Category: Good Reads

I was told that I would love this movie.

In April of 2020, I receive it as a birthday gift on DVD. It was around the time that the idea of a prolonged quarantine was just setting in. I put the DVD into my computer and watched it for the first time on April 14th, 2020. And I do not think I can put into words how much I adore this movie! Like the title of this blog says, it made me feel EVERY EMOTION. So this week, I would love to tell you about one of my all-time favorite movies “Little Miss Sunshine”.

**content warning: mentions of drug use and attempted suicide**

NO SPOILERS

The Plot

The Hoover family — consisting of a father, a mother, a daughter, a son, the mother’s brother, and the father’s father– pile into a bright yellow van and head to California to watch the daughter compete in the Little Miss Sunshine Contest. 

It is by far the best road trip movie I have ever seen. While on the way to California, the family faces many issues, such as their bus breaking down and other things I can’t tell you because of spoilers. I think the movie does a great job of balancing its time between all six main characters, giving each of them their own issues to deal with and time to work through them.

The Characters

I really do believe that each character has the potential to be someone’s favorite character. They’re each so different and are given their own set of problems to work through throughout the film. I can almost guarantee you that you’ll find at least one of them relatable, if not all of them.

Family and Love

I don’t know about you, but I love a good story about love.

I can’t say too much without spoiling the whole movie, but almost every character starts the movie feeling alone. Richard is struggling with his career, Sheryl is struggling to keep her family together, Frank has lost his job and was rejected by the man he loved, and Dwayne feels like no one understands him (Olive is pretty much just there to give the family a common goal and to be cute. The grandpa is just funny and snorts coke).

By the end of the film, the sense of unity between the family is incredibly heartwarming. You know that this experience has brought them closer together and that they know they have each other’s backs.

And this all comes through in the movie’s amazing climax! It is honestly the funniest and best thing I have ever seen, and I know that’s saying a lot! But it’s true! And I can’t tell you any more without spoiling it, but just know that it will be one of the most satisfying movie endings that you will ever witness.

All the feelings

I just spent the last section talking about how satisfying the film’s ending is, but happiness is far from the only emotion you will feel watching this.

At several points in the movie, I cried. The performances are amazing and the characters are so well written that you can’t help but fall in love with them. So when anything bad happens to them (which is often), you can’t help but feel for them. You just want them to reach their goal and it is such a fun, emotional ride there.

This is definitely one of those stories where the journey matters more than the destination.

it’s so pretty

Once again, I will be providing you with several stills for the movie to enjoy. This film in particular has a very muted, yellowish palette, which I enjoy a lot.

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In conclusion, you should watch it

I hope that some part of this blog made you want to give this film a chance. It is available to stream on Starz and to rent/buy on YouTube and Amazon! I understand that the sometimes dark humor of this film may not be everyone’s thing, but I am certain that everyone who watches it will get something out of it!

Hi, 

So I know I haven’t posted in while, but I made it a goal to post a life update blog this week, so here I am 🙂 

Life has been a roller coaster since I last posted… in January. 

As I write this, I am sitting in a crowded hallway as we wait, uncomfortably, to be told to return to class, and I can’t help but cherish this moment, every ounce of it: the dirty hardwood floors, the sirens, the concerned faces. This might be the very last time I sit in confinement with the people I’ve blissfully shared the past two years with. 

As I embark upon this next chapter of life, I am filled with so much gratitude and warmth for these people around me. I have nothing but fond memories with these people, and I think it’s a blessing to have gotten this experience. 

Today, I committed to Loyola University New Orleans, and I am so excited. Everything that’s happened in the last year has allowed me to grow so much, and I have learned so many lessons about life, but this is only the beginning. 

Below is my vision board for the year that I made earlier in the year:

I normally would’ve posted this earlier, but with my blog hiatus, I never go around to it. I look back it often to hold myself accountable and to also remind myself to stay humble, be brave, keep going, and to take care of myself. 

I hope you all are doing the same. 

XOXO, 

maleigh 🙂 

So with that in mind, I am more than prepared to make the case that “Julie & Julia” is the most comfortable comfort movie of all time.

*no spoilers below*

*well, it was based on a true story, so if you don’t want any spoilers, then skip the part where I talk about that*

Based on Two True Stories

“Julie & Julia” is based on the true stories of Julie Powell, an author and blogger, and Julia Child, an American cooking icon. The movie follows both of their stories, flipping back and forth from Child’s life in the 1950s to Powell’s life in the 2000s. Child is bored at her home in Paris and decides to write a cookbook to pass the time. Powell is unhappy with her life in Queens and decides to prepare each recipe from Child’s cookbook and blog about it to give herself something to look forward to. Both women’s projects evolve into something bigger than they could ever imagine.

The movie is inspired by Julia Child’s book My Life in France and Julie Powell’s blog The Julie/Julia Project, as well as her book Julie & Julia.

Julia Child was an American cook and television personality. She was born in 1912 to a family who had a private chef and did not become interested in food until she met her husband, which wasn’t until the 1940s. She worked as a top secret researcher for the OSS during World War II. She was stationed in China, where she met her husband Paul Child, another OSS employee. Paul introduced her to fine cuisine and after the war, the couple was relocated to Paris. This is where the movie picks of Child’s story. After publishing her first cookbook, she would go onto win an Emmy for her cooking show “The French Chef” (1963-1973), be awarded the medal of freedom in 2003, and be credited with bringing French cuisine to the American public.

During the run of Powell’s blog and then her book, Child was asked to comment on it. She simply said, “I don’t think she’s a serious cook” and did not want to endorse it, as she felt that Powell was cooking for the sake of a stunt. 

Child died on August 13th, 2004. She and Powell never met.

It’s all about women

Meryl Streep and Amy Adams give amazing performances as Julia Child and Julie Powell. I mean Streep portrays a woman who was already a larger-than-life character on her own, but she also makes Child relatable and funny and it is an absolute joy to watch. Adams also gives a very entertains performance portraying just a normal person, which you think would be a little boring to watch but somehow it isn’t!

The premise of this movie sounds boring on paper (two women cook and then write books), but the way the characters are written and performed is surprisingly entertaining and incredibly relatable. It is unfortunately rare to find a female-driven movie that also has likable, well-rounded female leads.

You just can’t help but get invested in Julia and Julie’s stories as you watch them struggle to pursue their passions!

The Relationships

I, for one, am not used to men being so openly supportive of their wives. Child is bored of being a housewife and wants to pursue cooking as a serious career. And her husband, Paul Child (portrayed by Stanley Tucci), is unbelievably supportive of her. The portrayal of their relationship in the film is heartwarmingly healthy, especially for a couple of the 50s.

Without spoiling anything, Powell’s husband Eric (portrayed by Chris Messina), is not as supportive as Paul in my opinion. While he is still supportive for most of the film, he also tends to just rub me the wrong way. While I do not enjoy Eric and Julie’s relationship as much as Paul and Julia’s, I understand that other people may not have the same opinion. 

The bottom line is that I find it refreshing to see relationships like these in film. They’re healthy but the story is never really about them!

The comfy Vibes

This movie gives off some of the best vibes a movie can give. The color palette of it is soft and uses a lot of greens, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite colors. I am a big fan of Paris and we get plenty of shots of it throughout the film. Another aspect of it I love is the 50s fashion! I could never really describe the aesthetic fully in words, so please just enjoy these stills from the film!

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Maybe I just like Nora Ephron…?

“Julie & Julia” was released in 2009 and was written, directed by Nora Ephron.I had heard of her before, but it took me way too long to realize that she had also written another one of my all-time favorite movies “When Harry Met Sally” (1989).

The way I discovered this film was bizarre… but made a lasting memory!

Okay, so this is more of a personal story time than about the movie.

A couple of summers ago, my entire family went on a trip to Mexico. For some reason, my parents thought it would be a great idea for my sister and me to stay in a hotel room by ourselves while we were there (my parents were in the room next door to ours). We stayed up late every night watching TV. Some of the channels were in Spanish and others were in English, and some would run the same movie over and over again throughout the day in both languages. “Julie & Julia” was one of these movies. I would watch some of it in Spanish one night and then another part in English the next. I never finished it, but continued to think about it even after our trip had ended. I had liked what I’d seen and wanted to watch it in full.

About a year later, the film appeared on Netflix. I was so excited that I watched it right away and the rest is history…

In Conclusion, You should watch it

This film has a very special place in my heart and this week I just felt the need to write out all the reasons I love it. It is still on Netflix for those who want to go check it out, although you don’t have to. I understand that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and that is just fine. 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my incoherent ramblings. I hope you at least enjoyed some part of them!

I know this is a little late… since we’re halfway through February already, but 2020 gave us some amazing films and I really want to talk about them!!

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So I watched a total of 13 “films” released in 2020.

6 feature-length films

• Palm Springs (Hulu)
• Onward (Disney+)
• the half of it (Netflix)
• Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe (Disney+)
• Soul (Disney+)
• happiest season (Hulu)

2 musical stage production filmings

• Black Friday (YouTube: Starkid)
• Hamilton (Disney+)

1 documentary mini-series

• Tiger King (Netflix)

1 limited series

• The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)

1 Netflix interactive movie

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend

& 2 short films

• If Anything Happens I Love You (Netflix)
• Canvas (Netflix)

For the sake of this list, I will only be talking about my top two feature-length films!

NO SPOILERS BELOW!

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Pixar’s Soul – Directed by Pete Docter

The only issue I have with it is that it’s Disney/Pixar’s first black male lead and he spends half the movie as a little blue blob. The film was also written and directed by a white man, which is all fine and dandy, but it would be nice if that crew working on the movie was just as diverse as the cast and characters. However, I am not a person of color so I cannot really speak on the matter. For a review from a person of color, see the link below:

With that said, Soul did not disappoint at all. It showed us a man who was lost and questioning his purpose in life discover all that life has to offer him. It is definitely one of Pixar’s more adult films, covering heavy concepts like death and the purpose of living. I cry every time I watch it. It’s just a wonderful movie overall with a heartwarming message about life.

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Hulu’s Palm Springs – Directed by Max Barbakow

Every time I watch it, I can feel myself falling deeper in love with this movie. And that’s really all I have to say about it. It’s just a solid rom-com with a darker, sci-fi twist! I completely recommend it!

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To complete this list, I will be ranking the rest of my 2020 watches from best to worst! thanks for reading!

1. Soul
2. Palm Springs
3. The Queen’s Gambit
4. Tiger King
5. Hamilton
6. Black Friday
7. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
8. Phineas and Ferb
9. Onward
10. half of it
11. canvas
12. happiest season
13. if anything happens I love you

Apparently, “transitioning to adulthood” is one of the most stressful things someone can go through in their lifetime. That makes complete sense to me, as I’ve barely been able to sleep this past week due to stress. On top of issues in my personal life, I am about to graduate high school and move 3 hours away from home… and oh boy, is it not as glamorous as I thought it’d be!

What they don’t tell you on Disney Channel is that some nights you’ll be so worked up about things THAT YOU CAN’T EVEN CHANGE that you’ll give yourself a stomach ache.

Last week, my mom received calls from me at least three times a day because I had gotten myself so worked up over nothing. I just needed to talk about it with someone. I am in a much better place for this week, but OH MY GOSH! One thing that being an anxious person has taught me is that it’s sooo important to talk through your feelings. Or if you can’t talk, just write them out. Sometimes hearing your worries out-loud or seeing your fears written right in front of you can help a lot.

What I’ve begun doing recently is writing out everything I am anxious about, but organized into two columns. The right column is labeled “Can Be Controlled”, and the left column is labeled “Out of My Hands”. Those categories are pretty self-explanatory. After writing everything out, I’m able to look at all my worries at once instead of just having them floating around in my head. It helps me realize that what I can’t control isn’t worth me worrying about as much.

All this just to say that I feel like a lot of us MSA seniors are feeling this way right now and I just want it to be clear that we’re not alone. We’re all in the same boat and we all have each other to lean on for support. Just remember to take time for yourself every now and then!

This week as been really hard, for reasons that I can’t really say. So I’m going to list off some things that have made me very happy recently to remind myself that there are still reasons to be happy.

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I can only hope that there is age least one person out there who will be as excited about this as I am. Maybe I am just late to the party, but I was convinced that Audible was the only app with professional audiobooks! I always wanted to get a subscribed to it but never had the money.

From The Great Gatsby to The Hunger Games, Spotify does seem to have a wide variety of stories! Classics I’ve always wanted to read, such a Little Women, and favorites I’ve been wanting to reread, like Harry Potter, are now free for me to listen to!!! I’m so excited!

Reading has always been such a big part of my life, but in recent years I’ve kind of fallen out of it. But audiobooks FOR FREE on Spotify… SIGN ME UP!

I mean as I’m listing to this, I’m listening to The Great Gatsby!!

Maybe I’m overreacting and maybe I’ll never actually listen to one of the books, but nevertheless, it makes me happy.

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For two hours a day for the past month, I’ve played Animal Crossing: New Horizons. That’s all I have to say about that. At this point, I’m living to decorate my islands and appease my villagers.

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I recently got some stickers from the dollar store. It’s just a collection of foods with smiley faces on them and they make me so happy. They’re holographic, so the right lighting, they turn rainbow!!!

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I’ve been trying to make new friends recently. I know it’s kind of late in the year to start getting to know the juniors, but it’s better late than never I guess. Even though I’ll be leaving soon, it’s still nice getting to know them.

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That’s all for now. Hopefully my week gets better, or else next week’s blog may be another list. Oh well! That’ll be okay. No matter the circumstances, it’s never a bad idea to remember the things that make you happy!

I believe that everyone at one point in their life will try and leave social media. I mean, there are so many pros to doing so. Social media can be a huge detriment to mental health! It can take up a lot of storage on your phone! And if you’re like me and have spent a whopping 6+ hours on your phone DAILY (or more), then you know that social media can be a huge time waster. That was my main issue with it.

I wanted to utilize my time better in the new year and with mindlessly scrolling through social media taking up the majority of it, it seemed like a no brainer!

To start, I posted a message on my Snapchat story on December 31st saying that I would be leaving social media for 2021. I then gathered the phone numbers of close friends who I previously only communicated with through social media, just to be sure we could still keep in touch. And with that, I was ready to leave Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok by January 1st. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I am waaaaay more dependent on social media than I thought I was.

On January 4th (only four days later!!), I re-downloaded Snapchat and Instagram.

Something I hadn’t taken into consideration was my school work. I was in the middle of filming a documentary project for class and I had to schedule interviews with my subjects. And the main way I was communicating with them was through Instagram and Snapchat, and I didn’t have any of their phone numbers.

I knew I would have to keep Instagram and Snapchat installed until after I was done with the interviews, so I decided I would only use them to communicate with my subjects. No posting on either of them or mindlessly scrolling through feeds or stories… and oh boy did that last a whole two seconds.

While I continued not posting anything myself, I found myself scrolling through Instagram more and more. While TikTok and Twitter stayed uninstalled, I made up for the time I’d wasted on them with scrolling through Instagram’s new “Reels” feature. It wasn’t the same, but at least it filled the time.

For the three days I was off social media, I was very productive. I finally put away all my Christmas decorations and cleaned my room up from the aftermath of The Week Between Christmas Day and New Years’. But after re-downloading the apps, everything went back to being the same.

This entire experience, all four days of it, taught me that I depend on social media to connect with people. I don’t regularly check-in with old friends or classmates, I enjoy seeing what they post and knowing what they’re up to! Usually, social media is dropped because the user is using it in an unhealthy way. I don’t see myself as using social media for validation or for comparing myself to others. I use it to stay in touch with the people I care about and keep myself updated on what’s happening in their lives.

I eventually re-downloaded TikTok. Twitter will probably stay gone forever, but the other three are here to stay. I still have to work on managing my time better and not getting sucked into the time-wasting vacuum that is the Instagram explore page… but maybe that’s a problem of next New Year!

I think I’ll probably try leaving social media again another day, hopefully with better results, but until then…

Follow at @addisonleigh.l on Instagram!

Wow, so it really hasn’t hit me that this exhausting year is about to come to a close, and I have high hopes for the new year. I really do, but I still have to acknowledge my doubts. I mean, 2021 isn’t bringing a time machine for a 2019 do-over or an anytime-before-2020 do-over, for that matter. 

I don’t know what to expect for this new year. Usually, I gear up for a new year with a new planner, filling it with birthdays and events, but doing that, after the traumatic year we’ve just endured, feels absurd. 

Take Christmas, for example, I won’t even get to be with my family to celebrate. We don’t have a tree or a single light hung. My house is dark and empty, almost as bleak as 2020, so I can’t bring myself to believe that 2021 is going to be better. This year left a mark in so many ways, and I just don’t think we can truly celebrate and rejoice until we’ve unpacked that. Everything is in ruins, and I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but realistic. 

I am so blessed to be able to live this life, and every day, I am grateful, but sometimes, gratitude doesn’t feel like enough. Though I am grateful, it doesn’t change the fact that I am unhappy, that I’m suffering in my own right. And if I’m being honest, this suffering began long before 2020, but in the fall of 2019. I haven’t been okay in a really long time, and I think it’s time that I acknowledge that because putting on a smile and braving the world is nearly impossible, and yet, I do it every single day. When does the façade end? When will I realize I can’t do everything on my own? When will I admit that these burdens are too much for one person to carry? When will I seek help? When will seeking help no longer be a sign of weakness to me? 

When will I be honest with myself and everyone else? In 2021? Will this be the year of honesty and truth-seeking? Or will these past traumas continue to haunt me? 

So long, 2020…

 

While 2020 was, in fact, a horrible year for the world, for me it was one of the best years. I have done more self-discovery this year than I have done any other year and have come closer to finding the person I truly am. I started with finding the person I wanted to be and noticing everything I didn’t like about myself and work on trying to change it. I wrote a blog earlier this year about self-change that I recommend you read, but this post is going to go more in detail about the changes I’ve made specifically, and hopefully what I say will help you guys make positive changes as well:’)

The changes I’ve made in myself– other than the way I dress– don’t include my physical appearance. Unfortunately, being self-conscious about our physical appearance is something everyone deals with– but we can’t change the way we look. I’ve struggled with the way I look since I can remember, and it wasn’t until this year that that changed. Sure, I still have my days, but for the most part, I’ve learned to let go of the negative perspective I made for myself on the way I look. 

I remember one time in the 8th grade, I was crying about the way I looked. An adult found me and asked me why I was crying, and I explained that I hated the way I looked. I told her I felt like I was too skinny and didn’t have the body I wanted. She looked at me and frowned.  “Aw baby”, she started, “you can just buy all that when you get older.”

I didn’t know how to feel about an adult offering me the advice of pretty much buying a new body. I have never been told to try and change the way I looked– I have always been told to just try and love the way I was made. And while changing the way I looked was a nice thought, I didn’t have thousands of dollars lying around and knew I wouldn’t any time soon. So, I did the next best option and just tried to love my body for what it was. 

First of all– don’t surround yourself with others who put you down. I used to only hangout with friends that told me all the time the things about myself that I hated. “You’re too skinny” “You look anorexic” “You sound like a guy”… etc. Doesn’t matter if they’re “just saying it because it’s true,” you don’t need to hear it or have their negative opinion in your mind. 

But the best advice I can offer you is to remember this: you are more than your physical appearance. This realization was really what lead me to self-love. I learned to stop caring about the way I looked when I learned to love who I was. 

I live by the question, “are you who you want to be?” This was this question that made me realize I wanted to change. It was this question that helped me see that I wasn’t the person I wanted to be and I wanted to be someone I could love. I wanted to be someone I could be proud of. And so, with this question being asked, I worked to be the kind of person I wanted to be. 

Well, what kind of person do I want to be? I asked. And all of these positive qualities that I want to gain came into my mind. I want to be a person people can trust. I want to be a positive person that helps others be the best person they can be. I want to be the kind of person I needed in the darkest times in my life. I have been trying to be the person I want to be for many months when I first asked myself that question and am proud of the progress I have made. I am only human, however, and I can’t seem to get it perfect at all times. But learning to accept the fact that you are human and you will make mistakes is the biggest step to forgiveness, which is essentially the foundation of positivity. 

People are not perfect. People are going to mess up- make mistakes- but once you can look past their imperfections and love them because they are a person, you will find happiness through that love. Just like others, look past your imperfections and love yourself because you are a person. And everyone– every person– deserves love. 

Since I will soon be heading home for a month-long holiday break, I wanted to do something special for my last blog on campus this semester. Today we are taking a trip down memory lane. I guess this blog is a bit of a picture diary. Last year, I made a video of videos from my time at MSA last year and put it on Instagram. I still love that video and plan to make another like it at the end of this year. 

For now, I will settle for a collage of some of my favorite pictures from this year. Hopefully, once we get back, I’ll be able to make even more great memories!

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Senior Weekend (August 21st-23rd)

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Back For Class! (Sept. 8th-18th)

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Juniors and Seniors back on campus together! (Sept. 28th- Oct. 8th)

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Spirit Week! (Oct. 12th-16th)

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Oct. 18th-22nd

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Halloween! (Oct. 26th-31st)

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Nov. 2nd-6th

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November 8th-13th

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Back from Thanksgiving! (Nov. 29th-Dec.8th)

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This is to more Memories in the semester to come!