Movie Reviews
In this month's movie reviews, Deenie goes over three movies with powerful messages: Freedom Writers, and Spirited Away and Five Feet Apart, which were both suggested on the movie recommendation form.
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Movie Reviews
Movie Reviews
By Deenie Bulyalert
By Deenie Bulyalert
Hi Scroll Readers!
I hope your break was fantastic and, if it wasn’t, I am sorry to hear that. I can’t do much to help you through the screen you are reading this article from, but maybe some movies will help you. I know long breaks from school have always been hard for me, but having something to occupy me, like movies, has always relieved some of that tension.
Netflix is my go-to movie spot when I am trying to get away from the reality of life, so you will find most of the movies I review on there.
I hope you enjoy this month's review and let me know your thoughts in the form. Oh! Don't forget to give me some movie recommendations. Also, please just assume there are spoilers throughout this article. I try my best to tell you when I say something, but sometimes I miss it, so proceed with caution if you are the opposite of me and hate spoilers.
Freedom Writers
Freedom Writers
Freedom Writers was released back in 2007. This movie was directed by Richard LaGravenese and it stars Hiliary Swank.
Hiliary Swank plays a first-year teacher named Erin whose students are freshman and sophomores at a school in Long Beach, California called Woodrow Wilson High School.
The students are at-risk students who grow up in poverty, witness death at a young age, have gang affiliations, and are portrayed as bad kids with no hope. This movie shows the journey of Erin, her students, and the growth that follows them.
Freedom Writers is based on a real story from 1994 about Erin Gruwell, a teacher from Long Beach. She gives up almost everything in order to be there for her students and truly aims for them to thrive in a place where opportunity is hard to come by for them.
Erin Gruwell later developed a foundation called the Freedom Writer Foundation. On the foundation website, the true story is described as follows;
"Long Beach was a racially divided community filled with drugs, gang warfare, and homicides, and the tensions of the streets carried into the school halls." Erin Gruwell was described as an idealistic teacher, placed in Room 203. "Her students had already been labeled ‘unteachable.’ But Gruwell believed 'in something more."
Gruwell got a lot of backlash from other teachers, but she was determined to engage her students through literature and media. Ms. G had her students read Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic, stories that the students were told they could not read because they were not intelligent enough. These stories inspired students to "put down their weapons and pick up a pen." These teens were able to discover a new way of expressing themselves. They shared their stories and rewrote their futures that were previously etched out in pencil by people who didn't believe in them, and they changed.
These students eventually became the Freedom Writers, and they were able to finally share their stories with the world. The Freedom Writers Foundation adds that, "All 150 of the Freedom Writers went on to graduate in 1998 and their stories were published in a book called The Freedom Writers Diary, which became a New York Times Bestseller," and a movie.
The Freedom Writers Foundation aims to "help educators reproduce the success of Room 203 in classrooms around the world.”
I have always been the type of person who will take the message over anything in a piece of literature, art, story, anything. I could watch the worst movie in the world but, if it has a good and powerful message behind it, then it will most likely be my favorite movie.
I initially found out about Freedom Writers my freshman year of high school. I was scrolling through Instagram and there was a powerful scene of the students standing in a classroom with a piece of tape in front of them. They were asked questions by Erin and, if that resonated with them, they would need to stand on the piece of tape.
One of the questions that stuck out to me during this scene was something along the lines of "step on the line if you have had anyone close to you pass away." Almost every student in the classroom stepped on the line. Erin then asked if two or more people close to the students had had someone close to them passed away. She went to three, four, five, and she finished with six or more. Erin then gave the students a moment to speak the names of those in their lives who had passed to pay them respect.
This scene was incredibly powerful, and it truly tugged at my heart strings. I wish I knew how to put enough words together to do this film justice.
The story and the way the film progressed was amazing. Every single scene, one after the other, showed the growth in every student she taught. I was able to know what they were going through behind closed doors and not just at school. Those small details just made it all the more powerful.
Erin sacrificed so much for so many students. I would recommend this movie to everyone. She believed in these students and the hope she had for them turned into hope that they had in themselves. I have always talked about how support at school can go such a long way and Erin demonstrates that in her journey and in this film.
If you are needing a good cry or just something to give you a little hope, this is a movie you want to watch. I have watched it two or three times now and it makes me so empowered every single time I watch it.
Warning!! Spoilers!!
Warning!! Spoilers!!
I was going to do a review on The Book of Henry, but I got more movie recommendations than I thought I would. You'll have to wait for that movie review in the future. I will talk about The Book of Henry a little bit, though.
If you don't know, this movie is about a boy who is a genius. He ends up dying from a brain tumor, but before that happens, he figures out his neighbor, who he is really good friends with, is being abused by her stepfather (or that is what can be inferred). When he passes, he leaves a notebook with a plan for how his mom will need to save her. I'll leave it there for now, but it was a good movie.
Movie Recommendations Given to Me
Movie Recommendations Given to Me
Spirited Away
Spirited Away
To the person reading The Scroll that told me to pirate this movie, I did not do that, so sorry to disappoint you. I watched this a really long time ago, so we will see how much I remember about this movie.
I think I first watched this with my brother in middle school. I have never really been into anime. It probably has to do with the fact that, when anime is brought up, it is a show that someone recommends to me, and I am not into watching shows. I live a busy life with a short attention span, so sit me down for a movie and I will do decently okay, but try to get me to watch a show and I will probably stop watching by the second episode, no matter how good it is. My brother has always been the bigger anime fan out of the two of us. I wish I was into anime or even watching shows, but that is just not something I can do -- sadly.
Anyway, I remember my brother had it on and I decided to watch it with him. I wasn't too invested, but I thought it was interesting, nonetheless.
I thought this was a cute movie. The characters were to die for, and I know it is supposed to be about witches and spirits, but I can't help myself. While watching movies like this, I just have to admire the incredible detail and hard work that goes into these films over anything.
I have to say that No-Face is hands down my favorite character. It is probably because I have a vivid and fond memory of having a pen that was No-Face, but he just stole the show, in my opinion. It seems as though people portray No-Face as an evil spirit when, in fact, No-Face is an in-between spirit, which is interesting to think about. Many of us kids get taught that there are good and bad spirits growing up, that there is not an in-between. You are either good or you are bad and that seems to lead a lot of kids to believing that if we do one bad thing, if we fail, or make mistakes then we are bad, we are the failure, we are mistakes, but that is simply not true.
I know that No-Face wasn't put in this film to give off the message of, "It is okay to be in-between," but that is what I got from that character. No-Face only becomes evil when he eats an evil spirit and I think it relates to real life. When we let the evil spirit consume us, we become evil, but sometimes we can't help it. We will always be the villain in someone's story and that is something we just have to grow and learn to be okay with.
I want to say more about this film, but if I am being honest, I don't remember it much. I am going to have to re-watch it. I can say though, Howl's Moving Castle was so cute, and I screech in excitement every single time I watch it. Thank you for sharing that with me.
Love everlasting, Five feet apart, love hard
Love everlasting, Five feet apart, love hard
Since I don't want our relationship to begin on a bed of lies, I have to be honest. Of these three movies, I have only watched Five Feet Apart, and I watched it this summer. I have to be honest again and tell you that I cried so hard during this movie. I will try to watch the other movies when I can, but no promises.
Five Feet Apart was such a good movie. I feel that it got a lot of bad comments from a lot of people, but oh gosh would I give up so much to watch this movie for the first time again. I am such a big fan of fantasy love stories and Five Feet Apart just hits it so well.
I doubt you don't know the film Five Feet Apart but, if you don't, then I will explain it to you and if you like my take on this movie, then we can watch it together. Five Feet Apart is about two teens who have cystic fibrosis. Stella is seventeen and she falls in love with another person named Will when they end up in the hospital together.
Restrictions from their doctors and nurses dictated that they had to stay a safe distance from each other and that is six feet apart. Stella has a good friend named Poe, who also has cystic fibrosis and dies later in the film.
This film goes through the forbidden love of Stella and Will. It shows that kids will do anything for love, and I think that is okay sometimes. It also shows that, even though it is hard, sometimes we have to give up the things we love the most.
Poe is a character that I feel one talks about much, but his death and love story hit me hard. When he talks to Stella about the relationship he has with his partner, he pushes away the people who he wants love from. Presumably because he is insecure about his cystic fibrosis and how his partner will react to him having that.
Although I can't relate to Poe from a medical perspective, I can relate to him from a relationship perspective, and I feel as though a lot of you can, as well. I am the type of person who pushes away anyone when things start to get deeper or more serious. When I start having to show my scars that were ingrained into me by those who are no longer in my life. When I have to peel back the layers of paint that I used to cover up the ugly murals under them and Poe does the same.
We seem to be growing up in a society that dislikes the idea of being "broken." Broken, to the outside world, seems to be represented as weak or unworthy and I have learned to not think that is true. I have learned to adore the broken pieces of myself because I am a mosaic of all the people who have once been in my life and are no longer around. I talk the same as my friends from middle school. I hold the secrets of my friends from freshman year. I share the same obsession with dinosaurs that I had in elementary school. Turning pieces that society sees as abhorrent into something beautiful is the biggest revenge a person can give to the world.
Poe was always happy and just all around great. It makes me so upset that he had to die in this movie. The pain that Stella and Will both felt after was so devastating, too.
I have never been fond of movies that portrayed serious diseases in a sweet, cute, quirky way. I don't know the story behind why they decided that Stella and Will would have cystic fibrosis. It would make sense if this was based on a real story, but it does not seem like it is. I try to look past that in movies like these, but it is definitely tough to do that when the basis of the whole movie is that they have a disease, and they can't be close to each other.
Five Feet Apart was a delightful love story and I loved it. There were a lot of things that I was not expecting, like Stella falling into the lake and almost dying. It broke my heart that Will left her, but the memories and experiences that they shared together made it all worth it. It is a reminder to live in the moment, experience what you can, take risks when appropriate, and the hardest to swallow pill, let go of the things that are hurting too much to keep around.
Hopefully you all are enjoying me taking over this movie review from Justin. He left me with some pretty big shoes to fill, but I think I am doing okay so far. If you watched any of the movies, I recommend that you watch them, then make sure to share your thoughts with me in the feedback section of the form. I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading, Scrollians.
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