TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

In the eighth grade I, to no one's surprise who knows me now, was involved in a book club at my middle school, where you could take your lunch to the library (I can't even do that in college!) and discuss newly released books or popular books coming out; you didn't even have to read a book a week. It wasn't a club, it was an excuse for outcasts to get out of the cafeteria. But a memory that rests so vividly in my mind is hearing about "The Hunger Games" for the first time. It was in 2009, "Catching Fire" was set to come out in the proceeding weeks, and in anticipation of that they described the premise of "THG": in a dystopian world (isn't that always how books we read in middle school started?) a girl takes her sister's place to take part in a deadly series of "games" her corrupt government has set up to keep the 99% in their place. Honestly I thought it sounded ridiculous. Then my freshman year in high school I gave it ...

Fortunately I got to see a good handful of movies over the Thanksgiving break, Oscar contenders Whiplash and Birdman , and ginormous blockbusters that I normally would have seen opening day, Interstellar and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1 . It killed me not being able to see these two films that I've heard so much buzz and conversation about. Acknowledging these facts, and the truth that I am late to these reviews, here is my review of Mockingjay , and later, will do a joint review with my friend Aaron Haynes on Interstellar because...I'm not sure I understand it completely. There were fewer movies this year that I was more hyped about than Mockingjay Part 1 . Perhaps it is filling that young adult adaptation space that I crave, but I just can't get enough of this series, talking about it, watching those great propaganda trailers released earlier this year. What I love is that they don't really need to market these gargantuan blockbusters because the fans alread...