EIGHT: Adaptation.

            When I found out we were watching a movie in class I was really excited because I love watching movies and it's probably something I spend a little too much of my time doing. Anyways, the movie that we watched was Adaptation. It's about the screenplay writer Charlie Kaufman making an adaptation of Susan Orlean's book, The Orchid Thief. He struggles with writer's block as he wants to make a true and honest film about orchids instead of a cliché Hollywood movie. I think in the movie, Charlie's twin brother, Donald, is meant to represent that cliché side.
            The movie was kind of a satire on the whole conventional Hollywood movie. I think it was pretty clear when everyone thought in their heads "She's going to kill him", then burst out laughing when she actually said it. But it didn't start that way. In the beginning, it was Charlie struggling to be original and make his version of the movie but once he goes to the screenwriting seminar and invites Donald to New York, everything changes. It becomes the cliché movie he was trying to avoid. I'm not exactly sure about what this movie says about writing but I think there will always be a difficult process to it. It always needs inspiration and a storyline. You can't just write a story where "nothing much happens." However, you don't always need the typical, overdone conventions of a Hollywood film. Some of my favourite movies are more independent films where they do struggle, like Charlie mentioned, but they also change and have those epiphany's. It's impossible to write a story about nothing.
            Overall, I think I did enjoy this movie. I think if I just watched it as a movie, my first impression would be that I didn't like it but after thinking about it, it does make sense to me. I liked how confusing it was; not so much in the movie itself (and it was confusing at times) but how it was written by Charlie Kaufman about Charlie Kaufman with Donald Kaufman, who doesn't actually exist. I often do like a movie where I like the actors too, ie. Tilda Swinton, Meryl Streep, Maggie Gyllenhaal. I don't exactly know if my interpretation of Adaption. is correct but that's what I got out of it. Charlie tried to make an original adaptation of a book but in the end had to adapt himself to the typical norms of a Hollywood movie.
            And Nicolas Cage wasn't bad too, I guess.

SEVEN: My Snobby Spoken Word Analysis

            The spoken word performance that I have chosen is called An Origin Story by Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye. It was kind of hard to find a spoken word piece that I actually really liked. There was one where I thought the way it was written was interesting because it was in French and English but the topic was a little inappropriate for a school blog...so anyways. 

            So as you may or may not have noticed they have really similar last names. And that is pretty much what the spoken word is about. Their scarily similar lives. I thought it was a little cheesy, but I guess it's not entirely their faults. I guess the way they set it up was effective. They'd take turns back and forth and once a big similarity or something important came up they'd say it at the same time. I think it was also mean to be humourous which is also effective. One thing I did like was that they made it clear that they would never ever become a couple. I think if they did end up together it would be a little too much for me. So then there was the name-dropping of famous duos like Lennon & McCartney, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, etc. This was effective because the parallelism made it clear that they were "BFF's". Which was pretty much the idea of the spoken word so that's cool. 

            So basically, I do think that there was some effectiveness as far as the structure of the spoken word, however, personally it wasn't really for me. But coincidences can be fun so I didn't completely hate it.