The End.

I've decided to quit blogging. Here's why:

1. I want to live in the real world more. That is not possible if I focus on watching enough movies to have something to write about. 

2. When I suffered with OCD really badly (all through high school and most of my twenties), all I did was watch movies (it kept the anxiety at bay). It really is time for me to do other things with my free time..

3. I've noticed that I have less and less interest in watching x amount of new-to-me movies - I much prefer to watch a small amount over and over again. I really don't want to push myself to watch new ones all the time, just for the sake of my blog.

4. I takes a lot of time, especially since I'm not writing in my native language. I started writing in English to practice and improve it, but also because I'm surrounded by English media all the time. That has, in turn, influenced me to view English as superior to Swedish. In other words: It felt like a blog in Swedish would be worth less than one in English (#notokay). And even if I was writing in Swedish, it'd still take up a lot of my time.

5. When I started, I didn't have a job and was also in the middle of figuring out what I was gonna do with the rest of my life. Now I know and thus want to keep my free time for me.  
 

I am very VERY thankful that I've had people reading my posts (even though we've hardly ever spoken) all this time. Take really good care of yourselves and others! <3

Break.

School is really crazy at the moment, so I'm taking a break from blogging this month. In the meantime, I'd be really interested to know if there's someone out there who's reading my posts regularly and, if so, where you are from (obs! detta gäller inte dig Julia ;D)..

In the spotlight: April

Jane Wants a Boyfriend
I thought the romance was excellent and very real. Also, I like that style of storytelling when you start in the middle and end in the middle; without really "solving" anything. They go on with their lives, you go on with yours..

The Choice
I had the best time watching this with my sister Julia, even though neither of us liked it very much. We felt that the second half of the movie was very VERY slow and being cut off from the characters, by letting the time pass in the form of several montages, didn't help at all. Julia even went so far as to say that she had warmer feelings for Gabby's wind chime than she had for Gabby herself (I agree - she really wasn't that easy to empathize with). 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Paranormal elements, a little slow motion and very aesthetically pleasing shots made for a great watch! Sure, it moved a little quickly but overall it had very few of the plot holes that I've come to associate with these types of movies. (Just one thing though: "Only the living can kill the dead" - Really? Why? That made less than NO sense)

Grand Budapest Hotel
I just.. am in love with this film. I'd forgotten how funny I find it. One of my favorite scenes is the long argument outside the prison! <3 

Double Indemnity
Almost didn't make it through, after stopping halfway, but I'm glad I did. This was such a simple story and yet so fascinating. I think it was the dialog that did it - I've never heard anything like it.

Went to a flee market today. 

It's just one of the things that makes one of the mes chuckle

I always laugh during the farewell scene in Titanic, because for the longest time I heard: 

"Don't say goodbyes, not yet" 

(I missed "your"). 

In Sweden "byes" sounds like bajs and bajs means "poop".

  

#mature #manure #hahahahahahaahaha

Elin and her siblings dwell in the house of sickness (currently watching)

I have a fever. I'm dry-coughing and drinking shards of glass. My attention span is that of a one year old child, so I'm falling behind on my paper. I'm watching:

* You've Got Mail
* The Princess and the Frog
* Someone Like You
* Just the romantic parts of The Choice
* Chasing Liberty*

Edit: I may have cried to almost all of the movies above. Evidently I cope with illness v. v. well..  

My brother Stefan's also sick. He's watching:

* Star Wars: The Force Awakens
* Grey's Anatomy

My littlest sister Julia has a fever too. She's also coughing. She's watching:

* A whole slew of horror movies


* I'm glad we're all different but am also, at the same time, v. convinced that my taste in movies is impeccable - especially in this time of need..  

We never go out of style.

One of my goals this year is to watch more classics. These are my plans.. sort of:

1910-1919
I haven't watched a single film from this period, nor do I feel any need to immediately do so. I'm not a big fan of silent films/black and white and ultimately I watch movies for my own enjoyment..

I want to watch: Daddy-Long-Legs and Jane Eyre. Reasons behind these choices are: 1) I love the book (Daddy Long-Legs) and 2) I've watched three Jane Eyre adaptations so far: 1996, 2006 and 2011.


1920-1929
When I took film history at the university, we watched a few surreal things but other than that I'm as new to the movies of this decade as I am to the previous one.

Favorite: Pandora's Box (I remember liking it, though not why).
I want to watch: Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens and The Phantom of the Opera (So far I've watched the version from 2004, seen the musical performed live and read the book #livingthehighlifeyo!).

1930-1939
I've only watched about three movies from this period and I'd really like to rectify that! Who knows - I might even like more movies from the 30s than I'd originally thought?

Favorite: -
I want to watch: It Happened One Night, My Man Godfrey, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Four Feathers (the Heath Ledger remake was the first movie I owned on DVD) and Heidi.


1940-1949
It's a shame that I haven't watched more than maybe five movies in total from the 40s. Am a bit apprehensive though, because film noir became popular during this decade and I don't really know how I feel about that genre to be honest.. (although I've only seen The Maltese Falcon, so maybe I shouldn't judge?)

Favorite: Ladri di biciclette
I want to watch: It's a Wonderful Life (a book told me to), Christmas in Connecticut, The Big Sleep and Double Indemnity (watched in april)

My dad was born in 1952. This is the house where he grew up.

 

1950-1959
Ooh! I'm approaching the more familiar decades! Have seen quite a lot from the 50s but want to watch more - especially musicals.

Favorite: Singin' in the Rain (one of my all-time favorite films)
I want to watch: An American in Paris, Funny Face, Daddy Long-Legs (in case the 1910 one is bad), Det sjunde inseglet (a rewatch) and High Noon (also a rewatch)


1960-1969
This must be my favorite decade yet. I love The Sound of Music, Charade and 101 dalmatians. It also feels like I've watched plenty from this era, so I'm not that bothered with expanding my horizons here.

Favorite: Breakfast at Tiffany's
I want to watch: My Fair Lady.

All hail BBC

Mama and Julia and I watched the first two episodes of Thirteen last night.

So moving/thrilling/unsettling that I went home with a headache and nightmares.

(Mom even stayed awake for at least 1½ of the episodes = v. V. good content)

This is one of those shows that made me cry quite unexpectedly. Like I did when I watched Schindler's List for the first time: with no conscious thought behind it. 

Just very sudden tears. 

Boom.

We're watching the rest of the episodes tonight. 

 

#Needit

Ask.fm/GandalfTheGrey

The Lord of the Rings

I Need to Get Out More.. (Currently watching)

Yaay! Movie slump semi-over! I've found a new favorite: Jane Wants a Boyfriend. Have watched selected scenes repeatedly for at least a week now. Am also currently about half-way through Grand Budapest Hotel.. I'd forgotten how much I love it!

Other than that, I'm struggling a little with school right now (what else is new?) - we've started work on a paper that requires us to read some of the densest books on analyzing organizations I've EVER read. That naturally makes me prioritize school even more and not procrastinate by watching countless hours of Elementary/youtube.com/booksandlala at all.. See proof below of my adulting capabilities - I am, in fact, not the crazy mess my loved ones think:

Oops. I lied!

(The face of someone who's played Township on her phone for 186 days straight)

12 movies left, yo.

One of my goals this year is to reorganize my movies. I started 2015 with 111 movies and ended the year with 23. This meant that I could give away my storage wallets/binders (good, because I never put any movies back inside) and buy individual cases instead (since I never actually got around to buying the cases, I just sneaked some away from my dad's office).

While I was at it, I also reduced the collection even further and am now down to 12. 12!
This is huge for me. I've always wanted to own every movie I watch but this process is making me more willing to watch things and then let them go. It's awesome!

From the left: Training DVD:s (I'm not counting them), Blood Diamond, The Other Sister, Wild Child, The Host, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Bambi, Singin' in the Rain, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. 

Movie night: Everest

My sister Sara and her fiancé Henrik came to visit this week, so we decided to watch Everest at my sister Hanna's place (after my niece had fallen asleep).  

I spent the majority of the movie being really upset that they seemed to be climbing the mountain for no valid reason whatsoever. If the intention was to make me feel like mountain climbing is the most selfish sport in the world (where you throw your life away for fun) then they succeeded in doing just that. Had I known why they took the risk, I would have been okay with them loosing their legs/fingers/heads due to the cold. Even rooted for them, as they did it..

 Me, attempting a selfie with my sister and her boyfriend's hands in the background. Successful, wasn't I? 

Pet Peeves #1: Givers of the bad kind of goose-bumps

1. Disproportionate reactions to stalking 
Example 1: Someone wakes up with another someone in their bedroom. The appropriate, normal response to this is NOT to proceed to make out with the stalker..
Example 2: Someone follows another someone around for days because they "saw them from afar and got interested", in the hopes of eventually.. I don't know - save their life? Kiss them? Kidnap them (and then make a coat out of their skin?)?

2. Using "whore" as a term for a promiscuous person
To sell one's body, which essentially is what a whore does, isn't something I imagine is easy or joyful to do. Using the term as an insult, therefore, feels very much like kicking a kitten in the face.

Wes: "Don't you hate me?" Bianca: "I'm glad you asked. Yes, I do. But only because you're a dipshit. And a manwhore..".

3. Idolizing female virgins whilst mocking/bullying male virgins
The concept that women shouldn't desire to be sexual creatures while males loose their worth (they end up far down the hierarchy; no girls will want them) if they're not, baffles me to no end. Mostly because that's wrong and also makes no sense. 

Mr. Grey: "You're still a virgin? [...] You've done other things, right?" Anastasia: "No." Mr. Grey: "Where have you been?" Anastasia: "Waiting.".

4. Slut-shaming
The idea that there's a finite number of sexual partners a person (most often a female) can have before they loose their "worth" as a potential partner is disgusting to me. Consequently I have a hard time with the usage of "slut" in TV-shows or movies - regardless if it's used in a comedic context or not.

5. The ugly duckling
I specifically mean those movies where one person is thought of as very plain/odd/weird or socially awkward (and negatively so), until they get a makeover and suddenly become the most well-loved person in school. See She's All That for a female version and Can't Buy Me Love for a male one.

 The animals don't judge each other - why should we? Have sex with whomever you like, I say. As long as it's consensual AND legal! 

In the spotlight: March

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - part 2
I love all the Hunger Games movies with a passion, because 1. I'm a big sister to four younger siblings. I'm very close with all of them (my mom was a stay-at-home mom, so neither of us went to kindergarten) and I'm 11 years older than Julia (my youngest sister), which means I've wiped her butt/dressed her etc. countless times when she was little. It's sort of in the job description, as the oldest, to take care of the younger ones.. What I'm trying to say is that I would sacrifice myself in a heartbeat for any of them - like Katniss. 2. I'm very scared of dying and these movies toy with the idea that we're all going to die one day, regardless of whether we're ready or not. The fact that not even kids are excluded really drives that home for me and 3. I love the romance, the cast and the acting!

Ambition for: April

Since I've had no motivation to watch any movies whatsoever lately, I'm pretty sure this will be another month of failing miserably..

* New Girl - I'm stuck on season 1 and haven't made any progress in a while. Time to rectify that?
* Despicable me 1 and/or 2
* Daybreakers? Still haven't watched this, but found it on Netflix today.
* Dredd - I watched about half of this in the cinema once and I'd like to finish it.
* Arrow - Still stuck on season three, episode 18 (or something). Oliver's just so annoyingly bossy.. 
* Grand Budapest Hotel - Feels like a spring movie to me.  
* World War Z? Watched this around this time last year, which is why I might want to rewatch it in April.

Tired of the slump

I have absolutely no desire to watch movies, at the moment. I don't know why that is, but I know that I've slowly cut down on them during February and March. Sure, I've started several, but haven't wanted to finish any of them (although I got close with Hotel Transylvania 2). Also, I was repeat-watching Flipped/Keith for a while but since I saw Mockingjay - part 2, that's all I've wanted to watch instead. I love the Hunger Games movies with a passion. So much so that I've even contemplated getting a Hunger Games-related tattoo. I feel no shame whatsoever; I love Katniss!

So yes, I'm watching Youtube and How I Met Your Mother on Netflix but few/no movies. That's why I'm ending this post with my recent favorite quotes, to cheer myself up:

Whatever you do, do not let go.. 

I'm gonna let go!

WHAT?! 

You love me. Real or not real?

Real. 

[singing] 

The itsy bitsy spider is not an insect at all, because it has eight legs and two body parts

On your tomb stone, it will read: "Lily Aldrin. Caring wife, loving friend, slap bet commissioner."

And your tomb stone will read: "Got slapped by Marshall so hard he died!"

The story of: Ugh

For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to watch Cape Fear last night. Like a reward for studying as much as I have, or something.. (Damn you, cost-benefit analysis! When I'm done with you, I'll burn thine information in a righteous hate fire) 

Ugh.

To rectify the queasiness Max Cady made us feel, we decided to watch The Talented Mr. Ripley right after. You know - go into it blindly, take our mind off things.. 

UGH. 

 UUUGH! 

Julia left when someone beat the other someone to death.

I got nightmares.

 The end. 

Friendship goals.

felicity.smoak@bestfriendfinder.com

Arrow

Giddy as a 13-year-old (aka: Leonardo DiCaprio won)!

There's something special about those movie stars that you grow up with. One of the most impactful ones, for me, was Leonardo DiCaprio. As the oldest of five siblings, I never had any real say regarding what we watched at home. It was all Disney or Swedish movies based on Astrid Lindgren's books or Björnes magasin. Consequently I hadn't watched anything remotely "grown-up" until my 11th or 12th birthday, when my aunt gave me a VHS copy of Dirty Dancing. In other words: It's not hard to imagine why, when I went to watch Titanic in 1997, I was literally swept of my feet. I was 13 and it was the first movie that made any real impact on me as a person; it made me think more deeply about life and death and the meaning of everything.

Soon after Titanic, my dad showed me What's Eating Gilbert Grape? whereupon I borrowed the book to read and then made it a tradition to watch+read it every summer, along with Marvin's Room. On my friend's 16th birthday, we watched Romeo+Juliet and then, even though I didn't like The Beach that much, I chose to do a project on the book in school the following year anyway. The Basketball Diaries was my first glimpse into certain parts of life that I'd been very sheltered from thus far, which left me with my mouth open for the majority of it.

The point I'm trying to make here is that not only did I grow up with Leonardo DiCaprio's movies but they also helped shape me as a person - and as a movie lover, during my most impressionable years. This process was aided by the fact that he was playing characters just a few years older than I was, which made him feel very relatable to me. Seeing him gain fame therefore, was like seeing a friend succeed (am I sounding stalkery right now?) and that's why; when I learned that he won the Oscar for The Revenant, I got all 13-year-old-giddy again. YAAY, Leonardo!

Ps. This is so un-Swedish of me, I almost feel ashamed..

In the spotlight: February

Flipped
Extremely comforting to watch and a great book-to-movie adaptation. It's very much like that light-in-a-bottle-thing that Frodo gets from Galadriel: "A light [...] in dark places, when all other lights go out.".

Derek
Much, much more moving than I'd ever imagined! I cried during nearly every episode; regardless of the season. And I laughed too (am quite easily disturbed by other humor than physical i.e I usually take jokes more seriously than necessary), which surprised me.  

Inception
Mystery-wise I liked Shutter Island more, but the action was great in this one! For some reason though, Leonardo DiCaprio reminded me of Jack Dawson the entire time.. (also: Eames! <3)

Keith 
I sort of wish that I'd discovered this movie when I was like 13-14. I would have swooned and watched it on repeat for days! It would have affected me the same way Titanic did back in the days, I'm sure.. (i.e a lot! (the fact that I'll never be that young and impressionable again makes me feel old.. *sadfacé*))

Oh, concrete.. thou art a heartless bitch (currently watching)

This last week hasn't been all that great, for three reasons: 1. I've been taking an economics course which equals quite a bit of effort on my part, since it took me three years just to pass the easiest level of maths in high school. 2. My bed broke and I've consequently spent the past few days on the concrete floor in my apartment, on my 5.11-inch mattress.. aching all over. 3. The eczema on my lip just won't go away. Who invented upper lips and why do we need them? 

 

I've been watching: 

* Flipped 

* Prom (even though it contains one of the cheesiest lines I've ever heard: "Even if it fits (his father's suit) you're still the bigger man")

* Derek

* ½ of the first episode of Teen Wolf 

Also, I've been spending a lot of time with my siblings; playing Singstar and different card games. Clearly our brother loves our singing and thinks we should sing more (notice the noise-canceling headphones he put on)

All I want for Valentine's.. is Derek's level of self-respect

Roger: Would you mind seeing someone?  
Derek: Who? 
Roger: Well.. an expert; a doctor.
Hannah: You don't have to!
Derek: If I am 'tistisc', was it?
Roger: Autistic!
Derek: Au?
Roger: Tistic.
Derek: That's what I said: 'tistic'. If I am tistic.. will I die? 
Hannah: No. 
Roger: No, but at least we'd know..
Derek: Will I have to go into hospital and do experiments on me?
Both: No.
Derek: So.. would it change me in any way? Would I be the same person?
Hannah: Yes!
Derek: Don't worry about it then.