Thanks to a couple of free passes picked up at Comic Book Ink over the weekend, I was lucky enough to catch an early Seattle showing of the movie Juno I've been desperate to see. It required a pilgrimage to Seattle along with Frinklin, as well as fellow bloggers Kevin Freitas and his lovely wife Cassioposa.

There's been so much hype about this movie, about the writer Diablo Cody - she's The Next Big Thing!, how this is Ellen Page's breakthrough role, and could Jennifer Garner win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this film...and it's all true. Juno is superbly written (if not a little too smart in places), Ellen Page is perfect in the role of Juno, and Jennifer Garner transforms from an uptight woman you think you know into a vulnerable one you genuinely care about.

This film nicely skips over all the clinches you've seen in every other film about teen pregnancy. There's the 16-year-old girl who gets pregnant and makes her own decisions about what to do with the baby. She's definitely the odd one out at school, but her best friend is the head cheerleader. The stepmother who may not be so wicked after all. The adoptive couple who has their own hidden issues to deal with.

Juno's smart mouth made me love her, but the fact that she's not quite got all the answers made her real. The moment that her stepmother explains to her that she cannot spend time alone with a married man - that moment stood out to me. Her refusal to accept her stepmother's warning leads to a painful realization, prompting Juno to ask her father for relationship advice. Seeing a smart-ass kid who still needs her parents is cool.

The trip was definitely worth it. Juno is a lot of fun to watch and I can't wait to see it again on DVD to make sure I didn't miss any good lines because the people in the audience were laughing so loud I couldn't hear them. I highly recommend you get your ass to the theater to see Juno immediately. The film hits theaters today.

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You'd think I'd be sick of Jame McAvoy after Becoming Jane and the upcoming Atonement (pant, pant). But after glimpsing Penelope, which was originally scheduled to be released in the Spring, then in October, and now in February 2008, I'm firmly in the more-James camp.

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I can't wait to see this:

Not only does it look funny and has a great cast, but it features the music of kimya dawson, who I am currently obsessed with. If you haven't heard her, she is the female half of the Moldy Peaches, which may or may not be broken up.

kimya is classified as folk, or anti-folk, or country, depending on who you talk to. Her songs are the definition of raw and personal, almost stream of consciousness in their confessional style. Listening to Remember That I Love You feels like hearing her diary set to music. I also highly recommend Hidden Vagenda. Both albums have songs that are sweet and sad and funny and perfect for every emotion you have ever felt.

Favorite songs include Underground, The Competition, and I Like Giants (Remember That I Love You) Lullaby for the Taken, Parade, You Love Me, and Moving On (Hidden Vagenda). But they're all good. You can find her music on both eMusic and iTunes.

kimya dawson lives with her husband, Ange and daughter, Panda in Olympia, WA. She creates handcrafted items and continues to perform all over the place. Can't wait to see her live.

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Braved the rain yesterday with Frinklin, Kevin, and Sarah to see Inlaws & Outlaws at The Grand during the Tacoma Film Festival.

We arrived with plenty of time at 3:50. The movie was scheduled to start at 4:15, however, we were told that it would not start until 4:30 because an earlier movie was running late. We headed over to One Heart Cafe next door and enjoyed some coffee in their comfy back room. When we returned at 4:25, the film was already underway. I HATE being late to movies, so this was really annoying. I felt like asking them to restart the film, "Hey - you told us to wait, so we did, and now you screwed me out of the first 5 minutes!" So irritating.

I really enjoyed the film, a documentary interviewing people about their love stories in a way that you didn't know if they were gay or straight until later in the movie. You just knew that they were telling their story about falling in love, sometimes talking about their childhood and various teen crushes, eventually getting to the love of their life (or in one case, a marriage that ended in divorce). Their narratives were so similar, you couldn't separate the gay stories from the straight, which showed exactly how similar gay and straight love stories are. By the end of the movie I was in tears listening to an elderly lesbian couple talk about their love for each other. There is also a heartbreaking story of an older gay man who describes the death of his partner of 50 years and subsequent struggle with heartbreak, desire to kill himself, and redemption at a North Everett church that welcomes him into their fold.

There is plenty to laugh as well. An odd, divorced woman keeps attempting to name her "life philosophy" and comes up with "all of life is grieving" and then states that "you should try to be happy." The elderly lesbian couple shares a little too much about their sex life in a G-rated way, "I lifted my pajama top and..." A few people come off as idiotically homophobic, "Can we get off this 'gay' topic please?" begs a single straight guy who doesn't think gays should be able to get married. There is a creepy, bald, unnecessary piano player to shows up a few times who stares unnervingly into the camera who gave me the giggles.

Overall it was very enjoyable, save for the odd musical cut-aways that did nothing for the movie. The music was good, but the singer was distracting. The film is offered for public viewings to communities and the like. A good starting point for people looking for a way to spark discussion about gay relationships. I think that this would be a fantastic film for high school gay/straight alliances (or possibly all high school students) to view.

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Frinklin and went to a showing of Sicko at The Grand Cinema last night. Initially Frinklin wanted to see The Simpsons Movie tonight, but I wasn't in the mood for the ginormous multiplex, so I talked him into the health insurance documentary instead...what?

Little did I know I'd end up in hysterical tears on the way home, sitting in front of the house yelling, "And they're all evil! Evil!!" While my husband grasped at what the appropriate response would be to this statement.

This is your typical Michael Moore movie. In turns dramatic and funny, over the top and obvious. Hillary Clinton is the "sexy, sassy" bombshell wife of President Bill Clinton who brings the idea of Universal Health Care to the uneducated masses and when the idea fails is never allowed to mention it again. George W. Bush is seen as a bufoon and the Republican Congress is easily bought by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Canada, England, France, and Cuba have Socialized medicine and therefore have superior health care than the U.S. Which, after watching not just this movie, but other documentaries and reading pieces on medicine in other countries, I am inclined to agree with. As someone who is seriously wanting to start a family soon it kills me to hear the expectant mother in the UK state that all new moms get six months paid maternity leave and another six months optional unpaid leave. And in France you get a nanny to assist with laundry and meals twice a week, it's mandatory to take at LEAST five weeks vacation each year, and doctors make house calls. Did I mention it's all free? Those crazy French.

The harder parts of the film are the insurance denial horror stories. The woman with the haunted eyes that tells the story of her husband who died of liver cancer while the insurance company denied treatment over and over again. "Experimental treatment" they claimed, month after month as his doctor tried valiantly to find something that would fall under the banner of "conventional" treatment. When the doctor found a bone marrow donor that matched perfectly and declared it his last chance, the insurance company denied that too. The woman pled her case in person in front of the insurance board who condemned her husband to die for no good reason. Whoops - there was one good reason - money.

Or the story of the baby with a deadly feaver insured by Kaiser Permanente who was brought to the wrong hospital - MLK in Los Angles - a place infamous to those in Southern California (I used to listen to LA radio and hear about how many people they would kill every month). Kaiser insisted that the baby needed to be taken by car to the nearest Kaiser hospital for treatment while the mother begged that the baby be admitted and receive treatment immediately. While the hospital, the insurance company, and the understandably hysterical mother argued, the baby was eventually moved, and died.

The movie ends with the much-talked-about trip to Cuba with 9-11 rescue workers and a number of other people. Initially they plan to go to Guantanamo Bay to get the same health care as the "evildoers", but abort that plan when alarms go off as they get close. They end up at the Cuban hospital instead where everyone appears to receive the treatment they need, free of charge.

What really got to me about this movie are the people who sit on high in the insurance companies denying claims for no good reason other than to keep the money in the hands of their company. There is a woman who testifies before Congress that in order to move up in the health insurance industry, she had to deny claims, and it is further discussed that saving the company the most money would win you a bonus within the company.

This is a seriously fucked up system. A very evil system.

It is truly evil to allow people to pay you, to allow them to think that they are paying you to protect them when they are at their most vulnerable - potentially dying from a terrible disease, or that their loved ones are dying from a horrible disease, when all the time you are looking for ways to undermine and destroy them. There is an entire system in place to ensure that your benefits are not paid, or if they are paid, that they are returned to the insurance company at a later date, and that you will be retroactively billed. Or that you will be dropped from the insurance company for making a claim.

I can't help but think what would I do if Frinklin were hurt or dying, and the insurance company that we have, that he works for, were to screw us in such a horrible way. Oh, the pain I would rain down upon them...

Universal Health Care Now!

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Because you were wondering what happened to Soundwave.

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I'm probably the 500th person to use that title, but WTF - it fits.

Frinklin and I went to the first showing of Transformers today in Tacoma and GOOD HOLY GOD did the movie ROCK!

If you, like me, were a fan of the television show growing up - go!

If you like to see kick ass special effects - go!

If you like to see lots of shit get blown up in a big, big way - go immediately!

I'm not usually a Michael Bay fan, but this movie met every expectation I had in a big way. The nostalgia factor is huge with this movie, and judging from the reaction of the crowd, everyone was happy. There was a lot of clapping and shouting, especially when Optimus Prime made his first appearance. On more than one occasion several people stood up to clap. Shia LaBeouf was great - after seeing him in this action role, I'm definitely looking forward to the fourth Indiana Jones film.

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