Ready Player One

By Laura Powers: Celebrity Psychic, Writer, and host of Behind the Scenes Podcast.

The newest movie by Steven Spielberg, based on the book by Ernest Cline, is set in 2045 in Columbus, Ohio. The story centers around a virtual world that game maker James Halliday created named OASIS. In this dystopian reality, many people spend most of their waking hours in OASIS (I don’t think we are that far off from this possible reality). Lead character Wade Watts, played by Tye Sheridan, is known as Parzival in OASIS. We follow his adventures as he attempts to win a big prize which includes a big chunk of cash and administrative rights to the game.

There is, of course, a love interest, Art3mis in the gaming world, and Samantha in real life, played by Olivia Cooke. There is also a fun side-kick Aech, played by Lena Waithe, and other crew members Sho and Daito.

In order to win the prize, players must find the Easter Eggs (hidden clues within the game) to win 3 keys. Whoever gets all three keys first, wins the money, control of the game, and of course mega-fame. There is an evil villain who wants to control the game with plans to sell up to 80 percent of players’ screens with advertising. Though the plot doesn’t get huge points for originality, the film is very fun to watch and is visually stunning and unique. The shots in OASIS are stylized and sleek and there is plenty to enjoy in the film whether you are a gamer or not. If you are a fan of 80s culture then you will love this film as many of the pop-culture references from games, films, and television are from the 80s. There is a particularly fantastic film-within-a-film recreation of The Shining.

Overall this movie is a great way to spend time and it was one of the rare CGI movies in which I didn’t find the artificial world distracting. I do wish the love story had been a little less cliqued. At one point, Art3mis states that she doesn’t want to meet Parzival in real life and hints that he might be disappointed in her appearance despite the fact that she is gorgeous but has a minor birthmark. Still, I liked that Art3mis was a force to be reckoned with in her own right.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and I think that there is something in the film for most people. When I scanned the theater, I was impressed with the diversity of the audience. I also appreciated that Steven Spielberg made a fun, light-hearted action movie. He is great at making serious movies, and while this movie was thought-provoking, it was a lot of fun too.

The film was made by Warner Brothers on a budget of $175 million and marketing costs running $150 million so this was big-budget though it’s not surprising with all the effects. There is a talk of a sequel and Cline is working on the book now. No reports yet on whether Steven Spielberg would be attached though at SXSW he said of his experience working on the film, “Ready Player One was the ‘the greatest anxiety attack I ever had,’” so he may not be jumping to get on the sequel if it happens.

Sources

IMDB

Indiewire

Ready Player One Wikia

Wikipedia – Ready Player One

Wikipedia – Ready Player One (film)

Arrival, Possibly the Best Movie of the Year

Arrival was possibly my favorite movie of the year, and I see a lot of movies. It was both touching emotionally, unique in its approach, and compelling as a story. Amy Adams, plays a linguist who is charged with the challenging task of helping to understand why a group of extra-terrestrials is here on planet earth. The story encompasses love, loss, and is ultimately about persevering even when all seems lost.

There are so many extra-terrestrial movies made these days and this movie did not fall into any of the stereotypes. Even the depictions of the extra-terrestrials was unique yet totally plausible in the world of the movie. There is literally not one area of the movie that I thought was weak. The writing, the acting, the visual aesthetics, the soundtrack, everything came together and allowed you to focus on the story that unfolds as the movie plays out.

A truly magnificent movie will not only take you on an emotional journey but get you to think about the world, and your life in a different way. This movie did that for me. Amy Adams was perfect in the role of someone who was terrified and yet also fearless in the face of incredible adversity.

If you haven’t seen the movie, go see it. Though the previews were well produced, I don’t think they do the movie justice. There is so much to have an explore in this movie. At the end of the movie I was both satisfied and yet filled with questions. The film was through-provoking and yet satisfying, finding a perfect balance in what was revealed and what was kept hidden. 

And even though there are hints throughout the movie, it really is not until the end that one realizes how all the pieces of the story come together and it is marvelous to behold. 

Kudos to the filmmakers for this movie, I hope come award season, it gets recognized. 

Brooklyn, the Movie

Brooklyn is a wonderful new movie that centers around Eilis, a sweet but strong young woman who has just emigrated to Brooklyn from Ireland in hopes of a better future. She leaves behind her sister and her mother and everything she has ever known. As might be expected, such a big change is initially challenging for her but in her new environment she slowly grows and blossoms into a more confident and assured version of herself. Her adventures in Brooklyn lead her to improvement in all areas of her life. She gets a new job in a fancy department store, enrolls in night school and is wooed by a charming and earnest Italian plumber. 

The movie beautifully shows Brooklyn of the era and I have to say that while watching it, I fell in love with Brooklyn as well as with the movie. If the story that unfolds is sweet, so too is the telling of it. The movie depicts with great tenderness the events that happen to Eilis and the difficult choices she is faced with.

Without giving too much away, events unfold that force Eilis to choose between the new life she is creating for herself, or a promising and familiar path in her old life. As you watch her make these difficult choices, your heart breaks and for her. Each path seems to have much to offer. One can’t help but think of circumstances in our own lives in which there has been a fork in the road and only one path can be taken. The immense pressure and yearning that we all feel for the new and fresh, or for the familiar, safe, and secure is depicted so beautifully here. In the end she chooses with her heart. Which path she chooses might not be obvious however, as the movie unfolded, I didn’t know what our heroine was going to decide. That is one thing I loved about this film.

This movie is universal because it deals with the crossroads in our lives and with themes of new beginnings, comfort, safety, and the challenge of choosing between family, and what we want and love. It displays these choices, and the paths we must take with care, beauty and tenderness. Brooklyn creates a beautiful and magical world that I was happy to be lost in.

Spotlight the Movie and Hollywood

I went to dinner the other night and decided to go to a movie after. To be honest I didn’t even know what movie I was going to see. I knew that whatever movie it was, the time would be convenient. As it turned out, of all the movies I wanted to see, Spotlight felt the best. As a pro psychic, I often make decisions by feel and intuition. Turns out it was just the movie I needed to see.

Spotlight focuses on the uncovering of sexual abuse by priests and the cover up that followed. The story follows the team of investigative journalists at the Boston Globe who had the challenging task of digging to see if there was a story in the idea that the church was covering up systemic sexual abuse of children. This was not a glamorous story, almost nobody wanted to touch it. Not only is there the obvious challenge of the tough topic (child sex abuse by trusted people in positions of power) but also the readership of the magazine publishing the story was 53 percent catholic. Nobody wanted to believe this. Everywhere they went, the reporters were blocked and told not to pursue it. Thankfully for the victims, the public, and future potential victims, they continued and this terrible situation was brought to light.

Through the movie I learned that billions of dollars has been paid by the church worldwide to silence victims. Most of the victims signed contracts that they wouldn’t prosecute. This meant that the church could easily hide their dirty secret for decades since sexual abuse victims are also not likely to want to openly talk about the abuse. What this article did was make people aware that not only was the abuse happening, but the church was shuffling around the priests that prayed on children to different parishes while telling the victims’ families that they were going to be kept from children. In actuality, many of the priests continued their patterns in different cities for decades. After the article in the Spotlight section of the Boston Globe, the church could not deny that they had known about the extent of the abuse. In Boston alone, 87 priests had been molesting children that the church had known about and relocated. This shocked the nation.

The movie itself was superb. Michael Keaton was excellent as Walter “Robby” Robinson, the leader of the spotlight team. What I liked about him and the rest of the characters and portrayals is that they felt like real people. This was not a black and white story. The “good guys” were not perfect people. They did the best they could but they were human. The same was true about one of the “bad guys” in the story, a lawyer who worked on contracts to silence the victims. Yes he was doing something that wasn’t good but he had tried to help in his own way through a surprising twist in the story. Even one of the priests they interviewed had been abused himself as a child. This film shows how there is often not one bad guy responsible for these problems but rather society that is contributing in one way or another to it by looking the other way and people just doing “their job.” That was a line used in the movie a lot, “I was just doing my job.” Individually it is easy to defend but collectively, it leads to large scale damage and abuse.

Another topic this movie she light on is that with the dismantling of traditional newspapers, the kind of investigative journalism that exposed this topic is not very likely any more. This kind of story took months to uncover. With more and more newspapers going under or cutting staff, there are fewer investigative journalists that can go in deep on a story like this. In an era of soundbites and tweets, thorough investigative journalism is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

This movie addressed something I’ve been feeling for some time. As institutions get so large, they have vested interests in protecting themselves and that interest is often directly counter to the interest of those they serve. Basically, they develop a sort of mind of their own and while the original intent may have been good, what happens over time may not be. I see this happening with government, the educational system, medicine, and many religious institutions. It is important for each of us not to just blindly follow and trust but to be aware and let others know when something fishy is going on.

 I do recommend the movie and though I knew a little about the story, I came away with a new understanding and also a great appreciation for the wonderful way that film can share powerful messages without hitting you on the head with them.

Why this Blog

So I was starting to feel like I should start to write a blog about movies, show biz, and life in the business and in the city. I was sitting there thinking to myself, “what do I call this blog?” I was also thinking that in the blog I’d share thoughts about different movies I saw amongst other things. Then I thought about the movie I saw the other night called Spotlight. I saw in in Hollywood and I thought viola and so “Spotlight on Hollywood” was born.

It’s been over a year since I moved to the LA area. I came to expand my horizons, for the wonderful lifestyle (and weather) the city affords, and for show business of course! I’ve moved all around too, staying with friends in Thai Town, Silverlake and West Hollywood before settling down for a year in Burbank. Even though my process for moving around was non-traditional, it gave me a great taste of different areas before I settle into Burbank. Living in the Valley provided me with a nice smooth transition as living in the valley was more gentle than the intense energy of Hollywood and some of the other areas in the city. Burbank was also a great place to be close to the film and television industry. Many don’t know that Burbank is home to many big studios including Warner Brothers, Disney, ABC, Cartoon Network and Nickelodean, plus Universal Studios is really close too. Being based out of there meant that could go to screenings, feel connected in the industry and I booked many clients in my psychic business as a result. Burbank was also a bit of a smaller pond so I could make a name for myself there more easily.

Fast forward a year and it was time to move! I’d really appreciated my time there but I was starting to feel antsy, when this happens, it is often time to make a change. So I’ve moved and I am in Hollywood, for now anyway. I look forward to sharing my adventures and thoughts on film, life, and music with you. It’s just the beginning of this new adventure, who knows where it will lead?