Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Movies based on true stories are fun to watch because they’re like real life, only better. They have all the drama and excitement of something that really happened, but the actors are usually way better-looking than the real people they play. Plus, unlike life, most movies end happily and are over in two hours or less.
The latest movie to be based on true events is The Soloist. In the film, Jamie Foxx plays a brilliant musician who struggles with mental illness and ends up living on the streets. Robert Downey Jr. plays a journalist who tries to help him achieve his dreams. Listen to what Mason and Marni think about this movie.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Mason: I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about The Soloist again lately.
Marni: Oh that new film that’s based on the true stories of the…
Mason: Yeah the violin player guy, homeless dude.
Marni: Cellist, I believe.
Mason: Cellist. Cell-o.
Marni: You know what, actually, I think multiple instruments, so we’re both correct.
Mason: You know, the thing is they’ve actually been advertising that movie for close to a year. And then they delayed it because I think it wasn’t gonna come out in time for Oscar season.
Marni: Ah. Perhaps.
Mason: And you look at this trailer and it’s like Jamie Foxx playing some troubled person, and Robert Downey Jr. being serious and distraught. So they’re really going for the Oscar buzz there.
Marni: Perhaps. I think it is a compelling story, though, because it is based on this real individual’s plight, that he actually is mentally ill but he has this incredible gift, and it’s really hard for him to pursue that dream of playing music because he’s troubled, clearly.
Mason: I mean you know, there’s pretty much a large correlation between those kind of musical prodigies and being really troubled individuals a lot. Like there’s just some sort of thing, like if your brain works in that extreme musical way there’s kind of…other stuff.
Marni: Yeah it’s some, like, pay off. You have to be tortured mentally, but you…you’re a savant.
Grammar Point
Go Super to learn "Adjectives" from this lesson
Quizzes
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Discussion
Movie studios release certain movies hoping that they’ll be nominated for Oscars. But in order to be considered for a nomination, the movie has to be released at a particular time. Mason thinks that the release of The Soloist was delayed so that it would have a chance to be nominated for an Oscar.
Marni thinks that The Soloist sounds like an interesting movie. Mason agrees that the storyline is compelling and wonders if there is a connection between being a musical prodigy and having mental health problems.
Do you like to watch movies that are based on true stories? Do you agree with Mason that musical prodigies are often a little troubled?
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