Movies: A Sort of Homecoming

As 2015 beggins and college applications season ends, the blog is back and, in honor of that, I will be doing a few posts in a row, about exciting things that are coming up, movies and tv shows I’ve watched recently and recommend and things like that!

First up is the independent movie “A Sort of Homecoming”, starring Austin & Ally’s Laura Marano!

The movie is a story about a news producer called Amy who ends up going back to Louisiana to meet with her old debate coach and has to face the memories of her high school years. Then, the movie tells the story of young Amy, her debate partner Nick and her friend Rose, as they go through debate camp and the national championships.

When it comes to casting, we got five main actors: Laura Marano, Parker Mack, Katherine McNamara, Michelle Clunie and Kathleen Wilhoite.

Laura Marano is best known as Ally in Disney Channel’s Austin & Ally and she’s set to be on the Disney Channel Original Movie “Bad Hair Day” with Good Luck Charlie’s Leigh-Allyn Baker! She’s done smaller roles and voice-over jobs as well. She’s also the sister of Switched at Birth’s Vanessa Marano.

Parker Mack is not really a well known name. He had a very small role in Divergent as Sam Robertson and has done small jobs such as one episode of ABC Family’s Chasing Life. Yet, he is set to be in 2 other movies and a short in this upcoming year, besides ASoH! In 6 Miranda Drive, he’ll act alongside Kevin Bacon (Footlose, The Following), Ming Na Wen (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Mulan), Lucy Fry (Vampire Academy, Mako Mermaids), David Mazouz (Touch, Gotham) and others!

Katherine McNamara is one person I believe will be a big deal in the future. She was a part of the recently canceled MTV TV Show “Happyland”, but I’m sure this won’t be the last we see of her. The young actress has been on movies such as Disney Channel’s “Girl Vs Monster”, alongside Olivia Holt (Kickin It, I Didn’t Do It) and is going to be on 5 movies besides ASoH in 2015, including the very antecipated sequel to Maze Runner and a movie with her Happyland co-star Cameron Mouléne.

Michelle Clunie and Kathleen Wilhoite, who have smaller roles as the older characters, have been in several movies throughout their very long careers!

The movie was funded through a Kick-starter and, if you want to pre-order it (and help it make the festivals in 2015) you can do it on asortofhomecoming.com! You can also watch previews there and on their Vimeo account. Are you going to watch “A Sort of Homecoming”?

Fall Season – TV Show Review: Happyland

MTV’s “Happyland” is the festival of the clichés. And I love it. It’s an upbeat, super-dramatic TV show that caters to my romantic, drama-loving part. It’s not an Emmy winner, but it’s definetly what I want after getting home from a whole day in school. It’s simple, it’s sweet and it’s fun.

The show follows Lucy (Bianca Santos), whose mother (Camille Guaty) works as a princess in the Happyland theme park. Lucy is stuck in-between reality and fantasy, while dealing with the things every teenager needs to deal with. Finding out who you want to be, falling in love, fighting with friends…

Bianca Santos is someone I personally recognized as Lexi Rivera from ABC Family’s “The Fosters”. She’s also going to be in two upcoming projects. Firstly, “Ouija”, a horror movie that premieres in a couple weeks in the US, where she co-stars with Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel), Matthew Settle (Gossip Girl) and Daren Kagasoff (The Secret Life of the American Teenager). She’s also going to be in “The DUFF”, with Bella Thorne (Shake It Up), Mae Whitman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Robbie Amell (Star-Crossed), Allison Janney (Mom, Masters of Sex), Ken Jeong (The Hangover) and Skyler Samuels (The Nine Lives of Chloe King).

Camille Guaty, who plays the mom, was in two episodes of “Hart of Dixie” and two of “The Vampire Diaries”, but is mostly known for “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”.

Ian Chandler, Lexi’s possible love interest and (spoiler alert) half-brother, is played by Shane Harper. Shane was in “Awkward”, “God’s Not Dead” and “Good Luck Charlie”.

Lexi’s best friend, Harper, is played by Katherine McNamara from “Girl Vs. Monster”, “New Year’s Eve”, “Contest” and others. She’s also set to appear in “Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn”, with “The Fosters” star Jake T. Austin.

Kat is set to appear in “Alumnus” alongside Cameron Moulène, who plays her boyfriend, Will in “Happyland”! Cameron also was the teenage version of Garret Dillahunt in “Raising Hope”!

Lastly, Ryan Rottman from “90210”, “The Lying Game”, “Gigantic” and “The Housebunny” plays Ian’s brother Theodore! Ryan currently dates model Jessica Vargas, but you might remember him as Victoria Justice’s ex. Or Brittany Snow’s, you pick!

Happyland is set for a season of 8, half-hour long episodes and we’ll set what happens to it after that!

Music: Watch the celebrity filled video for “Work That” by Ochoa Boyz!

The video might be quite long, since it’s sort of a mini movie but it’s definetly worth watching! There’s not only the song or the story, there are a LOT of celebrity cameos! After all, the Ochoa boys, specially Ryan, have a lot of famous friends and they enlisted everyone they could to help on the video, which was released to Just Jared Jr.com yesterday! 

The celebrities you might see are (according to the casting part of the credits, that is!): Kenton Duty (Shake It Up), Amber Montana (The Haunted Hathaways), Adam Irigoyen (Shake It Up), Paris Berelc (Mighty Med), Geno Segers (Pair of Kings, Teen Wolf), Katherine McNamara (Girl Vs. Monster), Aramis Knight (Hatching Pete), Nadji Jeter (Grown Ups), Garrett Ryan (Oculus), Haley Pullos (General Hospital), Vanessa & Veronica Merrell, Sacha Edwards and The Dahlz! 

What did you think of the video?