graphic novels.  They also change a lot of the plot around with the movie, while leaving the characters and setting almost freakishly similar to the drawings in the book.

The plot is the life of Enid and Rebecca after high school, neither with any big plans besides hanging around their hometown and eventually getting an apartment together.

In fact, it’s almost entirely different.  What a perfect comparison, when Lifetime was marketing this movie as “Starring Scarlett Johansson” before she really became Scarlett Johansson and her character is strictly a sideline best friend.  It’s a very “Uh, duh” role really, while there is a milieu of other characters are more interesting.

But that’s something else too– the graphic novel was about the relationship between Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), while the film creates this relationship between Enid and Seymour (Steve Buscemi) and the friendship aspect hits a back burner.

Again, it’s not really depressing for the film to be so different from the graphic novel.    The film has more power to it, whether from the addition of music to the strengthening of characters and relationships, a better development of plotlines.  Instead of hyper-realism, we are presented with a sad world saturated with fake colors.

I can understand it well enough.  The graphic novel wouldn’t work as movie, might as well change it to work.  The same themes are hit, but with considerably different effects.  I recommend watching it if you happen to hold too much hope for current society.

Prom will Always be Related with John Hughes in my mind

I had by big ol’ “Senior Prom” this past weekend, and besides the unnecessary freak outs, the expensive tickets, the need to get THE DRESS, I really just wanted to sit around and watch Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles (I know there’s a dance in Sixteen Candles, but I can’t remember if it’s Prom or not).

Because of Mr. John Hughes, we have a proper genre of teen movies.  Although some aspects of his films are dated, and I don’t find High School social life to be as stratified as it was in The Breakfast Club, I can’t help but think “It’s because of him that all teen movies end at prom.”

Thank you, Greek, for inserting that idea in my mind.

Next installment of the 1001 Movies coming soon!  Also, a review of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (hopefully, if I don’t chicken out).

April Thoughts…

Damn, y’all.  It’s April already?

This post is less about my movie watching thoughts and more about my life, I suppose.

I bought a Laptop bag last night from ebags.  Please note: I do not yet own a laptop.  This is for collge, mes amis. Next year, instead of being a naive high school blogger, I will proceed to be a naive Chapel Hill freshman. (cripes)  The laptop bag, and subsequent laptop buying that is sure to happen within the next few days, is just making the fact that I’m going to college next year hit harder.

For instance, I’m Roomate Shopping at the mo, and my big qualifier for a good roomate is someone who likes movies.  A few people are popping up, but this is a manufactured idea of what I have to read through:

“Hi!  I’m laid back, and want a roomate who’ll go to Baptist church and jog with me.  Drama should stay in Gossip Girls and I can’t wait to party/study my ass off once I get to UNC!!!  Cute taste is mandatory for our room’s style quotient!”

I can see our matching bedspreads already… urgh.  There’s some sunlight on the horizon, I guess, but going through the roomate finder is making it very clear how hard it is to be a ME in this world.  Which is true for everybody who has a unique quiver of a thought in their system.  To quote the wonderful Tim Burton, “You never felt people liked music.”  That’s kind of what this search has been for.  No one really likes music or film, or what have you.  They all seem like paper people, who reside in their paper towns (nyargh, now comes references from Paper Towns).

Anyway.  That’s just what my thoughts have been like, now that it’s April and my school year is winding down.

I watched The Duellists last night and will try very hard to come up with a decent post on it, but for right now, I’m ruminating.

A Twilight Story

Crap, I think I’ve regressed to a thirteen year old girl.

11:55am My parents are about to go out and do some Thanksgiving grocery shopping.  Mom is going over my day with me, just so she doesn’t freak out if they get home and I’m not there.  I’ve just taken a break from my NaNo (35K and counting…)

Mom: Are you working today?

Me: No.  There’s Printz-

Mom: Right, and then the movie, okay.

Dad: Harrumph.  What movie?  Twilight?!

Me: Yeah.

Dad: I expected better from you.

Mom: I didn’t.

Me: *rolls eyes*

Mom: It was written by that woman who wrote Eclipse, right?  (note, fair readers, that I was in fact wearing my token Eclipse t-shirt today… not for any other reason than I might as well when I’m going to see Twilight.

1:18pm I just finished up a chapter of my NaNo story only to realize that I’ll be late for book club.  Dash out the door with Cow Bag, Morpheus (my Sansa MP3 player, best thing ever), wallet, keys, books, etc.

2:15pm Picked up by Rachel and her mom.  We head to the theater and get there remarkably early.  I’m thankful that there are still tickets for the 3 o’clock showing we’ve got.  As we walk into the lobby, on the wall to our right is, like, five horror movie posters, all set to come out in January, including The Unborn.

2:25pm We decide against getting food or popcorn.  The theater we’re at is close to the bathrooms, so I make a quick pit stop.  Not a lot of people are wandering around, except for one kid and some person who looks to be my age.  A screening of Quantum of Solace is showing across the hallway from us.  I consider ducking in, but decide against it.

2:34pm  We are the only people in the theater.  I’m not joking.  And here I thought it’d be packed from left to right and backwards and sideways!  But no… three lone people watch the cheesy pre-previews commercials.  Some theater workers shuffle in to start clean up.

2:45pm Just when I get excited about the idea of us doing MST3K in the theater, more people show up.  Rachel and I have running commentary on the subject:

Me: Obligatory tweens.

Rachel: Whoa, boys!

Me: Twimom.

Etc etc, I think you get what follows.  The theater fills up somewhat, mostly by girls ages 12-15.  A whole string of them take the row behind us.  It’s going to be a loooong two hours…

3:00pm Actual trailers start.  The only one I really remember is The Unborn, but that’s because… well…

Me: By the way, I’m dragging you to see this.

Rachel: Uh… okay?  Why?

Me: *is silent*

Gary Oldman: *is on screen*

Rachel: *still doesn’t get it*

The random Names-Card comes up and she sees his.

Rachel: Oh!  Gary’s in this! (…) OH! that’s why.

Me: Yeah.

And the other trailers were… uhm… I remember a microwave in one (?).  Cadillac Records, Some Psychi-Super hero movie Push, and I think that was it before the movie started.

3: something pm  The movie begins. 

Christ, they’re having Bella’ monologue the movie?!

And let’s just… ignore the times for the rest of this, shall we?  Bella is sad, boo hoo, Charlie is lovable (but distant!) father, Jacob and Billy Black are… football fans (at least I think it’s football…).  Kids at school are laughably YA teenagers.

(As much as I love Young Adult writing, I’m so sick of the stereotypes that get resorted to in YA fiction.  There are the cheerleaders and the stupid vapid friend, and the friend who understands you but you’re not that close and the Token Asian, Token Black, Annoying Jock-type who likes Main Character, etc.  All of that is seen in Twilight.)

Also, for a crappy high school, Forks High looks well funded.

Anywho, the Vamps: Rosalie was played well (bitchy), Emmett was Emmett (there is really no other way to describe his character), I like who they got to play Alice and every time I saw Jasper I felt really bad for him and wanted to give him a hug.

And then… there’s Edward.  1)What the hell is with the hair? and 2) Did Robert Pattinson purposely watch old 1950s movies to get his American accent?  Because… he reminds me of James Dean.  As soon as he came on the girls behind us erupted into excited squees.  This morphed into giggles everytime Edward opened his mouth. 

It’s really just the novel blah di blah the entire time after that, but it’s been about four years since I’ve read the thing, so everything for me was like “Okay, which Bad Vamp do they kill again?  How does Bella get away from Jasper and Alice at the hotel?  Why are they breezing through the Bella-Edward pillowtalk?”

At the first Biology Class scene with Edward, Rachel tells me that he looks like a Drug Addict (true).  Then she complains that his face is concave (also… true, but still).  Somewhere near the end when it was just some scene with Edward and Bella being gooey at Prom we have an indepth conversation about the soundtrack and whether that was Iron and Wine they were playing (it was).

And Stephanie Meyer pulls a Hitchcock and puts in a brief appearance, thus sealing the deal as the Author I want to be for 15 minutes (Neil Gaiman is who I want to grow up to be, but I think it would be fun to be Meyer for a short period of time.  Her fans are really devoted).

I didn’t like the direction and editing that much.  There were too many close ups strung together combined with this piece-meal montage effect everytime Bella is dreaming or they’re running through the woods.  The sparkling was almost exactly how I imagined it would be, which is kind of nice, although I still got a little freaked out.

Wanted someone to rip James’s head off too… and I know that doesn’t happen in the book, but Alice breaks his neck.  She could have just as easily ripped his head off too.

Anyway, it was during the prom scene when I officially regressed and decided that I like Robert Pattinson after all, to my shame.  Edward is just so… Edward at the prom scene.  That’s the very second when his entire character gets stripped away into this namby-pamby protect-Bella outlook that lasts for the next three books.  Ah well, it’s better than Stalker Edward from the first hour.

Kamikaze Girls

It’s a lot like reading a shojo manga, but live action.  And mildly insane.

 (Yeah I… I really don’t care that I’m using the same image twice in this case).

Kamikaze Girls also known as Shimotsuma monogatari (or Shimostuma Story) is the hyper-tale of Momoko, the antisocial Lolita who is forced to leave her city when her father is exiled by the yakuza.  In the country she meets Ichigo, the tough (but stupid) yanki, and wackiness ensues, etc.

If you have no idea what “Lolita” or “yanki” mean, here’s a brief recap:

Lolita:  Japanese fashion style popular among teenagers to early twenty-somethings, Lolita is typified by lots of lace and frills and usually emmulates a period of history in style, though with shorter skirts and platform shoes.  In the case of Momoko, she is reliving the Rococo period of Europe, which results in a hilarious explanation of what thos 18th century crazy, Mozart-loving Europeans were doing: Embroidery, sex, elegant conversations, more sex, and then a walk through the countryside.

Yanki: The punks of Japan, without a musical affiliation!  They form biker gangs that roam the country and cause fights.  Usually typified by dyed hair (before it became popular, blond hair was a sure sign of being a yanki) and long coats with Chinese calligraphy on them.  In Ichigo’s case, this is a scooter (she couldn’t pass the test for a real motorcycle) and calligraphy spelled wrong in her bike gang, the Ponytails.

Momoko likes being antisocial: According to her, it was always in her nature.  Her father was a low-ranked yakuza (Japanese mafia) member and her mother was a whore, but between them Momoko was born (and her mother had an affair/second marriage with the OB-GYN).  Momoko, in the divorce, decided to stay with her father, because it was more fun and tells her mother to go out, get plastic surgery, and compete in beauty competitions because that’s all she’ll ever have. 

And Momoko grows up, only to fall in love on a class trip with BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT, a frilly Lolita brand.  She spends the next year or two conning her father out of cash to buy these expensive outfits, but once in the countryside, her fuel has dried up.

So she puts an ad out and Ichigo, the yanki rebel idiot, winds up at her door.  And continues to do so, because she… she’s an idiot, let’s just say.  Or likes Momoko’s twisted personality.  Putting that aside, Ichigo tells the reluctant Momoko, who doesn’t want any friends (she finds her ideal death eighty years in the future in a “BABY” dress, found by a robot) her life story and the story of the infamous Yanki leader who wanted to join up all the girl gangs in the province and fight the yakuza.

This could be subtitled as “Modern Japanese Culture in a Box” but there are some subtle plot structures and character development.  Also, more of the Japanese culture could probably be explained better in the book, like how Ichigo wants to live the life of a yanki character in a manga, “Momoko”, which isn’t explained as well in the movie, most likely due to time constraints.

This is my favorite girl-friendship movie because both characters develop according to their reactions to each other.  Ichigo finds acceptance instead of expectations because of Momoko and Momoko learns to trust in other people and do something with her life besides just lazing about and taking strolls.

All of the characters are clowns and over the top, but the hyperactivity of the movie makes it so much fun.  Everything is in day-glow colors and the cinematography is a lot of cuts and short comedic moments to change from scene to scene or to see into the mind of Momoko.  It is a sugary-sweet guilty pleasure at one moment while also managing to convey a deeper meaning just five minutes later.  And it’s endlessly quotable, like “Humans are cowards in the face of happiness.”

There is, of course, the vivid contrast between prim Momoko and vulgar Ichigo, but they each reveal their own faults and gifts, so it comes off as a bit of a cliche, but it works magnificently.

But I’m a Cheerleader

SUCH a 90s Satire, It’s not even Funny

directed by Jamie Babbit (1999)

Starring Natasha Lyonne and Clea Duvalle

But I’m a Cheerleader starts out with cheerleaders being… they’re naturally cheerleader selves.  And our good friend Megan, with her perfect cheerleader big hair and other sterotypical lifestyle of the average teen, not enjoying her make out session with her buff boyfriend (but I can understand this, because from what I could see of the scene, he couldn’t kiss).

This, however, plus other signs, leads her friends and parents to believe that she’s a lesbian and is shipped off to True Directions.  There she meets Graham, who opens her eyes to a new lifestyle.

I like this movie because it parodizes the Anti-Gay movement so well and their favorite war cry “It’s Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve!”  Best seen through the crazy woman running True Directions, with her obviously fabulous  son and her determination to put men and women in their “proper” roles: Such as, women as housewives, men as… lumberjacks (not kidding, it does).

This movie is rated R for the obvious sexual orientation reasons, and I don’t really feel like going into them right now.  Masturbation, sex, kissing, etc etc.

The extremity of the movie is what makes it fun and hilarious.  I equally love when the Gay Troopers come in to take the kids to a field trip to the local gay bar.  It’s this gay couple who went there and then realized that they would rather just be true to themselves afterwards, so now they offer a different option to the new campers.  And that is where Megan and Graham have their first kiss, awww… (well, first kiss outside of Megan’s dreams.  And, let’s assume, Graham’s).

The settings really form part of the hilarity, since it starts in creepy suburbia clearly stolen from Edward Scissorhands and then moves to this pink and blue house with rooms decorate to the proper color of the sex that’s practicing in it.  Except for some green rooms, which represent something.  Something like greed or ignorance.  It’s the color of the boss-lady’s bedroom and the office where the campers meet with their parents.

The relationships developped between characters, or the ones that do, seem realistic enough for me.  If you consider being trapped on a farm with others of your sexual orientation for two months, the logical matching up would occur.  The relationship between Megan and Graham seems very well crafted, since it’s Megan’s first love so she’s all puppy-eyed and Graham is torn between Megan and her parents’ expectations or financial support. 

I do have problems with this movie, which is that half of the evidence presented as to why Megan is gay is rather baseless.  As I mentioned before, her boyfriend just can’t kiss.  Then it was because of a Melissa Etheridge poster in her room.  Things like that, added to staring at the other cheerleaders and not having pictures of boys in her locker at school.

So, to sum up: It’s a satire made in the 1990s.  The opening premise is really weak in order to launch this plot immediately and as expediently as possible.  Very entertaining to watch unless you’re squeamish about the sex stuff, which is understandable because, yeah, that stuff can be rather awkward to watch.

Interstate-60: A Road Trip of Awesome

From Left to Right: OW Grant, Neal Oliver, and the Eightball

 

Interstate-60: Episodes of the Road became, suprisingly, my favorite quirky movie for this year, possibly ever.  At it’s most basic form, it is a Coming-of-Age story, but i’ts just so unique and awesome.  It’s a feel good movie and a comedy and just a quirky movie of American fantasy. 

The story starts out at a bar, because apparantly all great stories start out at bars, as explained in the voiceover by Neal (James Marsden).  Neal is the golden boy, main character, but the most intriguing character is O.W. Grant (Gary Oldman), the answer to America’s wishgranter myth.  He’ll almost never play it straight with you, because he just likes to fuck around.

In Neal’s world, he is an indecisive, struggling artist with dreams of a woman he ends up sketching or painting away, while his girlfriend psychoanalyzes him and his Dad tries to force him into law school.  While at his 22nd birthday lunch, Neal announces his wish aloud after being urged by Grant: He wants answers.  And the best way, in Grant’s eyes, to give him answers is to knock him out with a paint can.

This leads, in the hospital, to a visit from Ray (Christoper Lloyd) and a deck of very unusual playing cards, meant to test Neal’s perception.  But then Ray disappears, and life becomes not quite so normal. Things are just slightly out of place of normalcy and Neal decides to follow the signs– literally.  While at work he sees a billboard with the picture of the girl he’s been drawing on it.  This leads back to Ray, who gets Neal to deliver a package for him to Danver, down a highway that doesn’t exist.

A lot happens within the first twenty minutes to accurately explain what happens in I-60, but it gets easier after that.  It’s just your typical fantasy road trip, full of danger, intrigue, romance, lawyers, drugs, and art.  Whether it is the art, as seen in the art world or the art as seen by Neal, or the art of Life.  “All of them answers, and all of them reasonable.”

This film is fun because there aren’t any rules once you reach Interstate-60 in the story.  Anything can happen, and most things do.  Neal learns about what he could have become as well as what is happening all around him, from slavery disguised as ecstasy to how a man decides to fill up the last days of his life. 

The treat is all of the unique characters who bring out both the fantastical parts of the story and a level of stricking realism.  Not one character is perfect, but they know what they want and are honest about it.  It could be considered a weakness in story telling, a cast of one dimensional characters just created to feed a plot-driven story, but I think that’s the charm of the story.  Part of seeing in a new perception is meeting all of the characters along the way.

If there is a fault in this movie, it’s that they clearly ran out of budget for some sound effects because I’ve heard better in Saturday morning cartoons. 

This movie is a treat and I consider it a must see film.  Even you don’t like it afterwards, it’s an important film to watch.