Perks of Being A Wallflower Review

With the basic premise of your average coming-of-age story, Stephen Chbosky's Perks of Being A Wallflower starts with the main character, Charlie, starting High School. At first he has no friends, then gets assimilated into a group, alienates them, then makes everything better, only for it to go badly when his friends go off to university. It naturally ends with the promise of something to look forward to. There’s more to it than that, character development of Charlie, but not much is seen of other characters developing.Charlie has issues, not just the usual teenage ones, as a result of past events that gradually gets built up to during the film. Even so, he’s easy to understand, even if you don’t know all the reasons, but can guess them, for his behavior until later.You see him try to be normal, trying to fit in, and he does get better for the most part, but it also shows that it can get worse just as easily. The fix isn’t permanent that quickly, his self-esteem is still being held up by his friends.

Charlie is writing letters to an undisclosed source throughout his entire year, resulting in a narration. The voiceover narration doesn’t distract from the visual and it doesn’t try to explain everything in acting, that would make the film longer and probably boring. It’s built up in a subtle way and flows smoothly through the acts. What's really cool about this film is that the writer of the book it is based off of (Stephen Chbosky) also directed the movie and wrote the screenplay. If you read the book, you'll love the movie. Not something to watch if you want something light hearted, this can be quite an emotional film in places, even if you didn’t intend on empathizing with Charlie. 

Spring Breakers Review

Promoted as a movie about partying college students on spring break, Spring Breakers is definitely not all that was promised. But that's a good thing. The movie directed by Harmony Korine follows a group of four college girls trying to make their way to spring break. Much to the movie-goers surprise, the girls take it upon themselves to gather all the money they need for the trip by robbing a local food spot using face masks, fake guns, and a hammer. Getting the necessary funds, the girls head to St. Pete. Queue the bikini-clad girls, partying harder than you would expect. A drug raid after what seems like more than a week of partying lands the girls in jail. A local rapper by the name of Alien, bails the girls out of jail in hopes to get to know them on a more personal level. Although originally saying she "has found herself" during the escapades, the religious (or most religious of the bunch. Can you say bong hits for Jesus?) Faith puts herself on a bus home after expressing her discomfort at getting to know Alien and his crew. And then there were three. After hearing about how they robbed the fast-food joint, Alien takes on the remainder of the girls as helpers for his business. He supplies them with pink face masks with unicorns on them, shot guns, and countless neon bikinis to rob other spring breakers. Consequences finally catch up to Alien and the girls when another local gangster, Archie, approaches them for "stealing his business". One of the girls, Cotty, is shot in the arm and sends herself home. The remaining two girls, Britt and Candy, seek revenge for their friend and comprise a plan to shoot up Archie at his mansion. When they arrive, Alien is immediately shot down, yet somehow Britt and Candy manage to shoot everyone, including Archie. The movie closes with Britt and Candy driving down the highway in Archie's orange Lamborghini.

Korine isn't trying to say that this is the typical spring break trip. In fact, he's almost making fun of those who thought it was that kind of movie. Juxtaposing actions that would be associated with the toughest of gang-bangers with beautiful neon color schemes in every single shot, Korine is giving you a hyper-realistic view of what most college age kids would think is the perfect spring break. Most action scenes are watched with little to no sound, heightening how chaotic it would be if spring break were to be that way. As one of the most visually beautiful and stimulating movies I have ever watched, Spring Breakers definitely did not disappoint.

Jaws Review

Jaws is the movie directed by Steven Spielberg in 1975 and it represents the horror/thriller genre, more specifically the human-vs-nature type. It tells a story of Amity Island being under the threat of a giant shark that attacks and kills people. Martin Brody, the town police officer decides to close the beaches due to the circumstances, though the mayor, Larry Vaughan, is against such decision. Everything changes when the shark strikes again and kills a young boy. It might be observed that the terror starts before the shark first attacks, though it’s something considered as generally accepted rules of social ladder. It is not only about the shark attacks; Jaws creates the tension from the very beginning, realizes the audience how irrelevant and puny ordinary people are, compared to those who are considered as the leaders. It can also be noticed during ‘town meetings’ that people are trying to talk and state their rights, though nobody is actually listening to each other. Only when someone important speaks, the crowd listens, eventually follows the orders. Even Amity Island’s chief Brody can’t decide anything without considering the Mayor’s opinion. It gets only worse when three men set off on the boat to catch and kill the shark. Second part of the movie presents the battle between the nature and humans. This only doubles the feeling of disempower and fear as the shark is obviously a merciless killer lead by primal urge of feeding itself. 


It is said that accidents are artists’ allies and it was the same with Spielberg’s Jaws. Production of the movie was causing many problems; nothing was working according to the plan. The budget went beyond the expected, the time of production prolonged, the mechanical shark started falling apart and Spielberg felt this was the last movie in his career. Knowing about the technical complications, one would state that Jaws was definitely going to be a disaster. However, thanks to ‘happy accidents’ all the glitches turned out to be the movie’s biggest attributes. Spielberg wanted the shark on the screen all the time, though due to the problems with the rubber-skin and inside mechanism, the screen time for the creature has been cut. It created the unique tension and unbearable anticipation. The audience is not able to see the shark, and that creates the fear of unknown. The whole accruing tension is being accompanied by the score by John Williams, which is probably one of the most popular scores in the history of the cinema. Known even by people who have never seen the whole movie, the music creates a tension which plays along with the visual aspects of the production. Spielberg’s Jaws might be considered as a timeless movie, which can scare people of any age. This is also an evidence of how unexpected events might sometimes help with creating a piece of art, which in case of Jaws made it an iconic production. 

Night of the Living Dead Review

A small group of strangers, outnumbered by a legion of flesh-eating creatures, cornered into a house with little supplies; this may sound like you're typical zombie movie formula, and yeah, you know what? It is. But this is the one that started them all. George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is not only a quintessential zombie movie, but it is THE zombie movie. A yearly trip to their father's gravesite turns deadly for brother and sister Johnny and Barbra. Johnny pretty much seals his fate when he taunts Barbra, saying "They're coming to get you..." And sure enough, enter zombie. Her brother tries but fails to be the hero, and ends up hitting his head on a gravestone and dying, leaving Barbra to run to the car, and then into what looks like an abandoned house when she realizes she doesn't have the keys. Enter our hero, Ben, who brings Barbra into safety. Ben is black, which it was very controversial for a movie in 1968 to have a black hero when the rest of the cast was white. Realizing they where not alone, Ben and Barbra discover the house has a basement and is housing couple Harry, Helen, and their daughter Karen, who has suffered a zombie bite, as well as teenagers Tom and Judy. Ben, realizing that enclosing themselves in a cellar would seal their fate as meals, tries to convince everyone to head upstairs. When Tom, Judy, Ben, and Harry try to reach the car to make an escape, Tom spills gas on the car, causing it to explode, killing Tom and Judy. Harry beats Ben back into the house, attempting to lock him out, failing to do so but successfully angering Ben, who beats Henry to a pulp. Surprise, surprise, just as they regroup, Karen awakens and turns her father into a snack. Helen manages to escape the fleet of zombies attacking but Barbra is paralyzed once again when she realizes Johnny is one of them, letting the zombies carry her away. Helen soon suffers a same fate, dropping to the floor in shock when she realizes her husband has been eaten by their daughter. So where does that leave our hero, Ben? Well, in one of the most pessimistic endings to a movie ever, Ben awakes the next morning unscathed, as he hears the police closing in on the house, shooting any remaining zombies. Unfortunately, they mistake him for the living dead, and shoot him in the head.

Despite how cheesy a black and white zombie movie, with it's outdated, lo-fi special effects and camera angles sounds, Night of the Living Dead was a haunting success, holding it's own against Zombieland and Dawn of the Dead. The make-up used to denote the transformation from human to zombie was so subtle, it was almost as if anyone could be mistaken as a zombie at any given moment which made the film eerie. Also the pessimistic ending added to how seriously the movie should be taken, rather than making the film campy, which is excellent because this is a lower budget film. This is definitely a classic zombie flick that should be enjoyed for years to come.