Spotlight On: Zooey Deschanel

This spotlight is on actress/ singer Zooey Deschanel. She is known for her big blue eyes, her quirky film roles, and her singing voice (which she showcases in a lot of her films). She is the She in the indie group She & Him is is now on one of my favorite new shoes, New Girl. Here are some of my favorite roles of hers.

Almost Famous

In this film she plays Rita, the older sister of the film's protagonist. She is a rebellious girl who leaves home to become a stewardess after not being able to take her mom's rules anymore.


Manic

Manic is a pretty intense film about a group of teenagers at a psych ward. She plays Tracy, a girl whose mom treats her like crap and who is often up at nights screaming in her room.



The New Guy

This movie is actually pretty stupid, and only worth watching for the scenes where Zooey sings.



Elf

Normally I think that Christmas movies are totally corny, but I think that this is a really cute movie. Zooey plays Jovie, a department store elf who is the love interest for Will Farrell's character. It is also another movie (out of several) where she shows off her singing voice.



The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Here she plays Trillian, a girl who was taken aboard a spaceship right before her planet was destroyed. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is on my list of books that I want to read...



Yes Man

I only saw this movie once, when I saw it in theatres, and the only part that I remember is Zooey's fake band singing "Uh Huh." I actually downloaded that song after I saw this movie. You can find the video for it HERE

(500) Days of Summer

I LOVE this movie!!! I think that Zooey and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are so cute together, I love that it doesn't have your typical romcom ending, and I LOVE all of Zooey's clothes in this movie.



Your Highness

Didn't really care for this movie as a whole, but Zooey was in my favorite scene from the whole movie where Leezar pretends to be James Franco.



New Girl

New Girl is one of my favorite New Shows this season. I love Zooey as Jess, the adorkable girl who moves in with three guys.

Movie Review: 50/50

I really liked this movie. It was both funny and heartwarming, and had great performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick. It is about a 27 year old man (Gordon-Levitt) who finds out that he has a cancerous tumor on his spine. While he is trying to stay calm and not freak out, he has to deal with the reactions from the people in his life. His girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard, who keeps getting prettier and prettier in every movie she's in) doesn't know how to handle it and ends up cheating on him, his best friend (Rogen) uses his cancer to try to get both of them laid, and his mom (Anjelica Huston) constantly worries. The adorable Anna Kendrick plays a psychologist in training and has JGL as her third patient. The best scenes in the movie are the ones with JGL and Rogen, with my favorite being the one where Rogen's character busts BDH's character for cheating on JGL. "This is what I like to call Exhibit Whore!"  While this movie has its hilarious moments, it also has its really sad moments. There is a point in the movie where a minor character dies and I couldn't help but cry. He doesn't have a very big role, but in the scene before they show him in a really sweet moment with his wife, so it just really made me sad. I have quite a few family members who have had cancer, but they have all been survivors, thank goodness. My rating: 8/10

My 16 Favorite Teen Movies

This is my list of my favorite movies centered around teenagers. In order to prevent this list from being rediculously long, I have excluded horror movies and musicals, so this is basically a list of my favorite teen comedies. Here goes...

16. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"Ferris Bueller, you're my hero."




15. She's All That

I watched this movie dozens of times in my preteen years and, along with basically every other girl in the country, I had a huge crush on Freddie Prinze Jr. Weird artsy girl Laney Boggs gets made over by cool guy Prinze Jr. so that he can win a bet by making her prom queen. So, he falls in love with her (of course) and she eventually finds out and blah blah blah...happy ending.



14. Bring It On

Another movie that I watched a billion times, Bring It On was HUGE when it first came out. I remember that tons of girl at my school used to quote this movie all the time, and made girls want to be cheerleaders even though my school never really had any (and still doesn't.)



13. Weird Science

Not only did I love this movie when I was a kid, but I actually used to watch the TV show that was based on this movie as well. While I do think the whole Frankenstein-esque storyline is great, the main reason to watch this movie is for the scenes with Chet.



12. All I Wanna Do

"Up your ziggy with a wa-wa brush!" This is a movie that I would watch whenever it was on TV. I actually haven't seen it in forever, but I really want to now because I remember that this used to be one of my favorite movies. I loved all of the girls in the cast, and it actually made me wish that I went to an all girls school.





11. Jawbreaker

Looking back, this is kind of an odd movie for an elementary school age girl to love, but this was one of my favorites back in the day. Rose McGowan as Courtney Shane was always my favorite.



10. Say Anything...

Such a cute movie!!! I love John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler and Ione Skye as Diane Court, the girl of his dreams. I also really love Lili Taylor as his songwriter friend. "Joe LIES...when he cries..." What this movie is best known for is definitely the boombox scene.



9. Juno

I love the movie Hard Candy, and I also read Diablo Cody's book, so I was already a fan of Cody and Ellen Page before I saw this movie. I remember being really excited for this to come out, and I was not disappointed. I loved the cast and the soundtrack, and I remember laughing really hard when I saw this in theatres.



8. Pretty In Pink

Growing up in my house, I saw a lot of John Hughes movies. One that I always loved was Pretty In Pink. Even though I think that Molly Ringwald is a total whiny whiner in this movie, I always loved Annie Potts as her punker friend, and Jon Cryer as Duckie.



7. Superbad

Apparently the script for this movie was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg when they were only thirteen years old. I never would have guessed that because this is one of the funniest movies to come out in the new millenium. This movie is actually really funny to listen to with the commentary, especially when they start talking about this one bad review that someone have the movie.




6. 10 Things I Hate About You

This modern day version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew was my favorite movie after it first came out. I LOVED Julia Stiles as Catarina Stratford, as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cameron, and Heath Ledger as Patrick Verona. I even had the soundtrack to this movie, and I listened to it all the time.



5. The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is my favorite of the John Hughes/ Brat Pack movies. It is basically just a movie about five people stuck in a room together, but it is, in my opinion, one of the best movies from the 80s.



4. Mean Girls

"That's so fetch!" Even though I have never been a big Lindsay Lohan fan, I love this movie! Tina Fey's script is great, and this movie has some of the best dialogue! Its also the movie that helped make stars out of Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried.



3. Ghost World

This movie is based on my favorite graphic novel Ghost World by Daniel Clowes. I love Enid and Rebecca's somewhat codependant friendship, and this movie shows how friends can grow apart after high school.



2. Clueless

I've probably seen this movie a million times, and it just keeps getting better. I knew that this was a modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, but I didn't realize how close it was to the actual story until I read the book. It's actually a pretty faithful adaptation considering that it is set in Beverly Hills in the 90s.




1. Heathers

"Lick it up, baby. Lick. It. Up." Heathers is my all-time favorite teen movie. It features Winona Ryder, who I have always been a huge fan of, as Veronica, girl who hangs out with the Heathers. They are pretty much like the Plastics from Mean Girls except a lot bitchier. This movie is both dark and hilarious, and is a lot different from most teen comedies.

My Most Anticipated Movies for 2011 (Part 2)

My last list only went up to July, so here are the movies that I plan to see from August through December.

August

I am a huge fan of the original Planet of the Apes movie with Charlton Heston, and I didn't think that the Tim Burton version was as bad as everyone says it was. Also, I adore James Franco, so this is a movie that I am really excited to see. What I am really curious about is how the timeline of this fits into the timeline of the original film.

I really like all four of the leads in this movie, and after seeing the trailer, I think this movie looks really funny.

I loved the original Fright Night, and am really curious as to how they will update the story, since the orginal was very 80s. Plus, what beats Colin Farrell as a sexy vampire?

I had this movie on my first list because it was supposed to come out a long time ago!!! I was pissed when they changed the release date, but now it is only a month away!! It is a rarety that a movie trailer can scare the hell out of me, and this one made me scream the first two times I saw it. (Once on my laptop, and once before I saw Let Me In.)



September

Two reasons I want to see this. 1. I'm a sucker for boxing/ fighter movies. 2. Tom Hardy

This is another movie that was supposed to come out a long time ago. I think that this movie looks super cute, and I really like Mia Wasikowska. Plus, I'm curious if Henry Hopper is as good of an actor as his father (who is one of my favorite actors)



I actually haven't seen the trailer for this movie (and can't watch it right now because my speakers are broken), but the cast alone is enough to make me want to see this movie. I heart Joseph Gordon-Levitt!



October

This is supposed to be a prequel to The Thing, so I don't know why they would give it the same title. I guarantee that this is going to be nowhere near as good as the original, but I plan to see it out of curiousity. I'm hoping that it's not all CGI, and that they use practical effects like they do in the original.

I've read both good and bad things about this movie, but I like Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy is one of my favorite movies!), and I am curious about how he does directing a film in my favorite genre...

I am really excited to see In Time, which looks like a modern day version of Logan's Run. Justin Timberlake plays a man who tries to run away from a society where you can't age past 25. Interesting...

You put Johnny Depp in a movie, chances are that I'm going to go see it. Here he is starring in The Rum Diary, which is another Hunter S. Thompson story, which is really cool since I love Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

November

My Week with Marilyn should be pretty good, I think that Michelle Williams will be a great Marilyn Monroe. What I am most curious about is how Kenneth Branagh will be playing Laurence Olivier. 

Hugo is a Martin Scorcese film. 'Nuff said...

Love The Muppets!! My favorites are the Swedish Chef, Professor Honeydew and Beaker, and Animal. I know I'm just going to love this movie! Plus, it was co-written by Jason Segal, so it should be good!!

December

I thought that the first Sherlock Holmes movie was just okay, but I still want to see the sequel. I'm curious to see Noomi Rapace in something besides  the The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies...

Speaking of the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movies...This is my number one most anticipated movie that I want to see for the rest of the year. It looks amazing! While I was skeptical about Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander at first, I have decided that I think she is going to be great. Can't wait until December!!!

My Review: Hesher

I saw this movie on Friday at the Minneapolis/ St. Paul International Film Festival. At first I was really annoyed because the projectionist failed at life and couldn't line up the movie with the screen for the longest time and it was either too big, too small or blurry. After a while, though, I did not care because this movie was awesome!!! Hesher is about a little boy named TJ whose mother died in a car accident leaving his father completely depressed and both of them living in his grandmother's house. He keeps trying to get his mother's car back, and when the man at the impound (?) tells him no, he gets frustrated and throws a rock through a window. Inside of the house was Hesher, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was squatting inside the house. Instead of just driving away, Hesher decides to blow up the house. Eventually, Hesher moves in with TJ whose father and grandmother don't even care/ notice. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is perfect as Hesher, a heavy metal loving, homemade tattoo having, long haired guy who loves to blow stuff up. Natalie Portman plays a grocery store clerk who TJ has a crush on. It is so funny when they try to de-beautify Portman in movies because they always give her a perm, like in Garden State. Anyways, this movie was hilarious! There were times where I had to stop myself from laughing because I had a feeling that I was annoying the people around me. There were also parts of this movie that were really tragic. Rainn Wilson plays TJ's dad, who is depressed the whole movie because his wife had just died. One of the saddest scenes has to be where he is speaking at the support group. It gets even sadder when you see a flashback of when they were all happy. I think that this movie comes out in normal theaters sometime this month, and it is definitely one that I recommend. My rating: 9/10

Cotillard and Gordon-Levitt in The Dark Knight Rises

Some interesting Batman related news...Entertainment Weekly have confirmed that both Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have roles in The Dark Knight Rises.

Cotillard will be playing Miranda Tate, a woman who works for Wayne Industries. Not a very exciting sounding role, especially considering the fact that there were rumors of her playing Talia Al Ghul. Personally, I think that she should switch parts with Anne Hathaway because she would make an amazing Catwoman. I'm sure she'll be great though, regardless of what role she has.

Gordon-Levitt has been cast as John Blake, who is a cop in Gotham City who will work with Commissioner Gordon. There have been rumors that he would be playing The Riddler or Alberto Falcone, so this also doesn't seem very exciting.

Cotillard and Gordon-Levitt are joining the already amazing cast of The Dark Knight Rises. The other new cast members to the series are Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/ Catwoman, Tom Hardy as Bane, and Juno Temple has been confirmed to play Holly Robinson.

Holly Robinson is a sidekick for Catwoman. Batman won't have Robin, but Catwoman will have hers.