Sleepwalking in the Rift

 

This is absolutely gorgeous. The landscape is beautiful. The light on the skyline is spectacular.

More.

This is a music video made by a student (if I’m not mistaken, his name is Kevin?) from Hunter College High School in New York City. It’s kind of awesome.

It gets a +1 just for having an awesome song attached to it. Here’s some more of Cheers Elephant’s stuff.

*Edit: THEIR LIKE WIND BLOWS FIRE ALBUM IS AMAZING!

The Cat Piano (2009)

“The Cat Piano is an award winning animated short film directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson and narrated by Nick Cave.”

From the amazing source that is Wikipedia.

But seriously this is so amazing. It’s the kind of story that stays with you.

“I baked you brownies… from scratch!” – Thoughts on Beautiful Creatures

My roommates and I went to watch Beautiful Creatures on Valentines Day as a “happy singles day” treat.

This is my first written review, and what a movie to start the ball rolling. Is this film going to win an Oscar? Probably not, but it still has enough heart to stay with you- that is, if deep down you are (or are still) a teenage girl.

*Disclaimer: I have a thing for films which include the supernatural and romance. This one has both.

Beautiful Creatures is another book adapted for the screen, catered towards the Twilight crowd. Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) is a normal guy from a small town who falls in love with a Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), a castor, a.k.a., our dose of supernatural. Their relationship causes problems, shit goes down… and everything comes to an explosive end. I can list down all the technical reasons why this film exceeds Twilight (such as good editing and CGI), but the main difference is that I actually cared for the characters. I wanted them to be together. I was rooting for Ethan and Lena, and the idea that love conquers all! Yeah, Alden Ehrenreich isn’t necessarily the most attractive man on the planet, and he was a bit awkward at times, but he has so much charisma and charm. He wasn’t unbearably awkward, it was a believable awkwardness; a teenage awkwardness. Alice Englert did a great job as well. She portrayed Lena as a strong, intelligent teenage girl. One who thinks she’s got life down, but realizes  she still has a lot to learn.

The supporting characters were portrayed beautifully as well. I’d like to draw special attention to Emmy Rossum and Emma Thompson, who play Ridley Duchannes and Mrs. Lincoln/Serafine, respectively. I only really know Emmy Rossum from the film adaptation of Phantom of the Opera (2004) and Christine is a completely different character from Ridley. My friend, who is a massive Phantom fan, and I were completely shocked by her transformation. No longer the young, naïve opera singer Emmy Rossum was in my mind, she was Ridley the siren. Emma Thompson’s performance was also incredible! She had to portray two drastically different characters, and both were believable. You could instantly tell distinguish between the two. Everyone did a spectacular job, which just added to the overall believability.

I feel as though some of the jokes completely went over the heads of the audience in my theater. The subtleties in the script were hilarious.

This film was really cute. My inner thirteen year old self walked out of there satisfied, but because I am a bit older now, I can’t downplay the unrealistic escalation of their relationship. Then again, it’s a film about witches. I’ll just suspend my disbelief a bit further to encompass that aspect as well. Given the fact that I have never read the book, the screenwriters did a good job of creating a cohesive and film in the time allotted to them. Later reading more about the Caster Chronicles, they took liberty in cutting out a lot of details, and completely changing the plot. For anyone interested, The Daily Beast wrote an article on the main differences. I’m a stern believer in the idea that the two are completely different mediums that can’t follow each other exactly. We saw how that turned out in Les Miserable (only this time between theater and film), but that’s for another time.

It could have been done better, but overall, I was happy to pay the $13.50 to watch this film.

3.5/5