The film I saw was called (818) which is the area code of the place the movie takes place. It is about a has-been TV actress who is married to the owner of air conditioning stores. Her children are spoiled and she is having an affair with her husbands cousin. Her husband has kind of a midlife crisis after his youngest daughter dies and everyone blames him. He decides to change his will to give away all his money to charity because that is what his dead daughter would have wanted. The has-been actress and her lover decide to kill her husband.
This movie is a comedy because almost nothing goes right. Other people die in this movie too and people go to jail. I don't want to give away the ending in case anyone has the chance to watch this movie. It was a really funny movie. My favorite quote is, "We are talking about the LAPD, that's like being investigated by a crossin guard."
A. Personal Issues- This movie is full of family delemas. The wife is cheating on the husband. One daughter has an eating disorder. The father goes through a midlife crisis. The son even makes a comment that he misses where they used to live because they were a real family then. The whole family falls apart because of the actions of one person. The kids do end up maturing by the end of the movie. I think they are the only ones who learned anything. I think this aspect of the movie struck a chord with me because I am divorced so I understand a family that falls apart.
B. Techniques- At the beginning of the movie they had a cartoon version of the main character. She was a TV actress and used to be famous and they animated her early career, kind of like a montage. The music was really interesting. I have never heard music like that before. Other camera work I liked what the few times they showed commercials for the air conditioning store. They would showing them filming the commercial and then zoom out and the commercial would be on a TV and the camera would zoom out some more and someone would be watching the TV. I think that is and interesting technique.
C. Acting- I think the acting was very good. The funny thing was, the lead actress was a TV actress. So Beth Broderick who played the TV actress in the movie was really a TV actress in real life. I think she did a great job acting like a spoiled diva. Ryan Hansen who played the spoiled rich son also played a spoiled rich kid in Veronica Mars. I think he is typecast because I think he plays a really great spoiled rich kid. I don't think anyone was miscast. I think everyone who was cast did a great job in their roles.
D. Plot- I think the plot was very convincing. Even though the audience knows everything that is going on through the whole movie I was still wondering who would get accused and who would go to jail and if anyone would get away with anything. I wasn't bored at all.
E. Themes- I think this movie shows a very dysfunctional family. People need to realise they need to keep their families strong. During the Q and A session at the end someone commented that the movie portrayed how the people of L.A., California really are. Someone from the audience grew up in the (818) area code an they said that the people there are exactly like the movie portrayed.
F. Genre- The Director of the film spoke before the movie started and he said it was a comedy. But I think it is much more than that. It is very very funny but there is murder in it. It isn't a murder mystery because the audience knows everything that is happening. I think it is more like a murder comedy.
G. Representation- All of the men in the film are represented like sex crazed morons. All the men in the movie want to have sex with the has-been TV actress. All the women at first seem different but they all like to shop. I think the men are represented the way they are because the has-been actress still wants to be famous and wants everyone to want her and she accomplishes that by sleeping with everyone. The women only care about having money and money is the reason everything in the movie happened.
H. Ideology- I think this movie kind of challenges marriage because the main character is married twice through the movie and both relationships fall apart because of money and greed. People need to realise that relationships need to be built on more than money.
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