Insurgent (2015)

For a teenage-dystopian film in a sea of teenage-dystopian films, how does it stand out from the crowd? As a person, how do you accept your individuality in a world that shuns your differences, or in Tris Prior's case hunts you down? Insurgent addresses these ideas as it reunites us with the franchise created by author Veronica Roth.

Civilians of a futuristic Chicago are sorted into a faction system based on five virtues; honesty, amity, selflessness, bravery, and intelligence. Heroine Tris Prior, who defies the norm by qualifying for more than one faction, is on the run from the power-hungry leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) trying to eradicate those similar to Tris. The clash between an immeasurable hero and the society that can't confine her will inadvertently unlock secrets about the fate of their secluded world.

Taking us back to the Divergent world established by director Neil Burger in 2014, director Robert Schwentke separates this sequel from its predecessor. Every sequel gets a much grander stage than its prequel, and the sets, special-effects, and costume are not just familiar from what we've seen before but are improved upon. Amplifying its special-effects  and packing in much more gunfire, the action-packed scenes balances an empathetic portrait of Prior and delivers enough interest for the next installments - for readers and non-readers alike. With Schwentke attached to the next two installments, I look forward to how this world is going to grow.

While the film holds up in adventure, it also succeeds in bringing to light an individual defying the stereotypes of her society's enforced conformity. Like a million similar heroes we know in books and films, Prior is in search of accepting her identity. Defined as defective by the world, her evolution is not degraded or dumbed-down by other characters telling her who she should be. Instead, she is figuring it out for herself and that is the main draw. Though some of the script is not entirely organized, Priors' defiance of categorization is satisfying and rewarding as a viewer.

A great credit for the authenticity of the leading lady is Shailene Woodley. For such a young actress, she remains a versatile and intriguing talent. Equally, her main counterpart Theo James, continues to be a refreshing partner as her character's love interest, Four. Their relationship is not about coddling each other or playing cat-and-mouse with each other's emotions, which has tarnished the young adult genre. Together and alongside so many other members of the cast, the actors boost each other's performances and characters. Even if the story is centered around Prior, the film does not selfishly hold Woodley hostage to be a one-woman show. Everyone gives validity to their role whether it's leading or minor.

As a reader of the series, my only main con is that the translation of the world-building could have fared better. This is something I struggled with even when reading the novels, so the films are not necessarily to blame. The script does improve upon the motivations of Jeanine's hunt for divergents from the first film, however it can still feel disordered at times. While I truly look forward to Allegiant Part 1 and 2, part of my gripe towards the YA genre overall is that one story takes four movies to complete. Is this a fandom I love to be apart of? Sure, and each Divergent installment feels like its own stand-alone film. However, it's the in-between sections where I start to feel impatient towards the studios' prolonged cash-grabbers.

The Divergent Series is not trying to compete against the untouchable pedestal that has been emphatically (and wrongfully, in my opinion) gifted to The Hunger Games franchise. Instead the films are constructing their own world and heroine as best as possible. Compared to other aspiring series that were complete bombs due to horribly weak scripts or non-interest by audiences, Roth's series is managing to carve out a name for itself. The success of the series may not be in its ability to create a franchise-making logo of a bird encased by an inferno but the praise-worthy showcase of a layered heroine, visual aesthetics, and talented cast.

Rating: ★ ★

Wonder Women: Shailene Woodley

The young adult fandom is vast and growing, and there are a number of young stars moving up in Hollywood's ranks. While it's hard for many to pave roles in projects outside of their television or movie franchise, Shailene Woodley is a leading lady paving a path for young adult stars.

Despite her rising popularity status for starring in films like Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars, Shailene Woodley got an early start in show business As the central character in ABC Family's The Secret Life of an American Teenager, it could be said that my fandom for her started there. However, having never watched the show's episodes in their entirety, I might have seen clips of her characters' scenes on The Soup (an E!  television clip show that pokes fun at Hollywood's best and worst entertainment moments). Throwing teenagers into one cliche debacle after another was often how the show was regarded, Woodley came through the show's five-year running, she seemed to jump on everyone's radar in The Descendants.

For her first major film role, Woodley stood out as George Clooney's rebellious conflicted teenager who helps him track down her mother's lover. At first glance, she seems unabashedly outspoken and explosively reacting off of her father's guidance. Her insecurities are slowly unmasked as she replaces her mother as a maternal figure to her younger sister. During the award show season, Woodley gained momentum among the indie crowd earning Golden Globe nominations and a win at Independent Spirit Award. It was hard not to miss her as a young starlet to watch out for. Now three years later, her on-screen talent and off-screen personality are making monumental waves on me and Hollywood.

In The Spectacular Now (2013), Woodley stars alongside Mike Teller in about a young man floating through life and relationships. Sutter Keely (Teller) is not a slacker but numbs the pain of his father's abandonment with alcoholism and keeping up appearances in the cool crowd since his football days are long gone. As Aimee Finicky, Woodley is just a normal girl who falls in love with Keely. Their crises guide them through painful circumstances and courageously putting themselves first.

The best of the movie is in the performances themselves. Teller creates a complicated protagonist whose life is tied up in his abandoned father's ambition to live in the present moment, but he's not particularly motivated in school or life. Woodley, whose Finicky is confined by her mother's dependence, exudes patience, enthusiasm, and apprehension. Together, their performances are stellar, but perhaps more so for Woodley and her budding career in the genre.

For the time being as Woodley respectably portrays young women in a variety of dramas, her characters are significantly unique. Similar to her portrayal as Beatrice Prior in the big YA phenomenon Divergent (another female character trying to brave the storms of life and love), Woodley's characters are all young at heart but aren't cut from the same YA cloth. As she grows up on-screen as in real life, I'm excited to see where her talent leads her career from big blockbusters to the independent genre.

Perhaps most of all, I admire Woodley's candor and off-screen personality. Similarly to how much I could listen to Matthew McConaughey talk all day long, Woodley shares her interests beyond acting openly and passionately. It seems rare with young stars today to hear them share anything beyond one or two adjectives let alone some of their personal interests or their movie career with bold confidence and enthusiasm. Both aspects Woodley seems to be all the time.

Her easygoing personality makes it easy to listen her press rounds and read in-depth interviews. Often calling herself a "hippy dippy", Woodley stands by her organic lifestyle and her causes of being more environmentally friendly. Showing up on the red carpet with organic or without make-up, gathering her own water from springs and adapting a paleolithic diet to her life, she doesn't forcefully encourage people to follow her lifestyle but freely shares what she does. As someone who has always followed an organic lifestyle, it's refreshing to see a star follow through with her claims of loving nature and the environment, and not skimp out from photoshoot to red carpet event on her beliefs. Her frank nature doesn't necessarily mean the more personal a star is the more relatable or likeable I'll find him/her - I just like how she isn't afraid to let her free spirit flag fly.

Whether on the big carpet wearing gowns and sporting natural make-up, or hanging out at press conferences, Woodley seems to mix in every situation. Optimistic and happy-go-lucky, Woodley hangs out happily being in the moment. In a world where people are so cynical and judgmental, Woodley is down-to-earth. Bohemian and chic, she holds no expectations against others and holds no plans for the future - what will be, will be. In Woodley's own words, that's just rad and bad-ass.

Does Shailene Woodley inspire you? What's your favorite role of hers so far?

10 Favorite Cinematic Moments (A Fisti Blogathon)

Feeling euphoria from a film can be a rare experience. We go through a lot of bad, mediocre, and semi-good movies to discover the golden nuggets. The true gems remind us why we fell in love with movies as a kid or why we became movie bloggers when so many movies throughout the year can just plain stink. Most of the really good films are hard to get off of our minds because a certain moment touches us unlike any other.

As fellow blogger Fisti describes, it can be the way powerful music fills a scene, an actor bares his all, how scenes are seamlessly edited, and a grand climax to an adventure. Cinematic moments is the inspiration for his latest blogathon.

The rules are super simple, so simple they may as well not be rules, just suggestions. 

1) Pick a number between 1 and 100 (any more than 100 is just gaudy)
2) Choose that many cinematic moments that are either your all time favorites or ones that could, on any given day, be your all time favorites
3) Post them on your blog (or Tumblr or whatever) with the above header (or one you create for yourself)
4) Send me the link by either posting it here in the comments or getting ahold of me on Twitter ( @fististhoughts )

Thirteen scenes were selected as my favorites. I'm sure there will be more that come to mind later!

Before Sunset (2004)

Photo Credit: Before Sunset / Warner International Pictures

After a chance meeting on a train nine years earlier, Jesse and Celine reunite in Before Sunset with an opportunity to catch up on an evening that defined both of their young lives. The former published a novel about their brief intimacy, while the latter committed to her humanitarian efforts and struggled to find meaning in lasting relationships.

In film, a popular yet seemingly unrequited tale is how two people meet and fall in love by happenstance. The characters and circumstances run the gamut of cliches while also remaining monotonous and repetitive. Rather than feeling fulfilled by such movies, their endings are usually painfully ambiguous in leaving the audience to their imagination about whether or not such a chance encounter could have a happily ever after. As the Before series treks the path of storytelling brilliantly, it marvels not only over the chance encounter but its aftermath.

The first installment of Richard Linklater's series shows how you can meet someone when you're least expecting it. This second installment, in both heartbreaking and hopeful detail, shows how much one person can learn from another and love them so deeply even after such a short period of time. Both films are incredibly tender in the way romantic films usually are, but they are also realistic in portraying the buoyant optimistic nature of falling in love, and then the incompatibilities if it doesn't work.

By reuniting, they have to deal with their past and acknowledge what they shared together. Without any way to contact each other, having both failed to meet again in France as they initially planned, both inevitably go in their own directions.

Jesse's heartstrings are still worn so tightly on his optimistic non-confrontational sleeve that disguises itself as an American cynic. Every look atakerd he shares with Celine takes him back to the night where they met. Celine, who plays her emotions closer to the chest, was left in deep loneliness, and couldn't figure out how to proceed in relationships after Jesse. The reunion feels just right as both of them get their feet wet being around each other again. Slowly, their chemistry rekindled and emotions dare to challenge the logic of where they are currently - relationship and job-wise as well as geographically.

Unfortunately, so much time has passed. No matter how well they fit together and how right it seems, life and time is working in a different way against them. Like the first film, there is so much they share of their thoughts on the world, their emotions, and yet fate can't fix the realistic gap their lives are, just like when they were younger.

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy return with the exquisite and elegant appeal that makes both Jesse and Celine, respectively, perfect for each other - only if time hadn't dealt them a rotten hand. If there are performances I'll forever be shocked that missed the mark with award attention, it's these two. I'm not really sure it gets better than either of them.

Fittingly, Before Sunrise brought on the ascension of a love affair. Before Sunset begins to put to bed some of the hope we had previously. Much like a waltz, the story and performances dance together in perfect harmony. Though the story answers every movie goer's question of What Could Have Been, it does so with a fine balance of idealism and touching heartbreak. The two-person cast, script, and smooth direction of Linklater envelops you from the start. Strangely and wonderfully, the film leaves behind huge, emotional damage in its wake but a beautiful, deeply beloved one.

RATING: ★★★ Have you seen Before Sunset? What did you think?

Birdman (2014) simply soars

Photo Credit: Birdman / Fox Searchlight Pictures

Is it the act of creation that gives us fulfillment, of living in the moment, or how big of an audience we reach? Questions like this not only taunt artists but everyone to a certain extent. In such a media-based world, it's easy to wonder, obsess, or curiously peek into what is said of "the thing". So often we cross a line over living in the constant comparison of high notes to our accomplishments, the success of others, and past pinnacles of success held up by generational prestige. We all get lost in expectation and admiration. The whole world is striving to be relevant yet can't shake the state of mind that constantly questions how and which ways we truly matter.

Best known for having starred in a fictitious Birdman franchise, Riggan Thompson's career (Michael Keaton) and his personal life has fallen into shambles. Trying to matter again, he is directing, starring, and producing in his own Broadway show that he has adapted. The production of his play grows more dangerous and weak as he tries to shed a two-decade old alter-ego that claws at his self worth.

Every character in Birdman battles the big question mark of when they have finally "made it". Thompson's daughter and assistant Sam (Emma Stone) is a recovering addict whose disinterested attitude shadows a lack of validation she never received from her father. World renown actor Mike (Edward Norton) only finds the truth of a moment when he is on stage, and elsewhere, his life is uncontrollable.

Through Thompson and his supporting players, Birdman touches on so many themes, mostly related to creativity, ego, and the medium of film. Actors are sucked into the Hollywood machine of the superhero genre and are considered wasting their talent. Actors who try their hand at theatre are overlooked for their fame because they don't understand "the craft". Critics label and bastardize those who do what they cannot. It also satirizes that inner voice that beats us down and also drives us our ambition. We never really know when we have finally made it, and instead of that weighing us down, Birdman helps us surrender.

It's really no secret why Alejandro González Iñárritu's film took the reigns of the Academy Award season for 2015. The camera seamlessly moves in one long take similarly emulating how life is constantly moving, transitioning from moment to moment; always active, alert, and rarely missing a beat. Yet in little spaces of the production, like how we pocket our thoughts and experiences on our electronic devices or packed away in dusty, forgotten memories, the camera may pause for a second for the characters or scenes to take a breather. It's not overwhelming, begging for attention or used as mere decoration.

What the film does so flabbergastingly well is how seamlessly everything is part of the whole. For such probing themes, the film balances between drama and comedy but never vilely takes jabs at anyone, especially Thompson. The cast itself is truly exemplary from from the main award show frontrunners like Keaton, Norton, and Stone to Naomi Watts, Zach Galifinakis, and Andrea Riseborough. Each one gives a performance that are complex portrayals of people who are so strongly trying to be validated but remain so inherently frail. So much of the atmosphere, performances, and script is vivid, animated, and it challenges you to keep up.

Essentially, nothing about what I can say about the film, or any film, can ever really summarize the film itself. It's hard knocks to praise only one individual aspect of it. I'll admit that heavy philosophy and symbolism can feel redundant since many films in the recent past have hit on fame or living up to dual identities as brought on by the struggle of being talented or not feeling enough. Birdman's attachment towards ego, identity, critics, and audience, breaks down that repetitive conversation by not letting the subject matter becoming a downer, or trying too hard to be intellectually stimulating and massively appealing/entertaining. It hits all the right production, intellectual, and emotional notes. Birdman simply soars.

Rating: ★★★
Have you seen Birdman? What did you think?

Park City (2015)

Indie film "Hearts and Cash" is about to debut at Sundance film festival. Diva and lead actress Jill, slacker production assistant Dave, amateur director Jim, and ambitious producer Hannah Rosner document their raucous road trip from Santa Monica, California to Park City, Utah. Things start off on the wrong foot from the get-go; their car runs out of gas. If anything can happen, it does.

Once on the road again and finally landing at Sundance, their obstacles only rev up. Ready for hard-earned success to finally pay off, their adventure takes a turn for the worst when their only 35mm film print is lost a few hours before their world premiere.

Park City is a smart comedic exploration on a young filmmaker's attempt of trying to open their work up to more audiences and take friendly jabs at the chaotic world known as show business. It was in fact this approach that I was led to watch this through a private screening.

The approaching premiere at Sundance and the film getting lost is much less about Rosner's team racing against the clock. More strongly, it lays the foundation of Who Dun What. Dividing the film between footage captured during their wild weekend and commentary by the cast, the premise not only makes good for comedic affect but successfully puts over the vibe of the film's mockumentary style.

The premise and film not only appeals to aspiring film makers and lovers who are familiar with the disorderly yet exciting world of film making, but anyone who loves a good laugh over the obstacles that surprise us when we least need them to. Inspired by her own personal experiences at Sundance and blending together the brazen comedy of The Hangover, Rosner's first feature film spotlights a sharp script, and a talented yet novice group of actors who deliver exceptional comedic and empathetic performances.

After winning the audience award at the United Film Festival in Chicago, Rosner and her eclectic group of co-stars have nowhere to go except up. Check out the trailer for Park City here and its official website. Also now available on iTunes.

2015 Red Carpet Looks + Moments

John Shearer/Invision/AP

The red carpet season has come and gone, my friends. There were plenty of great moments these past two months (and well into 2014 too). Instead of just going for the usual award show season fan fare, I've sprinkled moments from movie premieres, Met Gala, and the film award show season. Hope you enjoy my favorite red carpet looks, photographs, instagrams, and all that jazz.