I'm in the middle of exams at the moment, and they've gone quite alright. But I was especially annoyed with my Marketing Research exam being on a Saturday morning. Especially when I came out of it starving and I went to the cafe and I was like, "Oh yeah. It's Saturday. It's NOT OPEN!" Then I went to Maccas and life seemed a tad bit better.
Oh and I had this bizarre experience before that exam where I went up to level 4 for my exam, then I realised that for some reason this building didn't have toilets on each level, so I had to walk down all those flights of stairs again (because the building doesn't have elevators either) and my legs were like cramping up. Every single time I took a step it hurt so much in the tiny area just above my knees and I couldn't even stop because I was like IF I STOP I'LL BE LATE FOR MY EXAM so I just had to keep walking down those 3 flights of stairs with my lower thigh muscles burning at each step. And it didn't even hurt when I walked upstairs. Luckily it went away by the time I came out of the exam. My mum said that it's because sometimes on a cold morning your muscles freeze up? Is this true? Because I walked to Uni from Railway Square that morning and everything seemed fine...
Anyway.
I dug up this draft of a blog that I wrote some few weeks ago, so here goes:
In the midst of The Fault in Our Stars being in theatres now, I thought I should post my review on the book.
I've read it a few weeks ago so my memory isn't the best, but it was pretty good. I finished it in about two days, even during going to Uni and stuff like that. It's the type of book that just sucks you in and you don't want to do anything else but find out what happens, and when you find out what happens you feel like you've just travelled this year-long journey where you've come out a better person, but in reality it's only been two days.
So it's Young Adult, it's Romance and it's Cancer. But it's not all about cancer. The book states that from the get-go, drawing up an imaginary novel to kind of parallel with so that audiences can get that we aren't supposed to take this as a Cancer Book but rather a Love Book that so happens to have a touch of cancer in it.
The main character is 16-year old (of course) Hazel, who suffers from a type of cancer which I've forgotten. She reluctantly heads to a cancer support group where she meets Augustus, another guy with another type of cancer. But the thing is that Augustus has been in remission for a few years now, and since his cancer's rate of survival is 80%, it's extremely likely that Hazel would die before him. So you can see how it becomes a love story rather than a cancer story. Hazel, whose lungs don't work that well and is therefore forced to carry around an oxygen tank, doesn't want a relationship because she knows how much it would hurt Augustus when she dies. But, typical, Augustus tries to win her over.
It's a very sweet book and I love how John Green gives 16-year olds some dignity by not writing like a typical teenager would (à la Hunger Games and Divergent), include - shock horror - big words and extremely deep paragraphs of insight and philosophy. I also love this fictional book that Green comes up with - An Imperial Affliction, since the idea of it sounds amazing and it would be great to make that a legitimate book, but also because it allows Green to cheat a little and use Hazel's commentary of the fictional book to kind of tell the readers how he wants us to look at this book. The idea that this is not a cancer story. Cancer just happens to be in it.
Overall, I think it was a great book. I definitely recommend it. Sure, Augustus sounds extremely pretentious at times and the parts about the fictional author of that fictional book seemed a bit cliche, but it was definitely a good read.
Now onto some movies...
94% on Rotten Tomatoes
So this was Jennifer Lawrence's so called "big break" because it was her first Oscar nomination! I actually thought I would hate this movie, because I usually don't like indie films, but I think this was done quite well. I guess it's because most indie films are very dramatic and focus a lot on emotion, but this one actually had a sense of a plot and was quite thought-provoking, all while still focusing on that emotion in the characters.
The movie was based on the book of the same name by Daniel Woodrell and is set in Missouri where a 17 year old Ree takes the bread winner role in her family, making sure to look after and feed her family every day. Her father, known for cooking up meth, has disappeared for some weeks when the police show up telling Ree that if her father doesn't appear at court for his trial (for being caught cooking meth), then they would take the house. Her mother is pretty much useless (I'm starting to see a trend with all of Jennifer Lawrence's characters' mothers), as she has depression and sits around all day, to the point where when Ree asks her to "help just this one time please" she still doesn't say anything. So, as usual, it's up to our hero
As I said, I didn't expect it to be entertaining at all, but it was actually surprisingly alright. I doubt I would ever watch it again, but it definitely wasn't boring or dry in any way. I think it had quite a low budget, so they did pretty well with that, even if the camera they used made the film look really really old. The storyline really makes you think about what happens in some small towns, where small-scale gang squads control their residents through fear and blackmailing, as well as how simple some peoples' lives can be and the hardships they have to go through to make ends meet.
So I think in conclusion this was a pretty good film and Jennifer Lawrence was pretty amazing (as always).
92% on Rotten Tomatoes
I remember listening to the song "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" by Dropkick Murphys in I think it was a State of Origin ad on TV and absolutely loving it. Then I discovered the song was done for this movie and it happened to have Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. I don't know why I never watched it until now, but I finally did and I loved it.
It's hard to explain what it's about, but it's really intense because it deals with the interplay of the police force and a local mob gang as each party tries to take it one step further than the other, outsmarting each other. However, the film also deals with a few moles placed in the gang, as well as a few moles placed in the police force. The result is extreme intensity, which is just expanded due to the amazing cast. Just to give you an idea... Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, and more. Oh, and Martin Scorsese directs it.
So yeh, it's pretty good.
I really enjoyed it whenever I wasn't on edge and just panicking as if I was the mole and I was going to be found out. And whenever I wasn't laughing at the fact that Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon, two actors that look so alike, were in the same film - nay, in the same room - making it so confusing. But at least they talked differently and had completely different personalities so I was able to tell them apart.
Also Leonardo DiCaprio was especially amazing here.
Anyhoo, that's all for now, but after my exams there will be heaps to talk about here.
Until then kids.
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