Fangirls Fall Guide to 2016: Movies Edition

Welcome back Fangirls! I hope you had a chance to check out the first entry to this joint series with Julie from TV Recappers Anonymous (where we are cross-posted) and if not, then take a look to see what we had to say about TV and then come on back because it’s time to talk movies!

Amy’s Picks

Movie you should see:  Earlier this year I saw the trailer for Sing Street in theaters a few times. Each time I would think, “This movie looks made for me! 80s music! Ireland! Cute boys in bands wearing eyeliner!” But for some reason I wasn’t interested and I couldn’t figure out why. Thankfully I ignored myself and watched it on DVD recently and let me tell you, it is delightful. Written and directed by John Carney who did Once (a favorite of mine) it hits all the right nostalgia buttons: teenage crushes and heartbreaks, discovering yourself and defining who you are, losing yourself in music and the connections you make through songs. I flat out loved it and the soundtrack is something that I would have owned in the 80s and will keep you humming the tunes long after the movie is over. Available: iTunes, Amazon, DVD

Movie I’m excited for: Allied. My Girl Crush Marion Cotillard? I’m in. Brad Pitt being dashing? SOLD! But then the trailer came out and it was the first time in a long time that I watched a trailer and got swept away. I watched it several more times. Maybe it was the epicness of it – love and war, intrigue and danger all set in WWII and the post-war era, two movie eras that I adore. It looks pretty grand and it has actual capital M, capital S Movie Stars and there are no damn superheroes to be seen. Pretty people + Gorgeous costumes + War time dangers + Romance + Hot car make-outs in sandstorms = my butt in the theater on opening night! Opening: November 23.

Julie’s Picks

Movie you should see: The Lobster. I’m just going to come right out and say it. This movie is weird. And it’s definitely not for everybody. But it’s the one “new” movie that really stood out for me in 2016, and it’s the one that’s sparked the most conversation amongst my friends and family after viewing. As a terminally single person who just plain sucks at relationships, you could bet that I would long ago have been turned into an animal in the fictional world that embodies this film. (I’d choose a cat naturally. I know it’s not the most creative answer, but I happen to think I have a lot of cat-like tendencies.)

The Lobster has a lot of interesting things to say about the way that society pressures us to couple, and looks down upon and/or often vilifies single people. That episode of Sex and the City, Bay of Married Pigs, comes immediately to mind. But it’s not all one sided. “The Loners” in this story don’t come off so hot either. Though, to be honest, I’m less certain about what the writers are trying to say about me. Hence, the endless discussions about the film with family and friends.

Apart from being an interesting social commentary, The Lobster is funny, quirky, and just flat out different than anything I’ve ever seen before. And in a world that turns out cookie-cutter films like the assembly line at Chips Ahoy, that’s saying something. Available: iTunes, Amazon, DVD

Movie I’m excited for: The Edge of Seventeen. I’ve always been a sucker for a good coming-of-age tale, probably because my level of maturity is irrevocably about on par with most sixteen year olds. Not that there’s anything entirely new or different on the surface, about the story of an awkward, wise-cracking, but intensely intelligent girl on the outer fringes of the high school social order trying to survive the sometimes unforgiving, and often ridiculous, world of adolescence. But this trailer made my smile, and reminded me of my own best friend from high school, who remains one of my favorite people in the world. Plus Hailee Steinfeld just seems so darn likeable here. How can you not root for her? Opening: November 18th

We hope you have your iPod ready because next up — Music!

For more check out Amy’s book The Fangirl Files: True Tales and Tips from the Fandom Frontlines and Julie’s novels on Amazon.

Would you like a heaping serving of eye candy with your heist?

Ocean’s Thirteen is on, which I think I saw and I’m pretty sure it sucked. But that’s OK because Ocean’s Eleven was so damn awesome. Why? I’ll give you three reasons:

Matty + George + Brad = AreYouFuckingKiddingMe??? There’s a reason my friends and I called this movie Oceans EyeCandy!

I mean yes – there was a plot, and the movie was fun and the heist was cool and Vegas looked great but, c’mon –

And I mean, really?!

And if all that insane handsomeness, tailored suits and tight black t-shirts wasn’t enough – you know who else was in O11? This guy! (tm Awesome Blogging Pal Julie)

That’s right, JOSHUA JACKSON played a “hip douchey” version of “himself” in the poker scene at the start of the movie with other Young Hollywooders and George Clooney  (which BTW – why haven’t those two been cast as father/son yet??!)

True story: I saw this movie in Las Vegas in 2001. I was so wound up about the Extreme Eye Candy Explosion and the Pacey cameo that I brought little bottles of booze into the theater instead of candy!

Imaginary Men in 2010 “reads WOW”!

Check out this cool thing WordPress sent me about my blogging last year. And many thanks to Fabulous Blogging Pal Julie for all the traffic! (also, clearly someone needs to make a movie with Ewan McGregor, Brad Pitt, Nathan Fillion and Paul Wesley! Maybe about James Dean? 😉 )

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 84,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 4 days for that many people to see it.

 

In 2010, there were 316 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 502 posts. There were 535 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 174mb. That’s about 1 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was June 29th with 1,280 views. The most popular post that day was Fifty on our Foreheads.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were wordpress.com, twitter.com, tvrecappersanonymous.wordpress.com, mail.live.com, and facebook.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for james dean, ewan mcgregor, brad pitt, paul wesley, and nathan fillion.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Fifty on our Foreheads June 2010
18 comments and 8 Likes on WordPress.com

2

25 Days / Day 14 / James Dean December 2009

3

25 Days / Day 20 / Ewan McGregor December 2009
1 comment

4

25 Days / Day 3 / Joseph Gordon-Levitt December 2009
4 comments

5

25 Days / Day 7 / Brad Pitt December 2009
2 comments

25 Days / Day 7 / Brad Pitt

WHAT IS THIS?

Who: Brad Pitt. Need I say more?

Why: Uhhh…he’s Brad Pitt

When: College-Oceans movies. Now it’s about the Brangelina Bunch

Level of Obsession: Brad Pitt hit it big time in the mid-90’s and my friends and I (and my mother!) were not immune to his charms. Or his looks. Or his abs. Or his “slushy S’s” as Sarah calls them. Or the fact that he was Brad freakin’ Pitt

“Ahhhh!” Moment(s): Legends of the Fall. Especially when Susannah goes to comfort him as he cries at Samuel’s grave and he holds his hand up in that “no I’m a wounded animal let me lick my wounds!” way. Absolutely beautiful in A River Runs Through It. Tyler Durden and that body. THUD.

My entire love for Brad Pitt can be summed up in one word: Kalifornia. The so-bad-its-good-then-back-to-bad-then-around-to-good again movie where he plays a hick serial killer. My friends and I formed a cult around this movie. He is hysterical and creepy as Earlye Grayce, murdering people while on a cross-country trip with an oblivious artsy couple and browbeating his dopey girlfriend played by former real life girlfriend Juliette Lewis. He’s also believable: he uglied himself up and was skeevy and gross and awful and he was great! The thing is, there is a little Earlye Grayce in everything Brad Pitt does: any movie he’s in I hear an inflection, or see a squint or expression and I burst out laughing because he’s still in there!

Also he wears the shit out of clothes. He should teach a class.