October Movies

Well, October was a pretty busy month for me. Brief recap of some of the highlights:

1. I turned 25 years old. Although that didn't really take time out of my life, it just happened.

2. That musical theater revue happened - it went stupendously well and I had a great time.

3. Rehearsals for Once Upon a Mattress really got going. We open tomorrow night and I'm really impressed with the show. No matter how many times I see it in rehearsal, the cast continues to make me laugh.

4. I went home for fall break only to find my mother in the hospital with stroke-like symptoms. She was in the hospital on and off throughout the entire break. They now think she was having seizures caused by cluster migraines, and she's home and being medicated for it.

5. And last, but certainly not least, I began dating one of my very close school friends. I've never been in any kind of a relationship before so this is all new and exciting and strange... and we will see where it all goes from here.

All that to say... I didn't really end up with a lot of movie-watching time. In fact, I only watched six the entire month. One of them (Bitter Moon) was mentioned in my last movie update, so I'll go ahead and tell you about the other five I managed to squeeze in.

Boy A (2007). Don't want to give too much of the plot away, but Andrew Garfield plays someone with a past who is trying to start over. Garfield's performance is what sells the movie for me. The rest is OK, but he is amazing. 4/5.

A Serious Man (2009). A man's life starts falling apart and he tries to find meaning in it. I *almost* loved this, but couldn't quite connect the ending to the rest of it, and so ended up being let down. 3.5/5.

Mean Girls (2004). Lindsay Lohan plays a homeschooler who has to go to public school for the first time and finds herself involved with, well, mean girls. I watched this with a group of friends because when they found out I hadn't seen it, they all yelled, "I LOVE MEAN GIRLS AND WE ARE WATCHING IT RIGHT NOW!" I wasn't that enthusiastic, but the script is smart and I laughed more than I thought I would. 3.5/5.

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011). Creepy stuff happens in a house, and people try to get it on camera. The same group of friends convinced me to see this (even though I haven't seen the first two), and I was much less impressed. It's not scary, just startling. The only gimmick that worked for me was when they put the camera on an oscillating fan, which did a good job of building tension as you tried to work out what you were looking at. Overall, not even remotely impressed. 1.5/5.

Wild Strawberries (1957). A doctor receiving an award reminisces about his life and whether it has meant anything. This one was technically impressive and well-done, but I never actually connected with it, for whatever reason. 3/5.

All right! On to November! Where I will do one show, start rehearsal for another, and attempt NaNoWriMo! So... no hopes for a lot of movies this month either, unless I squeeze in a bunch during Thanksgiving break, which is absolutely possible.