DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN

I couldn't hold it back any longer. My obsession for Frozen must be made known. Now.

I honestly had very low expectations for this movie for the longest time. I saw the trailer for it with Olaf losing his nose and Sven eating it (for those of you who have not watched this yet, Olaf is a snowman, and hence he has a nose made of carrot, not flesh), and it just didn't look very appealing. I even dismissed the post I saw on Facebook with Idina Menzel singing a sample of one of the songs since I didn't know that she was actually voice acting a prominent role. The point is, I didn't pay attention to it until I started hearing the hype.

Oh my lord, the hype. It was everywhere. I was basically shamed into watching it because I'm not a free-thinking soul who can live without getting all of the mainstream references. I was calling a group of friends, and one of them kept saying (or singing), "Do you want to build a snowman?" I had no idea what he was referencing until I asked him, and at that point, I just said, alright enough, it's time to watch the damn thing.

So Frozen is about two sisters, Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel), who rule over Arendelle as estranged orphans. Elsa, the eldest, has the power to create ice (hence the title), and is so traumatized by a childhood accident that she blamed herself for, that she hid away from her sister and everyone else, only to find her power would grow out of her control. After the secret of her powers gets out, she escapes to the North Mountain and becomes a bad-ass bitch so she can create her own ice castle and finally be "free," leaving behind a kingdom in a "real howler in July." Anna goes after her with her new buddy Kristoff the ice deliverer to attempt to bring summer and her sister back to Arendelle.

Spoiler alert from now. Sorry. Guess you'll just have to watch the movie. >:)

May I just say: there was so much troll humor in this movie it killed me. The entire problem with this movie started when Grandpoppy tells Elsa that her powers are to be feared, failing to mention that the only way to control it is to be open about it and love, which doesn't really work out. You almost tricked us with your feigned wisdom, but you're just a troll. Stop with your trolling. Anyway, there wouldn't be a movie without that so I suppose I should be grateful. Also, when the troll priest dude says, "Do you, Anna, take Kristoff to be your trollfully wedded..." That KILLED me. So your favorite line was, "Some people are worth melting for?" Cool beans, but honestly, how can you beat being trollfully wed to someone you just met by actual trolls? My happiness derives from the fact that I often use the expression "trolololol," by the way.

THE MUSIC. There's a reason why the title of this post is in headlines. I have been listening to the soundtrack of this movie nonstop for the past few weeks, which is truly unhealthy, but I just can't stop listening! I had the same reaction of basically everyone else at first: "Wait, Kristen Bell can sing? Kristen Bell can sing really well? What?" It was obsession thereafter.

There were so many Broadway stars in this movie, it's no wonder they're comparing this to The Lion King. Speaking of which, my father likes to tell me I watched The Lion King at least forty times as a kid, so at least my tendency to obsess over musical movies is not a new thing. Fun fact: even Kristen Bell has been on Broadway. She played Becky Thatcher in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (there are clips on YouTube) and sang in the revival of "The Crucible" with wait... Liam Neeson? There are just fun facts everywhere. Thank goodness I have IMDb.

Idina. Freaking. Menzel. Ohmotherofbabyjesus. Her voice, in my opinion, has actually gotten stronger than when she was on Broadway, which is ridiculous and probably the result of computers and recording technology, but I was listening to the "Wicked" soundtrack and the Frozen soundtrack back to back, and it just sounds stronger in the most recent one. Menzel packs a powerful punch to all of her performances, but the song "Let It Go" was simply perfection. Sorry, Demi Lovato, you cannot sing the same song as Idina Menzel and expect me to like it more.

Confession: I actually do like Demi Lovato's version (it's an awesome song for working out), but still not as much as the movie version.

Oh gosh, look at the time. I've gone a full half hour without listening to "Let It Go." I thought there was something amiss. And with that, I leave you with the strongest recommendation I have ever given: See. Frozen. Now. Now. Now.

Stuck in Love (the movie, not real life)

There need to be more movies like this one out there. Now, I have to say I like this movie for very selfish reasons; usually I like a movie because it's believable, the characters are well-written and well-acted, and if there's a nice soundtrack, but this movie was special because of its Canadian title Writers. I'd like to think I'm an aspiring writer... when I'm not busy studying, eating, sleeping, or playing Candy Crush. Regardless, I just want all of these people to be in my life, flaws and all. Also, any story about writers inspires me to go write, hence this blog post's existence. Also, when I found this on YouTube (yes, it's on YouTube, so go watch it now; there are no excuses), I felt like an idiot because a few months ago, I had looked for it EVERYWHERE, and couldn't find it. The internet is an elusive creature.

Stuck in Love is a movie tracking the intertwining but very different stories of four different family members: William Borgens, a published writer (Greg Kinnear), Erica, the ex-wife who married a younger and rather more muscular man because she's played by Jennifer Connelly so she looks like she's 10 years younger than she actually is and it's totally fine, Samantha Borgens, a college-aged, soon-to-be published writer who's a bit promiscuous (Lily Collins), and Rusty Borgens, Sam's sweet and innocent baby brother (Nat Wolff).

From the very beginning, it's pretty clear that this family has some issues. Sam, who is a "realist" and hates the idea of love, makes it very clear that she does not communicate with her mother because she feels betrayed ever since her mother left her father for another man. This dynamic in and of itself creates tension within the whole family since everyone else still somehow stays in contact with her. The dad, William, is still clearly in love with his ex-wife to the point where he takes great pleasure in watching her fight with her new husband from their window, which is a bit creepy. The runt of the family, Rusty, is still going through that unfortunate high school phase of extreme bouts of awkwardness, and has that equally unfortunate but fitting hopelessly romantic outlook on life and girls. Basically, each member of the family receives some kind of advice to step out of their comfort zone and explore life a bit more, all in the context of lots of writing and lots of partying.

Yes, it's a feel-good, cheesy movie. Yes, I absolutely still love it. OH MY GOD I just realized the director of this movie, Josh Boone, also directed The Fault in Our Stars. How. Did. I. Not. Know. This. I just became doubly excited for TFiOS. Holy crap.

Honestly, one of the things that made this movie so much better was the cast. Had this movie had mediocre actors, I would 've been very upset. From the perspective of acting in general, I just love it when there are those perfectly natural looking scenes when there are so many people talking at once to no one or anyone and it's not just lines from one person to another. There's a scene like that in Super 8 where there are six kids sitting at a diner having a million conversations at once. I love it. It bumps movies up a notch in my opinion, and to quote my brother, it makes it "real." Yes, he watched it. Guys, take note; it's not a chick flick.

I wasn't a huge fan of Logan Lerman, but I guess it's only because I feel like it was Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower playing the character Louis because honestly, can he play anything besides an awkward kid with family issues and a love for obscure books and music? I can't decide if I want him to go play some badass character or if I want him to just keep playing awkward guys for the sake of not finding out if he's bad at being a badass. Also, I didn't like his character in the movie in general. Louis was needed but not needed... his only hold on the plot was the fact that he is inexplicably in love with Samantha Borgens even though she is clearly not his type. Pretty much everything in this movie was believable, but Louis's existence seemed very forced. With a bit more back story, that could've become something I'd be ok with.

I was, however, a huge fan of the soundtrack of this movie. God damn. I'm listening to "Between the Bars" by Elliot Smith as I'm writing this and I may or may not have had a mini scavenger hunt for all of the music. It's definitely a genre of music that not everyone will enjoy... but it's pretty chill and more importantly, it perfectly portrays the swinging moods throughout the film. One might call it obscure. Hang on and let me go get my Ray-Bans.

So all in all, I absolutely definitely recommend this movie. Just gave it 9 stars on IMDb and heard my brother tell me to tell everyone else to watch this movie. The fact that he said that combined with the fact that I listened to my brother adds up to gowatchthismovienownownow. Like I said, it's on YouTube (for now). There are no excuses.