Drawing First Blood

I don’t really know what to make this blog about. Primarily I will use it to write about movies but there might be some other bits and pieces in there too. When I’m not watching movies and playing video games I work as a graphic designer.

First posts are always weird… it’s like a first date where you don’t want to say too much about yourself but also don’t want to seem too boring. I think I’ll just jump right in and write about some movies that I’ve seen lately and cut out the awkward “getting to know you” part.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (RT 93%)

Cut to the chase: It’s a story about a mom who lost her daughter in a really horrible way and uses billboards to bring awareness to the town in hopes that the police will reopen the case and find her killer.

Francis McDormand is a badass bitch. I feel like that sentence alone sums up this movie in a nutshell. The story was ok… I was interested enough. What really struck me and what I hope will be acknowledged highly this awards season was the acting. All the actors gave amazing performances and I felt like it didn’t matter what the story was really about, the characters were so well developed and the actors played the parts so well. I thought this was a phenomenal film and highly recommend for the acting alone.

Lady Bird (RT 99%)

Cut to the chase: Coming of age story of a unique young woman in her final year of high school and her efforts to escape her hometown of Sacramento, CA.

This movie is at the top of my list for this year so far. Ok, I don’t want this to seem too biased since I grew up in Sacramento and so much about Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson resonates with me but I don’t know if anyone reading this has ever had the experience of going to a theater and seeing a motion picture that highlights places that you grew up in, but it was a truly amazing experience for me. I HATE movie talkers but I couldn’t control myself when one of the characters says “I live in Granite Bay so lets go to your house”. Or seeing my beloved Tower Theater where I saw my first indie film being projected on the screen in this theater that is miles and miles away knowing that millions of other people will also see it. There are almost NO major movies that take place in Sacramento so this was a big deal for me. I’m glad my boyfriend has patience because I was nudging him at every reference.

If I didn’t grow up near Sacramento and saw this movie I would still enjoy it. I love good coming of age tales and this one was so raw it felt at times like I was reliving what it was like when I was getting ready to take that first big step in life. That frisson of excitement coupled with feelings of “wow, I actually am going to kinda miss this place”. By the way, her mom is played by Laurie Metcalf (Jackie from Rosanne) and she is absolutely amazing in this role. She is actually a really good actress and I hope to see her in more dramatic roles in the future. I think everyone who has graduated high school can relate to this movie and I really hope that Greta Gerwig gets a lot of attention for this come awards season.

There are other movies I’m dying to tell you about but I think it might be best to keep it to a 2 movie max per post. This is only just the beginning… I’ll write again soon.