Citizen Kane, Only Not

Citizen Kane is one of those movies I've always heard about. A classic. It's been referenced relentlessly in popular cultural for its famous “Rosebud” and got great reviews. So, this week, when I really had no idea of what to write about for this last blog post for a while, I thought, “Why not just watch Citizen Kane?” just like that.

Of course, though, with me being completely lazy, I really didn't want to get off of my ass and drive five minutes to the video store. So then I thought, “Why not just watch it illegally online?” Unfortunately, though, watching movies illegally online is not as easy as everyone probably says. I couldn't find any sites that weren't blocked on my computer to watch the movie, but I did find one that kept playing these Chinese videos and I started to feel fuzzy after a while and suspected brainwash, so I gave up on my search to find Citizen Kane on the interwebs.

I've already gone through all of the movies in my house, and although we have a lot, I just didn't think I could pull out four hundred words for any of them. I guess I could go back down to my basement and look again, but that would require me getting up, and...no. Just no.

From what I've seen of short clips on Youtube of the 1941 film, it would definitely be classified as an oldie but goodie. I mean, movies back then were in black in white, the shots crowded, and the sound off. For someone born over half a century after the film was released, I can't really talk about how old the movie seems; it's a given. But hopefully soon I can find the time and energy to rent Citizen Kane. My mom always talks to me about culturing myself and watching old movies is the easiest way I can think of doing that. So yeah. Fin.

Door is Not a Jar

Yes. It’s another Halloween post.

My childhood was a magical time. Disney movies were still original and Lindsay Lohan wasn’t a cracked-up whore mess. Bush was still president and I’m pretty sure most paints still contained lead. Just…magical.

As Halloween approached every year, besides making the ever-important decision to what my costume would be (starting in 1996: jack-o-lantern, clown, Simba, witch, M &M, devil, devil, gypsy, devil, witch, robber, car crash victim, Hannah Montana, robber, robber, robber. Okay, yeah. I was getting lazy with my costumes and my mom, chagrin about me leaving the house wielding a fake gun), was the rising anticipation for the great Mainframe Entertainment movie, Scary Godmother.

Based on the 1997 book by Jill Thompson, this movie was originally only released in Europe, Canada, and Latin America. Eventually it got around to the United States and has showed on Cartoon Network every Halloween since 2004.

Growing up, I wasn’t really allowed to watch Cartoon Network because of its somewhat violent and scary shows (I’m talking Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and even The Powerpuff Girls. Yes, I blame my parents for the deprived childhood I had), so watching Scary Godmother was kind of a big deal for me.

My sister and I love the movie. We love it. Even to this day when it’s on we call the other up to inform them. We’re pretty legitimate teenagers.

It’s not scary, nor is it supposed to be (the vampires are kind of creepy, though. Remember when vampires weren’t sexy, sparkly heartthrobs?), but it’s funny and sort of dorky and terribly animated. Scary Godmother is just a cute move that my sister and I don’t want to leave behind as we grow up. (It’s the same reason she still sleeps with her giant Dill doll from Rugrats even though the doll it’s completely freaky.)

I probably like watching this movie more now than I did as a kid; I get some of the jokes I was too stupid to understand when I was eight. One of the kids in the movie, Bert, dresses as a baseball player in an SUV for Halloween. Throughout the movie, he pretends to really be in a car, rolling down the “window” so that he can hear what people are saying and even repeating, “Door is ajar” over and over until someone closes the pretend door. Of course, when I was younger I thought Bert was calling the door a jar. Yeah…

Whether it’s freaky-ass vampires or confusing door-jars, Spooky Godmother is pretty awesome. When I’m older, I’ll show it to my kids and they better love it or I’ll refuse to feed them until they do. Oh, motherhood.

The Others: Best Scary Movie (from a Girl Who's Only Seen Three)

It shouldn't be any surprise to you that it's fall. The weather's changing; you find yourself less disgusted by over-weight girls in short-shorts but more in over-weight girls in yoga pants. Everyone is updating their Facebook statuses to express their love for this season and I sort of agree. I mean, the trees are pretty, the bugs are dying, and I don't have to shave my legs anymore. It's pretty great. But around early October all of the new scary movie promotions start and I'm left debating whether I was wrong.
I hate scary movies. They're just awful and that's why I've only seen like three of them.
It's been said before (by me,nonetheless) how, these days, scary movies unoriginal and uninspired. I definitely also don't want to spend ten dollars to get the crap scared out of me for two hours (because no matter how stupid the scary movie is, it'll still scare the bejesus out of me). The same goes for haunted houses.
I will admit that I've seen a few of these movies that are good over the years, though. A few. Those are the exception, not the rule.
Like The Others. It's a pretty kick-ass movie. Starring Nicole Kidman, the movie was nominated for the BAFTA Best Original Screenplay Award (for a horror film that's a pretty big feat). I was pretty reluctant to watch it at first (see above paragraph), but my mom convinced me and I found myself pleasantly surprised.
During the whole movie, Grace Stewart (Kidman) thinks her new house is haunted by ghosts. Some crazy and creepy stuff goes down that I can't remember but there's something to do with a piano and a room filled with things covered in white sheets (aren't I the best at blogging?). Stuff gets really creepy when Grace finds a book of the dead in the house's attic that includes a picture of, oh no big deal, just the house-hands that have been helping her family move in for the past few weeks. IN THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
As it turns out, Grace herself is really dead, along with her children (whom she killed in hysteria after her husband was lost, or something). The “ghosts” in the house are actually living people trying to get rid of the ghosts that haunt their new house. The house Grace thought was her new house that was haunted by ghosts. It's pretty trippy.
I know my summary of this movie is completely subpar, but it's seriously the best scary movie I've ever seen. And the best out of three is pretty good, I would say.

Teach Your Children How to Avoid Being Eaten by Evil Spirits

Most people my age have never heard the name Hayao Miyazaki, or if they have, it was because of his film, Ponyo, released in 2008. But Miyazaki has had a number of films released in Japan and the United States (which he’s written/produced/directed/animated and any combination of those) since the early sixties.

I first heard of Hayao Miyazaki through my sister, a lover of everything and anything Japanese. She showed me one of his films, Spirited Away (2001), and I instantly fell in love. Unlike Disney and Pixar, Miyazaki’s films have somewhat of a dark sense to them. And by somewhat, I mean some of them are pretty messed up. In a good way, though.

Like in Spirited Away, Chihiro finds herself stuck in another world which includes a bath house for spirits. She sells herself away to the evil witch, Yubaba, to save her parents (who were turned into pigs), and ends up having to save the bath house from an evil spirit, aptly named No Face, that keeps eating the other workers, the whole time trying to make sure her parents aren’t eaten.

It's one of my favorite movies, obviously.

Another one of Miyazaki’s movies that I love is Howl's Moving Castle, whose American version includes the voices of Christian Bale, Billy Crystal, and Josh Hutcherson. This one is a little less dark, but there is a witch that turns a girl into an old woman and a guy who occasionally turns into a bird and something about eating hearts. So yeah.

Then there’s Castle in the Sky (which I’m pretty sure I watched at one point, but can’t remember anything about except for some giant robots covered in plants) and My Neighbor Tortoro (giant fluffy bear-thing? I should really re-watch these).

It’s sort of unfortunate because these are all really great movies that follow absolutely no archetypes, but have their own crazy plot and characters. They have strong themes between the dark events. The thing is, not a lot of people in this country have seen more than one or so of Miyazaki’s movies. Other than Ponyo and maybe Spirited Away (which won Best Animated Feature in 2002), these films are pretty unknown to most Americans.

I can't imagine growing up not seeing his films, but I sort of see why maybe some parents maybe aren't lining up at the video store to buy them so that they can show their kids. Miyazaki films don't have the cookie cutter themes that Disney and Pixar films have: always be yourself, don't judge others, treat them the way you want to be treated. Mostly Miyazaki's films teach children how to avoid being eaten by spirits.

Not Another "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas"

I’ve laughed at a lot of things I shouldn’t have (see title). A lot. It’s hard not to. I’ll be watching somebody cry over their son’s dead body in a movie and I’ll be sad, but then think, “Man, wouldn’t it be awful if I started laughing right now?” And immediately, as if I said the magic words, I’ll start laughing. It’s like when someone tells you not to think about elephants. You immediately start thinking about elephants, right? You can’t help it, and I can’t help the fact that I’m an awful person.

So recently, when I watched the 2008 movie, Tropic Thunder, and there were gruesome images of blown-to-pieces hands and decapitated heads, offensive terms used frequently, and babies thrown, what could be funnier to a girl like me?

Although these don't seem like the most light-hearted, let alone funny, things for a comedy to include, Tropic Thunder is hilarious. Co-written (along with Justin Theroux) and directed by Ben Stiller and starring a plethora of other funny actors (Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Bill Hader) and some not known for their comedy-chops, but still plenty good (Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte), this movie is makes it hard not to laugh at the awful things that go down in it.

The film is based around a group of actors (Stiller himself, Downey Jr., Black, and others) attempting to make a movie based on the true story of a Vietnam War veteran (Nolte), but find themselves instead trapped in Southeast Asia in the middle of a heroin-producing gang’s territory.

Tropic Thunder received its share of criticism for its controversial content before being released for a few reasons. First was the offensive terms. I mean, there were a few, one of which was used about a thousand times. When I first watched this movie, it was on TV, so not only were there lots of “freaking”s, but also “simple”s and “stupid”s. In the straight-up movie version they weren't so nice.

More criticism of the movie surrounded the character Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.), who got skin-pigmentation alteration surgery to darken his skin for the movie in order to play a black character. Downey Jr. ended up being nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Tropic Thunder, though, so it seems as though he was doing something right.

Seriously, though, this movie is hilarious. In an industry filled with over-used jokes and writers being afraid of going “too far” with the ones that are original, it was nice just to sit down with friends, eat my weight in sugar, and laugh at the horribly funny jokes that were wonderfully delivered by an all-star cast.

What I Don't Get About Anna Kendrick

Blogger's note: When I first started writing this post, there were a lot of numbers that I didn't want to deal with, so I combined my laziness with my love of graphs and made a few that analyze the numbers so that I didn't have to.

There are many roller coasters one can have in their lifetime: emotional, the literal, amusement park, kind. Also, apparently, one that applies to movie success.

I've been aware of actress Anna Kendrick since probably around when she was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Up in the Air in 2010. Since then I've sort of followed her and what movies she's been in, only to be really confused because of such. Most actors and actresses have a diverse range of movie success, but Kendrick has been involved in almost polar-opposites. It's not just that a seemingly-good movie of hers does poorly, but every one that does so looks awful to begin with (I'm talking about you, Twilight Saga).

Anna Kendrick got her start in two low budget films, Camp (2003) and Rocket Science (2007), but no one really cares about those two because, like I said, low budget. Then in 2008, you could say that she got her break-out role in Twilight.

Since then, Kendrick has been on a critical roller coaster, moving from critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated films to The Twilight Saga (I like to think that she was under contract and had to star in the remaining Twilight films, but I really have no idea) and a few others that tanked.

It's not only that, but some of the good movies she's been in have also starred some of Hollywood's dreamiest men (and I'm not talking about Robert Pattinson, you guys). It started in 2009, almost two years after her breakthrough; the role she was nominated for an Oscar was also the role where she costarred with George Clooney (there's a reason he was named People's Sexiest Man Alive twice).

After more hills, she starred in the 2011 comedy-drama, 50/50, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. You know the deal: hot costar, awesome reviews, more fame, goes back to sucky movies the next year. (Realize that when I say "sucky movies", I mostly mean The Twilight Saga, but she was also in What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) and that bombed, too.)

This past year, Kendrick has been pretty good. With the exception of WtEWYE, she's starred in three well-received movies: ParaNorman, End of Watch (hot costar number three: Jake Gyllenhaal), and Pitch Perfect. Don't hold your breath, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 2 comes out later this year and she'll take a dip again. (Update: Hey, well it turns out that she isn't in the final Twilight film. Good for you, Kendrick. You made it out alive.)

Another thing that I noticed is that there seems to be no middle-ground with her movies; either they do really well critically and gross less than one hundred million dollars or they are the worst of the worst and gross hundreds of millions of dollars (I'm talking about you, Twilight Saga). It's an unfortunate correlation.

I really just think that Anna Kendrick needs to get out of Twilight. I mean, yeah, she already is. After this year, she'll be free and hopefully stay away from these freaking teen-romance films and stick with her critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated, hot guy-costarring films that seem to do her well.

Movie Bucket List

I have a list of movies, which I add to frequently, that I want to see, over seventy percent of them being rated-R (about fifty total). My sixteen-year-old status is the only thing keeping me from actually seeing them. Correction: my mom is the only thing keeping me, her sixteen-and-a-half-year-old, from seeing them.
I don't quite know what's keeping me from watching the other, lesser-rated ones. There are about fifteen, but the fact is that I'm too lazy to ever get myself to go to Family Video and too forgetful to ever remember to go there when I'm already out of the house. It's a problem.
These movies cover all genres for decades. There are new releases (The Master) and old classics (Casablanca), cheesy romcoms (Going the Distance) and violent horror films (The Exorcist), indie-hits (Like Crazy) and box office winners (Black Swan). They include a few from Mark Duplass (Baghead, Cyrus, Sideways), Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road, The Aviator, The Man in the Iron Mask), and some issue-tackling (Philadelphia, Brokeback Mountain, Thank You for Smoking) films.
The point of this post can be pretty loosely interpreted. You could say that I have a problem; that I'm some sort of movie-name hoarder or will never watch any of these at all and die with a thirty-page list of movies I never watched. I like to think of it, though, that I need post only a few hundred words long and this would do.

Please Stop, M. Night Shyamalan (aka Scary Movies Suck)

In 2011, up-and-coming actress Jennifer Lawrence was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress in a Lead Role for her work in Winter's Bone. The film itself was a critical hit, earning 94% on rottentomatoes.com. Lawrence went on to star in The Hunger Games (2012), which turned her into one of the sought-after young actresses of today. Many anticipated her next move, what would her next project be? The answer to that question is an unfortunate House at the End of the Street. It bombed, earning 12% on RT.

About a year ago, little sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Elizabeth, took her first step towards fame with the hit Indie film, Martha Marcy May Marlene (90%, RT). She was nominated for several best actress and breakthrough performance awards and, again, people asked the same question they did with Lawrence. In 2012, Olsen's next film, Silent House, was released; it earned 41% on RT.

What makes these young actresses want to go from acting nominations, award shows, nights of glamor and celebrities, and people you don't know handing you glasses filled with expensive wine (that probably happens, right?) to running from demons in forests at night in the absolute worst scary movies? Nine out of ten of theses that are released do awful critically, if not slightly better than that in theaters.

Maybe these actresses think scary movies will jump-start their careers as stars (in 2013, actress Anna Hutchison will have starred in three scary movies out of four movies total. By the same year, Sara Paxton will have starred in six scary movies just since 2009. Even Chloe Grace Moretz, an established fifteen-year-old actress, has starred in ten scary movies since 2005.) but don't Best Actress nominations already do that? I hardly doubt that these movies were the only ones Lawrence and Olsen could get.

Go back a few decades and, yeah, scary movies could've made you famous. That's only because, back then, these types of movies were scarce and original.

Take Jennifer Aniston. Her acting career was launched after playing Tory Redding in Leprechaun in 1993; since then she hasn't starred in another scary movie. Jamie Lee Curtis had the same thing happen to her with 1978's Halloween. Sandra Bullock has only starred in one horror film since the beginning of her career in 1987 and Meryl Streep, none, since hers a decade earlier. Yet these actresses have won countless awards and earned millions of dollars...weird.

This is the way to go: not starring in several scary movies over the course of a few years, or at all. Nowadays, all of these movies are about vampire-hunters or exorcisms or it's a Paranormal Activity sequel.

Hopefully Lawrence and Olsen will get this. I mean, Lawrence has TIFF-hit Silver Linings Playbook coming out soon, along with the much-anticipated, Catching Fire in 2013. Olsen is now starring in the independent film written and directed by Josh Radnor, Liberal Arts (now 68%, RT).

Now we just have to work on Chloe Grace Moretz.

John Lithgow: Doting Father

Some actors are known for their variety. Alfred Hitchcock, Marlon Brando, and Leonardo DiCaprio (yes, I did) all have this in common, Variety. They star in completely different movies as completely different character for decades. Even when some actors repeatedly play characters with something in common (Joaquin Phoenix’s character descriptions must include on word: troubled), they can still be stunningly different from one another (from a troubled country musician in the mid-twentieth century to a troubled World War II veteran fighting PTSD to a troubled photographer who attempts suicide in the first scene of the movie). I guess that also classifies as variety. Some actors, though, they’re one-note. Not one-hit, one-note. They can be in several good or bad movies for decades, while still playing the almost exact same character. Classic example: John Lithgow.
I love John Lithgow. Not a Leonardo DiCaprio love, but a I’ve-grown-up-watching-him-and-he-hasn’t-done-anything-stupid-so-he’s-pretty-cool-I-guess love. He’s a good actor, but I’ve only seen him as one guy: the doting (sometimes dorky, sometimes over-protective, always doting) father.
In 1984, Lithgow began his reign as such in the original Footloose. As the reverend of a small town stern father (doting, over-protective) against dancing and rock music. It’s a good movie and just the beginning for the actor.
Just this past week, I watched Harry and the Hendersons (1987) with some kids I babysit. It tells the story of a father (doting, dorky) who changes his see-animal-kill-animal ways after discovering Bigfoot. It’s definitely an eighties movie.
Let's move on to television for a little bit. Between the years 1996-2001, John Lithgow starred in 3^rd Rock from the Sun, a series about extraterrestrial creatures traveling in space (or something. I've never watched the show and am too lazy to read a synopsis). Although older than the other characters in the main cast, he was actually younger than them, often getting into trouble that everyone had to work together to solve. (Yup. Never watched it.) Definitely dorky, doting, sort-of father.
After a brief stint in movies, again, as the doting father of Amy Adams in 2010's Leap Year, John Lithgow returned to television with How I Met You Mother. Do I have to say it? He was doting and dorky, okay? He was the doting, dorky father of playboy Barney Stinson.
I mean, it's not like this is especially bad (and he did actually play a cop once). He'll still get hired because people will still need this type of character in their movies, which is fine.
I was once told that, if someone plays a stupid character on TV, chances are they're stupid in real-life, too. Now, I'm not sure I can exactly agree with that; maybe sometimes, but not always. People probably think that this correlation of “character equals actor” is always true because that's the only way they know the actor, from their film/television work (as I think about it now, the one word that comes to my head about the actor Joaquin Phoenix is “troubled”, which is probably because of his role choices. Or maybe because of the alcoholism and incoherent interviews.) But now that I've watched so many of these John Lithgow films, that's what I think of him as: a doting (sometimes dorky, sometimes over-protective, always doting) father. Is that really a bad thing?

A Joseph Gordon-Levitt Love Story Part II: 10 Things I Hate About You

(Blogger's note: Titles don't get much longer than that, huh?)


“Don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want.”

Spoken by Heath Ledger's character in the 1999 film, 10 Things I Hate About You (based on Shakespeare’s, The Taming of the Shrew), this quote can be spoken in every cookie-cutter, coming-of-age, romantic comedy, but it means so much more, for me, coming from this extremely attractive, bad boy-playing, sweetheart.
Maybe it was the fact that the writers of this film left this quote in one scene and didn't play on it throughout, like most other movies with strong themes of “being yourself”, but it was a nice little gem in this hour-and-a-half of teenage angst, Coffee Kids (“Very on edge; don't make any sudden movements around them”), and penis jokes (so, two minutes with my friends?)
Referring to “the shrew”, Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) is an unsociable, strong-minded feminist against any form of teenage conformity out there. Her sister, Bianca, is the exact opposite and completely dumbfounded by Kat’s anti-socialness. Played by little Joseph Gordon-Levitt is new student, Cameron James, who finds himself utterly infatuated with Bianca and pays the dangerously hot, bad boy Patrick Verona (Ledger) to date Kat so that he can date her sister.
It’s all very hard to explain on paper while still making seem interesting and uncomplicated, especially when you bring in the douchebag “model”, Joey, who finances Cameron to pay Patrick so that he can date Bianca. Yeah.
At first the doting, dorky, teenage Cameron is passed off by Bianca, like Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character in (500) Days of Summer is, but she eventually comes around, like every other woman with the chance to get with JGL (except for Summer, but she's just a bitch).
10 Things I Hate About You is a great movie; it's funny and sweet and sometimes a little but cheesy, but always awesome. It's also one of the only movies that can make me cry when Kat recites her poem, “10 Things I Hate About You” in front of her class to Patrick, for whom she’s fallen. Every. Time.
But every time I watch it, that quote still sticks out at me. Don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want. They're strong words to live by.
Strong words coming from a smoking, rumored-to-be-ex-con, flashing Patrick Verona to a young, amiable, although impressionable Cameron James in this Joseph Gordon-Levitt love story.

A Joseph Gordon-Levitt Love Story Part I: (500) Days of Summer

Here we go again:

This post contains spoilers about the 2009 movie, (500) Days of Summer.

Imagine starting a new job and finding out that Joseph Gordon-Levitt works there. Pretty awesome, right? It’s every girl’s dream. Well, except for Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) to whom, in (500) Days of Summer, that actually happens when she starts a job at a greeting card company and meets Tom Hansen (Gordon-Levitt). She just shrugs him off, though, and completely friend-zones him.

I know. What an idiot.

Then, when they actually start a relationship, she’s kind of a bitch. She gets angry at him for the stupidest things and, around day two hundred and ninety, Summer tells Tom things are “too serious” before breaking his heart.

I mean, it’s JOSEPH GORDON-FREAKING-LEVITT. I get that these are characters, but still. If the director wanted it to be believable, he should have at least cast a guy with a wart, a stutter, a twitch; any sort of flaw. Anything to make it easier to conceive why anyone would dump a perfect creature like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, er…Tom Hansen.

Or maybe a flaw written in would do. Tom has almost-flaws. Like, he studied to be an architect but found himself writing greeting cards, unable to make a move towards his dreams. Or that he’s got a smile that kills.

(Despite this minor lapse in writing, the script is pretty brilliant. Based on a nonlinear narrative, each scene begins with a slide that shows what day in the five hundred it is. It might go from Day 291 to Day 1, which can make it a little hard put the events together chronologically.)

During a brief meeting together after the break-up, Summer reveals that she’s engaged (not looking for a serious relationship, eh?). But like the gentleman Tom is, he says that he wants her to be happy (which is a lie we all know).

At the end of the movie, Nick goes into an interview at an architecture firm and makes short conversation, then a date, with another interviewee: a girl named Autumn. Thus, the five hundred days ends.

While subtlety may not be the writers’ strong point, (500) Days of Summer still has three things that I love: shit jokes, a surprise ending, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The French Connection: Midnight in Paris

My basic rule is, once the movie's been out for five years, the spoiler alert warning is unnecessary. I mean, you've had five years. But since I'm taking about 2011, here it is:

This post contains spoilers about the movie Midnight in Paris.

There are lots of factors going into a movie that can make or break it. These can broken down into three basic categories: writing, acting, and editing. If even one of these is lacking, the movie can't be successful, whether critically or theatrically.

So when I was watching the Oscars this past year and I see Midnight in Paris win for Best Original Screenplay, the movie is immediately put on my radar. Not only does that check off the “writing” part of the process, but with Woody Allen on the team doubling as director (and his sister one of the producers. Hopefully awesomeness is hereditary in their family), you can also check off “editing”.

With two out of three requirements, a PG-13 rating, and a slight love for Owen Wilson (with Marion Cotillard and Tom Hiddleston along for the ride (check off “acting”)), I didn't hesitate to record Midnight in Paris on my TV when it was showing on Starz.

This Woody Allen directed and written film centers around struggling writer, Gil Pender (Wilson), when he's on vacation in Paris with his unsupportive fiancee. While trying to find his way back to the hotel after one-too-many drinks, he's picked up by some seemingly-friendly carriage riders.

At first you think that Gil is about to be put on the morning news, but no. These Parisians are friendly and drop the semi-intoxicated Gil off...in the 1920s.

Upon realization of what has happened, the slightly-more-sober-now Gil takes full advantage of what's around him. He talks with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald (Hiddleston), and Pablo Picasso and his mistress, Adriana (Cotillard). His writer's block seems to be fading but his troubled relationship with his fiancee, worsening.

One night as Adriana and Gil walk the streets of 1920s Paris, they're taken by another carriage to what is discovered to be the 1890s. Adriana exclaims her excitement; this is her favorite era, the 20s are so bland. Surprised and confused, Gil asks some locals what their favorite era is and they answer with a congenial “Renaissance”. Thus he realizes what he's been missing this whole time: it's best to accept the present for what it is.

He breaks it off with Inez (which is also caused by learning of her affair with a friend of her families) and stays in Paris.

2010 Paris.

This movie meets all the requirements for gold. And if I have to make a cliched sandwich analogy, I would say that Allen's fabulous script is some great Vienna bread, the actors are the delicious sun-dried tomato turkey, and the spotless editing would be whatever's left: a few spinach leaves and a little bit of spicy mustard. Without any one of these components, a sandwich isn't a sandwich. A movie isn't a movie. Especially if you take away the bread, because that's what we call a salad those are just WRONG.