Movie Review: The Wolf on Wall Street

The Wolf on Wall Street
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill

Rating: A-

Continuing with the trend of this year's awards movies and beating expectations, The Wolf on Wall Street is a much better movie than I thought it would be. By now the word is out. There is heavy drug use, nudity, and profanity. I was led to believe all three were liberally sprinkled through the movie. While this is not untrue, the manner in which the debauchery was described to me led me to believe that it would bring down the movie's value. On the contrary, I felt all of the benders (no matter the sort) flowed well with the movie and aided in telling the story. It was believable that all of the parties and binges happened.

The film was long, but I didn't find myself stuck in moments that would seemingly not end. I do feel the movie should have been shorter, but I wouldn't cut the obscene content out just to accomplish that goal. I made it about 3/4 the way through the movie before I wondered when it would end, and then sure enough the story began to quickly wrap itself up at that point.

If you look deep and take into consideration what you're watching you will notice some great elements coming together. As far as acting goes, sure it is probably fun to act super intoxicated, but there is so much more depth to the characters. They are sad, they panic, the worry, the spiral out of control. All that is in addition to the elated and euphoric states they experience while high. I also appreciated how the music aided in the storytelling and illuminated important moments.

Movie Review: Her

Her
Directed by: Spike Jonze 
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson

Rating: B-

I had a romantic type idea of this movie. No, I didn't necessarily think it would be about an epic romance, but I thought it would be more fluid and moving and less jarring. I am not a fan of swearing, especially unnecessary and excessive foul language. I felt this movie had many scenes of this sort early on. The moments made me uncomfortable as they didn't seem natural to the tone of the conversation or  body language cues. Perhaps I was supposed to feel uncomfortable for the main character as he muddled through his life having internet chat room sex with randoms. I'm not sure on the intent, but the script did not showcase compelling writing.

This movie explores a very interesting concept, relationships with technology. As our society becomes more connected and more devices are designed to help us function it is inevitable that a personal assistant type of aid would need to become intuitive. This intuitive design could then have the capability to take on human like qualities and one could develop a parasocial relationship. Sure, there is another party interacting, but that entity is not able to interact on an independent level. The movie questions whether this type of relationship is healthy, if it is necessary, and if it is just as real as an interaction in a person-to-person relationship. This social study is intriguing.

While I had fundamental problems with this movie, the complexity of the issue at the heart of this movie compelled me to reconsider my rating. I was tempted to slap on an unfavorable mark, but upon further consideration of the whole movie I give it a B-. Perhaps most viewers aren't as bothered by the language or they value the progression of the characters in the movie as the awkwardness fades. This movie has received much buzz, still I will not be driving any of those conversations. The specifics of this movie are ultimately forgettable.

Cutting down on my clutter

I recently read an article about trying to simplify your life by getting rid of things in your home that you don't use or rarely use. Often, when I try to get rid of things I turn first to my closets. A good place to start. However, this article urged me to look to my kitchen and bathroom as well. I ended up with a couple boxes of utensils I don't use, vitamins that have expired, and personal products that just seem excessive. I also went through my closet and got rid of stuff. While my life doesn't feel different, I am pleased that my load is lighter for when I make my next move. It now seems silly that I kept so much stuff. I'm sure at one point I just put the stuff aside thinking that I may want it again at some point.

Reducing the clutter in my life also helped with another goal I have, which is to slow down and enjoy life more thoroughly. Having less clutter in my life and fewer distractions will allow me to have more time to enjoy the moment, whatever it is that I am doing.

I no longer have the article I read with the list of things to get rid of. To me, that was unimportant. The takeaway was that I go through my surroundings and minimize the materialistic items that I did not need. There are many articles online that will give you an idea of where to start. Sometimes it is difficult to find a starting point when there is much to be done. Here are my tips and advice:

• Look up high in closets and go through all items that have not been in use in the past year. Will you ever use them again? Are you waiting for a certain kind of day or event that hasn't happened in a long time? This day or opportunity may not come. My closet example is a pair of shoes I wore to a wedding eight years ago. No longer in style and no longer needed. 

• Sift through your kitchen drawers, you know the ones where you store odds and ends. Do you need to store these odds and ends? There's a reason they have been given that name. They are odd and you may not need to keep them. I found three beer cozies, and I never use cozies. They were just taking up space. 

• Check your bathroom cabinets. Make sure you're not hanging onto products that you no longer use. Many bottles are left half full when the owner finds a better product. You don't need to keep that subpar product. You don't need to keep the medications you did not finish up and I didn't need the giant horse pill vitamins that didn't work.

• Survey the items in your home office. If you're like me, you like to keep books. I like to have them around to remind me of the good stories I've read. Now, I strive to keep only books that I loved or those I may read again. I had to do quite a bit of cleaning out of old grad school papers and text books. They no longer served a purpose. 

I hope you'll use this as a start to make your life less complicated and less busy. The key to your happiness may lie in a life that is more simple. 

Movie Review: Frozen

Frozen
Directed by: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Gad

Rating: A

The best animated movie to come along this season. Granted, I thoroughly enjoyed others, especially Despicable Me 2. However, Frozen had the best message and it is refreshing to see the princess not getting saved by the prince. It shows little boys and girls everywhere that ladies do not need to depend on guys to swoop in and save the day. Even better, in this movie the princess thought she needed the man but at the last moment she broke the spell and he stood by and watched. Brave displayed this same value lesson that family is all you really need.

The movie was beautifully animated with stunning effects. The movie was fast paced and filled with action and scene changes. Very enjoyable for viewers of all ages. I only wished there had been movies like this when I was a little girl!

This is why you're fat: Bacon cups

Okay America. This is why you’re fat. Are bacon cups really necessary? Sure this country has a fascination, actually an obsession, with bacon. The stuff tastes good. I get it. Do you need to ingest it at every meal and with every beverage? It’s bad enough that you can add bacon to any burger or sandwich without people batting an eye, but now marketers are trying to get you to use bacon to hold your food instead of garnish with it. With the bacon cups cooking device the meat becomes the cup that holds your burger, ice cream, cupcake, and any other monstrosity of a food creation that you can but shouldn’t come up with.

Moderation is a good word to counter this invention. You don't always have to have everything you love in sitting. A little bit here and a little bit there goes a long way. For one thing, it is healthier. Secondly, it might make you enjoy your bacon a bit more if you eat it less frequently.

You put what in my sangria?

My food allergy symptoms have grown a bit worse in the past few months. Okay, they're growing worse and the number of foods I am affected by is growing. As a result, I carry around an epi-pen. My thought is that I'll never have to use the thing, but there were enough people concerned about my reactions that I thought it good to be on the safe side. Apples still, unfortunately, have the worst effect on me.

Recently, I was having a drink with some friends after a show and I ordered a white sangria. I'd never had one before and I like the red version of sangria, so I thought this would be a good pick. It was certainly yummy, but as I slurped my first drink I wondered why my face was itching so much. It was itching in the normal allergy reaction spot, on my cheek under my right eye. Of course though, because I can be a little dense on the pick-up of things like this, I didn't make the connection. I finally figured out what was going on when I got my second white sangria drink. I looked at it and wondered what the heck was floating around. Red flecks that looked like confetti. Upon closer consideration I realized these were apple chunks put in as a garnish. Really, why would you do that?!! I guess since I'm new to the white sangria thing I may have missed out on some sort of common knowledge. Of course apple chunks are in a white sangria, what else would you use them for?

I fished the offending fruit out of my drink with my fork and I went to the bathroom to survey the damage. Not too bad. Medium sized bumps on the cheek, a precursor to the hives I might have gotten had I actually ingested an apple. No redness though. No warmness in my face or neck. No full feeling in the ears. I went back to the table to rejoin my friends and we joked a bit about my epi-pen and my silly allergies. I waited a bit before restarting my drink because I wanted to make sure I was pretty much in the clear and that my symptoms weren't worsening. However, I did not enjoy my sangria as much this time around.

Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr. Banks

Directed by: John Lee Hancock 

Starring: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks 

Rating: -A

This movie season I have seen a lot of films that are better than I expected. Perhaps I should have more faith because Saving Mr. Banks is another one of those movies that I wasn't truly excited to see. However, the movie was very enjoyable, even moving. Emma Thompson does a great job in this film, showing a range of emotion as her stubborn and stuffy character recalls childhood memories that had a profound impact on her life. She becomes less rigid and even shows joy and pleasure. I give this movie an -A rating, which can be much attributed to Thompson's work. 

Book Review: Divergent

On a lazy day, what better to do than read a book, cover to cover. Divergent was a great pick because it is an easy read and is very compelling. Once you pick it up it is hard to put it down. The author, Veronica Roth, paints a very active story. Her characters come to life early in the novel and they grow and change from there. It is fun and exciting to watch the transformation of characters as the chapters unravel more secrets and delve further into the tale.

A utopian society creates five factions to exist in a protected city. Every person must belong to one of the factions, which exaggerate and exemplify a virtue of humanity, selfless, bravery, intellect, caring, and honesty. If a person leaves their faction or can't pass the initiation they become part of an undesirable group that lives in the shadows of normal life. On the sixteenth year of a child's life they are given an aptitude test to tell them where they belong and then they go through a public choosing ceremony where they decide to stay with their family and their learned values or join a new faction. Faction is stronger than blood.

The main character Tris leaves her old life and joins a new faction. We follow her story from regret and uncertainty to a feeling of distancing from all she has know, as if she never really belonged. Eventually she feels the same of her new faction. An underhanded alliance leads her toward a revolution, and she has the power to resist while the others of her new faction are being used as pawns. It is up to her to stop her new faction from hurting the ones she loves from her old faction.

I am excited to see the movie based on this story. Divergence is slated to be released in March. There are also two more books in this series, and I am equally excited to read them. I want to see where this story goes and how the heroine overcomes all adversities that she faces and brings her adversaries to justice.

Movie Review: Philomena

Philomena
Directed by: Stephen Frears
Starring: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan

Rating: -A

Philomena is a humorous movie that deals with a serious family mystery. A woman spends her life looking for and wondering about the baby boy who was taken from her when she was just a teen. The story includes corrupt nuns, an overseas mission, and a dying wish. The main characters each go through a transformation. The uncaring, busy journalist becomes emotionally involved in the case and deeply affected by the elderly woman he is attempting to help. His motivations change as he begins to care less about his story and his career comeback and more about the characters in the story he is writing about. The elderly woman who was forced to give up her son becomes more accepting of change and uncertainty. There is great acting, which contributes to the telling of a very believable and touching story.

Unclogging a drain naturally?

I had a pesky drain clog in my bathroom. It made accomplishing ordinary tasks like washing my face and brushing my teeth disgusting. Who wants to deal with a drain that takes hours to empty, if ever? I realized there was no more avoiding it, I needed to get some heavy duty cleaner. However, I wondered if I could find a home remedy for this. So, I took to the internet and consulted my books on how to be green in the home and I found that a mixture of baking soda and vinegar has been used for decades to fix the problem (after all, what did people do before Draino and Liquid Plumber?) I mixed up the concoction and poured it down the drain. Problem #1, the mixture never actually went into the drain. It sat in the sink, refusing to plunge toward the problem. The baking soda and vinegar supposedly eats any fatty enzymes that are hanging out in the drain making it hard for liquids to pass. However, I think my clog was too nasty for this particular remedy. Thus, I went to the store and bought cleaner. Problem #2, I had to bale out the sink of my previous failed cleaning attempt. I knew the goo would need a direct passageway to the muck it was supposed to be pulverizing. Finally, the cleaner worked. I had to do it twice to get the free flowing water effect that I wanted, but it did work.

I think in the future I will try the home remedy, but I won't let the clog get so gnarly.

Movie Review: Anchorman 2

Anchorman 2
Directed by: Adam McKay
Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell

Rating: +C

Often in a comedy franchise, the second movie jumps the shark. It usually relies too much on humor from the first movie and obnoxiously belabors the only new jokes. I've heard criticism that the second installment of Anchorman does just this. Well, what did you expect from a storyline that is well regarded for being over dramatized and outrageous?

Anchorman 2 was as expected. It was funny, it was offensive at times, and that's where my expectations ended. I didn't want to build the movie up too big in my mind and then sorrowfully watch as it failed to deliver. The second Anchorman dealt with new situations, new characters, a new setting, and best of all, a new all-star news team fight starring the likes of Kanye West, Will Smith, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler. Many of the laughs in this movie came from Steve Carell. His lovable and laughable character urges movie-goers to shake their heads. This movie plays up his stunted mental development and even finds a match for him of equal dimness. For these reasons I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. I give it a solid C with a plus for effort and ingenuity.

My inspiration journal

One of my resolutions this year is to write in an inspiration journal every day. This idea came to me from the collision of a couple of observances. First, I know people love inspirational quotes and advice. Second, I enjoyed my 365 Day Photo Project not just because of the photography but the idea of completing a task every day. So, the first entry in my journal is an explainer that details my goal.

This is an inspiration journal that is a compilation of inspirational quotes, encouragement, affirmations, advice, wisdom, and realizations that I’ve had. I hope it will serve to provide me with greater perspective in times of need, ideas for continual self improvement, and motivation to keep striving to make myself a better person.

I will write one such post every day for all of 2014. I will be able to look back at this journal in years to come and reflect on personal growth.

I purchased a journal that hosts an inspirational quote on its cover by a favorite artist, Henri Matisse. "There are always flowers for those who want to see them." I hope the journal itself will motivate me and remind me of my purpose.