YA Summer Movies

So far this summer, I've already gone to two movies that really speak to young adults.  Now I'm looking ahead at the movies coming out the rest of this season to see what, aside from the blockbusters, will make for great dialogue with teens at the library.

1. The Way, Way Back (Now Playing)

 

Duncan is a 14 year old boy forced to spend a summer with his mother's overbearing boyfriend. While his mother, her boyfriend (played by Steve Carrell in a role completely opposite of Michael Scott), and their adult friends regress to teen like behavior, Duncan finds himself a job at a nearby water park and comes into his own.  The movie is hilarious, but hits home with heartbreaking scenes of teens and adults being unsure of their value.

2. The Bling Ring (Now Playing)

This movie is based on real events from 2009: a group of teens repeatedly stole from celebrities who for some reason didn't lock their doors. The movie is great social commentary on our obsession with celebrity, selfies, and labels.  Teens (and most audience members) will mostly recognize Hermione Granger with an American accent in this movie.

3. Girl Most Likely (July 19)

A comedy where a playwright (Kristen Wiig) moves back to her Jersey home after becoming yesterday's news. She has to grow to love her family as a part of her regrouping process. Teens are in that awkward stage where they want to be independent, but have no choice but to listen to their parents. I think they'll relate. Also, Darren Criss from Glee is in it, so there's that.  There's always that.

4. The Spectacular Now (August 2)

The preview for this movie played before both The Way, Way Back and The Bling Ring, and it's safe to say that I am now on board and must see this movie. 1. Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights) is in it.  2. From the writers of 500 Days of Summer.  3. It just looks good.  Sutter, a high school senior whose philosophy on life is to party hard and live in the now, meets a "nice girl" who changes his viewpoints.  It's based on the novel of the same name which hands you a nice book vs. the movie discussion to hold at your library.

5. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (August 23)

Speaking of potential book vs. the movie discussions, the hugely popular YA series is finally coming to the big screen.  Clary discovers that she comes from a line of Shadowhunters when her mother is captured by demons.  She has to dive into the world in order to save her mother, learning about her true past along the way.

What other movies are coming out this summer that you think teens would love? What movies are you looking forward to?

Top Ten Tuesday: Best/Worst Book to Movie Adaptations

I'm always a grump about movies becoming books, but looking ahead at movies in the works, it's the way of the world now.  Sometimes it works (usually when you don't know ahead of time that it was a book first), but more often than not it is a disaster.  I'm already dreading the film adaptation of Ender's Game...enough that this past semester, every student who asked for a good book to read was handed a copy because I fear that they will have ZERO interest if the movie bombs. Anyway, here's my

Top Ten Best/Worst Book to Movie Adaptations

Best:

1. Clueless (based on Jane Austen's Emma)

Okay, technically not a direct book to film adaptation, but it is a film retelling of Emma and a remarkable one at that.

2. The Hunger Games
I would have never guessed how great this movie could have turned out.  Not only did it give me and the rest of the world a love for Jennifer Lawrence, but it also gave me hope for movie adaptations of books.  It definitely gives me hope for the upcoming Divergent film (but Ender's Game, like HP, is too complex for film...at least for one film).  Fun fact: at the midnight showing, my friend kept pointing out all the changes from the book, leading me to discover what it's like watching a HP movie with me.  I'm sorry everyone.

3. The Princess Bride
I found out that this was a book after I had watched the movie and still loved both of them more than anything.

4. Life of Pi
Oddly enough, I hated the book and loved the movie.  The visuals are just too incredible not to love and I couldn't bring myself to imagine what Ang Lee brought to the big screen.

5. Hugo (The Invention of Hugo Cabret)
I didn't believe that it could be anything spectacular because the visuals in the novel are already unbelievable. I was wrong.

Worst:

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Okay, I'm not really being fair here because I actually really like the movie series and think they did a decent job with the material. The books are obviously way better.  But this particular movie was an abomination.  I remember throwing a pillow at the TV when the Weasley's Burrow burned to the ground.  NOPE. There's no need to add action to a movie when there's plenty of it that was ignored from the book.  Also, Dumbledore meeting Harry in a muggle tea shop when the world's most evil wizard is trying to kill him? Sure that makes sense.

7. The Da Vinci Code
Tom Hanks' hair.

8. Ella Enchanted
This isn't an I hate Anne Hathaway bandwagon jumping thing.  I actually love Anne Hathaway and loved her performance.  But some of the female power present in the book didn't translate to the Hollywood version and that disappointed me.

9. The Cat in the Hat
It's difficult to reinvent something that's already a cultural icon.  Thus, another notch on the bedpost where the downfall of Mike Myers' career sleeps.

10.Watchmen
To be fair, I didn't get past the first 20 minutes.  But from what I saw, I don't think finishing the movie was necessary.

Check out more lists over at The Broke and the Bookish!!

Book Review: All Unquiet Things

I'll be honest, I picked this book up because the cover grabbed me.  Finding out it was a murder mystery only made me want to read it that much more, because a good chunk of YA murder mysteries tie in great insight to a teenager's first brush with the idea of mortality.

Anna Jarzab's All Unquiet Things focuses on the unsolvable mysteries left behind when someone dies.  However, with the help of a hidden diary, cell phone records, and a safe deposit key, the mysteries are all solved.  So it's a little disappointing.

Let's rewind.  The plot: A year ago, Carly was murdered.  An investigation leads to her uncle being found guilty of the murder.  In the present day, Audrey, Carly's cousin, seeks out the assistance of Neily, Carly's ex, to clear her father's name.  They explore the world of wealth, privilege, entitlement and drugs in order to find the truth.

All in all, it was a capable mystery.  It has the standard mystery elements: the obvious suspects, stereotypes, suspense, and a twist ending.  I just wish it had the oomph of The Body of Christopher Creed, by Carol Plum-Ucci, a novel that uses an alleged murder mystery to highlight parent-teen relationships.  For me, All Unquiet Things only worked to tell a typical 'drugs are dangerous' story.

After reading this book, I immediately watched Brick, a 2005 film noir set in a modern day high school starring Joseph Gordon Levitt (SWOON).  This film incorporated all of the elements of All Unquiet Things, murder, deep love, secrets, drugs, etc.  Ultimately, the stories are very different, but I think that a teen who, provided s/he likes non-Hollywood movies, enjoys this novel, would like Brick.

Friday Five: Hunger Games

I got maybe 3.5 hours of sleep last night because I made the ever wise decision to see yet another movie at midnight and then go to work the next day. What can I say? I'm a trooper. So, because it's on my mind, here are my

Five Thoughts on The Hunger Games Movie:

1) Almost everyone in the theater laughed every time they showed a reaction from Gale. *Sad Gale*. I know they added those scenes to highlight the times in the book when Katniss wonders if Gale is watching (answer: yes), but really they're just playing up the love triangle so they can sell some Team Peeta and Team Gale shirts. I'd rather have a Team Cinna shirt.
 

2) I really enjoyed the movie, but I think they could have focused on the hunger part for a bit more clarification. Not everyone watching will know about the tessarae and will wonder why Gale's name was entered 42 times instead of just 1. Plus, I was really looking forward to seeing Katniss eat like a pig and freaking out Effie with her lack of manners.

3) Stanley Tucci was absolutely perfect as Caesar. Like, there are no words. But really, when isn't Stanley Tucci perfect?

4) I could have used a little more drunk Haymitch, but it was interesting to see him working the sponsors and trying to protect his District's tributes, which we don't see happening in the book.

5) I didn't think this so much during the book, but seeing the alliance of the "Careers" onscreen made me question why one of them didn't even attempt to kill the others in their sleep. No one was on lookout (at least in the movie). You have the chance to easily eliminate your top competition and you don't take it? You're just asking to lose. Or maybe I'm just a horrible human being who would betray an alliance in a heartbeat. *hangs head in shame, but also in secret pride*

All in all, I really liked the movie. It was faithful enough to the book even with its little additions (sad Gale). I'm maybe even looking forward to Catching Fire already...

Young Adult

Love. Love. Love.

It's not for everyone.  I wouldn't say it's a chick flick, because it's not when you define chick flick as a sappy movie where the girl ends up with the guy in the most obvious plot possible.  If you want to say a chick flick is a movie with a lead female character, then sure, it's a chick flick.  

People who will (or should) like this movie: young adult book enthusiasts, Diablo Cody fans (it's not as prevalent as "Juno," but there's definitely some vocabulary fun when you compare the generations within the film), people who like watching a woman go crazy, 90s nostalgics who want to hear phrases and songs they remember fondly, and general nostalgics who just need a good slap to get on with their lives.  

Charlize Theron plays a ghost writer for a young adult book series that is declining rapidly in popularity, despite her claims otherwise.  She has severe writer's block while trying to write the last book of the series so she heads home and, like a normal person, attempts to steal back her ex-boyfriend who is happily married and has a newborn.   Yes it sounds chick flickish, but the movie is a lot deeper as it explores how people believe they were at their best in the past, hanging onto any flicker of success to get them through their daily routines.  Soooo good.

Other pluses: there's a scene that takes place near a shelf full of the YA series she writes and they look exactly like a mix between old school Sweet Valley High, Baby Sitters Club, and the Box Car Children, Patton Oswalt is in it, Charlize Theron is awesome playing a crazy person and her character is the complete embodiment of a character from a trashy YA series in the vein of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars (both terrible, both highly recommended without shame), and it's hilarious despite depressing.  

So in a nutshell, it's wonderful.  Also, according to her twitter, Judy Blume saw it twice, so that mean's you should definitely check it out. 

Marian the Librarian

This is the best musical number set in a library (that I know of at least).  I once gained the respect of my team at library themed trivia (yep) for knowing that Harold Hill threatens to drop marbles on the floor of Marian's library. 

For a long time I hated listening to this song because it brought back the painful memories of performing this during my junior year of high school.  And not just your average teenage "why-does-everyone-hate-me/nobody-understands-what-I'm-going-through" angsty type painful memories of high school.  I'm talking literal pain. 


In the dance sequence, a guy holding a pile of books falls off a table and a group of girls catches him.  Because of my obvious brute strength (sarcasm hand), I was in this group of catchers.  The fall worked flawlessly the first few times we rehearsed, but then one wrong turn resulted in him falling diagonally and landing on my head.  After that, my glasses were significantly bent with one ear piece not quite touching my ear anymore (it's hilariously obvious in the few pictures I haven't burned from that time in my life).  They stayed like that for a year because I didn't want to ask my parents to spend money on new ones.  It was not a good time.  Plus, you know, my head hurt.  A lot. 



But it's 7 years later, I have new glasses and my head only hurts when it rains, so now I can embrace this song for the awesomeness that it is, even if it does perpetuate the idea of the shhhshing librarian who only stamps books.  Now it just makes me want to dance in a library.  Who's with me? 

I want to go to there.