Lemons and Lemonade: a G:TB Movie Review

FoG:TB Shlara's been promoting the heck out of 50/50, the newly-released Seth Rogen/Joseph Gordon-Levitt film, so we figured we'd let her tell our readers why.  We think you'll enjoy the hell out of this.

Shit happens.

Last year, my shit was cancer.

I never use the words “victim” or “survivor” when talking about my situation—it just doesn’t feel right to me. I had cancer, and now I don’t. No need to share the gory details. Even when I was in the middle of it, I didn’t want to have cancer consume my life, but it certainly was the dominant theme of my life and it absolutely affected how people interacted with me.

It’s been hard for me to explain or describe the whole ordeal beyond “it’s surreal.”  Then I saw a screening of '50/50'.

Bingo.

Now, I don’t have to explain it because Will Reiser (the screenwriter whose own life inspires the story) so honestly and beautifully articulates it in this movie.

My experience isn’t exactly like Adam’s (the 20-something guy with cancer) but the mood and feelings and tone in the movie accurately capture how I felt and how I think my family and friends felt—it was enchanting, and raw and so real. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt is brilliant as Adam.

Even if you or your BFF have never had cancer, you’ll see some of yourself in one of the main characters. Because, at this point in life, we’ve all had to deal with some serious shit. Some of us were thrown for a loop at a very young age like Adam. And we’ve all had to find a way to cope—slogging through the melancholy haze and trying to maintain a sense of normalcy.

Like Adam, I worked to keep my life as regular as possible—I created a “no melodrama” zone for family, friends and coworkers in my presence. For the most part, everyone was compliant—there was an occasional alcohol-induced crying jag or random awkward comments like “I know someone who had that and they died.”

Many of us in the G:TB universe tend to use humor and sarcasm as a coping mechanism when faced with adversity, like Adam and his buddy Kyle (Seth Rogen). Or we channel our emotions into “safe” places like passion for sports teams.

My treatment coincided with football season last year. (Go Steelers!) One of my doctors is an obnoxious Ravens fan. So, each week NFL trash talk became a regular part my appointment—the other doctors and nurses would chime in too, and my mom, who is the biggest Steelers homer, would just taunt him mercilessly. (The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.) In one of those “live life to its fullest” flashes, my mom & I decided to go to Dallas for the Super Bowl. It was an awesome trip, despite the Steelers loss, and I was more excited to share the stories and photos with my doctor’s office than anyone else—because they lived through the whole season with me.   What I didn’t realize then, but I know now, it wasn’t about the season, it was about the journey.

The people who know me outside of G:TB comments can verify that I’m a private person—I rarely put myself out there and I definitely don’t like to call attention to myself. That had to change once I got my diagnosis—everybody was all up in my business...and I had to let them in…which, at times, was scarier than the cancer itself. But it is, by far, the best kind of lemonade you can squeeze out that pile of lemons.

And, I’m a better person for it.

So, do yourself a favor and go see '50/50'. You will not be disappointed.