The Book of Life - Loved it

Hey guys! I hope that you're all well!

So today, on a friend's recommendation, I watched The Book of Life and it was incredibly beautiful for a number of reasons. Before I begin, here's the synopsis of the film to give it some context :)

'Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart, embarks on an adventure that spans three fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears.'

From here on, I'm going to tell you what I loved about this film and I will warn you from here that there are spoilers - I tried to signpost them all but it got a little ridiculous so I'll just warn you from now - SPOILERS AHEAD! :)

The first thing I loved was the fact that Manolo, the main character, follows what he wants to do fully. When it comes down to it, he follows what he believes to be right and doesn't use brute force and doesn't kill the bull though that's what his family has traditionally done for generations. He also finds out that no-one before him in his family has followed their passion for singing but went on to become bull fighters as all of their family were. The fact that he follows his passion and does the right thing ignites the spark in his own family and in his best friend, Joaquin to be selfless and honest is what I love. He uses his own strengths in both singing and in bullfighting to do what he feels he should do and to win because he is right and not because he's somehow cheating.

This theme is also explored because both Joaquin and Manolo are in love with Maria and the three of them make up what is very similar to the Three Musketeers. Both Joaquin and Manolo try and impress Maria but what I love about Manolo and why I think he does end up with Maria is because he takes her as she is and enhances her independence in comparison to Joaquin. She loves to fence, is also very good at kung fu and also spurs the town of San Angel where they all live, to stand up and defend the town they love so much. Manolo dances with her to defeat the evil pirate guy who wants to destroy their town and in doing so, they both fight him together. Joaquin when trying to impress Maria, accidentally falls into the trap of telling her that she should be someone who's the stereotypical housewife - evidently not a role that fits for her.

What I did love about how Joaquin grows as a character is the fact that at the end, Manolo goes into the town's largest ringing bell which had fallen from its place and which covers himself and the evil pirate as the evil pirate detonates many bombs all at once. Manolo in fact, survives because he was given a special green medal that the evil pirate wanted from Joaquin which grants the wearer the ability to not be hurt by anything and therefore everlasting life. This therefore means that in doing the selfless act, he survives but what we also find out is that Joaquin was going to go in too and that he was willing to sacrifice himself without the medal for the good of the town.

Manolo with his honesty and bravery was able to light the spark in Joaquin to encourage him to be brave ('never surrender!') and to do the right thing, even if meant danger for him. I think that's what I really loved about this film.

If you guys do get the time, I would highly recommend watching it! It's also immensely humourous and I'm sure that you'll enjoy it :D

I hope you all have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and I'll speak to you very soon indeed!

Thoughts on 'What If'

Hey guys!

So today I watched the 2013 film 'What If' starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan and I have to say overall, I absolutely loved the film and there were many things I adored though equally, some things less so. Before I get started into what I thought, here's the synopsis from the IMDb page :)

'Wallace, who is burned out from a string of failed relationships, forms an instant bond with Chantry, who lives with her longtime boyfriend. Together, they puzzle out what it means if your best friend is also the love of your life.'

For me, I instantly fell in love with their chemistry and their relationship, their frankness and the way that they interacted as two people and also the other characters and the layers that they formed around them. I also loved the way that it wasn't necessarily an outright comedy because the most comedic moments were also quite inherently serious in the way that they could also represent something deeper or were intrinsically bad. 

For example, one of the first that comes to mind is when Wallace (the main character) tries to help Chantry (the girl he's in love with)'s boyfriend when he gets jalapeno in his eye. What ends up happening is that in opening the door from the bathroom, Wallace manages to push Ben (the boyfriend) out of the window which Wallace then accidentally follows by his phone. This is incredible because Ben ends up alright but you end up so afraid for everyone and for the chances of Wallace and Chantry's friendship after that that it's a gripping film as well as anything else.

Having said that, there are some wonderful moments of comedy and I would still thoroughly recommend this film in spite of the more tense moments that you might not expect though for me, this might be because of my lack of experience in rom-coms and their workings. For me though, the analytics between Wallace and his room mate Allan as to which option Wallace should follow in his pursuit of Chantry clearly demonstrate how we as a society classically judge and one of my most treasured moments is when Allan says 'You should tell her with 100% honesty, exactly how you feel, like a real man.' to which Wallace replies 'Isn't that the opposite of what a real man would do? A real man is supposed to hide his feelings etc.' and this discussion of what society would say and judge is so stimulating in a film which could be a giant cliche. This discussion also helps to fuel other boundaries and views and I think the grey and the opinions really make it very interesting to watch as well as how the relationships vary and work through different people and their personalities.

The only part I didn't feel really worked was perhaps just the way of the film. The film itself didn't always feel like the scenes were organic, not necessarily how you'd picture something turning out but that's the beauty of film I guess and as a film, I loved it to pieces. It just felt like there were some moments that were clearly very orchestrated to serve the purpose of showing certain sentiments or to make something happen that might not necessarily have happened in real life, though that is very clearly probably a matter of my opinion!

Anyways, I would definitely recommend the film on the basis of the film and what you can take from it as a story and the beauty of the moments that are created and the relationship that blossoms. 

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and that you have a wonderful day and that I can hopefully speak to you soon! God Bless!<2