FUCK 2017: Top 5 Best Movies in 2017

(1) DUNKIRK

                      

As a cinematic retelling of the events of Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan delivers and places first in my list. With minimal dialogue, maximum visual experience, and the Nolan flair with time, needless to say, I was speechless as the credits rolled and even after I left the cinema.

(2) WONDER WOMAN

Putting aside bias, Gal Gadot perfectly encapsulates the innocence and strength of Diana Prince, side by side Chris Pine's Steve Trevor, 2017's Wonder Woman got me sold (not that I wasn't before, honestly).

(3) THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

Even as a kid, I have never been fond of Lego's. They are just painful. But, as Batman fan, I had to check it out and surprisingly, I wasn't disappointed. It had the right wit and knowing humor - the perfect parody to the typical seriousness of the Dark Knight.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Yes, I know for a fact that this is supposed to be top 5 list but don't blame me. Not all movies I like end up in that special place, but here are two that were almost there.

(4) SPIDER MAN: HOMECOMING

The third reboot to the resident web crawler was a coming-of-age, more than anything, and I found that that's what I liked about it the most. Tom Holland with the new Midtown High ensemble and of course, Robert Downey Jr. was a refreshing take on the not-quite origin story. 

(5) WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

While the title is a slight misdirection (war, really?), Matt Reeve's trilogy ends with a lot of heart and visually stunning cinematography. 

AND THAT'S HOW I WILL END 2017. What a year. 

Breaking Glass Ceilings: The Rest of Us Just Live Here

We all love our Chosen Ones. The boy who lived. The girl on fire. The first jumper. It was a wild phenomenon, as fans and readers enjoyed cheering for their heroes. However, with the amount of Chosen Ones we have encountered, one would wonder if there’s still a Chosen One, at all. 

It’s a concept that continues to be present in many forms of literature – whether in printed word or digital media or deliberately stated or implied – and it'll most likely continue until the end of time. While there is nothing wrong with the Chosen Ones, it has become a generic trope that most readers, such as myself, are exhausted of reading about. (So, this is essentially the origin story of how I have fallen in love with anti-heroes.)

When The Rest of Us Just Live Here was first announced, I was instantly intrigued. A book deliberately not about Chosen Ones? Count me in. It was time for the rest of Hogwarts’ students, for the faceless victims of Panem, of the citizens of a revolutionized Chicago. 

The Rest of Us Just Live Here was an interesting lovechild of light fantasy and young adult contemporary. Patrick Ness’ take on the Chosen One trope was creatively woven where our protagonists’ stories happen side-by-side whatever heroic journey the Chosen Ones – or as they are referred to, the “indie kids” – are on, where the latter was simply considered as a background matter. 

Patrick Ness’ book was a satirical and even, parodic response to the trope of the Chosen Ones but what made it substantial were the seemingly ordinary characters that were just like the rest of us. The main protagonists’ Mikey, his sister Mel, Henna, Jared, and even new kid, Nathan and Mikey’s younger sister, Meredith, all have their own personal demons with themselves and the world. However, as Caitlin White stated it, The Rest of Us Just Live Here isn’t an “’issues’ book”. She insinuated that the characters themselves know so, reiterating it after the reader gets a look at some particular familial struggles:

“But all of this, this isn't the story I'm trying to tell. This is all past. This is the part of your life where it gets taken over by other people's stories and there's nothing you can do about it except hold on tight and hope you're still alive at the end to take up your own story again. So that's what we did. Me, Mel, and Meredith all moved on and we're the stories we're living now.”

Going on a tangent here: while I did just state how The Rest of Us Just Live Here was going beyond its characters having their issues, I would still like to commend Patrick Ness’ presentation of mental illness, in particular, OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. One of the main characters, Mikey, was diagnosed with it and I found his journey through this mental illness truly heart wrenching, especially as the book is told from his perspective. Honestly, I am not well-versed in mental illness in fictional literature (something which I really should change) but the portrayal of the hard reality of having OCD was very raw and grounded. I had understood deeply through Mikey – the frustrations, the compulsions – that until now, the single scene of his multiple repetition of hand washing until his hands were red and bleeding had stayed with me. 

Continuing, The Rest of Us Just Live Here also brought to light struggles we, as the rest of us, entertain from day-to-day through our group of characters. Mikey and company only want to survive their Senior year, enjoy prom, and of course, graduate. (Being a Senior right now, this resonates deeply.) At the same time, there were these challenges of “friendship, family, changing and growing up, and” discovering your identity in this “complicated world” that they had to face. Juxtaposed to the very eventful and adventurous lives of the indie kids, The Rest of Us Just Live Here poke at the idea that living as the rest of us is infinitely more challenging than fighting against alien invaders. In White’s words, “[…] being the Chosen One is far more “normal” than just trying to exist as no one special in the world.” Being extraordinary in our own way as ordinary people is a tougher journey. 

“Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.”

The Rest of Us Just Live Here, in its hilarity and realism, was obviously set to dispel the trope of the Chosen Ones. It successfully did so through complementing the overused cliche in making substantial ordinary characters, instead of merely mocking it.

***

Breaking Glass Ceilings is a collaboration with Julienne of Vasari Pages. So make sure to also check hers out!

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas

“Sarah J. Maas definitely took on a whole different route,” – these were my first words regarding A Court of Wings and Ruin to my friends, about only a hundred pages in. Having finished it and being able to look at it wholly, I am still on the fence about how the story went.

The anticipation for ACOWAR had me reading for hours straight, as expected. By hour six, I was mentally exhausted. Extremely. The supposed-finale for the series felt as if it bit more than it can chew. While I am a sucker for well laid-out arcs, ACOWAR was overflowing with them to properly comprehend and was downright tiring to follow. It was like the multiple screens of the sonar device in Dark Knight, showing multiple secondary scenes, including the primary arc, all at once. And like Lucius Fox, you’re supposed to follow each and everyone of them.

"What we think to be our greatest weakness can sometimes be our biggest strength."

Given how it’s still book 3 out of 6, some arcs were clearly meant to remain unresolved to be eventually followed through. I do appreciate continuity; however, it was either this subplot was already withering from backburner negligence or was so suddenly placed and seemingly unnecessary, given the gravity of everything else occurring simultaneously. Some were obviously set up for further books and these little surprising details, albeit unintentionally, broke the pace of an already drama- and action-heavy book.

With both ACOTAR and ACOMAF, I noticed how action was mostly crammed in the third act. In comparison, the third installment definitely regained some balance in terms of the weight of the circumstances or character(s) development. Given how a lot of details and arcs have already been setup with the predecessors, Maas was quick to the action in ACOWAR. The book began and ended in gripping events that promptly, as aforementioned, emphasized an almost consistent pacing and balance. Almost. Supporting my claim of arc-overload, it was action-packed to the point of often glossing over the actual big, table-turning events. If all are important, then none is important.
I also found Feyre’s perspective very limiting, especially in the latter part of ACOWAR where some milestones were happening literally beyond court borders. While I see the purpose of having a first-person POV, there were quite a lot of moments that needed an omniscient viewpoint. Loose ends were merely tied up with a couple of sentences of explanation and Feyre’s own assumptions. These scenes left unanswered questions and could’ve propelled development of other secondary characters, particularly seeming antagonists.

"My rage had become a living thing inside my chest, an echoing heartbeat that soothed me to sleep and stirred me to waking."

Despite having a few technical issues with ACOWAR, I still would not take back the (many many) savings that paid for this highly anticipated release. Being an avid fan of Maas, I’ve firsthand witnessed how she takes care of her characters and it was one of the main aspects that I really melted for in ACOWAR. There were quite literally world-threatening events happening yet she took time to further develop important relationships between characters, particularly our titular Feyre, both platonically and romantically. It strengthened emotional connections between the reader and the characters, thus created a bigger impact for emotional events. For a fantasy race of supernatural beings, they felt real.

"I would have waited five hundred more years for you. A thousand years. And if this was all the time we were allowed to have... the wait was worth it."

Although ACOWAR ended in a hopeful note with the overarching arc (lol) reaching its conclusion, Sarah J Maas clearly still has a lot in store for her readers in her upcoming books. This book was honestly a conflicting read but continued to capture my heart through its characters. Here’s to another painful year of waiting!