Movies..more movies

If you’re after quality movies/films I strongly recommend searching for Rooney Mara flicks or Victoria Vikander because they often star on sensible movies with good plot (mostly drama) or Eddie Redmayne, they're one of those notable actors and actresses. Like I said in my previous blog post, these actors are often found on award winning films. So, for now here are my flick picks. I kind of dig indie and drama right now.

Tanner Hall (2009)

Indie/Drama

⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Rooney Mara as Fernanda ("Fern")

• Georgia King as Victoria

• Brie Larson as Kate

• Amy Ferguson as Lucasta

• Tom Everett Scott as Gio

• Chris Kattan as Mr. George Middlewood

I though Tanner Hall at first is a person but I found out in the beginning of the movie that it is an all girls boarding school. Fern, Kate, Lucasta met at the boarding school and became friends.

Victoria, knew Fern when they were kids because they were neighbors and their mothers are friends as well. Fern saw Victoria let out her Grandmother’s pet bird from a cage when they were still small. Victoria is hostile to others because she grew up with an alcoholic mother. She later became jealous of Fern’s relationship.

Kate, Fern’s flirtatious friend often flirts around with Mr. Middlewood, a married teacher who’s wife also works at Tanner Hall. Mr. Middlewood though has hidden sexual desires for Kate.

Lucasta, she’s timid and the most inhibited among the three. She often hangs around with the pizza delivery boy. She’s the most creative though.

One day, Fern was allowed to get out of the school premise because of a dinner with her mother’s friend. Gio fetched Fern from the boarding school, he’s however the husband of Fern’s mother’s friend. Fern grew a special liking for Gio and inspite their age difference, Gio reciprocated Fern’s feelings. They made out at Gio’s house. Fern fell in love with Gio. I just don’t know if she got pregnant by the later because it was never revealed except she was vomiting during Gio’s son’s christening.  

Moving on, Victoria made a ploy which is to destroy Fern’s secret relationship with Gio but when Fern stood up for her whilst her alcoholic mother is humiliating her (at the christening) in front of the guests she had a change of heart and decided not to push through with her evil plan. 

Going back to Kate, he made it clear to Mr. Middlewood during her 18th birthday that she’s not interested. Mr. Middlewood left Tanner Hall. Kate felt sorry for him and realized the trouble she made so in the end he read all the books that Mr. Middlewood recommended during class.

Fern and Victoria became friends. I like this line uttered by Fern “Two negatives became positive” or something like that. The movie is about discovering adulthood. 

Overall, Tanner Hall is a nice flick as it tells about the importance of support system, the value of friendship to compensate for the lack of nurture, love and respect from ones own family. It’s good that the movie pointed out that some parents blame their kids for being such a troublemaker without looking at their own shortcomings. That, we should also look at the B sides of every story, a parent shouldn’t go on telling everyone about how problematic they are with their teenage kids, they should also take into account the importance of support from families as a basic unit.  I seriously recommend this movie to be shown in schools, teenage kids will definitely relate to it and who knows might even pick up something good from watching this movie.

Dare (2009)

Indie/romantic film

⭐️⭐️

* Emmy Rossum as Alexa Walker
* Zach Gilford as Johnny Drake
* Ashley Springer as Ben Berger
* Rooney Mara as Courtney

This film is not really top-billed by Rooney, she’s pretty much one of the major casts.

Alexa has a perfect life. She’s rich and intelligent but she’s scared to explore, to be a regular teenage girl. She’s friends with Ben,   a geek, who I thought was Alexa’s boyfriend at first. Alexa had a major role at the school drama and was paired with bad boy Johnny. 

A famous director/school alumni went to see the rehearsal noticed how bad Alexa’s acting was but praised Johnny for being a natural. Alexa thought she could learn every thing but was advised to pursue a different career path and not become an actress because she lacks emotions and must suck the marrow out of life first because in that way she might learn what being an actress is all about. The Director dared Alexa to do something she’s afraid of. 

Alexa took the 'dare' too heart. She asked helped from what seems to be her bohemian/ hippie friend Courtney to explore and come out of her comfort zone. At the party, Alexa made out with Johnny. Her newfound freedom helped her pull emotions for her character in their school drama/stage play. 

Alexa on the other hand dared Ben to do something he’s afraid to do after Ben expressed frustration for Alexa's sudden change of behaviour. It’s a chain reaction  pretty much. Alexa, grounded by her parents for the crazy things she did was sent to Ben’s house (since they knew the two are BFFs) because her parents would be away. Johnny on the other hand went to Ben’s house and found that Courtney can look after Alexa so he instead decided to leave. Ben offered Johnny a ride home. Johnny found that Ben’s never been kissed yadda yadda, one thing led to another, the two made out not that Johnny is gay (although Ben is). Ben found that he’s gay which he never knew until then. 

Ben told Alexa about what happened. Alexa kept an open mind although it turned pretty complex because they became both attracted to Johnny. I found that Johnny lives with his step mother because her biological mother is gone and that he feels alone most of the time thus he has a regular session with a shrink because he's going through some rough time.

The three parted ways after a threesome gone wrong at Courtney's party. Alexa went back to her geeky self and so as Ben. Alexa saw Johnny after a few years and found he’s an actor. 

This movie was OK, not my kind of genre though. Nevertheless, I dare you to watch.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013)

Drama
⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon
• Rooney Mara as  Ruth Guthrie
• Ben Foster as Patrick Wheeler

This movie has a lot of ambiguity to it because first, the story started with Ruth walking away from Bob then later on the police starts firing shots at them so there’s a lot of non-diegetic stuff to it. It’s like we’re already halfway through the movie while it just started or something like that.

During Bob and Ruth’s encounter with the police, Ruth shot policeman Patrick. Bob took the credit for Ruth’s crime so he was imprisoned. I found that Ruth was pregnant to their daughter Sylvie that’s why Bob paid for Ruth’s crime. Ruth raised Sylvie alone. Patrick, started looking after Ruth and Sylvie not knowing it was Ruth who shot him. He told Ruth that Bob escaped prison. Ruth thought of leaving town with her daughter. Bob’s friend, however, covered for him after he escaped, allowed him to his house.

On the night of Sylvie’s 4th birthday, Patrick came to visit and gifted Sylvie a pretty dress and his guitar when he was a little boy. Bob drove off to visit Ruth and Sylvie but left soon when he saw Patrick. Patrick slept in Ruth’s house and heard a gunshot the next morning. He went to the police station together with Ruth and Sylvie to keep them safe.

I later on learned that Bob and Ruth might’ve robbed someone or a bank possibly because he stashed cash and buried them somewhere. People started chasing Bob and attempted to kill him. He was shot during one of his encounters with those guys he never knew.  

After coming home from the police station, Ruth found Bob, badly shot at their house. He died later on while telling Ruth about the his dreams for the three of them. 

Ain't Them Bodies Saints is quite dark and heavy. I felt Ruth’s pain and so as Bob. He was a good man however circumstances weren’t good to him though. He’s a father who dreamt of a better future and life for his family. 

This film obviously did not aim for commercial success because it was a flop despite positive critic reviews. Nevertheless, cinema is not just for entertainment alone, it’s also an avenue for great writers, cinematographers etc. to showcase their wit.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - highly recommended

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  - somewhat highly recommended

⭐️⭐️⭐️    - it was alright.

⭐️⭐️       - nah.

⭐️          - waste of time.