Movies You Should See Before You Leave School (Part I)

With 2 weeks until the beginning of the Spring holidays and end of exams for me, there are some movies coming out. There's Buried about Ryan Reynolds in a coffin, The Town, a movie about police robberies in Boston and so much more coming soon.

But there was one thing I was disappointed with everyone at school. And that is...

NOBODY HAD SEEN INCEPTION!?!?!?!?

Seriously it's not hard to see a very good movie if you have read the reviews on the Net, newspapers whatever material there is about movies. Inception is really good and yet you're too afraid because the story's complicated and too challenging for you.

I know kids don't actually have time to watch movies but seriously. You're seeing The Expendables? It has nothing but action. You've seeing The Karate kid on the holidays? You would've seen the original Karate Kid from the 80s and it's better than that. You've seen Grown Ups? It's a movie that has jokes of waste, literally. You've seen the Twilight movies? Really? And you're seeing Tommorow When The War Began? Well, it's alright.

Ok. Sorry for being judgemental, but there were so many good movies out there from the past that you would actually watch. You might learn something there like life's tough, get a job. But maybe you might enjoy them. I don't know. IT's your opinion and your choice.

So I'm counting down the top films you should watch before you leave school. Anytime, it's either when you finish Year 12 or going to uni.

1. Sin City (9.5/10)

Before Kick Ass, before we've seen The Dark Knight, before Natalie Portman shaved her head for V for Vendetta, Frank Miller's graphic novella Sin City tuned into a movie that is so seductive, so sadistic, it's almost a teenage boy's pumping wet dream... in black and white. With Jessica Alba as a stripper, several vixen hookers with semi automatic weapons fighting for justice in a hugely corrupt city and an ensemble cast such as Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Elijah Wood that would impress, Sin City is a visceral movie any cinephile cannot miss.

2. UP (9.6/10)

Toy Story 3 may have taken the crown of Pixar's best movie so far, but Up is worth a watch. It's funny, cute, clever, smart and why would we waste our time with the oddest couple in animation? Because they have a lot of heart and soul we would totally look down to. Up is a simplistic film yet truly emotional, it's has a wild imagination that roams around releasing that inner child and giving us that uplifting and motivating one-liner "Adventure is out there!"

3. Amelie (10.0/10)

This was the first foreign movie I have seen and it is great. IT is about a young woman's journey to change everyone's lives for the better while she is trying to make her life better by making a love interest chase after her. It's instataneously clever and humourous, insanely erotic and yet at all times, it focused on not only the title character Amelie but also on everyone around her as we look in depth about each character. The music score is excellent, the cinematography's as bright as ever, Amelie bound to be your delight.


4. Little Miss Sunshine (8.8/10)

Being in a family that are full of nutcases is tough, but one moment with them will make you feel better and is a lot of fun. That's the lesson learnt in Little Miss Sunshine about a struggling family taking their little daughter so she can participate in a beauty pageant. But the whole family would have to take a malfunctioning van along and many things happen. Keep in mind that each member has a problem. From suicide, drug abuse to post traumatic stress but when we go into thier journey all the way to California, we get to know them better. Until the finish of the film, Little Miss Sunshine is smart and funny in many ways.

5. Donnie Darko [Director's Cut] (9.0/10)

Two people in this school has seen this movie, possibly out of curiousity. When Donnie Darko is warned about an apocalypse by an imaginary bunny rabbit called Frank, he commits a series of crimes from his manipulation and he even gets nosey about time travel. Since this concept was so hard to tell and that it was released during 9/11, Donnie Darko was re-released with a director's cut three years later so that everybody finally knows what the hell is going on! Whether you like cult classics, Jake Gylenhal or the song "Mad World", Donnie Darko will give you a head trip.

6. Where The Wild Things Are (8.5/10)

The much-loved children's book is turned into a movie where a boy named Max dressed like a rabbit escape from his house to an island where he meet The Wild Things. When it was released, it initially polarized people because it was not appropriate for kids since many of The Wild Things are incredibly depressed. But I don't care. It gives and teaches us many lessons about neglect, isolation and also to feel free when you escape from people who won't let you be. It was one my favourite movie of 2009.

7. Juno (8.9/10)

I really loved Canadians (except for Bieber). They're really the most underrated people on this planet. Juno is actually a Canadian movie starring Canadians, directed by a Canadian but written by a stripper. Juno is about teenage tomboy (Ellen Page) pregnant by her shy fitness freak (Michael Cera). She decided to not have an abortion, but to put the baby up for adoption and she found the perfect couple who are yuppies desperate for a child. Emotionally and almost honest, Juno teaches us values on feminism, pro choice and pregnancy rights and also a lesson about teenage sex and its consequences. Ellen Page and Michael Cera are really dynamic in their roles making them two of film's current bright stars. Oh, it also made orange Tic Tacs and hamburger phones fads. As well as a popular soundtrack, controversy involving the movie glamorising teenage pregnancy and becoming the highest profitable movie of all time, Juno is jolly good.

8. The Matrix (8.2/10)

Here's an interesting fact. The matrix is also a mathematical formula. But in this case, The Matrix is actually mathematical with its concept aking itself what is The Matrix. What's the truth? And why are so many of us wearing sunglasses? So thanks to that, shot in Sydney before the city head off for the Olympics, and impressive special effects involving slow mo, this prove that computer nerds (which is the main audience) rules the cinema. So if you didn't see the matrix, get out of here and go watch it.

9. The Breakfast Club (10.0/10)

John hughes is a master of teen fillms. Some of Hugh's favourites were Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Pretty In Pink. But this is John Hughe's masterpiece that is considered a movie defining its generation. When five students went to detention on a Saturday, they don't know each other very well. There's the athlete, the brain, the princess, the criminal and the basket-case. Once the film progresses we see that they hated their parents so much that it might have resulted being in detention. The Breakfast Club nails its characters, developing at the right pace and doesn't go in between margins. This movie describes the angst of a teenager and Hughes does a great job as he understands more of the teen.

10. 500 (Days) Of Summer (8.4/10)

As romantic comedies becoming older, this movie has become bolder! 500 Days Of Summer is a rom com that isn't niched for women, but it is also for men who complains about these movies as not their thing. If 500 Days Of Summer gives us a true life lesson (true love doesn't happen the way we wanted to), has an awesome soundtrack and add charms to its central characters while giving us surprises towards the end, this 90 minute indie flick is clever in its own right.
 

Review of Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut

Beware the bunny... Donnie Darko is almost a classic!

9.0

There are two kinds of people who seen the cult classic Donnie Darko: the ones who buy or rent the Director's Cut having an excited feeling of having to see extra bits of one of the most divided movies of all time. And then there are this people who known the movie for a guy dressed in a bunny suit and are curious of who's in it.

Donnie Darko is almost a movie that person would enjoy by the time he's in a rental store looking for something really good to watch. That person is me.

The year's 1988 and the month's October. Donnie Darko is played by Jake Gylenhall who is a mentally disturbed teen who constantly sleepwalks in some mysterious place meeting up with his imaginary friend Frank who is a guy dressed as a rabbit. If there was any point into meeting this guy its that in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, the world will end.  From flooding the school to burning a house of a beloved person of his high school Darko intends to believe that and commit a series of crime that involves vandalism and pleasure for this teen as he obeys everything he says.

By the time I've reach the first moment of the film, I've realize that it's almost magnificent in its own. It seems like a generic psychological thriller and it isn't. The film blends in with teenage movies, science fiction, film noir and romance. So it's almost a mish-mash of genres.

IF you're thinking of watching Donnie Darko and after watching you thought the whole thing is surreal, think again. There are many ways of interpreting Donnie Darko and it is about the days of a disturbed person who's stuck in a conservative suburbia full of rich, snobby, religious people. The character is actually an intelligent prtson and yet people won't recognise it. His personality shows a lot of sections dealing with the deep blue angst of a person, waiting for something he really want. And director Richard Kelly thrives on bringing out these expansive ideas in the title character.

Almost every aspect is a head trip. When you enter Donnie's dreams, it's almost dark and trippy. It's almost informed by the cinematography that's almost excellent and robust, shot in a traditional style of camerawork. Even more incredible is the soundtrack that makes Massive Attack, INXS and Radiohead a hybrid that turns it into a highlight of the movie as well as the cover version of "Mad World" that is part of the highlight.

There are some quirky bits of dark humour that made me laugh like the first scene where everyone say the F word and Donnie telling his gym teacher to go shove his work up to her anus.

Donnie Darko brings in massive amounts of deep and emotional depths of the character not just in his mind and dreams that intends Darko of escapism but also around him that captivates multiple storylines and ideas and Jake Gylenhall is almost mesmerising. Gylenhall's performance is so unique its brings almost a nature of force and destruction to Darko.

The relationships with almost everyone surrounding him with his girlfriend played by Jenna Mallone, his family (his sister is played by Jake's real life sister Maggie) to his teacher (Drew Barrymore) and the motivational speaker (Patrick Swazye) are good. Everyone is good. The relationship between Donnie and Frank is almost simple. Frank's an imaginary character that manipulate Donnie into a sociopath. His appearance is almost the symbol of pessimism and death. Therefore all of the performances are bliss.

I don't how this was never widely released at the first place, but there was a conspiracy theory that the movie was limited released because of the 9/11 attacks which featured part of the plane crashing down killing everybody. But it was grateful that it was widely released in a director's cut.

Donnie Darko is a deep movie about angst and that will initially scare a living person and bends the person's mind. And it deservedly voted one of Australia's favourite movies 5 years ago and I got to say this. Bravo Darko. Bravo.