TORRANCE TRIBUNE October 12, 2017 Page 9
Check It Out Film Review
Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes &
Jo Piazza Pays Off with Laughter
Reviewed by Roz Templin, Library
Assistant, El Segundo Public Library
NOTE: This is a review of the Book on
CD format (BOCD), but the library also has
the book, if you prefer.
Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza. The Knockoff by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza.
Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza
is just plain funny! Like its predecessor, The
Knockoff, the tale told is instantly relatable
with the subjects of fashion, current technology
(especially social media) and pop culture
trends. The characters appear real and you
can actually care for them--even those that
might be thought as secondary. In fact, it’s
easy to picture it in your head, ready for a
TV or movie screen near you.
Author Lucy Sykes has years of experience
working in the fashion world and co-author
Jo Piazza is an award-winning reporter, which
may be why the stories they tell seem so
real. Some of the characters are thinly-veiled
versions of celebrities. It’s fun to guess who
is who. In their latest collaboration, Fitness
Junkie, our heroine is Janey Sweet, a Southern
gal literally born into a chocolate candy
business. She meets Beau in grade school
and soon they are inseparable. As adults,
they head north to New York and establish
a high-end wedding dress company, “B.”
Beau designs and Janey is the CEO. Soon,
B is the talk of fashion and gossip media
throughout the country and internationally.
One day Janey and Beau have a breakfast
date and he lowers the boom: Janey must
lose 30 pounds pronto or else! He can’t
have her photographed stuffing her face
with pastry (actually, it was a “bruffin,” a
combo of brioche and a muffin), when their
product only goes up to a size four! This
sets our girl head-long into the weird and
crazy worlds of fitness, wellness, shamanism,
juicing and more.=
Janey, her young fitness trainer cousin Ivy,
her best friend CJ and the oddballs and experts
she meets along her weight loss journey
never seem anything but real, thanks to the
Entertainment
voice talents of actress Susan Bennett who
easily switches accents to capture the true
depth of each person. Even though some of
the action can seem quite exaggerated, the
payoff in laughter is worth the stretching of
your belief systems. Besides, it’s not that farfetched
if you read newspapers or watch TV
at all. Some methods of “wellness” depicted
include the use of live bees on skin instead
of Botox, IV drip vitamin therapy (at a St.
Lucia retreat, no less), topless yoga and a
“terrorist”-run boot camp/workout escapade.
There are subplots of possible romance, fashion
world espionage and cutthroat competition
among fitness salons and their gurus. All of
these topics blend seamlessly into the story
and you root for Janey to find understanding
and ultimately, happiness.
I found myself anxious to hear what would
happen next as I climbed in the car for each
commute. The library has many books on CD
from which to choose, making the traffic a
lot less painful. Please stop by the library and
allow our staff to assist you in your selection
of books and materials. And, if you enjoy
this book, try The Knockoff. I don’t think
you will be disappointed. •
Treat Yourself to the Moving,
Magical Testament to Childhood,
The Florida Project
By Ryan Rojas for www.cinemacy.com
In 2014, Boyhood stunned audiences by
showing a boy growing up and coming
of age over a 12-year span. The film’s
depiction of childhood captured these universally
familiar moments so simply, so
beautifully. The naturalness of such wellchosen
non-actors conjured up a sense of
cinema verité magic in a way that most
movies cannot. Another indie film that recaptures
this sense of magic is this year’s
The Florida Project. Writer/director Sean
Baker, whose previous film, Tangerine
(which was shot on an iPhone), tells the
story of childhood and the theme of limitless
boundaries that either dance around reality
or run straight into it.
Quite simply, The Florida Project is a
story about kids being kids. Taking place
at an extended stay motel where folks and
families of all types live while they scrape
together next month’s rent, the kids scurry
through the stairs and parking lot with a
sense of boundless energy that leaps off the
screen and into audiences’ hearts. We follow
one precocious six-year-old girl, Moonee
Christopher Rivera, Brooklynn Prince and Valeria Cotto in The Florida Project. Courtesy of A24.
(Brooklynn Prince), and friends over one
mostly-unsupervised summer. They run, play
and cause mischief throughout a string of
motels (called the Magic Castle motel and
Wonderland Inn) where they live with their
financially strapped single mothers. Their
general safety is overseen by the motel’s
manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe), who, despite
needing to clean the grounds and the
bed bugs, keeps an eye on the group of little
ankle biters before they zoom off each day.
To execute a film like this, putting your trust
in one largely unproven young star, would
seem like an impossible task--and yet it’s not
for Baker, whose casting of Brooklynn Prince
makes the film soar. Prince as Moonee is a
petite package of rambunctiousness and nonstop
energy. But although she’s sugar-hopped
and manners-deprived, it’s not Moonee’s
fault. She is being raised by Halley (Bria
Vinaite), a single mother who could easily
pass as her older sister.
Halley is pierced, tattooed, stoned, and
encourages her child’s untethered ways– for
who is she but a grown-up child herself?
Moonee is always brimming with life and
charisma, which makes her interactions with
Bobby heartwarming ones. This beautiful
guardian-from-afar relationship is brought to
life by Dafoe, whose often manic-obsessed
performance is dialed all the way down, and he
shines in such a humanist light that it should
be remembered come awards season. Dafoe
also navigates working with the non-actors
beautifully; lending the soft and patient heart
that sees him stand as paternal to young
Moonee when things go south for her mom.
Baker, whose previous film Tangerine so
beautifully captured and celebrated the fringe
society that lives outside the middle class,
does so again here on an even grander scale.
The Florida Project more artfully compels
audiences to recognize what Baker is showing
as the most glaring hardship of all: the tragic
conflict of expectation versus reality in America.
These motels, so seedy under the weight of
once-wonderful facades, live on the outskirts
of Disney World itself--road signs, disheartened
tourists and knock-off merchandise further
illustrate how they all live in this B-dream.
These snapshots of scenes, stitched together
to show the life of these characters day-in
and day-out, culminate and then crash in the
film’s tear-jerking final sequence, reminding
us that the dream ends--and in the eyes of
a child, that is heartbreaking. The Florida
Project, a beautifully photographed film
with such natural performances, is a gentle
reminder that while wonderland might be
a myth, it’s the wonder of childhood that
makes living magical.
115 minutes. The Florida Project is rated
R for language throughout, disturbing behavior,
sexual references and some drug
material. Now playing at The Landmark and
ArcLight Hollywood. •
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Roz Templin.
“The more that you read, the more
things you will know. The more that
you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
– Dr. Seuss, I Can Read
With My Eyes Shut!