Dan In Real Life | Friday Fave

Happy Friday the 13th, world.

As it turns out, I am not a superstitious person. So I barely thought about the oh-no-iness of the whole thing. I am, however, a dates person. I like dates. Of the year. I'm really good at remembering birthdays (of people I like, don't get cray...). I have a favorite day of the year (don't worry, I'll tell you when it gets here). And when the numbers look cool (01/01/01, or 02-04-06, most recently 06.09.12), I celebrate with an overly cheerful Facebook status acknowledgment and special attention to my penmanship when I write in my journal before bed.

So, that said, Happy Friday the 13th, world!!! (<--- observe overly cheerfulness)

In honor of this momentous occasion, I am ushering in a new tradition that I like to call Friday Faves. I think this is self-explanitory. But for those common-sensically challenged, I will write about a new favorite thing of mine every Friday. This Friday, the thing is:

Dan in Real Life.

Let me just say, I considered seriously changing the name of this blog to "Dana in Real Life" following my second ever viewing of this delicious theatrical morsel. (In case you're wondering, the current name of this blog is unofficial. I change it like every three days. I can't decide what I want to call my Home On The Web, but I know I want it to be snazzy and snappy and not my name. So until I learn how to write HTML code - which, given that I have Web Design for Dummies on my living room floor, should be soon - and actually pimp out my Web Crib, consider my blog name Unofficial.)

Dan in Real Life is a movie. It's a tall frosty glass of frozen strawberry lemonade in 100 degree 100% humidity South Texas weather. It's a beanie baby in the shape of Mother Theresa with the softness of a newborn Beagle's ears. It's heaven wrapped in babies wrapped in bacon. Which is to say, it's awesome.

The movie, starring Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, and Dane Cook (among others), was released in 2007 and I'm pretty sure I watched it on a plane to England that Christmas. But I was in and out of sleeping and I didn't have my glasses on. I apparently remembered I loved it enough to give it five stars on Netflix - which turned out to be a disappointment because I went to Netflix all excited to bump up my rating on it only to discover it could not be upped any further. Sad day. IMDB succinctly summarizes this movie: "A widower finds out the woman he fell in love with is his brother's girlfriend." And while the description is apt, it is not enough.

Dan in Real Life is about a man who, by day, is a "parenting expert" but, by night, is a lonely man with three daughters he has no clue how to deal with and an achy breaky heart. Dan is such a human character, you can't help but love him. He is trying so hard to be the right guy. The right kind of father. The right kind of brother. The right kind of son. The right kind of driver! But has his youngest daughter Lily says early in the film: "You're a good father, but sometimes bad dad." Throughout the course of the film, his parenting skills only worsen as he falls for The Wrong Girl, his brother's girlfriend, Marie. Marie is obviously the perfect match for him. She's beautiful, wise, funny, charming, well-cultured, well-read, adventurous. Dan's daughters all find something inspiring in her. And he begins to really heal after his wife's death. 


My watching this movie must have been torture for my upstairs neighbors, because I laughed so. very. loud. so. very. often. But as they say, great comedy is founded in great pain. And there is so much pain! And so much comedy. This is by far my favorite Carell film. And after enjoying every second of the feature and every bonus feature, I've determined I must own this movie and its soundtrack (which is the most intense and intentional scoring process I've ever seen for any movie!) as soon as humanly possible.


So this Friday, I offer you the gift of Dan and his very Real Life. Go watch it. It will make you feel irreparably human in the best possible way. 

Happy Faveday!

Brave | Movie Review

It's a generally accepted fact that Pixar is Midas. Everything they touch is gold. They've proved it year after year with films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and Up that have amazing art and graphics; hilarious, exhilarating plots; and deep, heart-wrenching themes. Typically, Pixar movies are the only animated movies I'll see in theaters anymore because, frankly, they're not just for kids. Kids enjoy the funness of it all, but the grown-ups - like me - are the ones tearing up and feeling like someone in Emeryville, California has been reading their diary. That's an impressive feat to pull of thirteen times in a row. So naturally, when the first trailer for Brave released, I was STOKED. First of all, let's just establish that Merida is basically the lovechild of Hawkeye and Black Widow. I mean, look at this meme:

Amazing, right? I love memes. Anyway, I'm one of a billion inspired by Hunger Games and Avengers to get into archery. (It's just so dang sexy!) To prove that I'm legit:

 

You should be impressed.

Anyway, I went to see Brave opening weekend with Lover. And of course I loved it. A fiery-haired, spitfire Scots-girl with a bow and arrow and lots of family drama? That's basically me! Okay, so I don't have red hair. In my heart, I totally do. 

I will say, I might have gotten my hopes up that this was a love story. I should've known that 1. It's Pixar. They address Issues Not Related To Romance. 2. She says "I'll be shootin' fer my own hand!" in the trailer so obviously it's about empowerment, right? And 3. It's Pixar! They Do Not Write Love Stories. That's soooooo early '90s Disney (and before). We are soooo above that now.  (I hope you heard that in my best Valley Girl Voice because that's how I said it.)

Suffice it to say, it is not a love story. It is a coming of age story. A mother/daughter story. A breaking the mold story. And it did move me, challenge me, inspire me. To explain how I felt about this movie without giving much of anything away, I will allow you to read the note I wrote to my mom after seeing it. [There is a minor spoiler alert that I give lots of warning for and even made very teeny tiny so if you wanted to not look at it you could...possibly... (Although, it's, like, the point of the movie and it's revealed in, like, the first 10 minutes. So stop freaking out!)]

Note:

Dear Mom, 

I love you. I saw the movie Brave this weekend, and had no idea that it was a story about mothers and daughters. It is. The two are very close and very fun when the daughter is young. But the daughter gets more willful when she's older, and the mother gets more strict. Their tale is about making them understand and respect each other. (In a lot of ways it reminded me of Freaky Friday. :D) Anyway, I wished with a sudden ferociousness that I could be watching this movie with you. And the fish scene in particular made me cry. So I'm sorry I am sometimes your stubborn untraditional daughter with unruly hair. But I love you so very much and I promise to never  

******SPOILER ALERT******* turn you into a bear... ******SPOILER ALERT OVER***** Ever. I hope one day to be as brave and fearless and inspiring as you.

Sincerely,
Your Dana(-Doo)

That last part is an inside joke. She calls me Dana-Doo. It's a thing. Like a mother/daughter thing.

Stop laughing. Please stop laughing. 

You suck.

All in all, it's a great movie. Another beaut to add to Pixar's gleaming list of achievements. It doesn't pack the emotional suckerpunch of Up or the poetic brilliance of Wall-E. But it's like the girl counterpart to Finding Nemo (which if you remember is about a father and son who don't quite get each other and learn how to on a crazy adventure of getting back to each other!) So go see it. If you need an excuse, take a kid. Any kid. Snatch one up off the street if you have to. (Sarcasm.) It's a cute story, and her hair apparently took two different software programs to create. So it's beautiful. 

My Rating:

Story: ★★★★

Presentation (Art, Direction, All That Technical Stuff): ★★★★★

Acting: ★★★★★

Music: ★★★★

Overall: ★★★★ 1/2