'Work It,' 'From Up on Poppy Hill,' 'Your Lie in April'
Lots of romance this week!
Another Netflix rom com with Jordan Fisher and a senior home, but throw in dancing!
Work It Movie Review
Work It is a Netflix rom com dance movie starring Sabrina Carpenter, Liza Koshy, and Jordan Fisher. The story revolves around how Sabrina’s character (I honestly don’t remember any of their character names at this point lol) is trying to get into her dream college, but needs to prove to the admissions officer that she has a passion for something outside of just school. So even though she has no background in dance, she makes it her mission to learn how to dance, gather a rag tag group of dancers, and compete in a dance competition. The story and the script are cheesy and cliche, and this is one of those movies that you can throw on in the background and not pay that much attention to. Because even if you do space out for a few minutes, you’re probably not missing out on much. I thought the actors/actresses were great though! Jordan Fisher is such a heartthrob…
Was one scene away from becoming taboo 😂
From Up on Poppy Hill Movie Review
From Up on Poppy Hill is probably a lesser known Studio Ghibli film that was released in 2011 and directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki (currently available on HBO Max!). It tells a sweet story of two high schoolers in Japan, set in 1963. At the heart of the story lies the budding romance between Umi and Shun. In addition, they are united in a goal with their classmates to preserve a historic building, the Latin Quarter, on their high school campus.
Objectively, it’s great! Subjectively…meh.
Your Lie in April Anime Review
One of the greatest things about animation is that you don’t have to watch real life actors/actresses butcher the act of fake-playing a musical instrument (I bet all you musicians out there can relate LOL). Your Lie in April is a 22 episode slice-of-life anime (currently on Netflix) about middle schoolers who bond over music. The main character, Kousei, is a gifted pianist who lost his mom at a young age and is still traumatized over it. And the second main character is a girl named Kaori, who’s a high-spirited violinist and wants to get Kousei out of his anti-piano rut. This show is very relatable to anyone who had a love/hate relationship with classical music while growing up. My absolute favorite part of this show was its animation (A-1 Pictures!), because everything looked gorgeous and bright. Other than that, I have some mixed feelings…