Five to Watch: Unconventional Romance Movies

“The Shape of Water” was the big winner at the Oscars last night. Well-deserved I think, because it’s brilliant. The movie contains some unconventional romance, because lets face it, it’s a human female with a male amphibian man. But when you love him, you love him, right? That made me think of this theme, a list of unconventional romance films. Whether it’s an unconventional couple, story, storytelling, theme. Here are five films I think are not as well-known or deserve more attention. And I think you should definitely give them a shot.

Secretary
A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer. Their employer-employee relationship turns sexual, of the sadomasochistic kind. While reading the synopsis, I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. It’s super strange, but somehow in a good way.

Ruby Sparks
A novelist is struggling with writer’s block and he finds love in a most unusual way: by creating a female character he thinks will love him, then willing her to existence. A great idea, very well executed. And mostly thanks to Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan, who have great chemistry and perform solidly.

Lars and the Real Girl
Lars is the shiest, most awkward guy you’ll ever meet. Social integrations are almost painful for him. He doesn’t even spend time with his own family. Finally, he talks about bringing home a girl he loves, who turns out to be a life-size doll. And no, this isn’t about sex but something deeper and much more sensitive. And the way the people around him each respond, is sometimes surprising and heartwarming.

Moonrise Kingdom
A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to find them. Ambitious, but it delivers. Wes Anderson directs and his style is really fascinating, every time. “Moonrise Kingdom” leaves you smiling and dreamy.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
An inside ride with Scott Pilgrim, a guy trying to win a girl’s heart he fell in love with at first sight. The problem: he finds out that he has to battle the girl’s 7 madly possessice ex-boyfriends before he can even think of being with her. Comic book style, Edgar Wright directing.

Movie Battle: (500) Days of Summer Vs. Ruby Sparks

I’m not a very big fan of romantic comedies, unless they are a bit unconventional. The two I can think of are going to battle it out in today’s movie battle: “(500) Days of Summer” Vs. “Ruby Sparks”

ACTORS

(500) Days of Summer: This was one of the films that brought us back Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is now one of the more successful actors in Hollywood. Together with Zooey Deschanel he forms an amazing couple. Their performances are amazing.

Ruby Sparks: Paul Dano is an extraordinary actor, I really like him. He does a great job in “Ruby Sparks”. And Zoe Kazan, as Ruby Sparks, is amazing! Fun supporting roles by Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Chris Messina and Steve Coogan.

STORY

(500) Days of Summer: When Tom meets Summer, he falls far her immediately. Summer doesn’t believe true love exists, Tom does. We see the 500 days Summer is in Tom’s life. It sounds like your average rom com, but it’s anything but that.

Ruby Sparks: The story doesn’t sound straight forward and isn’t. It’s about a struggling writer, who writes about a woman who can love him and actually coming to life. It’s an original story (written by Zoe Kazan) and executed very well.

EFFECTS

(500) Days of Summer: The cinematography of “(500) Days of Summer” is magnificent. First off, the story isn’t told chronologically, but there are also some great effects used. Like the split screen, where we see Tom’s expectations and reality of a moment.

Ruby Sparks: The film looks beautiful, but more straight forward then “(500) Days of Summer”.

WINNER

Although I really loved “Ruby Sparks”, “(500) Days of Summer” has been one of my all-time favorites ever since I first saw it

Top 5 Thursday: Movies I Watched for My Challenge (July 2015)

I didn’t see a lot of new ones this month, but I did see lots of great movies this month, so let’s get into it. (I’m sharing it today, because tomorrow I’m going away for a couple of weeks. I wanted to get this top 5 out before I left).

5. Terminator Genisys

The long awaited sequel (or prequel, or reboot… lots of messing with timelines) and it was especially a lot of fun because of the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I read a lot of bad reviews, but I really liked it.

 

 

4. Paddington

What a sweet movie. I remember the stories of Paddington when I was a kid and it was quite nice to see him come to life in a movie.

 

 

3. Ruby Sparks

I like unconventional love stories, and “Ruby Sparks” definitely is one. From the makers of “Little Miss Sunshine” so you know what you can expect. Well, actually you don't because it's a pretty strange story.

 

 

2. John Wick

Totally unexpected, but this movie was seriously awesome. Anyone who still says Keanu Reeves can’t act, please watch “John Wick”. So kick-ass!

 

 

1. Inside Out

Surprise, surprise, a Pixar movie is number one! “Inside Out” is so much fun and it’s very original. All the emotions where just great, I think sadness was my favorite of them all. People with kids, go see it! People with no kids, also go so it!

 

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: Death at a Funeral

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 91: Ruby Sparks

Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

Genre: Comedy/ Romance/ Drama

Runtime: 106 minutes

Year: 2012

Starring: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Chris Messina, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Steve Coogan, Elliot Gould, Wallce Langham, Alia Shawkat

Description: A novelist (Paul Dano) struggling with writer's block finds romance in a most unusual way: by creating a female character he thinks will love him, then willing her into existence.

Review: Make up your ideal woman and then all of a sudden she is in standing in your house. This is the story in “Ruby Sparks”. Calvin is an ordinary young man who wrote a successful book in his high school years. He lives in a beautiful apartment and still holds lectures and presentations about that book. Everyone is waiting for his next novel, but Calvin is struggling with writer’s block. When he dreams about a beautiful girl, his psychologist advices Calvin to write about her. He names her Ruby Sparks and starts writing about her. And she comes to live. Calvin starts a romance with Ruby and whenever he wants something from Ruby, he just writes it down. It looks like the ideal situation, but it isn’t.

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris already made “Little Miss Sunshine” together, a movie that won over a lot of hearts. This time the duo creates another comedy, with a romantic touch. The script is by Zoe Kazan, who plays Ruby.

Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano form a great couple with great chemistry. In the first hour of the film it’s more comedic and Dano shows of his comedic talent. Kazan didn’t only write a fun and original script, but she is also a really pleasant actress to watch. Chris Messina, as Calvin’s brother Harry, is also great in his role and has some great scenes. With them there is also Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Elliot Gould and Steve Coogan, all in relatively small roles.

The high level the movie has the first hour, gets lost a bit in the second half, because the comedy has to make room for more drama. That drama doesn’t work as well as the comedy. It feels forced. In “Little Miss Sunshine” it did work.

“Ruby Sparks” is a fun and sweet film, that sometimes feel like a fairytale. It’s never overly sweet or cliché and it is very original. An unconventional love story.

Rating: 4/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (34)

This weeks trailers are about two sisters, a woman named Virginia, stripper men, a young novelist and high school.

Your Sister's Sister
Description: Jack (Mark Duplass) is still reeling from his brother's death a year earlier. His close friend Iris (Emily Blunt), who happens to also be the ex of Jack's brother, ships him off to her family's remote vacation home so he can be alone to get himself back together. Jack unexpectedly finds Iris' sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt) there for similar purposes, and the two quickly get to know each other over an evening of tequila. When Iris arrives unannounced the next morning, it sets off a chain reaction of revelations and shifting dynamics.
Director: Lynn Shelton
Starring: Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass, Rosemarie DeWitt
Trailer: Trailer "Your Sister's Sister"

Virginia
Description: Virginia (Jennifer Connelly) is a beautiful yet unhinged single mother who struggles to raise her son Emmett (Harrison Gilbertson) while dreaming of escaping her small Southern boardwalk town. Her long time affair with the very married, Mormon Sheriff Richard Tipton (Ed Harris) is thrown into question when he decides to run for public office. Things are further complicated when Emmett begins a romantic relationship with Tipton's daughter (Emma Roberts).
Director: Dustin Lance Black
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Emma Roberts, Harrison Gilbertson
Trailer: Trailer "Virginia"
Comment: Jennifer Connelly looks amazing. It was about time she got a leading role again.

Magic Mike
Description: We follow Mike (Channing Tatum) as he takes a young dancer called The Kid (Pettyfer) under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money.
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn
Trailer: Trailer "Magic Mike"
Comment: It looks a bit stupid, but Channing Tatum taking his shirt off is a good reason for watching this movie.

Ruby Sparks
Description: Calvin (Paul Dano) is a young novelist who achieved phenomenal success early in his career but is now struggling with his writing - as well as his romantic life. Finally, he makes a breakthrough and creates a character named Ruby who inspires him. When Calvin finds Ruby (Zoe Kazan), in the flesh, sitting on his couch about a week later, he is completely flabbergasted that his words have turned into a living, breathing person.
Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Starring: Paul Dano, Antonio Banderas, Zoe Kazan, Annette Bening, Steve Coogan, Elliott Gould, Chris Messina
Trailer: Trailer "Ruby Sparks"
Comment: Looks a bit like "Stranger Than Fiction" and I loved that. So this looked very good.

High School
Description: It's the end of the school year, and smarmy Principal Gordon (Michael Chiklis) has suddenly instituted a zero-tolerance crusade against his nemesis, the reviled marijuana. A mandatory drug test for all students is to be administered, failure of which will result in immediate expulsion. With his college scholarship hanging in the balance, valedictorian Henry Burke teams up a charismatic pothead to do the only thing they can think of to neutralize this threat - get the entire student body stoned.
Director: John Stalberg Jr.
Starring: Adrien Brody, Colin Hanks, Michael Chiklis, Mykelti Williamson, Sean Marquette
Trailer: Trailer "High School"