Movie - Welcome to Me from Shira Piven

                                             

                                                 

Welcome to Me follows Alice, a 40-something woman diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. She wakes up everyday at 12h15, plays the lottery every week, and is so obsessed with Oprah Winfrey, she memorized many of the show's episodes. She is very socially awkward and the only people in her life are Gina, her best friend since middle school, Ted, her gay ex-husband and his partner, her old parents, and Dr. Daryl, her therapist. 

One day, Alice wins the lottery: 86 million dollars. Then she moves to a casino, stop taking her meds, and decides to pay 15 million for her own show at a television station struggling with audiences and profits.

Alice's show is all about her - what she eats, traumatic events from her past and conflicts with the people she knew, all presented in a nonsensical way. She is caught up in a bubble of fame and fortune and due to her mental illness she isn't aware of the harm she is doing to everyone around her. Nonetheless she is able to raise the audiences.

This movie is odd and peculiar and not like anything I've seen before. It never gets boring and I kept wondering what was going to happen next. It's not a movie for everyone, as it is a spiral of craziness and some shocking scenes. I enjoyed watching it, however I felt that Alice looked more autistic than someone with BPD. Her behavior was too over the top and some scenes made me cringe, but overall it's worth the watch.

Rate: 3.5/5

Book - The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

"My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died..."

The first book I've read by this author was What Alice Forgot and I enjoyed it, so I decided to read another one. 

This book focus on the lives of 3 different Australian women. Cecilia and Rachel both live in Sydney and Tess lives in Melbourne. Cecilia is a 40-something happily married mom of 3 young daughters. Tess is a slightly younger woman from Melbourne whose husband's said he's in love with her best friend, who happens to be her cousin. After learning this, Tess moves to Sydney with her son to be closer to her mother. Rachel is a school secretary in her 60's and her daughter, Janie, was murdered in the 80's by an unknown killer. She lives everyday in deep pain and becomes obsessed with the thought that a school teacher, who was the last one to be seen with Janie, killed her.

One of Cecilia's daughters has an obsession with the Berlin Wall, and she told her daughter she had a piece of the Wall in the attic, from when she was there many years ago. She went to the attic to get it and instead she found a letter in a envelope from her husband who wrote to only open it at the event of his death. She later confronted him and he begged her not to open. She couldn't resist her curiosity and she did it. What she found a very shocking and life changing fact for the 3 women and the others evolved.

I really liked this story. Although the mystery of the letter is revealed not so far ahead in the book, the big revelations are not made until the very end, and the final part was bittersweet. I feel it all was well put together, except the events and all the details concerning Tess, which I think it had little to do with the main focus of the story. I could connect with the indecisions and doubts of the characters. It explores love, loss, guilt, revenge and ethic behavior. 
 
Have you read it? If you have read and enjoyed more books like this one, tell me in the comments. :)
Rate: 4.5/5 

Book - Where'd You Go, Bernardette by Maria Semple

"Just because it's complicated, just because you think you can't ever know everything about another person, it doesn't mean you can't try."

Where'd You Go, Bernardette was very popular when it came out in 2012 and a movie adaptation is coming this March. I loved the book's cover and I enjoy chick-lit and light reads, so I decided to read this on kindle.

Bernardette Fox is a woman in her early 50's who lives in Seattle with her husband Elgin, who works at Microsoft, her daughter Bee, a 15 year old school prodigy, and their dog. The book starts with Bee asking her parents to take her on a Christmas trip to Antarctica and them promising her they'd go. 

Bernardette is a wacky character who doesn't like social interaction and is despised by the parents of her daughter's school (a group of upper class moms she calls gnats who desperately want to be the perfect parents) because she doesn't contribute to school activities. She avoids talking to people so much she hired a personal assistant from India to help her with her basic needs. Nonetheless she gets along with her daughter very well, who is portrayed in a very childlike manner, although she is a teenager.

The storytelling is unconventional, being entirely told in the form of letters, e-mails, notes, and occasionally from Bee's perspective. I feel like apart from Bernardette, all of the characters were undeveloped and some of the writings came from people completely unfamiliar, which made it harder for me to empathize with them. 

When I started reading this book I didn't think it'd take so long to get to the main point: Bernardette's disappearance. More than half of the story is an explanation of why she acted like she did, her loss of control, her reckless behavior and conflicts with the people surrounding her. 

The ending part was abrupt, predictable, full of unnecessary information (which got me bored), and obviously unrealistic, but I get the book is a satire of an outcast in an upper class neighborhood and is not supposed to be believable. It also has references to the Seattle area and Microsoft that I didn't get. I did like the writing style, although some of the letters were too big.

The first part was entertaining and I kept reading because I was curious to discover more about Bernardette and what would happen to her, but after I knew where she was it became completely dull. I was disappointed.

Rate: 3/5

Movie - Mid90's from Jonah Hill

*spoilers*

This movie follows Stevie, a 13 year old who lives in what I think it's the suburbs of LA with his single mother and older brother. Tired of his family environment and of being bullied by his brother, he wants an escape. When he spots a group of older teenagers skating in front of a skate store, he approaches them and starts hanging out with them. 

Desperately wanting to fit in with the cooler kids, he learns how to skate and starts doing things he wasn't familiar and comfortable with. The group enjoys being with him and they form an unlikely friendship, which is obviously not approved by Stevie's mother and his brother. 

The movie reflects on growing up, the future and having goals. It also shows what alcohol and drugs can do to a young person. I think the main character looked younger than 13, and I found it hard to believe he was actually accepted in a group where only one person was around his age, and the others 17 or so.

The bedroom scene with the older girl was cringe-worthy, and when his mother goes to the store to yell at the other kids saying Stevie was never going to see them again, he just came back the next day like nothing happened. 

There are movies with similar plots, so it brings nothing new. On a positive note I liked the visuals, the movie looked like it was actually filmed in the 90's. The acting was very natural. It's not a long movie and I didn't get bored, but I feel like it's very forgettable.

Rate: 3/5