2015 Film Recap

Well, 2015 is over and it's been a crazy year for me both in my film viewing world and my real world. I've seen a truck tonne of films this year, and there was a point where I was religiously watching 3 or 4 films a week at the cinema. Recently, I've had a lot on in the lead up to the Christmas crazy and so the films I've been watching in the last 5 weeks of so have been on my new best friend Netflix.

I've also been smashing out my regular Saturday night features with the BFF, The Red Haired Amazona which might be up to date with if you follow either of us in old facie land, and we've had some crackers this year.

Anyways, I wanted to give you a bit of a recap of my film year with a list that has taken me over a week to compile (and I'm still not sure I'm happy with it);

* Total number of films I watched: 273 - I think...this year I'm going to keep a better documented list
* Best film I saw at the cinema: INFINITELY POLAR BEAR, maybe...but also STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS...and also JURASSIC WORLD...ok, so I can't decide and I suck...
* 2015 I'm most looking forward to seeing in 2016: THE BIG SHORT and CAROL
* Oldest film I watched: HOLIDAY - Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant, 1938
* Worst film I watched: ZOMBEAVERS
* Newest film I watched: TRAINWRECK - 3 weeks before release
* Most underrated film: CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA or LOVE & MERCY
* Film I was most looking forward to that was awesome: JURASSIC WORLD
* Film I was most looking forward to that was shit: JOY
* Cult movies I finally got around to watching: WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER
* Last film I watched in 2015: NAOMI AND ELY'S NO KISS LIST (Netflix)
* Did I watch DIE HARD at Christmas: Obviously

I'm slowly working on my top films of 2015, and my Golden Globe and Oscar recommendations, but that's taking longer that I thought because it's hard and I suck at being ruthless about my choices. I need to work out how to be more discriminating about this!!

In the mean time, here's a recap of some of our Saturday night features in no particular order at Hooked on Classics where the BFF and I crochet, eat deliciousness and watch all the films;

December = Christmas movies = LETHAL WEAPON

We are Marvel addicts, so this means cinema viewing with the kids and our crochet 

The Amazona hadn't seen any of THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, so we had to rectify that situation

Special viewing feature in Brisvegas with my long distance BFF

December = Christmas movies = another film cherry popped for the Amazona - BAD SANTA

Perhaps my favourite CHristmas viewing of 2015 - a Netflix special starring my favourite

back to the traditional Hooked on Classics theme of old classics

Crochet, tea and pornos...perfect combination no? 

Will Smith is extremely underrated as an actor...let's give him more jobs 

This was a film my brother recommended when I was on a fleeting visit to the homeland so I crochet and drank tea and sat in his squishy recliners

Carrying on with the cherry popping for the Amazona

Popping my own cherry with this cult classic

What a great film...little Christina...so tiny...

The Amazona didn't much love this film, for her it went for about 5 years...but I didn't think it was the worst...not the best, but definitely not the worst

Random find that turned out to be smile amusing

Again off to the cinema to feed our Marvel addiction

Was Anderson is one of our faves, so we indulge in his films when it's just the two of us sans man-friends

Eurovision doesn't mean we don't crochet, it just means we replace our standard film with Eurovision. 

We couldn't decide on a film so we took our Wednesday night series viewing and carried it across to Saturday night - Netflix series 

Some more HUNGER GAMES cherry popping

The Amazona's little bubba turned into one now half my age and almost twice my height and we celebrated with dinosaurs and cheesecake (I make a mean white chocolate and berry cheesecake let me tell you) 

Again with a cinema visit with our crochet to feed the addiction

Looking forward to the next year, I mean this year and all that it holds in both the film world and my real world.

Xoxo
The Blonde Bombshell

INFINITELY POLAR BEAR - review

INFINITELY POLAR BEAR

Director: Maya Forbes

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky, Ashley Aufderheide

You had me at Mark Ruffalo, but throw in Zoe Saldana and an autobiographical tale of a family coping with a parent with a mental illness and I couldn't have been more excited. 

Cameron (Ruffalo) lives with the highs, the lows, the breakdowns and the virtual impossibility of maintaining a steady job that come with having bipolar disorder (manic-depression) in the 70's. Unfortunately so does the rest of his family. Cameron's wife Maggie (Saldana) decides that enough is enough after Cameron's latest breakdown, and she packs up their two daughters and moves them from the country to Boston, while Cameron moves into a halfway house to recover. 

Their daughters, Amelia (Wolodarsky) and Faith (Aufderheide) resent Maggie for moving them from the country to a run down, rent controlled apartment in the shitty school district in Boston. They also don't hide their disappointment when Maggie won't let Cameron move back in with them. The girls know there's something not quite right with their dad, but they idolise him none the less and for every bad memory there is good one that surpasses it.

Maggie struggles to make ends meet, and decides to go to business school to further her own education so that she can get a better paying job and put the girls into private school. That's not a problem right? Wrong. The business school that Maggie gets into is Columbia. So, Maggie moves to New York, leaving Cameron in Boston to look after the two girls on his own, full time, Monday to Friday. 

Leave a man fresh from institutionalisation, who struggles with sustaining anything in life in charge of two young girls, sure, no worries. What could possibly go wrong? This is the question that the film deals with the most - how wise is it to leave this sort of person in charge of two children? The answer for most people would be that it's pretty bloody unwise and for the most part I would probably agree with them, as would most social workers and DHS officers. The one thing that Cameron does have going for him is his unwavering love for his family, and while he continually fails the many tests of parenting, the one thing that always brings him back from the edge is his girls. 

That is a lot of pressure for a child, but Amelia and Faith are up to the task. As embarrassing as their dad is, and for every ounce they hate their lot in life and their 'shit hole' of an apartment, they would do anything to keep their dad with them just as much as he would do anything to keep them with him. 

In this sense, the film isn't quite as affecting as I had anticipated it might be, as if we are viewing this family history through rose-coloured glasses. Which perhaps we are. Forbe's has written this autobiographical piece and is letting us into her family history, and as many of us do, when telling our own histories, has balanced the good with the bad, which we might not have found in a completely fictional script. There are some unanswered questions here too. Like, is it worth splitting your family up for 18 months so that you can send your children to a private school? Was Columbia the only school that Maggie could possibly have gotten in to? Where is Maggie's family in all this? 

You may be used to seeing Ruffalo and Saldana in big budget, hollywood blockbusters, but these two couldn't be a more perfect match for this beautifully crafted indie pic. Ruffalo did an outstanding job carrying out the characteristics of a man struggling between his illness and his love for his family. He was wild and charismatic, unpredictable and unassuming, but most of all realistic. Saldana played her character equally as well, bringing to the screen the very different sides of Maggie, the tormented woman who just can't take it anymore, the mother who wants the best for her children and will do anything to get it, and a woman who wants to be with her family, but can't. A truly ground performance of a woman who is so practical and grounded the polar opposite to her husband. As for Wolodarsky and Aufderheide, these two youngsters are worth keeping an eye out for in the future. They made me feel what they felt for the whole film, and I think that's pretty magical from two so young. 

By harnessing the good and bad memories, and entangling them with a cheerful score (put together b Theodore Shapiro), Forbes has turned this serious subject matter into a captivating and endearing film about a family whose love for one another outweighs all else. 

It is low budget, and indie, and the subject matter may turn some people off, but I think with such a great cast and some of the other great reviews coming out for it INFINITELY POLAR BEAR stands a chance with mainstream movie goers. I felt that it gave a fairly accurate representation of surviving in a peculiar family with peculiar circumstances and a parent with a mental illness (and let's face it, I would know). It was unpredictable, and sometimes uncomfortable, but the intricate details and the natural humour make it so easy to watch and to care about what happens to this little dysfunctional family. 

I say give it a chance, you will be surprised, and it's definitely worth the 20-something dollars to go and see it, and I'm all for supporting low key, independent productions, in this age of mass-produced, mass-marketed drivel. 

xoxo

The Blonde Bombshell