The Hunger Games

I am an unabashed lover of the Hunger Games trilogy. At first I felt a little bad about it. You know, with all of those inevitable comparisons to Twilight and everything. [Side Note: Twilight and The Hunger Games have absolutely NOTHING in common. One is a story about life or death, survival and love of family while the other is about a boring pale girl who has to choose between a whiny werewolf and an even whinier vampire.] But, the more I became immersed in The Hunger Games, the less I felt bad about it. The heroine of these books is an actual good role model for teen girls. She's a strong, kick ass teenager who will do anything to help her family survive.

First some quick background in case you are one of the 10 people in the entire world (all whom I presumably work with) who didn't read or even hear of the books. The Hunger Games takes place in the future, after a long and bloody war when the states are no longer and the country of Panem is divided into Districts. In order to keep a rebellion in check, the Capitol stages a yearly game in which a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district must compete in a live televised fight to the death. Our heroine Katniss (a superb Jennifer Lawrence) is from District 12 and when her 12 year old sister Prim is chosen, Katniss volunteers in her place. So, Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) go to the Capitol in order to prepare and compete in the 74th Annual Games. They are joined by their mentor Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), the only person ever from District 12 to previously win, Effie (Elizabeth Banks), a sort of guardian and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Katniss' personal stylist. Once inside the Arena, they must fight a host of other Tributes including the sweet and smart Rue, who Katniss befriends, and the deadly Careers, including Cato, who is ultimately the villain of the story.

Overall, I have to say that I loved the movie nearly as much as I loved the book. Movies are never, ever as good as the books, but this one was pretty damn close. There is so little for me to complain about, that it almost feels nitpicky to even try. The only main concern I had was with the breakdown of the film. It's two and a half hours long and it absolutely needs to be that long. But the beginning of the film takes a lot of time to show all the details (which is great) and then once inside the Arena, the movie sort of speeds through a lot of information, leaving out little details that seemed important while reading the book, like Katniss' initial dehydration and struggle for survival.

But the movie does a lot of things better, too. I loved that the Mockingjay pin wasn't from a school friend of Katniss' but instead passed back and forth between the Katniss and Prim, in order to show how strong their bond is. I also loved the sort of behind the scenes vibe that we got with the announcers (Stanley Tucci) and Gamemakers (headed by Wes Bentley, with bad ass facial hair). I also loved the scenes outside of the Arena with Bentley's Seneca Crane and Donald Sutherland's President Snow. Also, the juxtaposition between the dark and deadly Games and the bright and colorful reality spectacle of the whole thing really worked.

The performances were all fantastic with Lawrence and Harrelson stealing best in show. Hutcherson, who I thought was terribly miscast as Peeta, was actually pretty right on. Although, another thing I disliked about the film was the way they down played the fact that he was very strategic and kind of cunning. They played him as just a nice guy. Liam Hemsworth was barely in it, but his story line really expands in Catching Fire. Banks, Tucci, Sutherland, Bentley, and Kravitz were all perfectly cast and did great jobs. This was a fantastic adaptation of a fantastic book and I can't imagine any fans of the book being let down.

Grade: B+

Easy A (DVD)

What a delightfully charming and fun movie! I had wanted to see Easy A in theaters but never got around to it. My expectations were for it to be cute and funny but I wasn't ready for how good it actually is. It's an homage to the great John Hughes films of the 90s in a way (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, etc.) but is also a sort of modern retelling of The Scarlett Letter. Also, and obviously, it's updated for this generation with lots of references to texting and Facebook and the main storytelling technique is a webcam.
Easy A follows Olive (Emma Stone), a pop culture fast talker who is smart as a whip and also a little invisible to everyone except her best friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) and her freaking hysterically perfect parents (Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci, more on them later!). Olive doesn't want to go camping with Rhiannon's hippy family one weekend, so she invents a date with a college man instead. She doesn't actually have a date. Instead, she stays at home and sings "Pocket Full of Sunshine" all weekend. But when Monday morning rolls around, she tells Rhiannon she went on the date anyway. As she fabricates her fictitious weekend with an older gentleman, Rhiannon gets it into her head that she lost her virginity as well. Eventually, Olive plays along and she is overheard by the school religious freak MaryAnn (Amanda Bynes), who spreads the rumor around school that Olive is a slut. Suddenly, Olive is on the map. And she likes it! She begins to play along with her new slutty persona and is soon helping out her gay friend Brandon (Dan Byrd), pretending they had sex so people will stop tormenting him because he's gay. Brandon spreads word among the downtrodden school students that Olive will help them and soon she is the school slut. What at first seems like fun, soon turns into bad news for Olive who struggles with being ostracized and turned into an object by people who used to ignore her. Also, there happens to be a boy named Todd (Penn Badgley) who she is really into.
Typical high school comedy? Not at all! Maybe it's the hilariously fast paced, well written, super funny script. (And it is fast paced, except around the beginning of the third act where it drags a little bit). Or it could be all the excellent performances. Emma Stone is perfect. She's funny and endearing and effortlessly charming. She's genuinely likeable and someone who I would love to have as a friend in real life. She most certainly deserved that Golden Globe nomination. Clarkson and Tucci are amazing as her parents, and I would like for them to be married in real life. I would like for them to get divorced from whomever their current partners are, marry each other, and then adopt me. I can't possibly express in words how much I loved them as a couple in this movie. Thomas Haden Church also shows up as a super cool teacher, Lisa Kudrow as his slightly crazy guidance counselor wife, and Malcolm McDowell as a "fascist" principal.
All in all, Easy A is endlessly entertaining. A very funny, very enjoyable movie, and most definitely the best high school comedy that has come around in a long while.
Grade: B