Morning Glory

Morning Glory follows young and committed morning television producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) who has dreamed since childhood of working for the Today show. Since graduating from college, she has dedicated her life to her job, but her devotion to her career is off-putting to potential suitors. After being laid off from her job at the local Good Morning New Jersey because of budget cuts, she finally gets hired as an executive producer on the long-running morning show DayBreak, at the once-prominent but currently failing station, IBS.

Determined to keep the show on air, she recruits former news journalist and anchor Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford), who disapproves of co-hosting a show that does not deal with real, hard news. Pomeroy proves to be tough going, constantly battling with his co-host Colleen (Diane Keaton), refusing to banter on air, and refusing certain pieces, like cooking segments, that he considers beneath him.

Between ratings beginning to drop and struggling with warring co-hosts, Becky is told that DayBreak may be canceled. As a last ditch effort to bump the ratings, Becky decides on a radical and desperate approach to try and save the show.

Though the film didn't to incredibly well at the box office, I personally loved it. I thought it was a very funny and cute twist on the television industry. All of the actors bring a comical breath of fresh air to the film, and you can't help but laugh. I would absolutely recommend this film to someone.

Sixteen Candles

Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American coming of age comedy starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.  John Hughes also directed The Breakfast Club and Ferris Buller's Day Off.  With the occasion all but overshadowed by her sister's upcoming wedding, teen angst-ridden Samantha (Molly Ringwald) faces her 16th birthday with typical adolescent dread.  She loathes her body, as it isn't like the popular girls, she loathes life, and is pretty much the typical American teen dealing with high school problems.  Samantha pines for studly older boy Jake (Michael Schoeffling), but worries that her chastity will be a turnoff for the popular senior.  She thinks that she is invisible to him, because to her, he's the definition of a god!  Meanwhile, Samantha must constantly rebuff the affections of nerdy Ted (Anthony Michael Hall), the only boy in the school, unfortunately, who seems to take an interest in her.  Which also does not help with her low-esteem and confidence. 

To our dear main character, Samantha, her life is going downhill fast. The soon to be 16-year-old has an impossible crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush on her. Her sister's getting married, and with all the excitement the rest of her family forgets her birthday! This just puts the cherry on top of the sundae for her.  She feels even more invisible and unimportant than before.  Add all this to a pair of horrendously embarrassing grandparents who bring a foreign exchange student named Long Duc Dong to her sister's wedding.  He brings a lot of comic relief at different points of the movie, and experiences first hand fast American love and the party life of high school.  Other funny moments helped to make this movie so popular.  My personal favorite was when Sam gives dorky Ted her underwear to help him win a bet at the school dance. 

She attempts to get through all of these unfortunate events.  In the end, Sam has a heart to heart with her father, and in a twist of events, her crush, Jake, picks her up at the end of her sister's wedding to celebrate her birthday.  The movie concludes as they kiss over a cake with 16 candles.  In the end we get a hilarious movie on the journey of one quirky girl to womanhood! This is just a classic you can't pass up. 

Boyhood

Out of all of the films that have come out in the past six months, one of my favorites, by far, was Boyhood. The film is a coming-of-age drama, set over a 12 year period from 2002 to 2013, showing the growth of a young boy and his sister into young adulthood.

I was initially drawn to the film because of the concept that it was filmed over a 12 year time span, using the same cast and crew. Director and producer, Richard Linklater, decided that the cast and crew would meet annually and film for a few weeks, over the course of 12 years. He said, "I've long wanted to tell the story of a parent-child relationship that follows a boy from the first through 12th grade and ends with him going off to college. But the dilemma is that kids change so much that it is impossible to cover that much ground. And I am totally ready to adapt the story to whatever he is going through."

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. I thought the acting was very well done, and the storyline stayed true to the current events that they portrayed in the film. I would definitely recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a good coming-of-age tale.

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Earlier in the year I wrote a post about Game of Thrones as a television series. In it, I mentioned my general dissatisfaction with books and their movie adaptations. After reading Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky this summer, I was excited for the movie, but I was also preparing myself for the inevitable letdown afterward. The movie has a few of my favorite actresses, from my guilty pleasure, Nina Dobrev, to in my opinion, one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood right now, Mae Whitman. The movie also totes the name of Emma Watson.


The movie was released to select theaters, so I had to wait a while to get the chance to see it until I went to Boston for fall break. Within the first minutes of the film, all my fears had been wiped away.

The author of the book, Stephen Chbosky wrote the screenplay for the film, as well as directed it. This meant it was his vision through and through, something that is so rare in book to movie adaptations. If there was ever a doubt that someone could do all three, it was squashed. Chbosky wrote Perks of Being a Wallflower through the main character's letters to an anonomous person. I really liked that Chbosky kept that in the film with pieces of narration scattered throughout the moive. Narration in general is very hit or miss in movies, but in this case it worked seamlessly into the story, to the point where you forgot that it was even happening at some points. If you came out of reading the book, not quite knowing what to think or say, chances are it'll happen all over again...and if you are prone to being a bit of a sap, I'd recommend a box of tissues.

I loved that every ounce of the story was preserved, nothing was sacrificed for cinematic effect, and nothing was held back either. The heavy nature of the story was allowed to stay, and Charlie's blackouts were beautifully woven in. The film worked around a lot of the more gory scenes in the book by cutting out at just the right moment. You were never left wondering what just happened, but you also weren't overwhelmed with blood.

The acting was brilliant. Emma Watson's American accent left something to be desired, but you can tell she improved as filming for the movie occured, on account of her accent was better in some scenes than others. It was never bad, but if you were paying attention, it definitely wasn't perfect. Logan Lerman, who played Charlie, did a fantastic job at playing the quiet, thoughtful character. He did a great job at playing a thoroughly awkward character without being annoying about it or trying to hard. However, Ezra Miller who played Patrick was the standout performance. You believed every ounce of the character, and you couldn't help but love him. His chemistry with Watson was perfect for their brother/sister role, and watching him strut around as Dr. Frank 'N' Furter was just an added bonus.

While the movie itself is not the best movie I've ever seen, it's pretty close; it's definitely the best book adaptation I've ever seen. It does all the things a movie should make you do. It makes you think about things. It makes you appreciate what you have, while also making you feel just about every emotion you possibly could. I definitely recommend seeing it.

Underdog Story

Last week I wrote a blog about Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris.  Despite accumulating close to 20 views,  my hours and hours of hard work was not recognized by my professor.  Even though my feelings were temporarily hurt I decided right then and there that I wouldn't let it hold me down.  With this blog post, I hope to generate the highest number of views in "Blogger" history.  If that doesn't happen, at least give me an A for the submission!
-Kofi Boundy

Kofi Boundy's 1st Blog Entry

As I enter my junior year at Ithaca College, I feel a sense of accomplishment and determination. With the finish line close in sight I can accept the fact that college is more than halfway over, but nevertheless, the fight continues! This summer I was fortunate enough to nab two separate internships at two local radio stations. Through my hours spent with these internships, I was able to gain a great deal of knowledge, experience, and wisdom.  As well as meeting some really cool people.  As the summer came to an end, I and a friend got an opportunity to be an extra for a "Wendy William's Show" commercial (daytime talk show).  Even though all I did was walk in the background, it was awesome to see the amount of production and preparation that went into a 15 second long commercial.  Anyways, being back at Ithaca, I can say I am excited to see what is in store this school year.
-Kofi Boundy