McKenzie Reviews - Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl isn't your typical love story. It's basically impossible to even consider loving an inanimate object... unless you're name is Lars and have a delusion.

This movie is marketed on Netflix as a Comedy. I love comedies. Especially dark comedies, which is exactly what I was planning on getting with this movie. However, I didn't feel like the humor always came through. The movie was in no way a drama, but it seemed too sad at times to be a comedy.

As screwed up as Lars is, I feel as though the audience comes to really connect with his character. You see him evolve from a closed off, strange guy to being excited to interact with something (even if it is an non-living sex doll) to living a somewhat normal life afterward. And, I found it so touching that everyone in the town really cared for Ryan Gosling's character and made him and his sex-doll girlfriend Bianca really feel taken care of and at home. You even see Lars' brother come to accept his delusional younger sibling. So touching.

But obviously, there is a huge creepy factor to this movie. Lars' co-worker introduced Lars to the website where he would eventually buy Bianca from. Needless to say, that was awkward. Also, the idea that someone can actually fall in love with a "anatomically correct" doll is strange. He talks for her and actually believes her to be real. In the real world, I doubt so many people would have given so much care to feed into this delusion.

Of course, there is the uplifting ending. Lars lets go of Bianca (through pretending that she died, of course) and connects with the girl that you knew he would end up with from the second the movie began.

The movie earned a Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. Well deserved in my opinion. Very unique. It showed me something I haven't seen before. A man falling in love with a life-sized doll. I would recommend this to any friends who enjoy the dark comedy genre and gave it a 4 star rating on Netflix.

(Image Credit: Mild Mannered Photographer via Flickr)

McKenzie Spots a Trend! - Where the Wild Things Are Tattoos

So I'm sitting here in my room while one of my suitemates, Kelsey, works on her Halloween costume. I bet you can't guess what it is... Actually, I bet you can.

She's being Max from Where The Wild Things Are. Now, I loved this book when I was a child. I still do. But with the release of the movie, it seems to me that the whole world has gone Wild Things crazy to the point where they are getting it tattooed on themselves permanently.

To be completely honest, before the movie came out and when I was contemplating what I wanted for my first tattoo, I thought of something Wild Things related. Then I came to my senses.

While blog surfing, I came across a tattoo blog on Tumblr and saw that of their most recent posts, most of them had Wild Things tattoos. How big has this trend become you say?

There is a whole SECTION at bmezine.com dedicated to Wild Things (Click Here) Granted, many of them date back to 2002, but it seems as though the whole section of these tattoos was organized out of hype for the movie.
tattoo.

It is totally fine with me if you want to get a tattoo, but shouldn't it be something meaningful? It seems to me like people are getting these tattoos solely due to the movie's recent release. They probably want to look "deep" and like the book describes their experience as a child. I doubt 1,000's of people making this realization at the same time makes them "unique".

(Image Credit: p22earl via Flickr)