Mayrig
Movie Review
(By the way, "Mayrig" means "mother" in armenian)

Written and directed by Henri Verneuil

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102421/

I am Armenian. Well… my father is Armenian and he was born and raised in France. He then decided to move to Quebec (Canada) to study but ended up staying here and bringing his parents. My mom is French-Canadian. I went to Armenian school and so I speak, write and read it. My grand-mother was one of the survivors of the genocide. She passed away a few months ago at the age of 98.

What does this have to do with the movie you ask? Everything. It has everything to do.

This movie made a lot of sense to me. Yes, the parts about the genocide were heartbreaking but I'm also speaking about the alienation the family feels after moving to France and how they try to adjust their values with the ones from this country they now live in.

Being Armenian and French-Canadian has caused me many headaches. And though today I am very proud of both cultures, the major differences between them sometimes still leaves me in a place of no man's land.

And the love we feel between the family members in the movie is VERY realistic.

After the genocide, it is love that saved the survivors from a life full of resentment. Sticking together and loving each other with all of their hearts and souls was the only way to move on.

Not forget. We can never forget.

But in order to put those dark days behind us and be happy again, we needed this love.

The way the parents genuinely sacrifice themselves for the happiness of their son is something I am very familiar with. My father did the SAME thing for me and for my brother. Armenian parents are like that.

But with this great generosity and unconditional love comes great expectations.

Of how we should live our lives. About what we need in order to be truly happy. And they care SO much. They literally live and breathe through us in a way. If we succeed, they succeed. If we are happy, they are happy. If we are sick, they are sick.

I'm not saying that if we fail, they fail. They are very supportive and as long as you do your best, they are always proud of you. And trust me when I say that we love our parents with all our hearts and are grateful for all that they did and all that they still do.

I am so proud to be Armenian. I am so proud of the strength of my people who not only lost everything and had to build from scratch but did it in the best possible way to give the children of tomorrow the chance to hope for something better.

But being Armenian gives you a responsibility. In memory of those who died but mostly, of those that survived and made it possible for YOU to be alive today. We have a responsibility to never give up on ourselves and on those who brought us into this world. And this feel of responsibility will be passed on to our children and so on. And as a child of the third generation, I find it sometimes hard to know what part of me wants what it wants because I really want it or because I know that this is what my family wants for me.

It's not a bad thing... but it's a thing and at the age of 26, I'm not done trying to figure it out.

So I guess this movie helped me in a way... It helped me understand myself. Understand where I come from. And where I'm going...

Teenage Dirtbag
Movie Review

Written and directed by Regina Crosby

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091207/

"Teenage Dirtbag" is a love story between two teenagers who seem different but in reality are very similar.

The chemistry between Thayer and Amber is mesmerizing. And it doesn't seem to matter how the characters relate to one another – whether they are fighting or hanging out – their scenes together just leak with sexual tension. And the way everything unfolds is not so much in the words they say but in those silent moments they share: moments that can easily be overlooked if one is not careful.

What also makes their chemistry so effective is the awareness Thayer and Amber have of each other. As the attraction between them matures, they always seem to know where the other is without realizing it. For instance, when she's in the football field and he's looking at her from afar, hiding in his black sweatshirt. The way she looks up because she feels him looking at her is an undeniable example of that chemistry. Or when she's eating her orange and feels bad because she knows that he's looking at it. By bringing him one the next day, she's acknowledging the fact that she heard the silent way he wanted the orange. Even more so, she's acknowledging the fact that she hears his words unspoken and thus, this orange marks the beginning of a short yet beautiful friendship. The next few scenes are my favourite. When she sees the peeled orange in the snow and the paper he left on her car. The paper doesn't say much, he just writes her name all over it and instead of finding it weird and ignoring it, it inspires her to write a poem that she reads in class the next day. As she reads it, the silent connection between them becomes stronger...

After that, Thayer comes out as the more aware partner in the sense that he consciously opens up to her. He lets her see the real him as if he is trying to show her that he sees and trusts the real her. It is not him who has trouble being vulnerable, it is her. She's afraid to let someone in and that is what comes in the way of them being together. Maybe he moves a little too fast for her and that is what makes her uncomfortable. She's not denying the feelings that she has for him but she's just not ready to explore them at this point and while he is attentive to everything, he somewhat neglects to see that. It's sad because he really puts himself out there when he asks her to come to the party with him. But the thing is even though he is ready, she's not. Maybe if he had waited a little bit more, she could have prepared herself for whatever was to happen between them.

The awareness between the two is also the reason why both of them know almost intuitively what would hurt the other person the most. Thus, Thayer knew exactly how much he was hurting Amber when he exposed her need for love in his poem and she was very aware of what she was doing when she exposed him by showing everyone the notebook. It's not so much the fact that everyone knew how he felt: that, I think he could deal with. It was the fact that her gesture said loud and clear that she didn't take anything that they shared seriously. And sadly, that could be a little true. It's like she never really realized how badly he needed her to love him. What's even sadder (to me anyways) is that the character of Amber ends up going through life without ever fully realizing how her love could change someone else's life.

It's also sad because he ends up believing that she hates him and everything goes downhill after that. Neither one of them is to blame. He made her out to be his Savior and it's a role she didn't ask to take on (of course, in life, the only person who can save yourself is yourself but that's a lesson that most of us don't learn at the age of 17…).

Nevertheless, this is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen in my life. Granted, it isn't flawless: I had to watch it more than once to actually grasp everything. But it is SO sincere. I forgot to say how much I love the scene when they are eating chips and listening to metal music… the very loud "crunch" sounds and the giggles made me feel like I was right there with them. I love how close I felt to the characters.

This being Regina Crosby's first attempt at writing and directing makes this movie even more amazing. Big time filmmakers have failed where she has succeeded. She managed to draw me in so far that I forgot everything else but what was going on in front of me. Even after the movie was finished, I was left in a weird emotional state that tasted a bit like love, a bit like nostalgia.

The things I wish were different: Even though we spend the most time with Amber, we have very little insight on what goes on with her family. We guess by her behaviour that she feels ignored by her parents but it would have helped to see a little more of that.

Also: I desperately want to share this movie with my friends but since most of them are french, I can't do that. I bought the DVD but there are no subtitles and so, it puts a barrier in my attempt to let other people in on how good this movie is.

I would like to end this (very) long comment by saying that I can't wait to see what else Regina Crosby comes out with. She has definitely made it in my top 10 favourite filmmakers list!