Come Forward: July

We finally get a a movie that I have been yelled at many times before because I have never seen it. 

Good Will Hunting

A troubled young man is gifted when it comes to math. Really he is gifted in learning in general. He can take any book or work of art and memorize everything he reads with east. He uses this to his advantage when he is on college campuses partying. He can talk about any subject with anyone. However, it's his troubled life that has him ended up as a janitor at a college. When the head of the math department at this school posts an equation he expects that no one in the class is going to be able to solve it. When if finds that it's solved he starts asking which one the students did it. No one claims to be the one who solved it. A few days, and another equation, later, it's discovered the the troubled young man is the one who solved the equation. 

This bring crazy change in his life. They professor wants to mold him and have everyone be marveled at his "discovery". However, the young man's temper is causing problems. The professor gets an old school friend of his, who is a therapist, to come and work with him. The young man wants nothing to do with the therapist, and tries to make it so he doesn't have to talk, change, and still do with the work with the professor.  However, the plans we make are not always the ones that work out in the end. 

Now this movie was so good! I have found that sometimes there are a lot of movies that people highly recommend I find aren't that good. This one was great! I really loved the story, and it made me cry! It was so good.

The one thing that this connect with me about working on something bigger is that you just have to rant. There were a few times where Robin Williams' character, and Matt Damon's, both just ranted at stuff that happened to them in life. The sometimes it was fair and most times it was not. I love that they both allowed each other the space to be able to speak their mind about each other and themselves. 

Working on this project I have done a lot of ranting to my friend Nikki. Sometimes I can't get something to work how I want it, and other times I am trying to get motivated to do something with it. It's always a balancing act. I know the effort will be well worth it in the end.  

The Man Behind The Curtain: July

 Let's talk about talking to God. 

Pray is something that is so important, and so vital to me and my faith. I thin everyone says at least one prayer once in their life. Whether there is any real faith behind it is up to God himself. 

I don't want to get more into it until we talk about this month's movie Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

 When Margret get's home from summer camp she learns that her family are movie from New York to New Jersey. This all happens right when she is becoming a teenager. The new chapter in her life is met with her being able to stay home, meeting a whole bunch of new girls, then dealing with new feelings, and the speech about her ever changing body. 

She starts praying to God asking her for things to move faster and for her to be able to fit in. However, this uncovers new questions on her beliefs. Her dad's side is Jewish, and her moms side is Christian. However, neither of her parents are practicing in their faith, and she finds it's these differences that led to her mother's parents to disown here. Her dad's mom is a practicing Jew that is very eager to take her to temple when she asks. She also goes to different places of worship with friends and leads to down this path of figuring out what she believes. 

So, I will say that this movie was pretty good. I also know that this movie is based off of a book. I have not read the book and I think that is what I am missing here. I can't help but think that there was some explanation of  some stuff that didn't come to the screen. Outside of that, the movie was sweet and wonderful, and surprisingly funny. 

Margaret spends a lot of time in the movie asking for God for mostly selfish and superficial things (don't we all). However, it really made me think about how important prayer is in my life. I will say that there are so many thing that I pray for in passing that I usually forget the prayer. However, when I am in a pray time everyday and talking with God it opens up so much more for me and my life than when I am just praying for something as a "quick fix". 

I think it's vital, and I know it's something that I can do more of.  

 

No Place Like Movies at Home: Girl Crazy

 We have reached the last of our Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies... for now at least. I don't personally own every movie that they have been in together, but I think I have one more that will come up down the line. 

Dan is a man that is absolutely Girl Crazy and it gets him into trouble with his father. When he is sent to the middle of no where to an all boy college, he thinks that the world is over. Until he find that there is one girl who he falls in love with. Ginger is a mail carrier for the school, and her grandfather is the principle of the school that Dan is sent out. However, their relationship is put to the test when they find out that the college is going to be closed down.

I love these two on screen together. However, this has to be my least favorite movie with the two of them. I feel like that might be because I have seen this one the least. However, when you have Strike Up The  Band it's a little hard to beat for me. 

I am glad that I did watch it again it's been a very long time!

Best Picture Challenge: Oppenheimer

 So, I finally got my act together and rewatched the Best Picture winner of 2023. 

Let's get into in. 

Oppenheimer is about a a scientist, named J Robert Oppenheimer, and the creation of the Atomic Bomb. 

Ok, look the movie is fine. I get the story and the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer is interesting. The conclusion of World War II and what happened to him after the bombs went off, all good. However, I have seen it twice and I had a hard time following it. I get the his ties to the communist party is what got him called back to court and had his security clearance revoked, but I'm not sure how RDJ's character was effect, and why his testimony was relevant. 

I love Cillian Murphy so much, and I think he did a great job in the role. I just think the movie was long and didn't have enough as rick to keep me hooked. That's probably because I don't get the feuding aspect with RDJ. 

I'm sure if I read up on the history it would make more sense but I don't think I should have to do homework to understand the basis of a movie. 

I wanted the movie to win Best Picture, because I understand the beauty, heart and passion that went into the film, but it's not my favorite Best Picture winner. 

Come Forward: June

Cinderella Man is one of those movies that I have heard about since it came out, but never actually watched it. I finally got the chance to see it and now I get it. 

I really is a great movie. 

James J. Braddock is a mind who loves to box. However, in the year leading up to, what would be come, World War II his is down on his luck. He boxes, but doesn't have a steady job. The fights aren't paying him enough to keep his family together and keep a roof over their heads. Eventually, he license to box get revoked, and he is left without any choices to keep his family afloat. He also has to hide the fact that he has a broken hand from the dock managers, or they won't let him keep the job he has. 

When the kids get sent away, due to sickness, he begs the people he used to fight for for money to get the heat back on in his house, so his kids can come home. 

The kids come home and his luck starts to slowly change. His old coach comes and says that he can have him come back and do one more fight. It wasn't going to be anything crazy, but it would be able to get him back on his feet, and give him one more chance in the ring. 

Well Braddock had other plans, but he didn't know that until he got back in the ring. Once he was there there was no getting him out.

Here is what I love about this story, that also helped me to get back on the big project. Is do the small things. 

I got so far off the project that I have been working on that I didn't know what to do. I thought that maybe I wouldn't be able to come back to it, or follow through in the way that I had been. However, I just started small and wrote what I know I wanted to write for that next part. I didn't plan on goin crazy, but I started with a small thing and before I knew it I was right back to where I was before. 

Sometime we get so overwhelmed b how big the project, or problem, is that we forget that we don't need to tackle everyone all at once. We can start small and work out way up. 

The Man Behind The Curtain: June

We are half way there! 

How is it already the the last day of the first half of the year? Time does fly when you are having fun!

Let's just jump right into this month's movie: Matilda.

Matilda was born into a family that really didn't want her. She was left alone and made to look after herself from a very young age. However, Matilda is special. She was able to write her name from a baby, could ready since she was three, and make her own food since she was five. She loved to learn, and love to read most of all. 

However, her parents didn't want her to go to school. See, her dad runs a car shop, and not an honorable one. He has been cheating people on the cars he sells, and he is getting stolen car parts. He doesn't want to be busted by the cops, so he has Matilda picking up all of the packages while her parents are out for the day. 

However, Matilda starts going to the library when she is waiting for the parts She is able to work her way through the whole children's section in a matter of years. She loves reading anything and  everything and she really wants to go to school.

When the principal buys a car from her father, her father agrees to let Matilda go to school. The only reason he agrees is because the Principal is a mean a bitter lady, who does not like children. 

However, Matilda's teacher, Ms. Honey, is a wonderful person who has had a hard life growing up. She love the children that she teaches and hope that one day everything will works itself out. 

Matilda learns that she has great powers of control. She can movie objects around her with her mind. She shows these powers to Ms. Honey. When Matilda learns that the Principal is actually Ms. Honey's aunt, and stole Ms. Honey's house and money from her, Matilda uses these powers to get everything back from her. 

Let talk about self esteem for a minute here. The thing about self esteem is that when you are young you have in droves. When you are a kid you really don't care what anyone thinks about you at all. As we get older we start to doubt ourselves, and then when other people who doubt themselves start making comments, we start to hid who we really are. 

I think there is who think we should act like and dress like, and then there is the person we deem to be acceptable to society. 

Over the last few years I have really stopped caring what others think. Now, don't get me wrong I'm not totally over caring. However, I have found that if I kept worry about what other have felt, I would have no done so much in my life. I would not have found passions I have, I would not love wearing the clothes that I wear, and I can honestly say, that I love it. 

I know there are a lot of things that I do are considered childish, or weird, but I have had so much fun doing them. I think that by doing the weird and childish thing it helps us to balance all the stuff we have to deal with as an adult. 

Be a little childish, it could make your day brighter. 

Come Forward: May

I really thought that I was caught up. However, it appears that I am not. That's totally ok! I am fighting every instinct in me that wants to bash myself over the head because I was doing so well. I know that this would be totally counter productive. 

I took a year off of projects last year, reluctantly. This time last year I was still trying to push myself to "make up" for the lost time. When I finally let go and said I can't do it, it was s relief. I hadn't realized that I wasn't having any fun with the projects anymore. that every single time I thought about doing them would send me into a panic. This year has been crazy, but I am loving the projects again. 

I may not be doing them how I thought that I would, but I am doing them in a more conductive way, that make life easier, and makes the projects more fun. 

The big project that I am working on this year, I felt bad because I put it down for a few months. I didn't mean to, but time just got away from me. When you stop working on something you sometimes start to think that you can't pick it back up, or that it will never be as good as you originally thought that it was going to be. That You ruined all chances of success by not working on it as much as you had been. Then I did two things, looked at my list of Motivation advice, and watched The Pursuit of Happyness.

 Chris Gardner's life is slowly turning to shambles. He invested all of his savings in a bad deal, that he is trying to make work. The money that he thought that he was going to make back quickly was dragging in. This slow income puts hot coals under Chris and his wife's relationship. They are trying their best, but nothing is working how they want it to. After seeing the work the stock brokers to, he tells his wife he is going to try his hand and becoming one. He is great and numbers and with people and figures that once he knows the ropes he will be able to make this new venture work. The problem is is that in order to get the job he has to work as an unpaid intern. 

   

His wife is having none of it and decides to leave him. She leaves him with no money, and penniless job, and their five year old son. The only income that Chris has for the next six weeks is to try and sell off the last of his bad deal while working an unpaying job. Every time he thinks that he can't get any worse, everything goes more down his. He gets robbed, he winds up homeless, the government takes his money for taxes, and he is dealing with no other choice but to bring his son with him on this ride. 

Yet, though everything is falling apart, Chris is determined to put everything back together. Everyday he picks himself up, and chooses to keep going. The weeks and weeks worth of work are relentless but they all pay off for him in the end. 

One of the things that Chris does though the whole movie is make a list. It's not written down, and repeated or anything like that. However, he keeps checked things off of this mental list, and keeps checking his progress. 

When I started this big project at the start of the year, I didn't think I was going to be anywhere near where I am now. I didn't think I would even make it as far as I have. Yet, I am so much further ahead that I ever dreamed possible that I realized that I could keep going. 

You have to sop every once in a while to see where you are at. You have to walk away and come back sometimes, and sometimes you walk away for longer than you think you will. Also, check to see how far you have come. The only way you will fail is if you totally stop.