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Ever since I saw Bright Star a month or so ago, I’ve been wearing a lot of outfits that just scream “Fanny Brawne!” LOL, but seriously, ruffles, high necklines, cotton and linen day dresses…who can deny that Fanny is just plain fabulous?

And so, I did some searching and compiled a list of Fanny Brawne-ish pieces you can consider buying or emulating:

- Victoire Sweater, via Soft Surroundings

- Wide Sash Wrap, by E Shakti

- Cropped Blazer, by BB Dakota

- Ruffled Trim Shirt dress, by Eshakti

- “Lois Lane,” by Shabby Apple

I am sooooo about to order this ruffled scarf from EShakti:

Ok seriously…where can I find a field like this to sit in? I’m joking…but no really…

Given that I live in, work in, and pretty much breathe the entertainment industry, I’ve decided to publish a movie guide each month for you ladies. I won’t cover all releases (if you have a request, shoot me an email) but will specially focus on releases with female characters.

BRIGHT STAR – Out Now
Writer/Director, Jane Campion (Female Director Alert!!)
Starring: Abbie Cornish & Ben Wishaw

Bright Star is the true(ish) story of the romance between famed writer John Keats and his neighbor Fanny Braun that inspired his poem Bright Star.

I saw it last week….and I cried. When I say cried, I don’t mean I got misty, I mean that there were legitimate tears falling. I didn’t think this was going to happen given that I already knew what the end of the story was, but alas it still pulled at my heartstrings. I don’t want to give too many details about the story away, but I totally recommend this flick. In addition to it being entertaining and breathtaking cinematically, the fashion is AMAZING. Go see it and bring a tissue box. Seriously.

WHIP IT – Out Now
Director – Drew Barrymore
Writer – Shauna Cross
Starring: Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Eve, Marcia Gay Harden

I haven’t seen this one yet, but as a big fan of Ellen Page, I do plan to. Plus, I’m curious to see Barrymore’s directing skills.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE – Out October 16
Directed by Spike Jonez
Written by Spike Jonez & David Eggers

I have to admit I’ve never read the book, but every time I mention this movie to someone, typically the person salivates. It’s a cool concept; I plan to see it.

AMELIA – Out October 23
Directed by Mira Nair
Writer: Ronald Bass & Anna Hamilton Phelan
Starring: Hilary Swank, Ewan McGregor

An Oscar Winner + An Awesome true story = What’s not to love? The tag line for the film is “Defying The Impossible. Living The Dream.” Well, I can’t wait.

As an aside, last night I went to a screening of “The Waiting City,” a movie about a couple that travels to India to claim their adopted baby, and in the process must confront their troubled marriage. I met Claire McCarthy, the writer/director of the film last week after mass through some Catholic film friends, and was highly impressed by her talent and ethos.

The Waiting City just had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival two weeks ago, and will be released in America at some point next year. I was emotionally moved by the film, and definitely recommend you see it once it is released. You can check out the trailer here.

Ah…time for another breathless BBC romance…

I’m working on a fall movie guide with an emphasis on releases with strong female characters. From September-December there are at least 3-4 movies I’m excited about seeing, one of which is “Bright Star” that will hit theaters Sept. 18.  The fashion looks AMAZING.

The Ugly Truth

A fake orgasm never looked so fake…

In this romcom, Katherine Heigl plays Abby, an uptight TV producer forced to confront her rules about love and dating when she begins to produce “The Ugly Truth,” a show for women hosted by a misogynistic and disgusting playboy named Mike (Gerard Butler.) When Abby becomes interested in her new neighbor, Mike promises that if she follows his rules, she will have Colin eating out of the palm of her hand. These rules include sexing up Abby’s wardrobe and eating “phallic” shaped objects. (Errm…ok…) In the end, Abby does get Colin, a seemingly stereotypically nice guy with a fake tan and cheek bones I highly suspect have been surgically enhanced, but then realizes she’s lost herself.

Being an advocate of modesty in dress, I found the film’s approach to the topic to be full of mistakes at best. Mike explains to Abby that men are visual and therefore she needs to dress much sexier to garner the attention of men. OK, but then later on in the film he tells her she needs to keep some of her mystery to keep a guy’s attention. Well which is it Mike? Mystery or boobs on display?

The storyline continues with this battle of the sexes, and in the end the message of the film is a little fuzzy…which of course is a social commentary on dating in and of itself.

500 Days of Summer

The plot of this film can be surmised with the phrase, “the guy who wasted his time on the girl who just wanted to have fun.”

500 Days of Summer is the story of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is your typical average Joe—he works in an office, lives in a grungy studio apartment, goes to bars with his friends on the weekends, etc. When Tom meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel) he is convinced that she is “The One”…despite her clear statement that she isn’t looking for anything serious. (I think the audience heard it and Tom just missed it. Poor thing…) Director Mark Webb then takes us on jumps through time to see the various stages of the couple’s relationship. Signals get crossed, sex ensues, break ups and drunken karaoke songs abound…

Critics keep ranting and raving about this one, but quite honestly I found it boring most of the time. This was due large in part to the lack of character development in Summer. We spend most of the film on an emotional roller coaster with Tom, but the film never really shows the audience why we should be so in love with Summer too, only that Tom sees something phenomenal within her. Admittedly she’s got great fashion sense, but other than that, I didn’t really get it. I sat with my apathy for a while and determined that perhaps this confusion is what Webb wanted?

I found the third act of the film to be the most satisfying. The plot twist elicited a general WTF? from the entire audience. Though it wasn’t an exhilarating ride through horrible dialogue and bomb detonations, I would recommend this one.

Paper Heart

In a pseudo-documentary that isn’t (or perhaps is…or something…) Charlene Yi (played by herself) embarks on a cross-country quest to make a documentary about the definition love and she does not believe in love. Through her trek, Charlene meets Michael Cera (played by himself) and the two fall in love…or do they?

Pressured by the camera crew that now wants to include her dating life in the film, Charlene must continue to confront her pessimism about love while simultaneously falling for the quirky nice guy.

Although I have been looking forward to seeing this film since the beginning of year, I was surprised by how much I liked it. I was literally holding my stomach laughing in some areas, and can I just say I’m glad to see a film in which a normal girl gets the guy?

As a filmmaker myself, part of what I found so hilarious was the ongoing behind-the-scenes comedy within the film crew—standing in the rain, running around in grocery stores—hey it’s all for the integrity of the film man!

Charlene’s interviews of random couples were also incredibly heart-warming and gave a reality check on love and marriage not often seen in films. What is love? Is it a feeling or a decision? Charlene seems to take the opinion of the former as she doesn’t think she could ever “feel” so strongly about someone, but the stories of the couples seem to support the latter. (Duh!)

All that being said, the ending was awful…like…God-awful…and I say that because I don’t think it had enough substance for the subject matter the film was trying to undertake. Despite this, I still recommend you go check this movie out.

BTW, Charlene Yi is the co-writer of the film and only two years older than me…quite inspiring for the soon-to-be senior in film school.

I saw this and was like…awwwww…

Last Sunday, CBS premiered “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler,” a true story about the Catholic woman who saved over 2,000 Jewish children during WWII.

Academy Award-winning actress Anna Paquin stars in the titular role, and recently sat down with Catholic Digest to talk about the film. I must admit I’m a big Anna Paquin fan and have been for years.

Some snippets:

You’ve said that doing this film made you feel part of something important. Would you share a little more about that?

I think that telling any story that’s such an important part of history and that is so sad and painful for so many people, and telling a story of someone who was trying to make a difference and did… that’s a really amazing thing to be able to be part of. [Irena] was a very, very incredible, strong, and sort of anonymous figure from that time. It’s kind of amazing to think about how many people like that have just gone unnoticed, and to get to be a part of telling those sorts of stories is really important.

 

How do you think Irena’s Catholic faith influenced her actions, and how did that factor into your interpretation of the role?

She was raised a Catholic, but what she was doing was probably more, I would say, derivative of the basic values of a belief system rather than (from her) being a very religious person herself. She was doing what she believed was the right thing, which was to be helping in any way she could and to be putting herself out there and on the line. 

Sometimes people encountering heroic stories like Irena’s tend to ask themselves, What would I have done? Would I have been as brave? Did you ever find yourself asking those kinds of questions?

Other people have asked me probably more than I’ve asked myself. (laughing) I was more worried about not offending her memory by trying to be as true to her as I could be without ever having met her. I would hope I would be as strong as her, but I hopefully will never have to know.

How did preparing for the role and then being part of the production affect your own life? 

We were in Latvia for two months and it was winter and it was really cold. We worked six days a week and it was pretty grim. The subject matter that you’re dealing with, it’s hard to shake it off at the end of the night. Really all I was doing was preparing for the next day and trying to sleep.

In one interview on the Hallmark site you mentioned something she had said — that she was scared about what she was doing but that she was more angry about what was going on, and that that helped her.

Yeah, her anger sort of helped her overcome her fear. Anyone caught or found out or suspected to be helping in any way in the Jewish community would be killed. There was no middle ground. You’d have to be a pretty determined and strong person to really not care that that was the situation you’re putting yourself in because the situation of the people you’re trying to help was so much worse.

  You can read the rest of Anna’s interview here.

One of my Family Theater girlfriends saw this film at a pre-screening and said that while it was funny, the message was a little off. I think I fully agree with that conclusion to a certain extent.

GiGi, played by Giniffer Goodwin, is “that girl” we’ve all known and loved. She’s cute, smart, and funny, but overanalyzes everything when it comes to dating. When Gigi meets Alex (Justin Long), a sarcastic bartender who dishes out free dating advice, Gigi changes the way she dates, taking into account that “he just might not be that into her.” Also interwoven into the film is the story of Ben and Janine (Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Connolley), a couple whose marriage is on the rocks due to a number of reasons including Ben making “friends” with the beautiful and single Anna (Scarlett Johanssen), Beth and Neil (Jennifer Anniston and Ben Affleck), a couple whose been together forever but just can’t seem to get married, and Connor and Mary. Connor is a real estate agent who pines after Anna, but just can’t seem to understand why the spark has been lost in their relationship (probably because she’s busy sexing married men.) Mary is a graphic designer whose storyline was somewhat lost on me and I thought the film could have done without.

I will admit the movie was funny. I went and saw it with one of my girlfriends and we were cackling the entire time (though nervously thinking, “Oh crap, do I do that?”) I also think it definitely told some truths about women in the dating game—overanalyzing, over emotionalism, etc. I’ve never read the book, but I’ve been told that the basic message is that if “he” doesn’t do “x” like calling you, he doesn’t like you. But what confused me about the film was that at the end, some of the storylines get wrapped in a pretty bow with the boy and girl skipping off into the sunset. It seemed a bit contradictory to me.

One big thing that I didn’t like (other than Scarlet Johanssen’s homewrecker character) was the message that “if he’s not having sex with you, he’s just not that into you.” The editing of the film is meant to copy the chapters of the book, and that message was titled in bold print across the screen for that portion of the film. It was actually applicable to the following scenes about Beth and Neil’s marriage, but as soon as I saw the title I couldn’t help but steam in my chair knowing that there were teenage girls sitting all around me who were taking that message as black and white truth. (Girls, that’s not true! I know this as fact!)

The film was funny, but your life won’t be missing anything if you don’t see it.

She could be if she so desired.

In case you haven’t heard, Brazilian actress and model Camilla Belle will be starring as the Blessed Mother in the upcoming film “Mary, Mother of Christ,” set to start production in May.  I’ve blogged about the film at Catholic in Film School. (I’m interning at one of the partnering companies.)  I’ve read the script and it’s amazing. It will be interesting to see if this film affects her faith at all, the way the Passion of the Christ did for some of its actors.

Camilla was snapped a few days ago at a pre-Oscar party:

Unrelated photos of her:

Have you seen this movie?  I have, and I will post a review tomorrow. While it’s definitely not a Christian-based movie, it definitely touches on some of the mistakes many women make when it comes to dating.  

If you have seen it, I’m curious to know what you think.

The film everybody is talking about “Twilight” will have its premiere out here in LA next Monday.  I have managed to stay away from the hype surrounding the movie—but I am planning to go see it next week.

In Style Magazine is featuring some beautiful shots of the lead actors Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

 
Well, he is most certainly handsome…

An interesting fact: The author of the book is Mormon and has explained in interviews that the original Twilight series promotes abstinence before marriage.