2016 New Years Film + Life Goals

Happy 2016, everyone!

What does your 2015 bucket list look like? Mine is sadly incomplete. I've always been someone whose made new years' resolutions, but I'm not a perfectionist about completing every single item. I did, however, like to finish at least more than half. But. . . .last year - I failed.

My inability to get things done is not from a lack of ambition, at least I don't think so. Exhaustion seemed to be at the heart of my lack of determination. There were some hard times that left me in an emotional fog - one that I hope not to let happen again in 2016.

2015 wasn't an entire letdown. I managed to accomplish a little: enjoying long walks around my neighborhood; worldbuilt and plotted more stories; drank less coffee; started a personal writing blog; graduated college; watched nine years of The X-Files in nine months before the revival; covered GeekyCon; stuck to a posting schedule; completed every Walking Dead recap for the latest season so far; kept my Letterboxd account updated.

"Failure" can happen for many reasons. I may not have done all that I wanted to, but I keep trying. Last year taught me that there are goals that just don't fit me; ones I've tried to complete multiple times but nevertheless lose my passion. And, there are right goals too; ones that just need a little bit more inspiration and determination to pull me through.

From 2014 I put into practice what I learned about time management. I figured out more along the way where I really value my time (less social media + less internet + more writing + more blogging). But I also had a major wake-up call: if my bucket list was so empty, where I did spend all of my time? I'm sure there's more I did, I just can't remember it all - which makes me want to create and fulfill more memorable goals for the next 365 days.

BLOG GOALS:
Stick to a Daily/Weekly/Monthly Schedule: I enjoyed little series I started like Stars I Love, Hidden Gems, and Fancasting that I would like to keep active. There are some blog challenges I have in mind too. I also would like to do more seasonal and timely posts; topics that fall in line with a holiday, month, or season.

Netflix Watchlist: Almost 50 movies are on my Netflix watchlist, and they've been there for a while. I'm going to be active in actually watching them.

Empty out my draft queue: Let's not get crazy here. There are like 96 posts in my draft queue! On top of my other blog ideas, I doubt know if I'll make a dent. I would like to lessen this amount but am not deluding myself to hit zero.

PERSONAL GOALS:
drink more water;
commit to daily walking routine;
read 16 books;
reach fictional writing word count goals;
handle time management better;
make more geeky crafts;
post more on instagram;
cosplay/dress up for movies like Captain America/Independence Day;
get more Walking Dead actors to tweet me.

Best and Favorite Films of 2015

2015 will be over tomorrow night, and blimey - it was an interesting and fun year! Even though I didn't make it to the theaters as much as I wanted to, my watch count managed to get up to a decent forty-one! I'd love to see if I can beat this total next year.

Thist list of Best and Favorite Films of 2015 is a hodge-podge of categories. It's really a mix of people, characters and movies that I fell in love with over the year. Some movies from the past few years were new to me, so they've been included alongside movies released this year too.

You might noticed that 'Worst' movies hasn't been mentioned yet. I'm considering put those in a separate list since this list is long enough.

There's not a lot of spoilers throughout this post except for the category Favorite Hero (Crimson Peak) and Best Supporting Actress (The Hateful Eight). Read at your own risk!

I hope you enjoy my personal picks of favorites and best of 2015! Hope you have a cinematastic 2016!

Joy (2015) wrings the American dream out

Photo Credit: Joy / 20th Century Fox

Joy Magnano has a great imagination and is encouraged by her grandmother to put it work. She can and she will change all of their lives from one of her inventions. One day, she gets an idea for a mop. It's not an ordinary mop; it has a plastic handle with hand-coiled cotton that self-wrings and can be put in the washer so it's reusable. But there's nothing like it on the market. Unfortunately, her dysfunctional family is a hindrance in taking her invention to the next level of a tangible successful business.

In this day and age, everyone of all ages is struggling to make ends meet. I thought Joy would be a refreshing rags-to-riches tale from the point of a view of a single mother to entrepreneur maven. Yet for all the potential this movie has, its many moving parts is sadly what makes it flop.

Director David O'Russell's tale comes across as a messy caricature about creativity, hard work, determination. He had great freedom with Joy Magnano's life story, of whom the film is based on. His version is told in retrospect by her grandmother, whose utmost conviction plays a major role in Joy's perseverance. We can never expect a linear cohesive film by O'Russell. Even if the story is told by one person's point of view, his chosen narrative is split between timelines, flashbacks, and even hallucinations. Everything about the production of pacing, editing, and music is all over the place. The film never feels like a singular piece of cinema, but a collage of vignettes that when meshed together aren't consistent. They don't feel as if they are told by one person but quite literally multiple personalities.

Considering how Silver Linings Playbook put then-unknown Jennifer Lawrence on the map, I thought this would be another fair vehicle for her. Joy had the potential to be her transformation into more adult roles, similar to what we witnessed to the Harry Potter stars moving away from their iconic roles. Some critics argued that Lawrence is too young to take on a role of this magnitude; a character aging over the span of thirty years. I wouldn't agree with that stance so much. The primary fault in her character and the performance is the lack of evolution.

Joy is fairly young and inexperienced. She's an accountant to her father's business, so she's not a complete newbie about finances and management. But her idea makes her open season to people trying to shake her down. Throughout most of the film, she is contending against the higher-ups at QVC and her own familial naysayers. The movie revolves around Lawrence but she doesn't have a firm grasp on the end goal. Most of her troubles are in her blind spot without tension raising the stakes. Then with a flip of a switch, in what's supposed to be her character aging twenty years, she is a persevering sass master in commerce. She doesn't really "age", just has a mature costume change. It doesn't work.

Additionally, anyone tied to Joy like her dysfunctional family doesn't truly have a genuine connection with each other or more so to her. Joy is saddled with her shut-in mother (Virginia Madsen) who lives vicariously through soap operas, a father (Robert DeNiro) who only looks out for the bottom line of his rich new wife (Isabella Rossellini), and an ex-husband (Edgard Ramirez) who comes and goes out of the picture of supporting their family. The supporting cast are an eclectic group of personalities. They should make for an interesting round of comedy or drama, but their constant quarreling feels forced and flat. Like Lawrence, they seem to be one step behind their director and without a clear vision of what he is aiming for. The camera and audiences already love these actors, yet it seems that O'Russell is failing them, or they are failing the director.

As imaginative as the title character is, it's hard to decipher what the film itself is trying to make out of its potentially compelling heroine. The 'esteemed' filmmaker is prone to taking a symbolic idea and wringing the heck out of it. O'Russell's most recent movie American Hustle recycled the notion that nothing is truly authentic; we remake ourselves to fit what we're hustling towards. Joy takes "hands" and matches it to the ideal that we all can make things. He shows every actor's hands in plenty of frames, trying to ignite that it's what you do with your hands and your ideas, how hard you work, you can make something of yourself. It's a great notion. But the story has such tunnel vision about the risk and reward of making something of value, it loses the true joy of actually succeeding.

Here's a matriarch planting the seeds for her granddaughter to embrace an ability to break the generational mold. And, Joy should go on to inspire her daughter and help out other women who are in a position similar to hers. Every movie goer, especially women, should be shouting from the rooftops at the bold and powerful statement O'Russell is attempting to express. But it doesn't feel all that exciting. Joy, as a character, comes from nothing to build an empire, and the finale of her achievement doesn't illicit euphoria or cheer. Joy, as a movie, doesn't provoke laughs or tears, or tension at all. Instead of soaking up this ambitious American dream, the possibilities are unfortunately hung out to dry.

Rating: ★☆☆

Have you seen Joy? What are your thoughts?

Best and Worst Television Show 2015

Television in 2015 was filled with brilliant and not-so-great moments. I'm truly surprised by how many fandoms I was apart of since I didn't consider myself that much of a tv hog. Categories & winners for the absolute worst, personal favorites, and best from the series I watched have been compiled below. There are plenty of spoilers ahead for the following shows: Doctor Who, Once Upon A Time, The X-Files, Scandal, The Strain, The Walking Dead - to say the least. Please proceed with caution, and I hope you enjoy!

X-Files Xtras: Thoughts On Season 7

Coming off the heels of my favorite season for The X-Files, where would the show would go next? Judging by fans' disapproval and critics' judgement of the series' inability to answer so many questions, the future as I knew it was crashing pretty hard and fast. Though everyone at the time of season sevens' airing called this the weakest one, I disagree. Season seven is not entirely unsatisfying, but it doesn't hide cracks and faults we previously overlooked either.

For one, the writers' plot themselves into a black hole. This was a given because a lot of episodes surrounding the agent's mysteries were 'solved' but not necessarily answered - we were always presented an idea of the supernatural or paranormal, and like Mulder and Scully left to believe what we felt was the truth. But as shared in past X-Files Xtras, a lot of the material for individual stand-alone episodes are recycled phenomena. Taking opportunities to expand Mulder and Scully's arcs, the writers opened more cans of worms than they had the time to close them.

Out of This World Adorable Star Wars Posters and Artwork

Jozef Kyselica / Ricardo Polo

More than any other movie in our galaxy the Star Wars series has inspired artwork from its legions of fans. Search anywhere on the world wide web and you'll discover hundreds of thousands original posters, sketches, illustrations. In celebration of the highly-anticipated release for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I've collected some adorable and out of this world artwork. I hope you enjoy!

Kindred Spirit Guide: Bridget Jones

Are you looking to find your spirit animal? To help you define your pop culture spirit animal, I've matched traits of personality, humor, and even sex to famous and favorite movie and tv characters. Here is my latest guide with iconic British literature and film character: Bridget Jones.

Your Special Totem: A diary, in which you write what you mean when your write..but then you don't mean what your wrote. Eh, we all know diaries are full of crap anyways.

In Your Circle You're Famous For: Verbal diarrhea.

Your Life Motto: It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.

Personality: There are elements about the ridiculous with you like not being well-gifted at public speaking. Despite what self-consciousness makes you feel like, you're not an idiot. Every year you start out wholly and beautifully optimistic to make changes and empower yourself...then somewhere along the way you let the world be harsh to you.