The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Wait, I didn't know I was watching Forest Gump!

Well, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was written by the same guy who seems to be all out of ideas.

Ok so the movie did keep my interest for the first hour and a half. It was nice to look at and the special effects are nice. But as soon as Daisy finally decided to be in love with Benjamin that's where it lost me. "No, no, no! Ok let's have a baby." Where did this all come from? And then all of a sudden you're watching a Brad Pitt movie.

I mean it was good in a sense. It just had no depth. And it had Hurricane Katrina tacked on?

<3justine

Articles

Ok here are two articles I've posted on Facebook but are blog-relevant.

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=22958

Horray! This is an article on Sharon and her work on 'Hannah Free.' She name-drops Sara Plano and myself.

Well when I was at the advanced premiere of 'Hannah Free' in Chicago they had a panel with the filmmakers who happen to all be female. So the topic of the panel was being a female filmmaker. I feel that all this amounted to questions starting with "As a female filmmaker how do you feel..." I'm pretty sure that most of the questions were answered "Well as any filmmaker would feel..." because let me tell you its pretty hard being a filmmaker no matter what genitalia you have.

Yes its true and I won't deny that we're in a male-dominated field and there is sexism but a female director is still a director. Would you say: I'm going to go see my female doctor, my friend's a male musician, male director?

So this next article compares two directors (omgz they're ladies!) and talks about what they look like?!

http://weblogs.variety.com/bfdealmemo/2009/09/unlikely-rivals-on-the-oscar-circuit.html

(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer is my life right now. Except I'm not at the end of the movie yet. I'm on day 441. At this part in the movie the main character, Tom, is at his lowest depressed state after Summer breaks up with him. The movie has given me some hope, though. As someone put it on the IMDb board "it tells us that there are many wonderful experiences in our lives and that we don't have to give up when one ends, more will follow."

Not to be secretive...

Projects I am currently working on-

Pre-production on Daniel Wolf's still untitled(?) independent project. Slated to start editing end of December.
Stephanie Lind's Production Design reel.
Jule Fontana's Cinematography reel.
Editing Mihir Desai's Act2Reinvent internet show trailer. Possible webisode editor.
Editing Leon Shepard's "Bowling Brothers" scenes for fundraiser. Possible feature script supervisor/editor.
Editing final touches on Aaron Orsini's, "I Don't Know" short.
Slated to edit Kyle Johannessen's short, "Chalk Six" October.
Script supervisor for Omar Nabulsi's independent project, "Meadows of Heaven and Hell" October.
Assistant edit Hugh Schultz's, "Credits" next week.
Collaborating editor on Kim Lyle's "BrainAche: Living with Huntington's Disease" at least another month.
Slated to edit Mihir Desai's 2011 project, "Ethicus."
Post-production advisor MPC, International.


I try to stay busy.

<3justine

The Golden Compass

I don't know how I feel about The Golden Compass. I've the all three books of the His Dark Materials series. The first one wasn't exactly my favorite. I like the interactions between the main character and a character introduced in the second book. I was pretty satisfied throughout the movie as it recreated scenes I did remember. Then they ended it before the actual ending the book! I can't fully blame them. The director left the project, someone took over, and then he ended up coming back. Also the studio had a lot of influence on the editing, including removing and swapping events. I dunno, I'd give it like two and half stars. Ain't no Harry Potter.

<3justine

Dakota Skye

Dakota Skye is an adorable coming of age story with a twist. The titular character (as Jack would say) is a 17 year old high schooler with a "superpower." She is able to tell when people are lying. For the viewer, the truth comes up on screen as subtitles. She calls herself cursed with the truth and has thus become jaded about humanity. She's got herself a douchebag boyfriend, but hey since everyone lies at least this one's got a cute face (in her opinion.) She also has an absent mother, dead father, and friends who she doesn't care for anymore.

Then one day her boyfriends oldest best friend, Jonah, comes back to town. He's a cutie (he's got that certain Camburgler look to him.) But best of all, it appears that he always tells the truth! Of course they click and have a lovely road trip to the Grand Canyon resulting in my favorite line: "That's a big fucking hole." "That's a grand fucking hole." But no! They mustn't! Her boyfriend's his best friend! And Jonah's too good of a guy.

Along the way Dakota experiences a little snafu about Jonah's honesty. Is he really being honest? Or is he her arch-nemesis and her power doesn't work on him? Of course the lesson of this story is trust. But its a super cute lesson. I really enjoyed it and would maybe buy it if I saw it somewhere for cheap.

<3justine

Nights and Weekends

Ok so I forgot my notes for Nights and Weekends in Massachusetts. So, I just got out of a long distance relationship. While I was in said relationship I came across the trailer for this film and even though I have a shaky mistrust for mumblecore films I thought I'd give it a shot because its about long distance relationships. I probably thought then-boyfriend and I could watch it together and discuss its flaws. Soooo I kinda knew it was a bad idea watching it but I decided to torture myself anyway.

I think my first note involved how mumblecore films involve the lead actors getting naked as soon as the movie starts. And that Greta Gerwig can't keep her clothes on! She also always plays herself.

The way these mumblecore films are shot is that there are scenes mostly shot in masters. Handheld with no particular coverage. The editing really is, just chopping out the fat. Also the way they cut things together to make it smoother is to use audio bridges. Every time. Every fucking time.

So what about the characters? I don't really know. The couple breaks up halfway through and I don't know if you're rooting for them to get back together. I'll tell you though, it is messy like a relationship.