Limitless

 

Limitless. So this is not normally a film that I would rush out and see. But, a few friends wanted to see a movie, any movie!, preferably an ACTION movie. So, Limitless it was!

So the basic story-line is, a struggling writer gets a hold of a new, not-yet-approved super drug that him super intelligent for 8 hours or so. He finishes his book in four days, and then tackles the stock market in order to achieve supreme wealth in a matter of weeks. 

With films, I have a basic test: watchable or unwatchable? I think that the line of watchable or unwatchable hovers around 2.5 out of 5 stars. Are all of the film elements of a passable level in their own right?... and do all of those film elements mesh together imperceptably to create a believable scenario that draws you in to the point where you forget about your own life, your own body sitting their in the chair, the un-eaten jar of nuts in your bag?... On this point, Limitless passes the test! I give this film a 3.5 out of 5. It's definitely above a pass, with seamlessly arty special effects, an apt sound-track, believable casting and acting.

There is also something to be said about films that are based on books. Limitless is based on a novel of the same name by British author Alan Glynn. Contrasted with other action films (that often have only limited dialogue peppered throughout expansive visual action scenes), Limitless has an intelligent and thoughtful narrative flowing throughout the entire film, adding a layer of interest for the cognitive senses.

Thematically, the film (and novel) are apt and timely; at present, smart drugs are actually starting to become available through both legal and illegal means. This film will therefore be of use to various high-school and university teachers wanting to engage students in discussion regarding the ethical complications that these sorts of drugs will have as they permeate society.

A few of the major thinking points that this film raised for me are:

1. Currently, Olympic athletes must pass drug tests in order to compete. What sort of status would smart drugs have in society in terms of regulation and control? Would aspiring students need to pass drug tests in order to entire prestigious colleges or companies? Or would these colleges and companies tolerate the use of such drugs in respect to the intellectual advantages and productive benefits that may result from usage by students or employees?

2. What kind of impact would these drugs have on society if they are only available to those who can afford/obtain the drug? How would you feel if you were applying for a job in competition with a person using a "smart drug"? Would it become necessary for you to also take the drug in order to retain competitiveness?

3. The drug portrayed in this film is an "intelligence" drug, which enables the user to fully draw on his own memory and neural pathways, recognise patterns and make accurate predictions. In my experience, however, intelligence is separate from motivation and action. It's one thing to be a high level thinker, but another to be motivated enough to do something with your intelligence. This relates to the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of judging individuals on IQ. Provided that the IQ is high enough (ie, 100), individuals have been known to achieve great things in life due to motivation and sheer tenacity. Having a genius IQ does not mean you will create genius work,...  making a mark on the world usually entails a great deal of perserverance, effort and productive activity. People may take a smart drug expecting that they will suddenly shoot to the top of the ladder, but I think a lot of people make it in this world by actually putting in the hours (whether that be through research, repetition, vast productivity, or networking with the right people and entering the circle of cronyism at the top of many organisations).

At the end of the day, Limitless is very watchable; exploring interesting issues regarding the human use of performance enhancing substances; which is certainly a phenomenon that is not going away any time soon.

127 Hours - human survival at it's most extreme

Last night I went to a preview screening of 127 hours at the outdoor cinema at Burswood. As I expected from reading some reviews prior, the film was excellent. All of the film elements: script, casting, acting, set, sound, music, cinematography, editing/pacing, effects etc were singularly exceptional and also perfectly gelled together.

The dynamic soundscape, bright colours, slightly raw but crisp and powerful camera-work made for a strong impact on the senses. The representation of Aron: as reckless, bold and adventurous; spontaneous, creative and unhinged; a loving son; a young man reflecting on the failures in his life; and finally, the mix of a primal, wild super-human mad-courage and a serious, calculated and desperation-driven rationality that enabled him to cut his own arm off.

The story is inspiring because many of us would not be able to do the same. Many of us would perish, pinned by the rock. It reveals the human survival instinct at its most extreme, and it serves as a reminder for all the softies out there (myself included) to toughen the $%#* up!.

I thought I'd now dedicate the rest of this blog entry to some other brave self-amputees (being, as they are, so few in numbers - at least according to Wikipedia). On the"Self-surgery: Amputation of Trapped Limbs" page of Wikipedia, there are only four other individuals mentioned other than Aron Ralston. The following text has been copied and pasted from this page (and the cited pages). Warning: not for the squeamish!

On July 20, 1993, Donald Wyman was clearing land in a remote section of Pennsylvania, as part of his work for a mining company. In the process, a tree rolled over his shin, severely breaking the leg, and pinning Wyman to the ground. He yelled for help for one whole hour, but no one came. He concluded that the only way to save his life would be to cut off his leg. So he made a tourniquet out of his shoe string and tightened it with a wrench. Then he took his pocket knife and cut through the skin, the muscle and bone just above the knee and freed himself. He crawled thirty yards to a bulldozer, drove a quarter-mile to his truck, then maneuvered the standard transmission with his good leg and a hand until he reached a farm house one-and-a-half miles away, with his leg bleeding profusely. The farmer at the house helped him get to a hospital where his life was spared.
 
In 1993 Bill Jeracki was fishing near St. Mary's Glacier in Colorado, when a boulder pinned his left leg. Snow was forecast and without a jacket or pack, Jeracki didn't believe he would survive the night. Fashioning a tourniquet out of his flannel shirt and using his bait knife, he cut his leg off [3] at the knee joint, using hemostats from his fishing kit to clamp the bleeding arteries.

In 2002 Doug Goodale cut off his own arm [4] at the elbow in order to survive an accident at sea. He had become caught in a winch hauling lobster pots up from the sea floor, and could not free himself. The power of the winch left him hanging over the side of the boat, unable to either free himself or clamber back aboard. Somehow he managed to haul himself back onto the deck, dislocating his shoulder in the process. However, he was still trapped in the winch, bleeding heavily, and with no way of getting free, his only option was to pick up a knife and cut through his right arm. He then managed to pilot his boat back into harbour to get medical help.

In 2003 an Australian coal miner trapped three kilometres underground by an overturned tractor cut off his own arm[5] with a box-cutting knife. The 44-year-old man, who was not identified by police, was working late at the Hunter Valley mine when the tractor tipped over, crushing his arm and trapping him.

Just Like Heaven

Okay okay okay. I know I watch a lot of trash. Forgive me! There is a part of my heart that loves the cheesiest crap that Hollywood can deliver. Just Like Heaven, well, it was cheesy, no doubt about it. But was it trashy? Not really. It was more like a pleasant stroll in a rose garden or a lovely cup of earl-grey tea. Sweet, but somewhat unaffecting. Why did it not really affect me? Probably because I didn't buy the chemistry.

I notice a trend in some of these romantic comedies (well, in this movie, and also in The Proposal and I suppose in Suddenly 30). You have the over-achieving career-woman who works so much that they've not left any space for a personal life. Then you have the sweet, down-to-earth guy who the girl has overlooked until some kind of personal crisis delivers him to her. The girl is all righteous, self-centred and bossy and the guy just kind of puts up with it dopelybecause he has always loved her.

This is my problem with a lot of these films in this kind of post-feminist(?) film-production landscape. The leading female, as an extreme example of the single American career-woman, seems to be more of a caricature than a character. She works too hard, other people are perhaps a little afraid of her, she eats chinese take-away alone at home etc. This is the reason why I think this movie failed; Reese Witherspoon's character was based a little too completely on a stereotype and I couldn't really learn anything about her apart from the fact that she worked 20 hours a day as a doctor and drank too much coffee. When she did come into Mark Ruffalo's life (sorry I can't remember the character's name, just the actor's), she swiftly proceeded to lash out with the pussy-whip, forbidding him to talk to his next door neighbour because she answered the door wearing a crop-top, and totally ruining his night out when he simply tried to have a whisky with his friend at the pub. Geez. IF SHE WAS THAT BAD AS A GHOST (which she was at that point in the movie) HOW BAD WOULD SHE BE IN REAL LIFE? I couldn't even really believe that they were in love.

If you didn't really care or notice chemistry between characters, then this movie would be fine, but the more I think about it, the less convincing they were. If you can suspend criticism and belief for about 90 minutes though, it was all rather pleasant. Your heart-strings will be manipulated in the usual ways and you can vicariously experience elements of their newly found love for each other. If you find it hard to surrender your intellect in such films, and don't find enjoyment in the escapist ride on a side-show alley ride of romantic emotions, then you would find watching this film to be a rather pointless exercise as it makes no meaningful statement about men, women or humankind.

Can I just add as an aside though, I THINK I LOVE MARK RUFFALO.


He's a vegetarian.

13 Going On 30 / Suddenly 30

So if you haven't noticed already, I'm a big fan of comedies/romantic comedies that involve a fantasy/time-travel element. By this, I mean either a body swap, or a "going back in time to your previous self" type plot-line. Suddenly 30 involves the "going back in time to your previous self" story line.

I'm always entertained by the different methods by which the fantasy time travel takes place. Sometimes people bang heads in a pool and switch bodies, sometimes it's a voodoo statue in an art gallery that the characters accidentally invoke. In this case, it's some glitter on top of a dolls-house that falls on the 13-year-old Jenna's (Jennifer Garner) head and magically whisks her 17 years into the future; her 30 year old self.

She's ecstatic to discover that she is now the owner of a huge shelf of shoes, and the successful editor of her favourite magazine, Poise. Apart from that, she is rather shocked to find out that her 30-year-old self is also a huge bitch with a back-stabbing best-friend and lame jock/himbo boyfriend. She rushes to track down her old best friend (played by Mark Ruffalo) and is further shocked to find out that they had a falling out in high-school when she ditched him to hang out with the popular crew, the "Six Chicks". Of course, this ex-dweeb is now this AWESOME kind of indie, very modest, down to earth photographer living in New York and Jenna is now KICKING HERSELF HARD because he's totally awesome but now engaged and she has zero chance. Actually, I was in love with his character too. Here's a photo:


* sigh * . So Jenna realises that she totally stuffed up her life by choosing popularity, fame and the bitchy road to success instead of this completely awesome guy who was right in front of her. Is it too late!? You'll have to watch in order to find out. Hahah though it's not hard to guess what happens.

In terms of this particular genre, I thought this film was pretty successful - the characters had an authentic chemistry and Jennifer Garner really played a 13 year old in a 30 year old's body quite well. Her performance made me reflect on the way some adults become; as they get older they get wrapped up in money and career and stop seeing the magic in life. Well, it's ok to care about your career, and money to some extent, but not when you lose your heart in the process. It does make you realise that we do have choices in life, but sometimes they are so gradual that they don't even feel like choices. Over-time, these tiny little "mini-choices" add up and suddenly that's your life. I think this would be a good lesson for the 13 year old girls who probably made up the majority of the audience for this film, to ignore the superficial bitches and try and just live your life with heart and authenticity.

I think if this happened to me; if some wishing dust fell on my head and I was SUDDENLY 30, I'd be like, oh ok. Hahah actually it's only 3 years away so I can't imagine life will be hugely different. I won't be the editor of a successful magazine. Actually, when I was younger I couldn't wait to be old enough to move out and live my own life. Now I'm doing that, it's harder and not as much fun as I thought it'd be. By 30 I hope I'll be better at looking after myself so that it's less stress. Going from being the youngest of 7 children (with the whole dependent/slacker/wait-and-see style of living) to self-sufficient adult has been hard. I think my challenge in life is to get above that and not get weighed down by it all, which is how I often feel these days. Work seems to suck out a lot of my energy and then I just feel like sleeping the rest of the time. If I continue like this, then I think I'll be a boring 30 year old so I should give myself a kick up the ass eh.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Ok let me try and summarise the plot. If my summary is incorrect, forgive me, I'm trying to do this from memory instead of just looking on IMDB. So, Doctor Parnassus (top image) is this guy who gained immortality by promising his daughter to the devil on her 16th birthday. Her 16th birthday is fast approaching when the devil re-appears, keen for another gamble. So, Doctor Parnassus and the devil make a bet with his daughter as the wager; the winner has to "capture" five souls by her 16th birthday.

Doctor Parnassus has an "imaginarium", which is a kind of magic mirror. When someone goes through the mirror, they find themselves in their own imagination, surrounded by everything they'd ever wished for. They are then faced with a choice; of temporary, material, earthly satisfaction, or the eternal truth of life. In order to pass into the eternal/immaterial, they have to let go of their narcissism, hedonism, materialism, and their fear of death. If they choose the eternal, then Doctor Parnassus has "won" their soul, but if they choice hedonism/materialism/earthly desire, then the devil wins.

Doctor Parnassus is hopelessly struggling to attract willing participants to the Imaginarium when Tony (Heath Ledger) comes into the story. Tony revamps the stage and presentation of the show and manages to "win" several souls. As the story goes on, we realise that Tony is not who he claims to be, and the battle between dark and light is not as clear as one would imagine.

Gosh that was very hard to explain. I think it'd be best if you watched the movie for yourself and tried to make sense of it. The concept, the story and the film are all quite incredible, it's always a treat to watch something by Terry Gilliam. It reminded me a lot of Hermann Hesse's "Journey to the East" where the main character is on a long symbolic/metaphysical journey where things are not as they seem.

I tried to visualise what my imaginarium would look like. I think it would be very pretty and aesthetically perfect, I always want to be in nice surroundings. Is it bad to wish for a perfect life? Nice house to live in, nice clothes, nice friends, nice hobbies, nice family, nice partner, nice holidays, nice everything. Is it bad to wish for everything to be pleasant? Because that's what my imaginarium would be. I'd be living in a kind of amazing tree-house in a city with a perfect layout, brilliant public transport, intelligent and humane governance. I would have amazing clothes, toe-socks every day, and extremely cute pets. Then, what would be the choice I have to face? To accept things as they are instead of constantly chasing perfection? But sometimes it's better to strive for things or you go backwards. I guess the key is to strive whilst also being content with the imperfect moment? I'm not sure. I'm just thinking aloud here. Anyway, when you watch this film it'll definitely make you ponder your own imaginarium and how we create our own heaven and hell right here on earth.

The Dinner Game / Le dîner de cons (1998)

A group of elite French businessmen host a weekly dinner where each of them must bring "an idiot", for the amusement of the group. Pierre Brochant's "idiot scout" finds him a premium idiot on the train, Finance Ministry employee and budding match-stick landmark replica builder François Pignon. On the day of the dinner, Brochant severely busts his back on the golf course and has to cancel on the dinner. His "idiot" Pignon is already on his way over. Hilarity ensues as Pignon manages to almost accidentally destry Brochant's whole life through a series of blundered telephone calls and cases of mistaken identity.

I didn't know this when I watched it, but the director of the film, Francis Veber, had actually originally written Le dîner de cons as a theatrical play. 95% of the film is set in Pierre's apartment, and the film moves along at a cracking pace by virtue of Pierre and François' often ridiculous dialogue.

Apart from a fleeting 87 minutes of entertainment, I didn't find much to contemplate on. What was the meaning here? That an idiot is not always an idiot? In my books, if someone can build realistic mini replica's of famous landmarks, then how can he really be an idiot? I couldn't do that. I think the essential quality of Pignon that had him defined as an "idiot" was not stupidity in itself, but a kind of lack of self-awareness whereby Pignon could not see himself as others did. Here's the formula for this kind of idiot:

1. A quirky/strange and/or obsessive hobby that sits on the border of normal and insane.
2. An innocent and earnest enthusiasm,
3. Total lack of awareness of how others see him.

In order to demonstrate this principle, let me use the example of Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday. If you haven't seen Chocolate Rain yet, just type it into youtube and you'll see.

Why is Chocolate Rain hilarious? Well, firstly, the song really sits on the border of normal and crazy. What do I mean by this? Well, there are PLENTY of guys doing songs in such a way on youtube. That's pretty normal. BUT, why is his voice SOOO low? And the lyrics of this song? "chocolate rain"? It's not quite right is it? Secondly, Zonday seems totally earnest throughout his performance, and the interviews I've seen with him. What do I mean by earnest? Well, no irony, no intended humour. He's not trying to be cool, he truly is singing a song from the heart. Just like Pignon builds his match-stick replicas with completely and non-self-conscious, innocent enthusiasm. Lastly, it doesn't seem like Zonday can really appreciate why his video has gone viral,... because, I don't think Chocolate Rain is funny or strange to him. To him, it's an honest self expression.

I think the humour in this type of video/situation, is that Zonday is not aware of why his song is funny, which makes the song even funnier. There is a gap between the self-perception and the audience perception that really creates the humour. I have seen a lot of viral videos where this really seems to be the case. Ie, the recent barking dog man (which you will easily find on youtube). He wasn't trying to be the star of a viral video, he wasn't trying to be funny, but man, WTF. I think this is why engineered viral videos so often fail, because you can't manufacture that kind of innocent/earnest weirdo who sits on the border of weird and normal to create a song/performance that is sincere and heartfelt to the weirdo, but hilarious to everyone else. Another big example of this phenomenon is Tommy Wiseau in the 2003 film, The Room. Think about it.

Uncle Buck

So, Uncle Buck is a story by John Hughes about an unmarried, fat, drinking, cigar-smoking uncle who comes to look after his brother's kids when the couple leaves town to visit the wife's father (who's just had a heart attack). The kids parents are extremely square and meal-times are tense. Then crazy ol' Uncle Buck arrives to stir things up. He swears and curses, smokes cigars indoors, makes giant pancakes, tells the daughter's nitpicking headmistress where to go, punches an alcoholic clown and threaten's the teenage daughter's boyfriend with a hatchet. My favourite scene is when he crashes a highschool party to find her and walks through with a cigar and beer in hand totally freaking out all the teens who are like, WTF who is this crazy old fat guy doing here? Basically, Uncle Buck is great because he doesn't stand for any kind of shit and he's not afraid to poke a stick in it no matter how many people it'll piss off. His honest humanity wins the kids over, and even breaks the icy wall of the teenage daughter. Society needs more Uncle Bucks.

As I was watching this movie, I constantly keep feeling, wow! That's nuts!? How the hell is he doing that??.... I think that today's society is a lot more square and regulated and you couldn't make and release Uncle Buck today. It's interesting, if you asked people if they thought society was more square or more liberal than 30 years ago, a lot of people might assume it's more liberal because of all the "sex, drugs and violence" on TV. I haven't seen any TV from the 70's but I've been told that there were totally naked people on TV all the time, and not just late at night. So, maybe there is more violence on TV today, but that doesn't exactly indicate a culturally liberal society. Yes, I definitely think that society has got more square in some ways.

Another reason why you wouldn't see this film made and released today, is due to the social climate in context of the recent "war on men". I'm not sure when it all started, but it seems that these days, the media is completely and overly obsessed with the threat of pedophilia and pedophilic porn. OK, so pedophilic porn is no good. Keep funding police programs to thwart it. So, sexual abuse of children is of course no good. Well, haven't studies shown that most sexual abuse comes from family members or those known to the family and not strangers? So, they should address that through family-centred social programs. So, why this very generalised, hyper-paranoia about men? Apparently it is hard for men nowadays who want to pursue careers child-care or early-childhood teaching without being seen as dodgy... And although we were always taught "stranger danger", I think it's really been hyped up generally over the last few years and especially towards men. Today's Uncle Buck wouldn't stand a chance. I think that's sad.

The end.

An Education

I can't really describe this film that well without showing heaps of photos. The 1960's setting is brilliant. I'm really hungry right now so it's a bit hard for me to write anything more about this film (I hate cooking in summer, and I'm all out of milk so I can't even eat cereal). Let me just say that most of this film is a highschool girl's dream come true. High school is, as depicted in the film, a total drag. Most highschool boys are useless (sorry boys), and if I were Jenny (the main character in this film), I wouldn't blame her for getting swept up! Ok, that's all I can write before I faint from heat and malnutrition.

District 9

Ok so here's another piece of compulsory viewing for 2009-2010. Well, compulsory only if you can handle shaky "documentary-style" camera-work and R-rated bloody alien gore. There is A LOT of alien gore.

So if you're not familiar with the storyline already,..an alien ship "washes up" on Johannesburg, South Africa, filled with hordes of malnourished extra-terrestrials. The local government sets up a refugee camp of sorts, which soon becomes an alien ghetto slum that causes all sorts of problems for the human citizens of J-burg. A tough and cheerful official is put in charge of a project to move over 1 million of these aliens to a distant location (ie, concentration camp). This is when the problems start.

Throughout the first part of the film (showing the interaction between humans and the aliens in the ghetto slum), I felt very weird inside. Partly because of the very-current refugee/ghetto situation and the cruelty aimed at the aliens. Also, because the director very successfully supplanted this very alien situation into an extremely believable contemporary reality. The first part of the film mostly uses documentary style/news footage clips, adding to the surreal believability of the scenario. This gave me a very unsettled and uneasy feeling - AWESOME,... this is what a good surreal-sci-fi/horror-type film should do. Imagine Cronenberg, add an alien-apartheid situation and put the whole thing on FAST FORWARD and then you've got District 9.

Oh, and I need to mention that the special effects are INSANE. People keep talking on about how the special effects in AVATAR changed their life. Sorry I haven't seen this film, but I reckon District 9 would stomp all over it. The director, Neill Blomkamp, worked for years as an animator... and the result is that you totally buy all the special effects. The aliens are REAL, which makes it all the more creepy. And, no 3D glasses required. Oh, and also, the story-line and dialogue are also ... really good.

Lastly, If you think you can bear the shaky camera work on a big screen, I recommend seeing this at the cinema. I watched this on our piddly TV and thought at times that it'd be heaps better with a big screen and full sound.

Up In the Air

In trying to find some good movies to watch, I was browsing top films on Rotten Tomatoes. Up In the Air had like 92%, so I thought I'd give it a go. The movie ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are not always reliable. Films that I've loved, have only scored in the 50's and 60's, and then some films that I think are total bullshit have scored in the 90's. So you can't use this website as a guide for all films. However, in this case, I realised that the film is by the writer/director of Thankyou for Smoking, Jason Reitman. If you haven't already seen that film, it's really funny and I recommend it. C and I once went to see it at Innaloo Megaplex Greater Union whatever it's called on a Saturday night and although the cinema foyer was PACKED, there were only about 5 other people watching the same film as us. So we could kinda stretch out across the seats of a row as if we were on a couch at home. I was kind of wearing my pyjamas under my coat, which made it all pretty awesome.

Anyway, what have I got to say about Jason Reitman based on these two films. Well, he knows how to WRITE. The characters and dialogue were great. Both films are pretty smart and I consider them both to be compulsory viewing. I don't know what else I can tell you about Up in the Air that you can't learn from other sources. Oh! Anna Kendrick's portrayal of a early 20's graduate go-getter was spot-on. Intense and still with a head full of book-learning from university. Aww.

I just realised I have neglected to mention that Jason Reitman also directed Juno, a film which upon retrospect, I realise that I didn't really like. I liked the aesthetics of the film, the music, the characters, everything. The only problem was, Ellen Page's character, Juno's lines were just WAY TOO witty/ironic/sarcastic for her age. It didn't seem believable to me. I wished they would've toned it down a bit so I could believe in her character a little more. But hey, Jason Reitman didn't actually write this film, so it's not entirely his fault.

Oh, and one last point, I never noticed this before but George Clooney's voice is REALLY DEEP. C recently built these funny sound-trap things for our lounge-room for his recording, and it makes the bass level on everything pretty immense. George is definitely a real man.

Two films about very different girls.

So I've been slowly making my way through the "films to watch" list that I wrote in April. The latest films that I watched were The Double Life of Veronique by Krzysztof Kieslowski, and Happy Go Lucky by Mike Leigh. I like watching films where the main lead is a girl, because, unapologetically, I am a girl. We often subconsciously/consciously identify with the lead character in a film, and as that person is quite often, male; the female in me has nothing to connect to.

The Double Life of Veronique...seemed like a rather slow and solemn version of Amelie. There's atmosphere, there's European-ness, lovers using weird ways to contact each other. From there, it is not like Amelie at all. It's far too serious, far two existential. The story goes: there are two Veroniques; one living in Paris and the other, in Poland. They are not twins, they are not related, but they look identical - are they identical? It's never really explained how the existence of two identical girls came to be. I wonder, does this actually happen? Is there someone out there who looks exactly like me? I'd like to meet her. What's weirder?: that there would be someone out there who looks identical to you?, or that you are absolutely unique and there is no one like you?. Both of these prospects are pretty amazing.

Happy Go Lucky, yup, this film was very different. The main character, Poppy, is a perky school-teacher who refuses to take life seriously. I suppose that she was kind of charming; her character was pretty convincing. But I wasn't entirely taken by Mike Leigh's floaty slice-of-life style story-telling. The film just kind of drifted along, showing Poppy on a trampoline, Poppy taking spanish dance lessons, Poppy teaching her class about bird migration, Poppy going to visit her sister, Poppy having driving lessons with a mentally unstable instructor, Poppy hanging out with a homeless man in an abandoned industrial park. Generally, you feel like: gee, good on Poppy for giving life a good shot. Overall, did this film really resonate with me? Well, if you asked me while I was watching it, I would've said, "not terribly so", but actually it has stayed with me for over a week so there must be something in it.

Well, there's my films for the week. Writing about films is hard. Makes me appreciate really good film reviews. Ciao for now.

Nobuta wo Produce

This is a fanclip made about the Japanese drama I've just started watching, "Nobuta wo Produce".




It's a show all about two guys who help out this loner girl at school. It seems cute. You can watch the whole thing on mysoju.com here.

Piccadilly Cinema, Perth

Piccadilly's is currently the only operating cinema in central Perth. Does this amaze anyone else? The next nearest cinemas are in Mount Lawley, South Perth(?)... and not sure where else.

The reasons that I like Picadilly's are: its art deco stylings, the feeling that when you enter the doors and walk up the stairs you are actually travelling back through time and of course, it's relative cheapness. The reasons that I don't like Picadilly's are: the seats are often uncomfortable, the floors are often sticky, and they tend to pick up and screen the more crapper of the Hollywood releases. I saw one of my most hated films here: "The Terminal". Under no reasonable condition should you ever subject yourself to this film, for you will surely perish with a seething overflow of wrath.

Adventures in J-Drama, Hotaru no Hikari

Well, you already know my secret - that I am addicted to Japanese dramas. Recently I watched all 10 episodes of Hotaru no Hikari. The story revolves around a 24 year old office worker, Hotaru, who is neat and professional at work, but messy and grungy at home. She drinks canned beer, eats random crap from convenience stores, rolls around on the floor a lot and sleeps under newspapers. She is boarding in a cute old-style Japanese house, thanks to a drunken agreement with the house's owner some time ago. Little does she know, that the house's owner is actually her bosses father. So when her boss separates from his wife and returns to his family home, there is some shock involved for both parties concerned. The two then decide to live together in the house, but keep it a secret from everyone else at work.

There are several really annoying parts of this show that almost put me off watching the whole thing. Hotaru can be really annoying at times with the random female babbling, but what kept me going was the strong supporting cast. Hotaru works in the interior-design department of a Tokyo Building company. The 10-15 people working in this department are like family to each other, and there are plenty of jokes between them are good for kicks.

When I watch these J-dramas, I am always reminded of how different some aspects of Japanese culture are to Australian culture. Take for instance: HUGGING. In Japan, if you HUG a member of the opposite sex, it's basically saying: "I like-like you". Hugs tend to happen AFTER the couple gets together as a couple. So when a guy suddenly hugs a girl, it's a HUGE deal! Here in Australia, I tend to hug people a lot. It's often my greeting or farewell for friends, whether male or female. I am trying to remember if I hugged any male friends in Japan because it may have confused them! Hahah I definitely hugged many of my female Japanese friends and that may have taken them by surprise because even same-sex friends don't really seem to hug!. Sure, they'll take naked baths together, but they won't hug!

Anyway, here is a short compiled video of Hotaru no Hikari. Ignore the kind of annoying music, and you will get an impression of what this drama is like. Another good point about this drama, is that it has plenty of every-day contextual/situational workplace/social Japanese language, so I will definitely be watching it again to try and pick up some phrases.

MV-Hotaru no Hikari
Uploaded by JennyProd. - See more comedy videos.

A list of movies I want to watch

Over the easter long weekend, I decided to try and create a list of films that I want to watch. First of all, I racked my brains and wrote a big long list of my favourite films. Using this info, I spent a while browsing through the following movie recommendation websites: Rotten Tomatoes, Tastekid, Movielens, IMDb, Criticker, and Clerkdogs.

I found Clerkdogs and Tastekid to be the best for finding new films to watch, and I used RottenTomatoes and IMDB just to run a check on the plot/ratings to see if the film really suited my fancy.

Here is a list that I have compiled. If you have seen any of these films, let me know if any are good or crap.

Dramas

This Boy's Life (1993)
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
My Life as a Dog (1987)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Ruang rak noi nid mahasan / Last Life in the Universe (2003)
My Life Without Me (2001)
Ma Vie En Rose (1997)
Dave (1993)
Ikuru (1952)
The Living End (1992)
The Secret Life of Words (2006)
High Art (1998)
The Doom Generation (1995)
Lost and Delirious (2001)
Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
Short Cuts (1993)
A History of Violence (2005)
The Ice Storm (1997)
Before Sunrise (1995)
Lolita (1962)
Youth Without Youth (2007)
Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (1976)

Stupid, surreal, quirky, kitsch, black, political and or teen comedy

Airplane / Flying High
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1989)
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
Ruthless People (1986)
Back to School (1986)
Parents (1989)
The Closet (2001)
How to get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
Heavy Traffic (1973)
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Valley Girl (1983)
Parenthood (1989)
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2004)
Falling Down (1993)
One Crazy Summer (1986)
Strike! (1998)
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
The Pick-Up Artist (1987)
The Rachel Papers (1989)
The Daytrippers (1996)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)

Thrillers / surreal / sci-fi / horror

The Vanishing (1988)
Avalon (2001)
The Deadzone (1983)
Eastern Promises (2007)

Films that involve: romance, romantic comedy, female friendship, relationships women’s issues, body-swapping, time distortion, fantasy fatalism, Robert Downy Jr and or John Cusack.

All of Me (1984)
Dream a Little Dream (1989)
Bull Durham (1988)
Moonstruck (1987)
Flirting (1991)
Things I Never Told You (1996)
Shopgirl (2005)
Me Without You (2001)
Singles (1992)
Friends With Money (2006)
Walking and Talking (1996)
Broken English (2007)
Dan in Real Life (2007)
Me Myself I (1999)
Melinda and Melinda (2004)
Happy Accidents (2000)
Next Stop Wonderland (1997)
Serendipity (2001)
Only You (1994)
Chances Are (1989)
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Return to Me (2000)
Irma Vep (1996)
Working Girl (1988)

A list of my favourite movies

For various reasons and appeals, and in no particular order, I hereby present to you a list of several of my favourite movies. If you can recommend any films to me based on this list, it would be more than welcome.

Hairspray
Election
Say Anything
Pretty In Pink
Blue Velvet
Mulholland Drive
Down By Law
The Fly
Raising Arizona
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Adaptation
Amelie
There Will Be Blood
Napoleon Dynamite
I Heart Huckabees
Videodrome
Terminator II
Spirited Away
Dr Strangelove
Crybaby
Pecker
Sex Lies and Videotape
Secretary
Sean of the Dead
Crumb
Breathless
American Beauty
The King of Comedy
Citizen Ruth
Clueless
Dead Poets Society
Chungking Express
American Splendor
The Shawshank Redemption
My Neighbour Totoro
The Hudsucker Proxy
Gummo
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
They Live
The Graduate
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Wild at Heart
Dead Man
Barton Fink
Kentucky Fried Movie
Chasing Amy
Poison Ivy
Mannequin
Rushmore
Sideways
Being John Malkovich
Saved
Ghostworld
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Better Off Dead
The Secret of My Success
The Royal Tenenbaums
High Fidelity
Being There
Network
Thankyou For Smoking
War Games
The Day After
Spinal Tap
In America
Clerks
Mallrats
The House of Yes
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Dead Man on Campus
Somersault
The Matrix
Wonder Boys
Mean Girls
Body Melt
The Opposite of Sex
Goodbye Lenin!
Love and Other Catastrophes
Strange Planet
City of God
The Wedding Singer
Lost Highway
Flirting with Disaster

Mary and Max - A new feature length Australian claymation.

Last night I went along to a preview session of the new Australian claymation, "Mary and Max". There was also a Q & A with the director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs. I don't have the time and energy at the moment to write a synopsis or proper review of this film, but there is an excellent summary here.



You know, I must admit that I have a pre-existing bias towards stop-motion animation. I grew up on Gumby, Pingu, Trap-door and Plasmo and even as an adult I haven't ever tired of this medium. These days digital technology can seemingly create any effect you can imagine. If I asked to see a comet crash to earth and give birth to an alien brain exploding fireballs, it could be done these days with quite a high degree of realism. But I guarantee it would still pretty awesome and probably more entertaining if made with clay.

Anyway, coming back to "Mary and Max". Why is this movie special? Well firstly, the artistry of the characters and the set are so spot on, that you often totally forget that you are watching an animation. Then, when you momentarily remember that you are watching CLAY and that each and every second took HOURS of work, one feels overwhelmed with respect for the artistry behind it.

I also really liked the theme of this story. When you live alone and have very few friends, recieving a letter and a chocolate bar in the mail would mean so much to you. Max irons, laminates and sticks all of Mary's letters up on his wall, and right towards the end of this film, you really get a strong sense of how important Mary has been in his life. With the global financial crisis slowly washing over us like a slow-burn tsunami, this film is perfectly timed to remind us that at the end of the day, we remember our lives through the relationships that we've had and not the money that we spent.

I am a bit too tired and sleepy to really give this film it's proper due,... but yes, it is well worth watching. As an individual, it would only cost you $10-$15 to get along and support the Australian film industry by checking out this incredibly unique and engaging animation that has been 5 years in the making.

Adventures in Japanese Drama

Today I will explain for you my recent explorations of Japanese dramas. There is a particular type of drama that I enjoy - must have some comedy and some romance, and even better, some sort of sci-fi or fantasy element. The acting must be believable and the characters, likeable. The episodes must be poppy and enjoyable but also engaging on some sort of intellectual level.

Absolute Boyfriend

The first jdrama that really caught my eye was Zettai Kareshi / Absolute Boyfriend. A Japanese A.I company develops what they call, "a love robot" which is provided to a young single office worker. Of course, all sorts of complications arise while she struggles to find a place in her life for the robot. Things get even more complicated when a real warm-blooded love interest arises between her and a co-worker. Spot the robot:




You can watch this whole series online here.

Kimi Wa Petto

Kimi Wa Petto is a story about a successful single female office-worker in her early thirties. She is pretty cold, rational and finds it hard to connect with other people. One day she comes home to find a 20 year old boy, huddled and bleeding in cardboard box outside her apartment. She takes him in, cleans him up, feeds him, and he becomes her pet. Complications arise when a real warm-blooded love interest arises between her and a co-worker (sound familiar!?). She must choose between taking on the challenges and revealing her vulnerabilities in a real relationship, or keeping "her pet". I didn't like this drama as much as Absolute Boyfriend because the girl in this show fails to realise the obvious. However it's still kinda light and enjoyable for at least the first half of the series.




You can watch this whole series online here.

Papa to Musume no Nanokakan

Papa to Musume no Nanokakan is a jdrama that I started watching last weekend. The main characters, 17 year old Koume and her 47 year old father, are not exactly close and have not spoken to each other for years. Fate intervenes, and after eating a magic peach, they are involved in a train accident where they body swap! All sorts of complications arise, as they struggle to cope with each other's lives (whilst in the girl's body, the father goes on dates with the girl's boyfriend), and the girl (in the father's body) has to go to work at the perfume company where her dad is managing a new project. I LOVE the genre of bodyswap, even more so when the method of swapping is patently ridiculous. This drama is more than just novelty though; the characters are sweetly believable and the plot explores the awkwardness and difference between a father and a teen daughter pretty well. It's also kinda bizarre and funny in a way that only a Japanese show can be... like, how the girl (in the father's body) is constantly having to ward of sexual advances from her mum! (That does sound sick, but it's something that is pretty funny in a Japanese comedy).




And yup, you can watch it all online here.

Feeling as French as possible in Edgewater WA

Mlle. Chenal (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

Last night, a friend had a most excellent idea of celebrating his birthday French-style. This included baguettes, camembert, four different vegetarian french dishes, wine, champagne and Jean Luc Godard.

We didn't have enough time to watch any features, so we just watched two short films that had been included as extras on his DVDs.

The first film we watched was All the Boys Are Called Patrick, a cute 20 minute film about a Parisian casanova who chats up two room-mates on the same day. This film, written by Éric Rohmer and directed by Godard, is so snappily perfect that it's hard to believe that it was made in 1957. He uses several experimental film techniques that were revolutionary for his time, like cutaways and playing with film speed. This film also was shot in the informal observational style that was soon to become iconic of Godard. This style was most likely influenced by Godard's tertiary study of Ethnology, "the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity."

Heavily influenced also by Jean Rouch, the father of Cinema Verite / Cinema Truth, Godard observed his subjects in a sort of light anthropological style; retaining the randomness and inconsequentiality of every day conversation without any overbearing cloak of dramatic pretense. This has led some people to criticise his films for their superficiality, but as this short film demonstrates, there are other truths to be found in the random banter that fills most of our lives. The girls are pretty cute too.

Watch the film; you will not be disappointed! I truly believe that no cooler film was made in 1957.











We also watched the 1958 short, Une histoire d'eau / A Story of Water which was also very fun but I couldn't find it on youtube.

Hot Fuzz

It's strange, when this film came out at the cinema I was not interested at all. It sometimes happens that a film is marketed more to the mainstream, and therefore I completely ignore it because it looks kind of naff.

I initially thought this film would be like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a film which I guess I tolerated with only mild interest. Hot Fuzz was heaps better than I expected, most probably because of the presence of Simon Pegg.

Over the past 6 months or so, I have finally got into Simon Pegg through watching Spaced. Do you ever get the feeling that you've watched all of the tv shows that you could possibly like and that you've run out of quality shows forever?... and then you stumble across a show which in your opinion, completely nails it? Such a satisfying moment. I really love Spaced.

Anyway, Hot Fuzz hit the spot just like Shaun of The Dead. Deep down within us all, I think each and every one of us just has a pent up urge to smash a zombie's head with a baseball bat or blow away a satanic cultist with an AK47.


"Hot Fuzz" - 3 1/2 stars