The Grand Budapest

On this evening, I accompanied my two friends and my boyfriend to the Esquire theater to watch this awesome film. To be honest, I wasn't too thrilled to watch this film. I found this film to be one of the most entertaining films I've seen in a very long time. The dry humor made me laugh more than once.

One of the most interesting things I noticed was the beginning scene where we see the hotel for the first time. At a glance, it was just the normal picture and normal scene that we see more than once, but in fact it is 2D. It was almost like a construction paper layout. It was aesthetically very pleasing.

Another thing I noticed throughout the film is that the director, Wes Anderson, used many slightly low angles and medium shots. This was pretty consistent in the first 20 minutes of the film. Before any of the crazy adventures took place, many of the shots were decently long without many cuts. I was pretty impressed with the length of some of the shots. The one I remember very clearly was when we first meet Gustave and the hotel workers come into the room to help prepare a meal with one of his clients. The camera is set slightly low and at medium length as it follows Gustave back and forth between the two rooms. The shot is one long scene while all the workers come into the room. It was very impressive, in my opinion, because at the fast pace they are speaking and maneuvering around each other to get the room prepared.

Lastly, I want to say, the cast was amazing and I was constantly surprised at who was showing up on screen and I was not once disappointed with the acting. This film definitely is worth watching and will keep you entertained from the very first scene.

Wendy and Lucy

Wendy and Lucy is about two women that don't discuss men in their spare time, don't go nameless, and don't worry about how they look to attract a man. Lucy is a dog and Wendy is her friend. Already, this film is a good fix to the overly done chick flick, where all the girls care about is finding a man. Wendy spends a good chunk of the film looking for Lucy. It shows the true bond between an animal and her owner.

Chick flicks these days center around a Disney Princess-like complex, where the women have to be attractive and spend all their time waiting to be rescued by their one true love and happily ever after. This film doesn't have anything to do with those ideas. All the girl wants to do is find her dog and continue on her trip to Alaska. It was a nice change from the idea that all you need to do is find true love. Wendy and Lucy shows that women can do other things than sit around waiting for a man. You can travel and have an adventure! There is no reason that you should sit around and wait for your life to get started.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I've heard the title of this film for a very long time from my father. My boyfriend spoke of this film very often, saying it was very entertaining. I will admit, the title made me not want to watch it. I had the impression that it was very artsy. After the first ten minutes watching this film, I was sold. I loved it.

I caught myself laughing out loud quite often even with the many serious tones happening in the film. The whole scene with George "Babyface" Nelson is a perfect example. A man casually rolls up and picks up these three men and ends up shooting at the cops while Everett steers the car. Where the characters and the audience should be startled into disbelief, they can't really help but smile at the situation. Another example is after the exciting night with the Sirens, they believe that Pete is a toad. After they run into Pete in the theater and he tries to warn them about the ambush, Delmar only cares about letting him know that they thought he was a toad. Lastly, Everett's little girls that kept saying that he was hit by a train and how the new soon-to-be father is "bona fide". I  couldn't help but smile at it.

The scene that I really enjoyed was when Pete, Delmar, and Everett sneak into the party to try to talk to Penny. After successfully getting on stage, Everett goes over to Penny and we have a medium shot reverse-shot scene during the conversation. The interesting part of the scene is that Penny has her back to him, until she realizes that they are the Soggy Bottom Boys. It's a way of telling the audience that she has no interest and has completely shut him out. The scene also consists of many long shots from the audience to the stage which makes us feel like we are a part of the crowd. I'm sure everyone has had that feeling of seeing someone they idolize in some way on stage and this is a way for the Coen Brothers to give us that feeling again. While Everett is singing, the camera is at a slight low angle. I believe this was done to give him a bit of a "star" idea. He's important to the crowd and therefore we are looking up at him. After Homer claimed that the men were bad and declared the music over, the crowd turned on him. He was once a man of the people and here he is upsetting the people because the men were not white. During his whole speech, the camera is kept at eye level with a medium shot on Homer. As the men bring in the plank of wood, the camera follows them slightly and then switches to Homer and zooms in from a medium shot to almost a close-up. As he's carried out, the camera is at a high angle and follows him out. The high angle is used to let the audience know that he has fallen and he no longer has any power.