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Love, Simon | Movie Review

Mar 17, 2018

Love, Simon

Release date: March 29, 2018
Running Time: 109 Minutes
Director: Greg Berlanti
Starring: Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel and Katherine Langford.
Links: IMDb | Rotton Tomatoes | Fox

Simon Spier keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends, and all of his classmates: he’s gay. When that secret is threatened, Simon must face everyone and come to terms with his identity.

Love, Simon:

Thank you to Student Edge and 20th Century Fox for the advance screening of Love, Simon. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the movie.

I’ve had the opportunity of seeing Love, Simon twice and gosh both times I was left crying, smiling and laughing all at the same time. It’s the type of movie that is heartbreakingly truthful, beautiful and hits you in the right places.

Love, Simon based on the novel by Becky Albertalli Simon vs the Homo Sapien Agenda, follows Simon (Nick Robinson) as he navigates his last years in high school. And he is keeping a massive secret from everyone in his life – he is gay. After becoming ‘pen-pals’ with a closet gay guy from school, he starts to let himself feel free. But when his secret is threatened, Simon has to come to terms with himself and tell the truth.

I loved, loved, loved this movie with everything in me. It’s so real and heartbreaking but also everyone should watch it. It’s of the first YA movies that really does focus on being part of the LGBT+ community and I think it was done really well. It was really great to see a coming out story of a current teen on the screen. It’s so rare and I think that it was done justice

I adored Nick Robinson as Simon. He is this very shy person that is hiding a secret that hurts him. He doesn’t know what his family will think, or his friends and that scares the shit out of him. While not part of the LGBT+ community (that is known) he really does encompass the coming of age story really well. But it isn’t all sunshine and daisy and it hurt to watch. Love, Simon really does show some of the harsh reality of coming out and while heartbreaking, I thought that it was done really well.

Along with his parents played Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel, Simon has really good friends support system. Leah (Katherine Langford) and Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) have been his friends for years and Simon is terrified to tell them the truth. And even though Abby (Alexandra Shipp) is new to this friendship group, she fits in with these amazing misfits. It was both heartbreaking and beautiful to see this friendship group. And it was so hard to see Simon struggle with who he was when it came to telling people.

After a boy from their school comes out as gay anonymous on their social media platform, Simon strikes up a friendship with him. Which was done so well? Unless you have read the book, you wouldn’t have a clue who Blue is. Simon eventually falls in love with Blue, without knowing who he is. And when everything hits the fan – oh gosh it broke my heart.

Love, Simon also deals with the darkness of not wanting people to know. It’s was really hard to watch it, but it’s also so important to show it. Love, Simon looks out the reactions from classmates, family, and friends. There are still horrible people in the world and this movie does show that.

The acting in Love, Simon was fresh, youthful and put a smile on my face. It just fit perfectly with the essence of the movie. We didn’t have all 30-year-olds playing teens and that was great to see for once. The movie felt very real. I also really liked how Love, Simon was filmed. I do not expect, but like the acting like the acting. It was fresh and just worked so well with the book. I loved the scenes with Blue and how the viewers also spent the whole time trying to work out who he is.

Overall, Love, Simon is a coming of age novel for the current teen. It’s a heartbreaking but beautiful novel that really pulls at your heartstrings. Love, Simon is such an important movie for everyone to watch. For teens, for parents for every adult out there. It made me cry, laugh, and I left with a smile on face both times. I cannot wait to go watch it again.

Have you watched Love Simon? What did you think of it? Are you planning on checking it out? Let’s Chat!

Movie Review: The 5th Wave spoiler free

Jan 14, 2016

I got the chance to watch The 5^th Wave early from Penguin Teen Australia and Dymocks.

First, I want to say that I have not read the books. So I went into the movie blind – I knew things that happened because I did a little research, but other than that I didn’t know all too much.

I liked The 5^th Wave. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate. It was a pretty okay movie. I really didn’t know what to expect, nevertheless I wanted more. It rather lacked and I was just waiting for something to really happen and it didn’t happen until the last 15 minutes or so of the movie.

The 5^th Wave, directed by J Blakeson adapted from Rick Yancey’s novel The 5^th Wave, with the screen adaptation by Akiva Goldsman, Susannah Grant, and Jeff Pinkner.

The movie follows Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she tries to get back to her brother Sam (Zackary Arthur) after 4 waves of alien turmoil have hit the earth. As the 5^th wave is looming on everyone’s head, Cassie teams up with Evan Walker (Alex Roe) who may be her final hope – if she can trust him.

The start of The 5^th Wave reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games, a girl running in the woods. The way that the camera angles were shot, the fast movement. It seemed familiar – until she had her gun hoisted in her arms. That was what shot me out of reality.

It starts off with the running scene in the forests and then flashes back to when it all started. The day before the first wave. Cassie is behaving like a normal teenager with a cup of beer in her hand instead of Gun. This is where we first meet Ben Parrish (Nick Robinson), Cassie long time crush. The scene was “very awkward teenager”.

As the movie goes through the waves – many people die including some close to Cassie, on the other hand it all happened quite fast that it was hard to process what was happening.

There are quite a few graphics used in these scenes and well, I was disappointed. They kind of fell flat for me. I thought they were going to be so much better, however at parts it really did look fake.

The was also far too many close up camera angles that put the character right there in front of your face. Over time it was starting to get annoying, when they could have gone back a few steps.

The acting was pretty okay. When working with younger cast members it’s really hard to get it perfect. But I thought that all the side characters were done well. Zackary Arthur was a cute little Sammy. While Moretz highlighted her sheer determination as Cassie to get back her little brother back.

However, let’s talk about the bear. Sammy’s little bear. It is going to get Cassie killed. I don’t know why she doesn’t keep it in her backpack or strapped around her or something. Why was she carrying it a lot of the time? Put it in your backpack and you won’t drop it.

The romance – oh the cheese. The romance was cheesy it was making me cringe so much. It wasn’t even the chemistry between Moretz and Roe. It was the lines and the looks – I just wanted to turn away. Hopefully in the next movie, they get rid of the cheese.

I did like humour though. It might not have meant to be funny, nonetheless there were scenes that you couldn’t help, but laugh at. It was those really teenager scenes. Where everything is awkward and weird, it felt like it was like real teenagers.

Overall The 5^th Wave was full of laughs, cheesy romance and a little bit of action. I do wish that there was a little more action. The graphics could have been done better, however, the acting of the younger cast member’s stood out. I hope that the second movie can do better.

The 5^th Wave is out in the cinemas now in Australia. 22nd of January in the USA and UK

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FROSTBITE: A VAMPIRE ACADEMY FILM – Indigogo

Aug 12, 2014

You all know how much I love the Vampire Academy books. You also know that I liked the movie as well. It may have not been the best but I still really enjoyed.

That is why we really, really need Frostbite. We will be meeting so many new characters in this movie that I can’t even hold anything in. We will hopefully be meeting Adrian, Eddie, Tasha and so many more.

A couple of months ago the Official Vampire Academy Movie page announced that they need help to fund the movie. They left that with us until a couple of days ago when they announced that there are going to be doing an Indigogo project. Here is the announcement from the cast and producers annoying the crowd-funding campaign.

So what that means is that you are able to buy perks which includes some pretty awesome items and what you buy for it goes towards the funding. We need to raise $1.5 Million for us to be able to get the Frostbite movie.

If we don’t raise the money by the 5^th of September 12.59pm PT time everyone gets their money back and sadly the movie won’t go ahead.

I really want to be able to see Frostbite and there are some amazing perks up for grabs at all different prices. Prices range from $10 to $10,000.

So I encourge all of you please do help us. Don’t let what you think about the Vampire Academy movie cloud your mind from donating to help us from getting Frostbite. In saying that we also have a new scirpt writer for Frostbite none other than Piers Ashworth who not long ago left a message to us fans.

Writing the screenplay for Frostbite made me realize just how perfect the story is for a movie. It is filled with action and emotion and incredible characters all of whom evolve through the story. I can’t wait to see Adrian’s onscreen introduction… not to mention Natasha and Eddie and Janine. But I think my favorite new character is Isaiah. In this film the Strigoi are really, really scary… and the worst of them, the most powerful, is Isaiah. Immeasurably strong and almost impossible to kill he’s the ultimate bad guy and the perfect opponent for Rose. Because of his existence (and his plan to eradicate the Moroi royal families) there is tension from the very first page. That gives the film an energy and a pace that will keep audiences (even those who have never read the books) on the edge of their seats until the very end.

We have to get this movie made. We have to meet Adrian and understand the new dimension he brings to the story. We have to experience the changes Rose undergoes as she battles the ultimate foe at the same time as coming to terms with her relationships (including the one with her mother). We have to see the battle of wills in the basement – and the surprise of Mia’s use of water magic to incapacitate Isaiah. We have to see the Strigoi for what they really are. Please help make that happen.

Just reading that makes me so excited to see the film. Just by what he is saying I know that the script will be so much better than Vampire Academy.

You can donate at Indigogo and guys don’t forget to spread the world. As we reach certain goals we are getting little perks. Even parts of the script. So come on guys join the amazing VAFamily and donate to help us get Frostbite.

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