the movieGOOMBA

2 GOOMBAS

4 GOOMBAS

Purity and innocence are historically characteristic of a child. Like I said in one of my previous posts, a child's mind is not yet tainted by outside influence or experiences. Their actions come from a deeper, more innate place. A place that most adults have forgotten about, and what Ma Vie En Rose does is remind the world that children's thoughts and feelings are not trivial but valuable.

Ludovic is a seven-year-old boy who believes with his whole heart that he will grow up to be a girl. His parents, Hanna and Pierre, are the stereotypical suburban couple. Pierre is masculine in every way. He is the breadwinner. He plays sports. He gets angry and relieves his anger by going into the yard and doing pull ups on the arbor. Hanna is docile. She isn't a push over, but she's calm and understanding. She likes throwing neighborhood parties, and hanging out with the other neighborhood moms. She's an excellent homemaker, and always wears dresses or skirts . . . at least during the first half of the film. So of course, when Ludovic begins to act outside of the perfect picture that is their family (i.e. dressing up as a little girl, playing the bride in a child's imaginary game, peeing sitting down), they flip.

But Ludovic's intentions and rational are completely and utterly innocent. It has nothing to do with sexuality. He just believes that God lost "one of his x's and gave him a y instead." As the community and his family hone in on the 'irregularity' of his behavior, the tension brings about a number of changes. Gender roles begin to cross. Lodovic's father becomes more calm. He even cries at one point. He begins helping around the house, cooking and cleaning. But most importantly, he becomes more understanding of Ludovic. Ludovic's mother on the other hand slowly stops wearing dresses and skirts. She begins to openly smoke, a common femme fatale depiction. She gets angry and blames Ludovic for the family's societal shun.

One can argue that Ludovic is gender personified. He proves that gender roles cross boundaries all the time. The only difference is that Ludovic embraces the opposite of his born sex.

There are some screwy scenes with TV characters call Pam and Ben, but that's French Surrealism for you. ;) I liked this movie a lot, and what makes it is Ludovic, his innocence, and the assumption that the audience has an open mind.

4 GOOMBAS

Tabula rasa; according to the American Heritage Dictionary, a need or an opportunity to start from the beginning. I learned it in high school as 'clean slate'. John Locke believed that only babies where born with tabula rasa; their minds not yet altered by experiences and outside influence. But what if you could tabula rasa your way through life? If you could wipe your mind clean of all experiences that haunted your past and afflicted your future, would you do it? Luckily, like most adventures that we would rather not face, we can live them vicarious through film.

An incredibly artsy film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind begins at the end during Clem and Joel's second, first meeting. Jim Carey and Kate Winslet star in this wild film as Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski. Joel is boring and dull, while Clementine is crazy and spontaneous (which is already made obvious by her ever changing hair color). They dress exactly opposite, the act exactly opposite, and even their names sound completely opposite. Yet somehow they fall in love. After a bad semi-break up, Clementine, being impulsive, decides to erase Joel from her memories through Dr. Mierzwiak, a specialist who can track the places where certain memories are stored and delete them. Joel, hurt and confused when he finds that Clementine has erased him, decides to go through the procedure as well. However, during the procedure, Joel realizes what he's about to lose.

For the majority of the film, Joel desperately tries to retain some memories of Clem by dragging her to different parts of his brain to hide from the Erasers. There is no need for additional flashbacks or additional commentary because what this film does is illustrate their relationship through literal memory sequences. To us, it seems like Joel and Clem are basically trapped in his brain, running from memory to memory. How Joel and Clementine first met (the first time), how they fought, and what their relationship was really like. Joel had forgotten how good it had been.

Symbolism and lighting plays a huge role in this movie. The color of Clem's hair changes with the time line of their relationship. When they first met it was green, a symbol for youth and vigor, qualities that Joel found attractive in her. Then it turned orange, and Joel began calling Clem 'Tangerine;' orange being a symbol for energy and demand for attention (Joel was also first attracted to her orange sweatshirt). Then during the hard part of their relationship her hair was red, representative of strong and powerful feelings. Other subtle things such as music being played backward as Joel re-lives his memories with Clem. As for the lighting, often times there are spotlights used on Joel and Clem, further evoking the feeling that they are being hunted by the Erasers as fugitives are hunted by the police.

When Clem and Joel meet and fall in love for the second time, this meeting becomes a commentary on the power of attraction and love. The mind cannot fool itself into not loving again. This film has so much wrapped in such a small box. Its just a simple love story, but the way it comes together makes it art.

CLASSIC GOOMBA

Now honestly, how many times have you seen this movie from beginning to end? Probably not that many times. You've probably seen the 'Leg Lamp' scene, and the 'Tongue stuck to the pole' scene, maybe Santa saying "You'll shoot your eye out, Kid!" scene, so you basically get the general gist of the movie.

TBS is advertising it this Christmas as "The funniest Christmas movie ever." I don't know about the funniest Christmas movie ever, but it definitely has its moments. Yet what makes this movie classic is its originality in choice of narration and tone.

This light-hearted, goofy film features Ralphie, an 8 year old boy who wants a 'Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle' for Christmas, and his need for this particular gift presents the perfect stage for his family to express their very different personalities. Not only is his family refreshingly not like any portrayal of the average American family in 1940, but they have character. There's the father who thinks the "electric sex" lamp is the most wonderful prize in the whole world; the dotting mother who get her son to eat by asking him to show her how "little piggies eat"; the little son who is forced to dress in 100 layers before venturing out into the snow. All the while, the entire film is narrated by an adult Ralphie in present tense. Already this movie has creatively changed the stereotypical expectations of any Christmas film of its time.

Like Citizen Kane giving new meaning to the camera angle and crossfade, or Momento taking linear narration to a new level, A Christmas Story opened up a whole new world of film and television possibilities. The Wonder Years, Look Who's Talking, and Christmas Vacation all pay homage to A Christmas Story in one way or the other; adult thoughts and ideas coming from an obviously younger person or a Christmas movie that portrays the flaws in the family dynamic. You can thank The Christmas Story for those.

This movie may not be your favorite Christmas movie, but how can you not appreciate a "double dog dare" kind of a movie?

1.50 GOOMBAS

I really like Hilary Duff movies (::bows head in shame::). I admit it. I own two of them. But why should I be embarrassed? Probably because all of them exist not for the sake of art, but for the sake of marketing a young, Disney-ized starlet who is currently a hot commodity. Her face in any movie will surely draw in a substantial tween following. Why? Because how can you not like Hilary Duff? She can't act, which probably means that a lot of what comes on screen is herself; goodie-goodie nature, innocent, and sweet. Despite the brain-washing, Mcdonaldized intentions of this movie, should I like Hilary Duff and her cane sugar sweetness? Probably not. Either way, her movies are fun to watch, and I love seeing what she wears.

However, aside from how much I like Hilary Duff, I must say that this movie was pretty bad. Maybe it was meant to be one of those movies like Dumb and Dumberer, where the comedy is so far-fetched and the situations are so absurd that you're not suppose to ask obvious questions like 'Why didn't they have home owners insurance when they burned down their mansion?', 'Why did Tanzie's crush just happen to be wandering the business halls in the middle of the night and Tanzie and Ava didn't ask any questions?', ' Why didn't they call their mother in Egypt?!'. Sadly, it wasn't suppose to be like Dumb and Dumberer. What might explain the poor script and over the top situations would be that this script was originally written for the Olsen twins . . . think 'New York Minute'. Need I say more?

What's funny is even though Hilary was suppose to act like a selfish brat, she still comes out as she does in her other movies. Sweet and nice. She can't act at all. I'm telling you, she has to be like this in real life.

I like Hilary Duff, and the .50 Goomba is for her. The 1 Goomba is for the costume designers, because their clothes were nice to look at and for the cute guys in the movie (another perk, there are always cute guys in her movies). Other than that, this movie was probably a waste of my time, but it is a Hilary Duff movie, so I really didn't expect much.

4.5 GOOMBAS

The 'chick flick' recipe was correct and uninteresting. Sweet girl from 'the sticks' is introduced to new, fast paced, cut throat life. She doesn't fit in. She gets a make over. She does fit in. She changes into a selfish, shallow person. Friends and family are concerned. Boyfriend breaks up with her. She sleeps with new, equally selfish pretty boy. She realizes the wrong of her new ways. She goes back to her old way of life . . . except more stylish and independent.
Sounds pretty boring, but what makes this movie so good is the acting. It transforms this homemade bunt cake recipe into creme brulee.

Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep star as Andy Sachs and Miranda Priestly, but it was Streep who really captivates the movie. Her performance was brilliant. Her role was to be a bitchy demanding boss, but Streep's contribution gave this character depth and dimension. Priestly was a woman demanding and superior with just the right hint of indifference toward those around her, yet so passive aggressive and private. Unlike most antagonists, the viewer doesn't hate her, even though Priestly expects Andy to drop all of her personal plans to bring her the dry cleaning; even though Priestly belittles Andy's clothes, hair, and shoes; even though Priestly expects Andy to find the unpublished copy of Harry Potter or be fired. There's a quality in Streep's portrayal that keeps the audience on the ride with Andy; a kind of sadness in her that only Andy and the audience sees. And for that reason, we do not hate 'the devil' on heels.

Aside from that, if you just want to pop in a movie to look at pretty people, this is the movie for you. The fashion is ridiculously gorgeous. But if you're looking for something with a little more depth, you may be surprised to find that here too.

4 GOOMBAS