favorite movie #36: how i live now

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #36 - How I Live Now (2013) - Dystopian novels (quickly converted to film) have been a trend in the early 2010s. Some are better than others, but this film, How I Live Now, is a standout. Focusing less on a heroine who becomes a superhero fighting the Powers That Be, How I live Now follows Daisy, a pretty annoying American teenager who resents her family's efforts to send her to spend the summer with her English cousins. Like most kids her age, the big picture is not something she can immediately grasp. Daisy doesn't know how to react when her aunt, a terror analyst, is suddenly called away to London to deal with an impending threat. Daisy slowly and reluctantly starts to interact with her cousins Eddie, Isaac, and Piper. Eddie is closest to her in age, and the two are drawn together. Just as things seem to be getting fun, and even romantic, disaster strikes — Daisy and her cousins find themselves in the middle of a dangerous world war. The movie is filled with scenes of real beauty, ugliness, and sadness. It is memorable, and Saoirse Ronan's performance as Daisy is a stand-out.

Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) tunes out when she gets to the English countryside

A fun day in the country is interrupted by bomb fallout

The military separates men and women

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short take on how i live now

favorite movie #30: rebel without a cause

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #30 - Rebel Without A Cause (1955) - There are only three movies that James Dean starred in before his tragic death in 1955 in a car crash, but boy, did he leave an impression. A few months ago the kid and I caught Rebel Without A Cause on TCM. I hadn't seen the film in many years, and I was not only surprised by how easily he sucked me right back in to his character Jim Stark's awkward attempts to make his way in the world, but how affected my fourteen year-old daughter was by his performance, too (and Sal Mineo's tragic turn as Plato). We also recently watched Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of S.E Hinton's The Outsiders, which was heavily influenced by this film. The technicolor is amazing too, with Jim's bright blood-red jacket an immediate icon of "dangerous" youth.

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james dean in new york

james dean loved race cars