The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I first read The Perks of Being a Wallflower in mid 2011, and since then I've read it around 6 times. That's how much I love this book. It is also one of my favorite top 4 books, and I'm a really picky reader. It's one of these things that push you from being a teenager into being a young adult. If you haven't read the book yet,  I highly recommend you do.

When I read about the book coming out as a movie in 2012 I was so excited. When I read that the author, Steven Chbosky will write the screenplay and direct it, I was ecstatic. Then, when I read about who was cast in the movie I was practically jumping off walls.

 Let us start with Logan Lerman, the perfect Charlie if there ever was one. He fits the description perfectly because he has that blushing shy kid thing going on, and he looks really young. I'm a bit biased though, because I think he's the best actor to play anything and everything. He is very Charlie-esque.

When I first read the book I imagined Patrick as a very young, dark haired, and skinny version of Matthew Gray Gubler. Instead, they cast Ezra Miller. How do I begin to describe Ezra Miller? "Scene Stealer" is what comes to mind. Ezra Miller took the movie and made it his own. Every scene he was part of, he was dominating. I absolutely loved his performance and his persona, 5 starts for this guy.

I was a bit unsure about Emma Watson being cast. I adore her, but when you read about Sam you don't really think an inexperienced actress can really capture the essence of her character. Emma Watson proved me wrong. Her performance was strong, emotional, and spot on.

Nina Dobrev and Paul Rudd were both splendid, and so were the two cast as Alice and Bob. I still have mixed feelings about the girl who played Mary-Elizabeth, but I think it worked out well.

The one person who I just couldn't accept was the kid that played Brad. He was everything Brad isn't supposed to be, in my mind anyway. I pictured him to be less kid-looking, and more typical TV jock.

The movie itself was excellent. Although my two favorite scenes from the book were cut off the movie adaptation, it was still well put together and well executed. I liked how they cut out family holiday reunions, as they weren't really essential to the story. Another thing that was cut out of the movie which made it better was all the talk about the books Charlie reads over the course of his freshman year; the mention of a few book titles and essays was enough to understand the magnitude of what those books meant to Charlie without it being overwhelming.

I loved the first tunnel scene, it was emotionally perfect. I loved how the emotions and feelings were transferred to the audience. Charlie put to words what he put to writing to his friend in the book, saying to Patrick, "I feel infinite." Emma Watson's facial expression and body language was just so very "Sam".  Here's a Nylon video in which Emma speaks about the tunnel scene.

Another scene that I loved and made me cry like I'm watching 50/50 all over again was the scene in which Charlie has a breakdown after graduation and calls Candice at her party. Boy, was that great. Logan Lerman  crying into the phone, Nina Dobrev telling her friend to call the police and give them her address. It was everything this part could be and more. Also, Nina dobrev, you have proved you are the cover girl of pain .ltd. We love you.

The only thing left to talk about is that I'm waiting for the director's cut to surface because I can't get enough of this beautiful creation.

Final rating: 5/5

Go On

I downloaded the first three episodes of Matthew Perry's new TV show, Go On.  Here's a short synopsis from the show's IMDb page:

An irreverent yet charming sportscaster who, after a loss, finds solace from members of his mandatory group therapy sessions.

The show's jokes aren't that great, but there are a few funny lines here and there. My favorite line was in the first episode, when Matthew Perry's character Ryan was talking about the importance of competition, "Bradley Cooper is the sexiest man alive because apparently People magazine has never heard of a Mr Ryan Gosling". I know!

This show seems very familiar. Is it familiar to 2 Broke Girls because:
a) Cool African old man:

b) Weird bearded man:

but that's not quite it, this show shares many components with another show, but which?

a) A cool guy who doesn't really fit into this group of people; he is there because it was mandatory for his career, yet the group "grows" on him

b) Uptight lady who wears cardigans and thinks everything is over sexual

c) A mom

d) Funny Asian

e) Strong female character who questions her strength after the main character joins the groups. Also, it's obvious some relationship is going to emerge here

According to this Cracked.com article, Community is in fact Scrubs, and in which case all three shows are the same. Go On is better than the others, because:

a) There's a crazy cat lady

b) It has the kid from Everybody Hates Chris

Final rating: 3/5

Half Nelson, Ryan Gosling, and teacher movies

Anyone who knows me knows that I love those inspiring teacher movies. Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, Akeelah and the Bee, and The Ron Clark Story are all movies I have to watch whenever they are on.

A week or so back I watched the 2006 film Half Nelson. It was everything you want out of a movie and more.

This is what the film's wiki entry says: The story concerns an inner city middle-school teacher who forms a friendship with one of his students after she discovers that he has a drug habit.

The title had me confused for the entire film. Nelson is not the name of the character played by Ryan Gosling, and so I googled it, turns out it is a wrestling move. 

Definition for half nelson:

Web definitions:

a wrestling hold in which the holder puts an arm under the opponent's arm and exerts pressure on the back of the neck.

The most outstanding thing in the film would have to be Shareeka Epps's performance. She was strong yet vulnerable, portraying the role perfectly. I also loved how believable she acted, sounded, and even looked. You could see the emotions in her eyes, something not a lot of young actors can convey.

Another great thing about the film is the perfect, flawless, and amazing dialogue. I just loved the half-witty jokes, and half-engaging conversations. I have no idea how the writer(s) managed to keep the dialogue between the teacher and the student in the context of that relationship yet still make it friendly. A tip of the hat to the fine sir.


To be honest, I didn't want to watch the film because I thought it would be a romantic relationship, and frankly after watching Pretty Little Liars and Daydream Nation I don't want to see anything of the sort again. Books of the Young Adult genre keep throwing or thrusting the teacher/student relationship into everyone's faces, and it is becoming annoying. After I saw that 
this wasn't the case in Half Nelson I became very excited to see it. 


Ryan Gosling's performance was impeccable. I loved all of his scenes; he brought life and depth perfectly to a character that required much of that. His character was also filled with great contrasts that worked in harmony which he portrayed that perfectly. 

If you needed anymore reasons to watch this film; it has small history facts, a spot on soundtrack, and two cats. I know!


Final rating: 5/5 

Katy Perry's Part of Me 3D Review

I went to the theater with my best friend to watch the Katy Perry movie. I went there expecting to see some stuff about following your teenage dream, making it big, and other Hollywood nonsense. The movie was anything but that.

The movie starts with video clips of Katy's fans speaking of how she influenced them to be better people or saved their lives, which was a very dramatic start to a documentary about a pop star to be honest. After that they started with an onstage performance from her latest tour and then it went back and forth from the present tour and her beginning as a musician.

I am a mild Katy Perry fan, I like some of her songs and music videos, and I think she has a great makeup artist and hair stylist and that she looks really pretty when she's not busy looking like a Barbie doll from the future.

 vs.

 The movie's soundtrack was genius. The whole thing is almost divided in chapters and each chapter begins with Katy preforming a song on her tour, for example the song E.T would be performed and then the part abut meeting her ex-husband Russle Brand would come up. The song selection was great, and was really fitting for the sections. A tip of the hat for the person behind that in the production.
(I also learned that Katy Perry is the only artist to have 5 singles from the same album as number one on the charts, which is good for her.)

Another thing I liked about the movie was the fact that it was raw. I obviously know many of the things were scripted or cut in editing to make them sound different, but I'm referring to the lack of makeup and fashion fiascoes backstage. I know Katy has a history of posting pics with no makeup on twitter but it was still cool.

I also liked the funny and childish parts in the movie, such as the meet & greets and concert admittance lines. I also loved the scene in which the "band & crew?" were in a water park. I thought that was pretty good entertainment.

My favorite parts of the movie:

a) Katy Perry's sister, Angela, who is an older blonder version of her, which was freaky and cool. She's always taking care of her sister and actually gets married at the end which was super cute.

b) This awesome cafe Katy went to in Japan. You have your drinks in a room of cats! (I know!)

c) Katy's grandma. I just love old people and she's so funny.

KP (about herself and her siblings growing up): "We turned out pretty fine."
Grandmother: "As far as I know..."

She also lives in Vegas, four for you Katy's grandma. 

Something I am still not sure how I feel about is the parts about her marriage and relationship with her ex-husband. Everything was so intense with clips of her crying over texts from him after he filed for divorce. I don't know, I felt like that was something private that she shouldn't share.

The worst  part about the movie was the 3D. Frankly, the only things in 3D were the opening credits, some paper confetti at the end, and some 3D edited with photoshop pictures, exactly like the ones on tumblr. If it wasn't in 3D it would have probably been better, but they've got to get money in somehow.

Overall, it wasn't a great cinematic experience per say, but it was good entertainment.

Final rating: 2/5

Choke (novel): a Review

Choke is a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the author who brought the world the wonderful story of Fight Club.

This is the book's description taken directly from Shelfari.com: "Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him. When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park."

The story itself wasn't that interesting to me, but the themes in the different parts of the story really got me hooked. 

While reading about Victor's addiction, we explore the reasons behind his acts and why or exactly how he became a sex addict in the first place. 

Victor is in a 12 steps rehab program, he is stuck on the fourth step; putting to paper every low and high of his addiction. The book itself is the fourth step. Every incident in it a major or changing point in Victor's life. The chapters go back and forth between his childhood past and his adult present.  His past is just memories of all the felons his mother committed over the course of her custody of him, his present is him trying to figure out why his mother did what she did.

Victor thinks of himself as a hero because he makes others heroes. He deliberately puts himself in dangerous situations like choking in restaurants (cool title, am I right?) to give others confidence in themselves and as he puts it, a great story to tell.
What makes this novel very extraordinary is the question it asks; are we heroes because of our actions, or because of who we are?

Now, I would say what any Batman fan (and any sane person, if I may) would say, that what you do defines you, not what you are. The great thing about Choke is that it presents both sides of an argument, something my English teacher would absolutely hate to see. "Always persuade by presenting one side of an argument."  Chuck Palahniuk isn't trying to convince you or persuade you into thinking one thing or the other, he is simply telling it like it is.

final rating: 3/5