Hurts So Good

I just watched the newly released trailer for The Fault In Our Stars.

You guys, I can't.

I'm already crying. And yet, on the day the movie comes out, I will go, probably first thing in the morning to see it. I know this movie is going to make me miserable. It's going to make me have lots of feelings about life and love and death, lots of hopes and regrets, lots of thoughts on injustice and overall questions of why these things happen. But I will be there, tissues in hand, ready to have red eyes the rest of the day.

One time someone told me that they hate watching sad movies because life is too hard as it is. I get that. But I tend to disagree. In fact, if anything, I think I use sad movies as an acceptable excuse for me to cry about real life. On the daily, it doesn't seem socially appropriate to cry about the things that really make me want to cry. But if I watch a sad movie, the tears can release, and I can just blame it on the movie. Anyone feeling me on this? Or am I the only one out there who willingly watches sad movies?

Oh well. Here's an abbreviated list (cause, let me tell you, I cry at a lot) of movies that are guaranteed to make me cry every time.

1. Beaches: I love how loud and self-involved and diva-like Bette Midler's character is through the entire movie. I love the realness of their friendship, complete with arguments and periods of silence. But the gem of the movie is at the end when she uses all of that attitude and gumption to get Barbara Hershey out of the hospital and to the beach, and that damn song plays, and I just lose it.

2. Fried Green Tomatoes: If you ever want to hear me audibly and uncontrollably sob, this is the movie to show me. The movie only works because it shows the depth of the friendship that Ruth and Idgie have. This is one of my pet peeves with Thelma and Louise...which I could get to in another blog. But the point is, that we see these two grow up together and go through some really hard stuff. So the care they have for each other is obvious and has been shown time and again throughout the story. There are a lot of tough moments, but at the end when Ruth is dying and she asks Idgie to tell her a story, GAH. I love Idgie's reluctance. She recognizes the heavy moment and knows she should probably say something important, but she can't deny her friend's request. She finishes her story and sees Ruth and the rest is a blur due to the fact that I'm always crying so hard at that point, I have no real idea what happens exactly at the end.

The original drunk kitchen.

3. Inception: This may seem like a weird choice for a crying movie. And maybe it's really a trick of the music, but even with the crazy (and what some would call confusing) plot, and the action packed snow scene that lasts a little too long, there is a sentimentality running through this movie that is genius. The entire goal is to have a man change his mind about something. With all the guns and chases, in the end when Robert opens the safe and sees the paper windmill, I lose it. Yes, it's all fabricated. I know, I know. But it just goes to show that the heart is what makes change. Even though that's my favorite moment, I also love Leo's speech to Mal at the end about why he has to let her go. It's so raw.

4. The Pursuit of Happyness: I love NOTHING more than a story about an underdog who gets what he deserves. I can't help it. I root for people who don't have the same advantages as others. And especially if they are willing to work to change their lives! Anyway, this story is painful on so many levels, but the payoff is fully there at the end when he gets the job. The look on Will Smith's face is one of the best acted moments in cinema history. I cry right along with him every time.

Also, this moment.

5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: I could never put a normal rom-com in this list. Sure, I have some that move me, but if I'm gonna pick a romance, it's not gonna be a conventional one. ESOTSM captures what it's like to go through a break up, what it's like to fall in love, and what it's like to want to forget someone. It's an enlightened movie that circles back on itself and somehow manages to fill me with hope and hopelessness all at the same time. The moment that makes me cry every time is when Jim Carrey's Joel is having his memories extracted, and there is one where he and Kate Winslet (Clementine) are in bed, and he says, "Please let me keep this memory. Just this one..."

Honorable Disney Mention: UP. The first ten minutes are torture.
Honorable Sports Mention: Any sports movie really. The scene is the same in all of them.
Honorable Traditional Rom/Com Mention: While You Were Sleeping. The end when she confesses.
Honorable Period Piece Mention: Sense and Sensibility. Emma Thompson is so composed the entire movie, then she loses it.

Do you like a good cry? What are your "go-to" movies that bring you to tears?

Freaks and Geeks: A Show Worthy of a Weekend Fat Revival

I can't promise that I'm bringing this blog back, but I need a place to discuss Freaks and Geeks.  After a whole lot of prodding harassment from a few friends and access to my cousin's Netflix account, I have finally completed what might be one of the best shows about High School ever made. It is not only captivating with characters and plot, it deals with so many of the agenda based issues that Glee attempted without being heavy-handed, AND it serves as the precursor to so many other shows that are on TV today. Here are some things/moments I loved from the show.

1. The characters are not beautiful. I mean, of course they are all pretty good looking, but they aren't shiny and happy. They are angsty and curvy with clothes that don't fit and asymmetrical faces. Even though they are actors, they make a great attempt at real people. They are flawed. GOSH are they flawed. Angry, obsessive, mean, confused, giving into peer-pressure, socially awkward, not self-aware, spoiled, and more. And yet, even with all of these various personality flaws, they are not caricatures.  I found myself rooting for each of them to rise above whatever kept them down. To study harder, speak up, calm down, soften up, try harder, practice more, because even though these characters are not beautiful people, they are like me and you. We can do hard things, and I found myself believing it for them too.

2. Lindsay's transformation/coming of age. It would have been really easy to make Lindsay's character the vehicle for all of the lessons that needed to be learned in the show. And while there are moments where she is forced to come face to face with the choices she is making, she never strays so far from herself that she can't remember who she really is. As much as she wants to be cool or fit in with the Freaks, she brings her own flavor to it, even if it pisses the other characters off or puts her at risk of being ousted.

We're all unhappy. That's the thing about life. That's the horrible thing about life.

3. Jason Segel is adorable. Whether you like it or not, Jason Segel is a TV actor. His movies may make a splash, but his ability to develop a character through the arc of a TV show is where his strength in acting is. He is doing himself a disservice when he does ridiculous movies. HIMYM and this show are proof that he can bring incredible depth to what writers probably wrote as a pretty basic trope.

4. The episode when Sam wants an Atari and Neal gets one. We find out (spoiler) that Neal's dad is having an affair. Sam sees him out with another woman and is appalled and confused. Neal's dad tries to cover it up by saying he wanted to keep it secret so he could buy Neal the Atari. Neal is thrilled of course when he gets the game console. But at the end of the episode Sam's dad buys him one too just for the heck of it. Sam and Lindsay's parents constantly want the attention of their kids, especially the dad. And the moment when Sam get the Atari, the way he hugs his father is beautiful. It's as if he has a full appreciation of the fact that his dad is a man of integrity, even if an annoying one at times. It's rare that children see their parents for who they are and are able to really commit their emotions to them. But that moment is a perfect and sweet example.

I heard Stevie Nicks is a witch. She casts spells on people. I heard she cast a love spell on Lindsay Buckingham!

5. The best unintentional series finale ever. (Obviously there are spoilers ahead) Somehow in these 45 minutes, the characters get to try on new lives. (Which is the entire basis of High School Musical and Glee) James Franco ends up playing Dungeons and Dragons with the Geeks. Jason Segel has disco fever. And even though we don't realize it until the very end, Lindsay finally really rebels. But she doesn't do it in a mean or spiteful way. Instead of attending the academic event she's destined for, she and Kim (Busy Philipps) get into a van and follow the Grateful Dead around for 2 weeks. It's a sweet merging of personalities and lives that happens without force. Just like in real life, once you graduate, you become more of who you really are. The stereotypes melt away, and you're free to try on who you always wanted to be. Lindsay's last words to her mom are spoken in an unforgettable way, but the joy on her face when she meets up with Kim is hopeful. It's a really strangely perfect ending.

I could go on. I know I'm late to this party, but if you're coming into your Summer without a ton to do, watch this show. You won't regret it. When I finished it on Wednesday night, I looked up the Grateful Dead's American Beauty album and closed my eyes while it played in the background. It seemed like the most appropriate thing to do considering there was no van available for me to jump into with my best friend.

What are your favorite moments of the show? Favorite characters? Tell me what you loved!