monoceros blogsI love fall and winter for the excellent films that get released, and one that I'm especially looking forward to is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." It stars the exquisite Cate Blanchett who can carry adolescent innocence in a glance, and gravitas and grace with her voice alone. How wonderful that her character is named Daisy - after Gatsby's great love in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - and not the original Hildegarde. And then there's Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button, a character that will let him stretch his acting skills. Benjamin Button is born looking like an old man, and as he ages, his appearance grows more youthful. It will be fascinating to watch Benjamin Button - vertically challenged, bespectacled, gray-haired at seven years old - who grows into an impossibly young man, all of sixteen years with his unblemished face and corn-colored hair, and a far older soul. (You'll see the young - or old, depending on how you look at it - Mr. Button at the end of the second trailer.)
Fitzgerald's short story was largely inspired by Mark Twain, who remarked that "it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end." So he turned things round for one lucky individual, or unlucky, considering that Benjamin Button's aging process is unique among his family and friends. Since then, several authors have taken this concept on board. Andrew Sean Greer is one who did so. In The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Max Tivoli ages backwards. He also meets the girl he loves three times; on each occasion, she doesn't recognize him.
Director David Fincher and the film's writers appear to have been similarly inspired as they developed the brief story into a more epic film. Benjamin gets to meet Daisy when she is six, and again when she's in her 20s. However, she appears to know who he is and has accepted the strangeness of his condition. In the short story, the theme focuses on our attitudes toward aging, but there's plenty else in the story to mine, and Fincher appears to be thoroughly exploring a relationship where one person grows old while the other becomes increasingly young and potent. I'm excited to see how the film reflects our fixations on youth, beauty, mortality, and demonstrates how love endures - or doesn't - the vicissitudes of life, our appearances, our desires.
"The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been." ~ Madeleine L'Engle
I've never been a fan of Claire Danes, not since she wailed her way through "Romeo and Juliet." She was tolerable in "Stardust," glowing quite prettily as Yvaine, the star. But it's in this one scene in "Evening," another film adaptation of a splendid novel, that she impresses.
She surprises with her singing - tender, untrained - but it's the way she gazes at her friend (played by Mamie Gummer, Meryl Streep's real-life daughter) as she sings that really makes the scene. By turns, she is nervous, thrilled, brimming with happiness, love, and hope for Lila, especially in the opening strains of the song. Of course, Mamie Gummer's Lila Wittenborn looking uncannily like a college friend of mine made it that much more poignant for me. And then the palpable emotions among the four main characters. What a story they tell in those three minutes.
When I saw the trailer for "Man on Wire", I recalled a vague tale of a French man who walked and danced on a tightrope between the two World Trade Center towers. The year was 1974, when Nixon resigned; in fact, he resigned a day after the incident. I never knew much more than that. So the trailer captured my attention immediately, and it held it in its grip.
We could watch the documentary for its marvelous feat alone, but today, especially for New Yorkers, many of us would bring to it our own awareness of the events of September 11. How does it affect our viewing? Does it make it harder to watch, or does it move us even more? Whichever the case, it's a glorious way to see the Twin Towers again, to imagine and feel the wonder and awe that filled onlookers, so vastly different from the horror that we experienced nearly seven years ago.
It makes you wonder too, could I live like that, right there on the edge?
Read Salon.com's interview with Philippe Petit.
Hellboy hangs with geek du jour, Chuck.
I'm aware of the craze over Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga, though I never thought to see what the fuss was about. Vampires aren't really my thing as far as genre fiction goes (I made the exception only for Elizabeth's novel, and her book doesn't quite count as genre fiction), though there is something very erotic about lips pressed against a neck. At any rate, I nearly changed my mind about vampires when the actor Robert Pattinson (famous for playing Cedric Diggory) appeared in the trailer, because the first words that popped into my head were "Byronic hero." Byronic heroes aren't exactly my thing either, though I've noticed a number of appealing traits, and they certainly are interesting to observe. Heathcliff and Rochester, anyone?
Of all the winners at this year's Oscars, these three made me happy they won:
Marion Cotillard for her role as Edith Piaf in "La Môme" and
Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová for their song "Falling slowly" from "Once."
Glen got to make an effusive thank-you speech but when it came to Markéta, the orchestra drowned her out before she could get a word in. Jon Stewart has always been a great guy in my books, but his position shot farther up when he retrieved Markéta from backstage so that she could have her moment at the Academy Awards. And her words are worth more than plenty of other mundane thank-you speeches. She touches on the struggle of independent musicians and the need for hope to keep them going and bind everyone together. It could've rung false if spoken by most people, but coming from Markéta Irglová, who is one of the most sincere and sweetest persons to ever walk a stage in Hollywood, her speech deserved all the applause and cheers it received.
While they sure cleaned up good (Glen's clean-shaven and Markéta dons a gown) for a performance at the Oscars, I still like the film's version of the duet better - sans orchestra, just a piano, a guitar, and two voices in a quiet but beautiful harmony.
"Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
DSD and I spent Valentine's evening together. It happened by chance. On Sunday, after our late lunch, I suggested meeting again this week; my Thursday evening was open, and hers was too. And then it occurred to us that it would be Valentine's Day. Did we want to brave the streets where flowers and bears and balloon hearts would almost certainly decorate the arms of young girls? Sure.
We had Korean food at Far East Plaza, tried to find clothes that weren't shapeless sacks of cloth, failed at that, looked at shoes, and talked plenty. We talked about our match-making success (the couple are newly engaged), how we had yet to figure out our lives; we discussed careers, job interviews, places we wanted to see, places on Monocle's list of most livable cities - Munich, Copenhagen, Zurich, Tokyo, Vienna, Helsinki, Sydney, Stockholm, Honolulu, Madrid, Melbourne, Montreal, Barcelona, Kyoto, Vancouver, Auckland, Singapore(!), Hamburg, Paris, Geneva; she shared her stories about working on farms, I dreamed about working on farms; we wondered about our friends, admitted to knowing how lucky we are to have our passions - paddling for her, tango for me - through which we escape the world. She loves being out in the sea and I love that I can be away from everything. I read somewhere that "tango begins when you decide to live in another country in another time in your mind, while continuing to function in the life you are living," and that's almost how I see it.
Earlier, on Sunday, we also talked about the films "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," which I like to think "speak" to each other, in pretty much the same way the two sensitive protagonists enjoy a long, passionate conversation in each film. DSD prefers "Before Sunset," which seems more realistic, because life isn't pretty for either of them. I like both equally, because I can still remember what it's like when the world seems incredibly open and full of possibility, when you're young like Celine and Jesse in "Before Sunrise." The films work because of their honesty and real-world magic, the kind that happens between two people who find a rare connection. Perhaps this is the 90s version of "Once." "Before Sunset," set nine years later, builds on the things that made the first film work, and makes them better. When Celine and Jesse reveal to each other how miserable they are, laying bare their secrets, they're in their most convincing scene. DSD and I are nearly 30, not very old, but old enough to understand what they're feeling. What makes a film, book, or poem reach out and grab a person is that startling moment of recognition. You see it, and it's saying, "I see you."
Here are highlights from both films, and songs to go along with them.
The person who put this video on Youtube calls it the best scene in the first film: the awkward silence; the stolen glances - unseen by them - that tell the audience everything.
Come Here - Kath Bloom
My favorite - the wacky make-believe phone-call scene in a Viennese cafe. They get to tell each other what they think and feel, without the pressure of telling each other "directly."
Falling In Love In A Coffee Shop - Landon Pigg
Not really a scene from "Before Sunset," but the trailer itself.
You won't see this in the trailer, but I have to say how I like that the first film ends quietly but powerfully - images of all the places where Jesse and Celine sat and talked the night away; now they're lit with the morning sun. Scenes in the morning are usually hopeful, suggesting newness and possibility, but we've seen these places in another time, another light; now they're empty, and haunted by the memory of Celine's and Jesse's presence and words. The sequel opens similarly, with a series of places in Paris. As the film progresses, these places are filled in with the strolling figures of Jesse and Celine. They're in a narrow walkway, heading to a cafe, entering a garden path. It's also the second film speaking to the first one, saying that it remembers, and, let's begin again.
Edge of the Ocean - Ivy
This is what they've really been thinking and feeling for the nine years they didn't spend with each other.
Roger Ebert's reviews say it best - "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset."
Dozens of critics and thousands of audience members couldn't be wrong - "Once" is certainly one of the great films this year.
EW's Owen Gleiberman says it best - "In a year when Hairspray and Sweeney Todd arrived on the big screen with fervor and panache, John Carney's wee gem of an Irish indie brought off something miraculous. It invited you to swoon the way that only a great musical can. Yet it did so quietly, realistically, with nothing more than two lost souls — a 30ish Dublin busker and the coltish Czech émigré he meets in the street — gathered at the piano, or in a recording studio, to declare the tender ardor they can express only through music. A lot of movies make you cry; this one makes your heart burst."
I wrote about "Once" half a year ago, listened to the soundtrack often enough but gave up hope of the film being screened in Singapore. It wasn't until I met my friend Nigel for lunch on Friday - during which he talked about "Once" and how he loved it - that I decided I should get round to watching it.
"Once" is set in Dublin, a city that attracts and welcomes traveling musicians, like Mexican guitarists Rodrigo and Gabriela. Our protagonists are a pair of musicians who meet on a street, though only one of them is actually playing music. The Irish guy is a street busker, singing and playing his guitar for passers-by, while the girl, a Czech immigrant, sells flowers from a basket. She sees him singing late one night, and intrigued by the song and his passionate singing, asks him questions like who he wrote it for and what happened to the woman. When she finds out he fixes Hoovers for a living, she insists that he help her with hers, and returns the next day to the same spot, dragging her dark blue Hoover behind her like a small pet. He's a little annoyed at her persistence until he finds out she's a classically trained pianist and wants to hear her play. They wind up at a music store where the owner kindly lets her play the piano for free since she can't afford to own one. When she plays Mendelssohn for the guy, he's stunned by what he hears. Eventually, he offers up the score of a song he's written, sings her the basic chords, and as he begins strumming his guitar, she joins in with the piano. He sings the first few lines, and when she tentatively adds an accompanying harmony, he's a little surprised but pleased. It's an amazing scene that begs repeat viewings - the music seems simple but the melody is strong and full of yearning; the lyrics hint at the story to come; the guy and girl get caught up in the profound experience of playing a song together for the first time and realizing how much they enjoy it. It's such a genuine, unexpected moment for them and for the audience.
What I love about the film is how everything appears so unrehearsed and unforced. The actors aren't professionals and this could have been a documentary for all I knew. It's true to life, where drama doesn't always escalate in a romance that begins at a wrong time. Despite their intense connection through music, there are other people in their lives - he's thinking about a former girlfriend and she has an estranged husband.
(Skip the jump if you don't want to read any spoilers.)
It's a bittersweet end where after she helps him make a recording to take to London (before this, he decides ultimately to look up his old girlfriend in London and become a professional musician there), he wants to spend his last few hours with her, but she backs out of meeting him. The end is little more than a kiss on a cheek and a farewell gift of a piano. He doesn't even get to say goodbye to her. But when her face lights up at the sight of the piano, when he smiles as he walks to catch his plane, thinking about her seeing the piano; when she plays the piano while her husband, newly arrived in Dublin, plays with their daughter, I thought it a perfect ending. The final moment shows her finishing her song on the piano and then gazing wistfully out the window. Understatement is a beautiful thing in a movie! As the music of "Falling Slowly" wound down, the screen became a blur within seconds, and my nose needed tending to as well.
Despite the protests of a few people who complained that too little of the guy's and girl's attraction to each other is shown - did they really care for each other that deeply? - there's actually a scene that tells you the answer (on her part, anyway), if you know Czech. I don't, and I had to read up on her response to his question "Do you love your husband?". She replies in Czech, "The one I love is you." Add the setting of Irish sea-cliffs, the meaning of her untranslated answer to him would leave anyone breathless.
I re-read Salon's review and still very much like what it highlights - the delicacy and modest tones of the film, the strength of the characters - particularly the girl's - and the very real and difficult lives they lead. The film "reminds us -- particularly those of us over 40 -- how complicated young people's lives can be: When most of your life is still ahead of you, the fear of making the wrong choices can be a burden, even more so when you have a child."
A friend said the film has a weak title. "Once," it's too simple, too easy, she said. But when you pair it with the movie's tagline - "How often do you find the right person?" - the title is perfect.
I spent the week before my Japan trip attending screenings at an animation festival held at the National Museum. At the behest of Frank in Ann Arbor, I made sure I got a ticket to watch "The Danish Poet," one of many international animated shorts featured at the festival. "The Danish Poet" won this year's Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, but I didn't pay much attention to it until Frank wrote to say that I should watch it if it ever showed in Singapore; he was certain that I would love it.
He knows me well. The short film brings up ideas about fate and chance, and the small, everyday details and events that are easily forgettable even if they aid in orchestrating a larger outcome. I loved every minute of it: whimsical art, a light but distinctive soundtrack, subtle injections of humor.
Of course, I didn't know that it's easily available on Youtube. No matter, this means I can watch it any number of times now. And I should also pull Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter off the shelf and finish reading all 1168 pages of it.
What's not to love? The movie has big band music, transporting scenes of London, an excellent cast: the brilliant Frances McDormand, effervescent and talented Amy Adams (fresh off "Enchanted"), the sweet-faced Julliard boy Lee Pace (from "Pushing Daisies"), and dashing and debonair Ciaran Hinds (if you didn't see him in "Persuasion," you should).
(Look out for the blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance of Shirley Henderson, who plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies; she's the one who makes over Miss Pettigrew, giving her "a little powder." I recognized her voice before her face; no one can forget Moaning Myrtle's voice!)
I watched him become that famous guy with the radio, standing below a girl's window, and then morph into a homicidal but cool professional hitman attending his high school reunion, and change yet again into a self-absorbed, music-obsessed fellow in Chicago. John Cusack did good in smart and funny films like "Say Anything," "Grosse Pointe Blank," and "High Fidelity" but went to waste in throwaway rom-coms like "America's Sweethearts" and "Serendipity." Now, he's a fair bit older, pudgier, but once again marvelously watchable in "Grace is Gone," which won the Audience Award for Drama at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
The trailer alone undid me. And then there's the surprisingly poignant score by Clint Eastwood, who I thought had already done everything from acting to producing to directing. While this may be his first full-length score, it turns out he's had writing credits on several soundtracks since 1986.
Bespectacled and frumpy, Cusack is a husband and a father dealing with the loss of his wife who's been killed in action far from home - specifically, Iraq. The film is about his struggle to tell his daughters that their beloved mother is dead. Cusack is entirely convincing in his frailty, strength, pain, and devotion. See why in the trailer below.
In 1998, Gwyneth Paltrow won the Oscar for her role as Viola in "Shakespeare in Love," a role that, while entertaining, did not deserve the award; certainly not when another Oscar-nominated role carried far more gravitas and pathos - Cate Blanchett's Queen Elizabeth I in "Elizabeth."
Nine years later, the sequel should land Blanchett another nomination, and if the trailer is anything to go by, she's a shoo-in for the award. Blanchett's become a queen again, and we witness her power, fragility, rage, pride, and yearning.
If I had to pick a favorite scene, it would be Elizabeth armoring up to face the Spanish Armada and giving her troops some pep talk, or rather, that famed Speech to the Troops at Tilbury. An excerpt: "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too! And I think it foul scorn that Spain or Parma or any prince of Europe should dare invade the borders of my realm". After that, it would be Elizabeth telling off the Spanish diplomat: "I too can command the wind, sir!" If I were one of Cate's young sons watching his mother in that scene, I'd probably faint dead away from terror.
Here is the international trailer that preceded the just-released North American one.
Acting on the advice of Entertainment Weekly, I watched the trailer for the latest Michel Gondry film, "Be Kind Rewind." I enjoyed "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and wanted to watch but missed "The Science of Sleep" (will watch it on DVD), so learning that he has another movie pleased me. However, the trailer didn't just please me; I was grinning and laughing and watching it again and again, if this were on video, I'd be rewinding a fair bit!
Two friends (Jack Black and Mos Def) film their own versions of famous movies ("Ghostbusters," "Driving Miss Daisy," "The Lion King," "Robocop,") after they learn that all the videos in the store Mos Def's character works in have been erased. I can't decide which parts of the trailer I like best - Jack Black singing (mangling) the "Ghostbusters" theme song; filming "Driving Miss Daisy"; filming "Robocop"...there are so many I like!
It's the original bumbling spy! Here is the opening from the 60s TV show.
And here's the trailer for the movie that's due out next summer. Steve Carell and Alan Arkin (from "Little Miss Sunshine") are excellent casting choices. Anne Hathaway looks terrific as Agent 99, and The Rock, cool and statuesque; I certainly hope he gets some comic moments too.
What I especially like about the original show is the corporate-world details applied to the world of spying. My favorite - "In the interest of company morale, both CONTROL and KAOS have their own bowling teams." (CONTROL and KAOS are enemy agencies.) And who can forget the shoe phone? I'm guessing the movie version will be set in the present day, so a cell phone will likely replace the shoe phone. At least the phone booth/elevator is still around!
So they've gone ahead and done it, turned Charlie Baxter's The Feast of Love into a film. It's not going to be set in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but Portland, Oregon. $#@%!
I got this from my brother, and it's one of the best ads I've seen lately. Way to go, Federer! 11 and counting.
It's been real nice seeing more of VanTan lately. We had dinner with D one evening last month; Van came over to have pizza another night, after which we had a three-way phone conversation with DSD calling from London; that same week, I went over to her place for Indonesian food and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" on her Mac. Two weekends ago, I got to see her perform at her school concert, where I was treated to a jivin' jazz piece composed by the talented lass herself - "Riding'". It's been long years since I first knew Van to be a whiz at music (among other things), and I remember well the song she wrote for well, me. Or perhaps not the music itself (it's a little fuzzy in my memory; Van, where's my long promised recording of it?), but that she wrote one at all for her namesake.
Last night, we felt like kids again (or I did, anyway) as we watched the Transformers movie. My memories of Transformers are linked invariably to my brother who started his fanboy days with the series when we were small. He has always been more into it than I am, and so is Van (who has named some of her koi after Autobots), but I distinctly recall being impressed by Optimus Prime's noble leadership and heroic qualities, Bumblebee's courage and zest, and the awesomeness of the Dinobots. I never had any Transformer toys of my own, but recently, I bought myself a Convoy (what Prime's known as in Japan) Revoltech figure, and have on temporary loan my brother's extra WST (World's Smallest Transformers) version of Grimlock, complete with movable jaw and little swingy arms (I like Grimlock in his dino mode).
The toys helped fan anticipation for the movie, and soon after Van said she'd save Wednesday for it, I booked us tickets to the digital 4k version of the film. She's written a review, which you can refer to if you don't mind spoilers. It wasn't a superb movie, but it wasn't all bad either. Watching Prime transform for the first time was amazing, and I can't say I didn't laugh out loud when the Autobots attempted to conceal themselves about the Witwicky residence. Prime, of course, chided them for the lousy job, though he wasn't too great at it himself. I wished for more fighting between the Transformers that wasn't visually and aurally interrupted with explosions and ensuing smoke. The only "clean" fight was between Prime and Bonecrusher along a highway. More of that (Prime kicking ass) in the sequel, please, and some Dinobot action too.
I'm not sure why I was looking up information on Emily Blunt, but somewhere along the way, I read that Emily sang on her boyfriend's (Michael Buble) latest album, and that she'd also sung on a film called "Gideon's Daughter,". So I went to Youtube and hunted for "Natasha's Song" and even though I knew nothing about the film, I felt drawn by Emily's voice, the haunting melody, the way some pain inside her is kept fiercely in check even as she breathes life into each compelling line of the song. Is she telling her own story? Is she speaking of her own father? Is she speaking to her father? While the sleepy-eyed girl sings, her gaze is steady, perhaps laying heavily on her father in the audience. When the song ends, and the applause begins, she breaks into a smile, just a schoolgirl pleased with what she's accomplished; but then, just before she turns away, for an instant, she glares stonily at someone.
Thankfully, some kind soul put the entire film there, and I got to watching it right away. It turns out that the song leads her father to desperately wonder how he can reconcile with her before she leaves him, possibly forever. Bill Nighy turns in a beautifully nuanced performance. He is Gideon Warner, a successful man in the PR line, but so flawed in many other ways. His life revolves around his work or the female celebrities who cling to him. He hasn't been a good man, but you feel for his character. Right in those moments when his need for change, his desire to connect to another human being is so palpable.
Just as he begins to reach towards his daughter, another person unexpectedly enters his life. Miranda Richardson's Stella comes from a world very different from Gideon's, though they did grow up in the same area. She looks like a hippie, wears her hair bright red, and works in a 24-hour shop to escape her grief of losing her five-year-old son. Together, these two parents learn to cope with their pain and loss, and Stella slowly guides Gideon towards a different kind of life.
It's a quiet movie, filled with quiet moments, pauses, images, expressions. But each one is weighty with emotion and significance. The music - in particular Natasha's song and the famous Thomas Tallis 40-part motet, "Spem In Alium" - also does an important job of pushing the story ahead, affecting the characters and revealing much of their emotional landscapes.
One of the loveliest things about the film is its ethereal quality, created by the narrative device itself. The film is framed by scenes of the storyteller, one of Gideon's friends, who is narrating it to a young woman. He tells it almost as if it were a fable, and yet, he did meet all of the characters of his story. Knew them, saw them. It's a fable that he watched unfold as it was being written. Written in a time we all lived in: in 1997, when New Labour rose to power and Princess Diana died, an event that seemed unbelievable when it happened. That real-life magic continues in one scene where the figures of three people vanish from a street in Edinburgh; they've been magicked away into a part of the story that can't be told to us because the storyteller doesn't know it himself. That part certainly resembles real life, the way we can never know what happens to some of the people who crossed our paths a long time ago.
Even though it rained this past Monday, I still felt we barely had any rain this past month. So when I woke to a cloudy, dusty gray sky today, I thought, yes! Rain again. By lunch time, it was pouring. And it rained again late in the night, through the night, for most of the night.
It was a good Saturday, because, believe it or not, I finally played my first game of Scrabble with my mother and two of her friends. I'm happy to report I won, and my mom came in second. After I ran off for a movie in the afternoon, my mother won the next game. Woo-hoo!
I'd imagined Saturday couldn't be better after the rain and Scrabble, but then the Japanese anime I caught at Orchard Cineleisure pushed it to the top of a short list of great Saturdays. I first discovered "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" or "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo" or "Tokikake" (for short) at the Kinokuniya bookstore. In the manga section, tacked on a pillar is a huge poster of a schoolgirl in a short skirt leaping across a blue sky. "Opening in June," the sign said. I went home, did a Google search and found out that it'd won a major Japanese animation award - beating out even a Studio Ghibli film - and received many, many good reviews from critics and viewers lucky enough to have seen it in the few film festivals it played at.
The film's main delight is a high school girl, Makoto, who discovers the ability to time-leap or jump into the past. She tries out her power hesitantly at first, and then moves on to bigger things like singing karaoke for 10 hours (going back in time after each karaoke session ends), acing surprise tests that are no longer surprises to her, averting the usual school disasters like frying tempura in home econ and getting huge guys tossed in her direction. But when time-leaping involves fixing things for or about her best friends - two blokes named Chiaki and Kousuke - without their knowledge, the results get a little more complicated.
I loved the scenes of modern Tokyo; the lovely friendship between Makoto and the boys; how real their characters seemed in speech and behavior; the fine comedy of errors and bumbling efforts achieved only by high school students; the brilliant soundtrack with two classical solo piano pieces that reminded me of the hours I spent practicing piano as a teenager. Mostly, I loved the story and how it made me feel - nostalgic, wistful, thoughtful about how it's impossible to avoid certain events and being responsible for the effects if you did attempt to avoid them. There's something about high school (or in my case, junior college) that's unlike any other phase in life, and watching "Tokikake" made me wish, just for a few moments, that I was seventeen again, brimming with the kind of energy that makes a schoolgirl leap across a blue sky.
It's playing exclusively at Cathay cinemas in Singapore, and I expect only for a short period. Go watch it if you can. I've read that even non-anime viewers found it charming, moving, and very delightful.
Here's the trailer.
And a few reviews.
An update is long overdue. Unfortunately, I'm rushing an editorial job so the update will have to wait till perhaps, this weekend.
In the mean time, I thought I'd put a brief note about - of all things - desktop images. I've been using movie posters for my wallpapers - small 4 x 6 size pictures against a black background. Here's the latest.
I really, really like this trailer.
I don't care if Waitress appears mainstream - it's really an indie film - or that the pies might be a little overkill (still, the names of the pies are pretty great). It's got Keri Russell (Felicity!) and Nathan Fillion (from Firefly!). And in the awful-husband role is creepy Jeremy Sisto who first creeped me out in Six Feet Under years ago.
Despite the comedy and heartfelt goodness (though I suspect there won't be a predictably happy ending, because the clue - if you catch it quickly enough - is right there in the trailer), the film has a tragic background. Adrienne Shelley, who writes, directs, and appears in the film, was murdered before she got to see her work raved about at the Sundance Film Festival. I think a lot of people want the film to do well; it would be a wonderful tribute to the director.
On a personal note, my teaching observation came and went. I don't think it was great, but I suppose it wasn't all bad either. My students were supportive and quite sweet (I do like them so!). I have three more weeks of teaching and intensive grading and eating the same ol' mee pok tah at the Engineering canteen (it's the shortest line). Somewhere in between, I'll miss my brother's graduation (my parents get to attend though), squeeze in a few tango workshops with Argentine tango superstars Javier Rodriguez and Andrea Misse, finish up Susan Minot's Evening, listen to Regina Spektor's "Samson" dozens of times (thanks to yAnn, who wrote about the song; this got me hunting for the original, slower version that Spektor recorded in 2002), and plan for a vacation whether or not I ever get to take it.
It's been a while since I highlighted any movie trailers, so I watched about eight in a row yesterday and found two that made me laugh. They're both about rather unusual pairings - just observe the facial expressions, the dressing, the personal obsession with revenge and dogs. Animals are pretty symbolic in both movies - dog, shark, eagle.
Eagle vs. Shark, a film from New Zealand, showcases the stranger of the two couples. Sure Jarrod and Lily are peculiar and awkward, but they're also highly watchable and endearing. Lily's shy, and Jarrod's like a boy trapped in a man's body with a fringe so short it takes even more years off him.
The title of Year of the Dog made me think of Chinese New Year. Ideally, it should've opened last year instead of this year. Anyway, it seems like typical Hollywood romantic-comedy-fare, but from what I've read, the film explores singlehood and depression and animal welfare issues. Even if it fails to accomplish this, it has John C. Reilly! And Peter Sarsgaard just glows in the trailer. He's never been known for romantic roles, but he cleaned up very well for this film, and it certainly helps that he still sounds mellow and mysterious, very John-Malkovich-like. Incidentally, he played John Malkovich's son in The Man in the Iron Mask, the young musketeer who Leonardo DiCaprio - as King Louis - had off-ed so that he could lay claim to Sarsgaard's fiancee.
The dogs look great, and the eagle and shark costumes? Spectacular.
I watched the first two or three Rocky films when I was a kid (yeah, my parents weren't afraid about exposing me to violence in films; I even watched horror movies back then and I could stomach them a lot better then than now) and don't remember much except that Rocky had to fight really hard and get bloodied a lot before winning. Sly Stallone was the underdog in the film, and even in real life, especially during the past couple of decades, he seemed one too; people would snicker at his name, his movies. He wasn't a respected actor, not a veteran, not a character actor, not a Robert de Niro or an Anthony Hopkins. Still, I never really got into those Stallone jokes. I didn't care a whole lot for him, but I didn't think it was cool to deride him either.
Watching the trailers for Rocky Balboa woke more than a few memories of seven-year-old me sitting in a movie theater with my parents and brother. Here is Rocky once more - an aged Rocky with a son who could be my age (played by Milo Ventimiglia, my favorite hero on Heroes) - ready to enter the ring again. He's even more of an underdog now because of his senior citizenship. Still, that feel-good theme of under-dog-makes-it gets me. Is it the music? The scenes of tough training, those sound-effects-amplified punches or Rocky's eternal determination etched in his jowly face? Whether it turns out to be a bad film or not, I think I'd like to see it. It's the last one - Stallone (and Rocky) is 60 - and in a way it's saying goodbye to a familiar figure from childhood for me. Rocky's getting old, and I'm getting older.
And whaddaya know, it turns out that Rocky Balboa has been well received and well reviewed - it's fresh on rottentomatoes.com
There's nothing quite like the theme song to get you excited about the finale of a movie franchise stretched over three decades. Except that the excitement's got to last you for three months before the movie gets to Singapore in March.
On Monday night, I got round to watching something other than Ugly Betty. It turns out that my supplier also puts up a TV show called Heroes, which I'd seen mentioned a few times on ew.com. I knew that it was one of this season's successful shows but wasn't sure of its premise. All I had were vague ideas that it could be a reality show about ordinary people doing heroic acts.
What finally sent me checking out Heroes was an article about Ugly Betty, which said that the only other perky TV hero of the season is a bespectacled Japanese salaryman called Hiro Nakamura. And it turns out that Hiro on Heroes is played by Masi Oka, the same guy who plays Franklin, the lab guy on Scrubs. How cool is that? (Okay, maybe only a geek would appreciate it.) Masi Oka is a genius with a 180+ IQ. At age 12, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine as one of the Asian-American whiz kids. As an adult, he's done CGI work for Industrial Light & Magic (yeah, that company owned by George Lucas) and he still works there part-time. (Information courtesy of imdb.com - Oka's CGI-work resume is pretty impressive.)
So I stayed up all of Monday night and most of Tuesday morning to watch the first nine episodes of the show. What a ride. It's no reality show, but something rather like X-Men crossed with X-Files, and bursting with cliffhangers, revelations, embedded mysteries. Tim Kring, the creator, is best known for the show, Crossing Jordan, and he has a very able co-executive producer, Jeph Loeb, of comic-book and Lost-and-Smallville fame.
The show has an ensemble cast featuring characters who realize that they possess strange abilites and powers. Some are bewildered, some are indifferent, and some are just plain thrilled, like Hiro. He's a Trekkie, an anime and manga fan, and he loves that he can bend space and time. Telling only his colleague, Ando, about it, Hiro is determined to use his power to do good. And the good deed du jour is saving New York City from a nuclear explosion. To do this, he'll most likely need help from the other folks who are less enthusiastic about their burgeoning powers. The only other fellow whose desire to save the world equals Hiro's - but with less glee - is Peter Petrelli, a former male nurse with a Rogue-like ability to mimic other people's powers.
Perhaps it's because these two are so proactive and eager to help that I like their characters best. Peter's desire to make a difference in the world and in his own life, his quiet search for his destiny touched something in me, because really, don't many of us want to do the same? That is, those of us who still have a fraction of Hiro's wonder and excitement about being alive and delighting in it?
All this hero talk makes me nostalgic for Bonnie Tyler's "Holding out for a hero."
I actually had a little countdown on MSN Messenger with Ms. Dimsumdolly while we waited for the Spider-Man 3 trailer to premiere online. Well, James Franco still looks terrific and the third installment looks like it'll be darker than the first two - excellent.
The trailer for Meet the Robinsons looked a little ho-hum at first, just another CGI film for the family. It's sharp and colorful, of course, but I was hoping for something new, something to set it apart from the parade of CGI films we've had lately. I waited, and I did find the something - check out the dinosaur. He has two scenes and both sealed the deal for me; I'm going to see this for the T-Rex.
Since October, I’ve been reading about a new TV show that's been growing in popularity. Ugly Betty, starring America Ferrara from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, will remind you a fair bit of The Devil Wears Prada. Ugly, awkward assistant makes good at a posh fashion magazine. But don’t accuse this show of being a copycat - it’s a remake of a Columbian TV show, Yo Soy Betty, la Fea, that started in the 90s, so it’s really copying something else. Another difference - Betty never quite gets the dream makeover that Anne Hathway’s character does. She gets a makeover, sure, but it doesn’t quite work out the way you think. She’s plump, has busy eyebrows, big hair, glasses, and glittering braces. She’s also a Latina from Queens and she’s just landed the job of assistant to the floundering new editor-in-chief - and resident hot guy - of Mode, a magazine of Meade publications in New York. Everyone resents her, makes fun of her, and tries to break her spirit, but she always come through (not without considerable struggle). She certainly comes through and even succeeds where thinner, sexier, and better-dressed Botoxed colleagues have failed.
It’s a successful comedy with lots of heart and a really good message. Reading about how it’s been remade in Russia, Germany, and India, sparked an idea. Since Singapore TV has always been accused of copying overseas shows, how about just going with it and remaking this one for Singapore audiences, claiming inspiration from the original Betty La Fea, or ABC’s Ugly Betty? Salma Hayek, the producer of the American version, heaps much praise on its source, after all. Copying this show wouldn’t be too difficult. It’d be quite believable in fact, for a remake of an American or Colombian production. We have fashion magazines; we have in place the same standards of unattainable beauty; we have gorgeous high-fliers - who could probably be models themselves - working in the fashion world. And we have our minority races. We don’t have Queens, but we have Geylang and Serangoon. You could still cast a Chinese girl in the main role, just play up the whole foreign talent controversy by having a Caucasian expatriate in the role of editor-in-chief. He’d be white, handsome, and shipped in from posh London or swanky New York, but this is why the role would still work against stereotype - he’s one of only two or three people in the company who recognizes Betty’s talent and spirit, admires her for who she is, and treats her with kindness and respect. Of course, he’s still a Casanova and beds any pretty thing in a skirt.
I’d also dare the Singapore production to re-create every character on Ugly Betty’s cast, especially Betty’s young effeminate nephew who wears discounted but sharp-looking Ralph Lauren vests, tap dances and sings like Gene Kelly, and dishes out fashion advice and encouragement to Betty. One scene in the Halloween episode shows Justin tapping and singing for his family, who are supportive but worried about the reception Justin might get in school. Instead of forcing Justin to throw out his Halloween costume and cease his dancing, his grandfather says, "I hope he can sing, dance, and throw a punch!" Some viewers had doubts about a show with a "gay boy" (he's not gay - he doesn't have a boyfriend!), but Justin's pretty much a universally loved character by now.
I’d love to be a writer for the Singapore version, if there ever is one. Of course, anyone in Singapore’s TV industry who reads this post can steal my idea – if it hasn’t already been thought of – and I can kid myself into thinking that someone did read this and brought it to a Singaporean audience. First thing though, we need to have the actual show on our channels! I’m having an Ugly Betty withdrawal period now. I watched the first five episodes on Youtube several times before the admin folks caught on and yanked the user’s account.
There’s still the trailer though (look out for the Guy-Pearce-look-alike model, what cheekbones!). This show is for anyone who feels frustrated that they care too much about what people think or wants badly to achieve something but don’t think they have what it takes. Well, just take a page from Betty’s book. Screw the standards of beauty, the wicked gossip, the judgmental jibes about your appearance, lack of pedigree, graces, or fine clothes, and just forge ahead with guts and an indomitable spirit.
So Chicken Little wasn't so hot for me (though I did like one particular song on the OST) but never mind that because Zach Braff is in a new movie with an excellent accompanying soundtrack, which he helped put together. Apart from the fact that the soundtrack for The Last Kiss is a generous collection of 15 songs, it also happens that the 15 songs sound even better than the selection on the Garden State soundtrack. Until I get my hands on it, I guess I'll have to stick to my Scrubs playlist on iTunes for a while.
As for the movie itself, it's about growing up at 30, at 60; welling up with doubt; letting that doubt influence what we do to the ones we love, whether it's making the right choices or making them cry. I hope it'll reach Singapore someday soon. Here's the trailer.
Cons - long and short - are always entertaining. When noob got me the first two seasons of BBC show, Hustle, I didn't know at first how good they'd be, and took nearly a year to watch them. This summer, I finished all three seasons. The show, which features the art of the long con, is very good. After all, you, the viewer, gets conned as well, and it's always fun to find out how. Each episode is a solid hour, and it was sublime to watch these back to back, stopping only to eat, use the restroom, or get the laundry. (My brother will vouch for this.)
I did take some time off to also watch a couple of movies at the theater, and during one afternoon, I caught the trailer for The Night Listener. If you know nothing of the book or the controversy behind Anthony Godby Johnson, you'd think the film is a thriller about a mentally imbalanced woman (Toni Collette), who terrorizes a radio host (Robin Williams). I didn't, and was curious about the film because it's based on true events and a book, also titled "The Night Listener."
The controversy deals with a literary hoax or con in which someone creates a persona - often a pitiful and tragic one to elicit sympathy - and has that persona "write" a book about his or her traumatic past. The persona becomes famous, beloved, and the real person behind the hoax collects the dough and enjoys part of the fame as well. You can read about it here.
This bears a great resemblance to the JT Leroy controversy, which I did read about. Some folks even say the Godby Johnson case inspired the woman behind JT Leroy. The facade collapsed earlier this year, right around the time of the James Frey story. Here is the article that eventually led to the crumbling of the JT Leroy enterprise. More here and here.
Cons are fun when they're fiction, as in Ocean's Eleven, The Sting, and Hustle. Who doesn't enjoy watching someone else get bamboozled? Of course, it's the movies or TV, and you know no one is really at the losing end. But when it happens in real life, a lot of people get upset, especially if you were one of many who got the wool-over-the-eyes treatment. Oprah teared on her show because of Frey, columnists and readers began questioning the literary merit of Leroy's work after having embraced it when it first emerged, and movies get made about the true stories behind the hoaxes. And shocked as they may be, folks are likely to lap it up precisely because they are true stories. Perhaps the real-life events are the more alluring ones - even if we aren't laughing the way we did when Clooney pulled off his casino heist - because we never thought it'd really happen to any of us, and we're desperate to know how it happened. Call it a case of morbid curiosity or unbridled anger.
Magicians are in vogue this fall. Two films about magic and magicians are scheduled for release later this year and I have a tingly feeling they're going to be good. The Prestige is likely to gain huge attention because of its director, Christopher Nolan, of Memento and Batman Begins fame. It's adapted from a novel written by Christopher Priest, who, according to Publishers Weekly, was one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 1983. The novel itself garnered Priest another accolade; it was Winner of the 1996 World Fantasy Award.
Based on a short story by Steven Millhauser, the other film is an independent titled The Illusionist. Both movies have impressive casts though; Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman star in The Prestige, and Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti headline The Illusionist. Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti - I love the idea of them being in a film together! Of course, you can't deny the equally intriguing (and rather droolworthy) combination of Bale and Jackman, who are a little more mainstream but nevertheless talented and charismatic. And even if those two can't whet your appetite, maybe the supporting cast might. Here's the lineup - Michael Caine, Andy Serkis (you might know him as Gollum), David Bowie, and Scarlett Johansson.
Now if the folks behind the movie adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell would hurry it up, then we'd have a perfect series of magician movies. This is probably the magician film I'm waiting for. Then again, I hope the scriptwriter doesn't rush and mangle the adaptation. It's Christopher Hampton, who recently adapted Ian McEwan's Atonement, another good novel. Looking over his earlier work, it's hard to say if he's a sure-fire bet. Although he wrote the screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons, he also wrote Mary Reilly.
This hasn't anything to do with stage magicians but it's equally appealing. Here is the trailer for The Fountain, which stars Hugh Jackman (okay, there's a little link: the lead actor from The Prestige) and Rachel Weisz. Look also for the attractive and supposedly good graphic novel created by director Darren Aronofsky (who did Requiem for a Dream and who married Rachel Weisz) when film plans initially fell through. Lucky for us, the film got revived and the graphic novel got to stay too.
Yes, enough already with the pictures of perfect-looking movie stars. If they want us to gaze at their mugs, let's have them entertain us too. Time magazine has an excerpt from Howard Schatz's photo book of actors acting. Every actor is given a situation and then photographed as he acts the part. Some are moving, some hilarious (I like both of Christohper Lloyd's), and some encompass whole stories.
The heart melted like cheese in the oven when the photo of red-haired Wallace and one-year-old Gromit appeared at the start of Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
This little article made me smile. And I smile a lot whenever I watch an episode of BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice. Darcy as the gentleman of dreams. And Firth as Darcy.
The new version arrives in Singapore early December. Can Keira and Matthew inherit their roles from Jennifer and Colin with praise? Word so far is, yes. This should be a December treat then.
"It's a sad day in the Hundred Acre Wood: The voices of Tigger (Paul Winchell) and Piglet (John Fiedler) both passed away over the weekend. Both were known, of course for other roles - Winchell as the ventriloquist behind Jerry Mahoney, Fiedler as henpecked Bob Newhart Show patient Mr. Peterson - but they'll probably be best remembered for their work in Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh cartoons and features. Upon learning the news, Eeyore simply let out a deep sigh." ~ from http://popwatch.ew.com
I finally got to watch Howl's Moving Castle. It's the dubbed version though, but having Batman (Christian Bale) and Emily Mortimer voice the lead parts was quite exciting.
Perhaps I made the mistake of reading the book before the movie came out. I loved the book immensely (so did my mom, who read it on one of her visits here), and wanted a film that worked in all my favorite aspects of the novel. I believe Miyazaki kept in many things - Howl being incredibly vain, the green gobbledy-goo scene, a very mousy Sophie, a cheeky Calcifer - but certain things seemed too random and inexplicable, perhaps out-of-place in the film Miyazaki aimed to make.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Never mind the naysayers. I thought it was entertaining. The leads looked splendid (how could they not?); I liked the music; and I appreciated the real issues in marriage which the less-than-real characters were struggling with.
Mad, Hot Ballroom - I'm not sure if folks outside the U.S. have heard about this documentary, but it's a terrific one. You can watch the trailer here and the first six minutes of the film here. Inspiring, hilarious, and engaging. Everyone was clapping, laughing, and cheering throughout the film. In New York, public schools provide free ballroom dance lessons for 10 year-olds. It's noted that rich children get to have dance classes, music classes whenever they want. The program lets average and less fortunate kids enjoy dance, learn about the history of rhumba, tango, foxtrot etc. They gain confidence, poise, style. Dancing is a useful skill to have. One day these young boys will grow up and attend proms, and they'll be able to feel comfortable dancing with a girl.
After watching it, I felt very strongly that Singapore should have a similar program for primary school kids. Not the independent schools but the government ones, where both boys and girls attend. It's better than P.E. It gives the children focus; they learn to dance and befriend children they wouldn't normally talk to. Dance is a very natural way to engage each other. And they also learn a bit of culture from other countries. And of course, dancing is fun.
Ladies in Lavender - Elizabeth recommended this one. She saw Natasha McElhone in the film and thought she could play one of the characters in her novel.
I've always loved Cornwall, and I've always loved melancholic music. This film has both. It also has Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in it. And a handsome young German actor, Daniel Bruhl, who appeared in Good Bye Lenin. The two British thespians play sisters living in a cottage by the sea in Cornwall. One morning they find a shipwrecked violinist who speaks no English. Much ensues. The music is wonderful, performed by Joshua Bell. The story is about loving and letting go. And I thought of all the mothers who are aware that their children could excel at their gifts if they went away, but stubbornly keep them close because they fear to lose them. The more you hem them in, the more you drive them away. What good is possessive love?
"You gave me life; now I am making use of that life."
Bonus - the trailer for March of the Penguins. Just watch, and smile.
On the one hand we have Mr. Cruise fervently expressing his love for Katie Holmes, who is getting the hang of things and also declaring her adoration for Tom.
On the other hand, there's Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie denying any relationship of sorts except a healthy respect for each other. And friendship, of course.
And nobody believes either couple.
Confession: I watch American Idol. It's all my mom's fault. When she came to visit me, she tuned in every week, and since my desk is in the living room, I can't help but watch too, especially since it's just before House, M.D..
So the finale took place today, and yes, Carrie Underwood won, though I wouldn't have been surprised if Bo had won it instead. When I watched a random episode this season, I happened to catch Carrie singing, and I thought, not bad, this blonde. I'd never have guessed that she'd be the one to win the competition.
But the best parts of the finale were the musical performances (especially when Bo sang Sweet Home Alabama) and that terribly funny video by Paula, Randy, and Simon. I'll never get that image of Paula dancing at the control panel while Randy rapped and head-banged in the recording studio. And that Simon may piss people off, but he sure can entertain in a clever, understated manner.
I was terribly afraid that the trailer for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe would be the best thing of the afternoon. Aslan's roar raised hairs and the trailer certainly whetted my appetite for the December release. I better re-read C.S. Lewis' works before the movie arrives.
I'm happy to report that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was good (despite Lucas' requisite stomach-churning love dialogues). The film was littered with nifty references to the first trilogy - Obiwan picking up Skywalker's lightsaber and holding on to it (for Luke, of course!), the Death Star in the works, Luke's first Tatooine sunset, and the origins of Palpatine's saggy face.
I messaged my brother to say I'm now a born-again Star Wars fan, which means I need to re-watch the original trilogy. And I'm even inclined to watch Episodes I and II again, if only to figure out the machinations of the Emporer. He's a clever one, isn't he?
So what if folks say Hayden Christensen's acting is wooden? I've seen worse. And Vadar's overly dramatic "Noooo..." towards the end can be blamed on Michigan alumnus, James Earl Jones. The thing to remember is that the Star Wars films aren't the place to display one's acting talent. So all disappointing performances ought to be forgiven.
It's back to Episode V now.
Today is Wednesday. I went to see a movie, Crash, with friends at Showcase Cinemas. It's a very good film - nearly every racial insult used in the melting pot of America can be heard in it. An ensemble film set in L.A., it's got Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Philippe, among others. Everyone turned in solid performances. It's rather sad and moving, and makes you think about the relationships between human beings - how we've become isolated, and how we occasionally crash into each other merely for some contact.
After the movie, I drove home, cleared out the car, took out my six CDs from the changer, peeled off car decals, and finally unscrewed my license plate, "WHTRABT," from the white Golf. At 7:30 p.m., the new owner arrived, gave me a bank draft, took the two sets of keys from me, and drove away. I watched until I couldn't see the back of the little white rabbit anymore.
I put up post-it notes to remind myself about the final episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. Monday night, CBS, 9 p.m. I forgot about the special documentary before it though. But that's okay. I loved the finale. Ray had warned that it wouldn't be something huge and overly dramatic. It would be like another episode but with a sense of life carrying on - ours and theirs - even after the show ends.
Ray isn't know for articulating his emotions and in this episode, after a near brush with death and learning of his wife's, Deborah's, reaction, he uses sign language to tell her how he feels. Even Frank, his boorish father, manages to be nice to Marie for a little while. It was all very touching without being sappy.
I'm going to miss the show. I think I'll go look for some DVDs. 9 years, 210 episodes of good writing and great acting. It's often been said that each of the five actors could be stars of their own sitcoms. Putting them altogether in one was genius. The show's ratings arguably saved CBS.
Despite it all, it never seemed to have gained the kind of attention that Friends and Seinfeld enjoyed in their days. I actually prefer Everybody Loves Raymond to the two said sitcoms. I'm not saying this to be contrary; I just enjoy this show more. I like the characters a lot more - Ray's a simple, family man, Deborah struggles to run a household, Robert - Ray's brother - is a ham, Ray's parents are lovable if infuriating neighbors. I suppose I like the domestic scene, the family relations. I didn't always find the characters on Friends very sympathetic, and their New York lifestyle seemed a bit much. My brother will think I'm crazy for not liking the show, but I'm sticking to my guns. I got him the show's finale on DVD last spring; this year, I'm going to get the ELR finale DVD for myself.
Lin Kiat and I went to watch Kingdom of Heaven the day he arrived in Ann Arbor. First blockbuster of the summer, and a Ridley Scott film.
By the end of the film, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Neutral, I suppose. I was rooting for both Christians and Muslims to win and both to lose. For all the stunning battle scenes, the film seemd like it bore an anti-war message. Both kings wanted to avoid war, and for good reason. If anything, the film made me think about the desires, often cruel and selfish, of man; and power that often falls into the wrong hands. All very sad.
The saddest part was when King Baldwin, played by the brilliant Edward Norton, died. Baldwin is a leper and hid the effects behind gloves and silver masks. Beneath his deteriorating body is a gentle, soft-spoken soul though. Wise, noble, quite magnificent. When he died, I lamented the loss of his presence in the story. More Baldwin. I could have done with less Balian, frankly. Baldwin left more of an impression on me than Balian. Even with a mask, Norton really made the role true to life. The piece of music that played during the king's funeral - "Vide Cor Meum," which is actually from the movie, Hannibal. And though the score for that movie is composed by Hans Zimmer, "Vide Cor Muem" is actually written by Patrick Cassidy.
Great costumes, authentic and detailed sets (I want the set designer for King Baldwin's study to do mine!). But the film seemed poorly edited. I guess I'll wait for the director's cut on DVD. It's rumored to be an hour longer than the theater version.
This is good. The movie better be good.
After much deliberation, I decided to spend the US$72 and buy the Master's graduation gown, hood, cap and tassel. I nearly decided against going for the commencement ceremony, but I figured, this is the last time I'll graduate from anything.
In the evening, I watched Miyazaki's Porco Rosso at last. Italy, the sea. Planes, flight sequences. A chanteuse singing in French. And an inspired scene taken from Roald Dahl's short story, "They Shall Not Grow Old." A strange and surreal moment in a pilot's life - watching the planes of dead comrades and enemies ascending and joining the long stretch of planes drifting across the sky.
On Tuesday, I watched, for the first time, House, M.D. on Fox, after American Idol, which my mom is addicted to. Consider it ER meets CSI, though I think it's better than ER. Not sure about CSI since I've never watched it. So Greg House, the lead character is played by Brit Renaissance (a writer, musician, and comedian) man, Hugh Laurie. The character has an illness which makes him limp and gives him reason to pop plenty of painkillers. He's irritable, irritating to those around him, brutally honest, and unable to warm up to anyone. He actually reminds me - a little - of someone. I mean the personality in general, though I'm not sure about the heart, which Laurie's character actually has quite a bit of.
Everyone else is crazy about Desperate Housewives or Lost but strangely enough, I'm not hooked.
I think I'll keep watching House, M.D. though.
Two weeks ago, my friend Irene and I went to see Bride and Prejudice. I loved the costumes and watching Aishwarya Rai dance.
Today, I saw Monsoon Wedding, another visual feast of costumes, jewelry, and dancing. I thought the characterization was better in this film. The attraction between Alice, the house-maid, and Dubey, the up-and-coming wedding planner, was sweet, especially with the marigold motif.
The films reminded me of the Indian jewelry I received from my mother-in-law when I got married. She wanted me to choose my own necklace and earrings as a bridal gift, and I was grateful she was open to my selecting jewelry from Little India. They're so much more detailed and colorful than the spare and geometric designs from the larger jewelry chain stores around Singapore.
Even my mom bought a necklace-earring set when we were shopping in Little India two years ago. I'll probably dig them out for the slew of weddings I'll be attending later this year.
It's been a year and a half since Lost in Translation appeared on screens. I rented the DVD last year to see what all the hype was about. The film didn't appeal very much to me though I understood why several of my friends liked it - the humor, the strange, urban beauty, the familiarity of alienation and struggling to live in a foreign city. I didn't dislike it but I didn't like it a whole lot either.
This morning, I was reading about the new Harry Potter film, The Goblet of Fire, particularly the debate about Katie Leung, the young Scottish actress of Chinese heritage who will play Cho Chang. People claim that Cho Chang is Korean and should be played by a Korean actress, not a Chinese one, even if she's from the U.K. The debate then shifted to whether "Cho Chang" is a Chinese or Korean name; and finally to a who-can-tell-the-difference-between-Chinese-and-Koreans. Someone provided a link to a test - do Chinese, Korean, and Japanese people look alike or can one tell them apart?
I took the test and I failed miserably - 7 out of 18. Shame on this Chinese girl, I suppose. In any case, I looked round the site and found an interesting take - two reviews - of the movie Lost in Translation. One review found the film racist and unfair to Japanese people. The other writer wrote his review in light of this article and suggested that Sofia Coppola shouldn't be expected to depict the Japanese people and culture fairly. I found both sets of arguments very compelling.
When I get rankled by displays of ignorance or indifference, I usually check myself and wonder, is it me? Am I being too sensitive? Then again, the infuriating people I encounter don't check themselves; they don't care if they're being insensitive, so why should I bother if I'm judging them unfairly? They've judged and labelled me, as it is. Eh, I'm so indecisive. But I have met customs officers at airports and university officials who think Singapore's in China. These are the two places I'd have expected folks to know better - after all, their work deals with travelers and international students.
BBC's three-episode Daniel Deronda is perhaps the one production that combines my love of film, music, and literary fiction. George Elliot is more famous for Middlemarch but her interest in Zionism is showcased in Daniel Deronda. Burgeoning zeal for one's community, self-discovery, self-loathing, finding meaning in life - these are running themes in the novel, which is equally divided between Daniel Deronda and Gwendolyn Harleth.
Will they or won't they - the question of whether they will find lifelong companionship in each other simmers in the BBC production. Daniel Deronda is played by Hugh Dancy, recently seen in Ella Enchanted and King Arthur. This is perhaps his best role, although one of his least-known as well. Very dashing fellow. Okay, I'll confess I'm impressed that he chose to read English at Oxford University instead of going to drama school, and he still managed to emerge a decent actor; more than decent really.
Romola Garai plays the female lead. She acted splendidly in I Capture The Castle and is quite enchanting here, particularly since her character has an expansive emotional arc in the novel and TV series. Both her roles have managed to break my heart.
The music - it's so beautiful that I can't believe they didn't release the soundtrack commercially. "Cavatina" from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro; excerpts from Mendelssohn's On Wings of Song and Beethoven's Ah! Perfido, Op.65. A Jewish lullaby sung by Mirah, the character played by Jodhi May, is a haunting tune composed by Rob Lane, who provided the score for the series. It's so haunting that I was humming the melody for days. I'll have to sit down one day, play the DVD over and over again until I learn the Hebrew lyrics phonetically.
At least four of the characters sing, two of whom are professional singers, so music is a huge part of the production. So is sculling, and Italy! Beautiful shots of Genoa and palazzos. The costumes are also very lush. I wouldn't mind donning a long coat with tails and a black tophat. The gowns are lovely, but seem a little hard to walk in.
Zathura is a new movie from the makers of Jumanji. The producers clearly love the work of Chris Van Allsburg, the author of these two titles and The Polar Express.
I have only one book of his, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, which reminds me very much of the art of M.C. Escher. Peiming and Lim Jia bought me a book by Mr. Escher two years ago and I've been a fan since.
But back to Chris Van Allburg. He uses pencil drawings to create a peculiar, melancholic mood in many of his books. Many of the images are great for engaging the imagination and you can write whole stories based on one picture - very good for young children who enjoy creative writing.
In the trailer for Zathura, I noticed a familiar face. It's Ice Bat, one of the UglyDolls whom I featured earlier. Watch the trailer and see if you can spot him. He appears for just a split second before getting zapped to smithereens by the meteor shower. Poor fellow.
Crouching Tigger, Hidden Pooh - courtesy of the great TV show, Whose Line Is It, Anyway?, a half-hour display of pure comedic talent.
Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle is going to open in Singapore on February 24th, shifted up from March 10th.
If only I were going home for spring break!
My enthusiasm for the movie arrives seven years late. I watched it at State Theater when I was an undergraduate here in Michigan. I watched the Oscars the year it won Best Picture and Gwyneth Paltrow won for her role as Viola, much to my chagrin, as I was rooting for Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth.
I may have mentioned before that I don't care much at all for Ms. Paltrow, though her acting in The Royal Tenenbaums didn't grate as much as I'd expected. And I'm thoroughly willing to endure her screen presence in Shakespeare in Love if only because the screenplay is just terrific and so is the score. And the costumes aren't bad either. And I have fond memories of reading the Bard's plays.
Watching it again on TV tonight was better than that time at the theater. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I'm older now and more tolerant of Gwyneth Paltrow. I do remember liking the final scene that has Shakespeare imagining his muse, Viola, walking out from the sea towards a thicket of trees. A very resonant closing scene. It was perhaps the one moment in the movie that I looked forward to watching again.
I just watched the trailer for Tim Burton's stop motion animated film Corpse Bride, and it's hilarious. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Emily Watson lend their voices to the lead characters. Even the lead guy, Victor, looks a little like Mr. Depp with that floppy lock of black hair.
The movie is based on a Russian folktale which you can read here. It's a good story. Sad, but good.
My favorite moments in the trailer - when Victor's fiancee finishes his sentence for him..."married," and when Victor addresses a skeletal dog, and says in a very endearing voice, "Play dead." Gotta love that bumbling groom-to-be.
Oh, and McFarlane is doing the figures for the show. Spawn is just great with figures.
I've also been watching the trailer for Bride and Prejudice. Aishwarya Rai is just luminous, and LK is smitten. We're hoping the film will open in the US the week he visits.
For my part, I seem to be smitten with Ioan Gruffudd, who will play Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic. The movie Fantastic Four looks promising in the trailer, but I won't keep my hopes too high. Not sure about Jessica Alba as Susan Storm. And anyone who mistakenly assumes that the powers of the Fantastic Four resemble those of the Incredibles' should be aware that it's the other way round.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - the movie is a little different from the books, but it retains the terrific Victorian/Gothic feel. Loved the art direction, the sets, the costumes, especially Violet Baudelaire's - fishnet sleeves and that great blue coat. Emily Browning is going to break hearts when she's older. She's probably doing this already, and she's just sixteen (fourteen when she made the movie).
If you liked Before Sunrise, if you're a bit of a romantic, if you admire Diane Lane, if you're easily moved by wonderful music scores (by Georges Delerue), I think this 1979 movie is a must-see. It's Diane Lane's movie debut (she was in Italy even before she made Under A Tuscan Sun) in which she plays an American girl living in Paris. She's bright, well-read, and brave, and when she meets a French boy, Daniel, who's equally precocious and has read the same books she has, they set off on an adventure. The plan is to get to Venice and take a gondola ride to the Bridge of Sighs where they must kiss at sunset when the bells are ringing so that they will love each other forever. Along the way, they get some help from an elderly gentleman played by Lawrence Olivier. Horse-racing, movies, philosophy, the Brownings - these are some of the little details that make an already lovely story more endearing.
It brought back more than just a few memories of the times I was in Paris, Verona, and Venice. There's nothing quite like the buildings, the bridges, and the streets of these cities. History, literature, art, music, tragedy, deception, beauty - I found a little of each even in the smallest of objects I chanced upon during my travels. Snowfall in Piazza di San Marco; autumn light in a quiet Parisian street; tiny cracks in the walls of the Arena in Verona; a night-time recital in a small church in Venice; a shop of handmade masks (the very one that provided props for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut); Giuletta's balcony; a cart of books along the Seine.
When Diane Lane embraces Lawrence Olivier goodbye, it really is a wrenching farewell. She knows she might never see him again, this aged man who helped her and her beau pursue a legend. What do people do with the realization that they won't see a place or a person ever again? They cry; they wave frantically, as Daniel does, running after a car on a busy Paris road; they promise to remember every little detail of their time together. It's terribly hard to say goodbye to romance, even if it's just a little one.
Plenty of new trailers on Quicktime:
1. Featurette of Weta's work on C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. One more year, one more year. Damn.
2. Bride and Prejudice. Aishwarya Rai. Wow.
3. Kingdom of Heaven (this one is actually on Yahoo Movies). In my opinion, Orlando Bloom looked his best as Legolas, but I do admit he doesn't look too shabby in this movie. Nice trailer music by Jonathan Elias, from "The Prayer Circle." Will this movie be better than the much-hyped-but-disappointing epic flicks, Alexander and Troy?
4. Sin City. Ooh, very dark, very noir. Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood (as a bad-ass villain who favors human flesh), and other well-known actors. Based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller. I hear they're very violent, very disturbing. Sin City is short for Basin City, which is another moniker for Los Angeles. Trailer music by UK band The Servant, specifically, the instrumental version of their song "Cells."
5. Sahara. Dirk Pitt comes to the big screen. My brother and I used to devour the Dirk Pitt novels. I hope this one will do the novel justice.
Sideways is a little movie about two middle-aged men on a road trip in California. It's a gem that's garnering rave reviews and plenty of fans. It doesn't feature special effects, big-name actors, or a car chase (though there are some interesting scenes with a car). The lead actor is short, slightly rounded, and balding; none of the women are nubile young things (although Sandra Oh has the body of one); but the film is wonderfully written and the characters painfully real.
The two guys are miserable characters. Miles is miserable and Jack does miserable things. Jack is a faded actor about to be married and Miles is a failed writer waiting to hear from his agent about his latest manuscript. The road trip is Miles's gift to Jack before he marries. At times, the characters aren't easy to like, but they come through in the end, either displaying genuine human frailty that we recognize in ourselves or the strength to unearth happiness even when the emotion becomes incredibly elusive.
Oh, there's also a terrific background of wine, wine estates, and wine bars. If you know your wines, if you love wines, watch this movie for the great conversations about wine.
Actors - Paul Giamatti (from American Splendor and Duets), Thomas Haden Church (the guy who plays the dour mechanic in that funny sitcom Wings), Virginia Madsen (from Electric Dreams), and Sandra Oh (well-known in her home country, Canada; the brown-nosing principal in Princess Diaries, and wife of Sideways's director, Alexander Payne).
Notes for me:
- Watched Sideways at State Theater on State Street.
- After the movie, Frank, Jake, Lim Jia, and I headed to South University for bubble tea and several rounds of Taboo.
- Teaming with a fellow Singaporean helps when playing Taboo. We can use Hokkien or Mandarin to say things.
- Someone should invent a Singaporean version of Taboo.
- Much to my embarrassment, I found it easier to use rather graphic language to describe words like "blow," "vibrate" etc. instead of using more PC and roundabout sentences.
So Bush is president again. I watched the news for most of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, not really believing the number of votes appearing on the TV screen. In Ann Arbor, I've been surrounded by Kerry supporters, and the large number of them gave me the impression that Kerry was going to win. On Wednesday and Thursday, I went to school and spoke to a my disappointed friends and colleagues. Most of them described the day after as a day of mourning.
In any case, everyday life carries on. It's getting colder and my mom's elbow is aching. I wish she could stay longer, but perhaps it's better she return to the warm weather soon. We went to Target yesterday where we got her a nice lime green sweater and me some vitamins. I started reading a new book on travel writing, specifically Best American Travel Writing 2000, edited by Bill Bryson. Since I'm taking a travel writing course next semester (we'll be reading Paul Theroux, The Odyssey etc.), I thought it'd be fun to get into the travel spin early.
I love Friday mornings. The weekend is still young and I get to watch TV without feeling guilty. On the news, Cedar Point, famous amusement park in Ohio, now has a large indoor pool which is 83 degrees year-round. The slides and rides make the place a far better deal than the mediocre thrills LK and I had at Singapore's Wet Wet Wild. More on the news - Star Wars Epiosde III: Revenge of the Sith teaser trailer. The trailer will be released today with Pixar's The Incredibles, but TV viewers get to see it on Fox news. Looks very exciting - glimpses of C3PO and R2-D2, Anakin with yellow Sith eyes, Padme looking beautiful as expected (and with the Leia hairdo), sweeping battle scenes. Other movie bits - the sci-fi movie, The Island, set in 2024, is shooting scenes in downtown Detroit today and this weekend. A small part of the city has been altered to resemble Los Angeles. Imagine that.
I think I'll take my mom to see The Incredibles this weekend, and then a nice, luxe dinner at swanky Gratzi down Main Street. She deserves it and a lot more, after all she's had to put with. That would be me.
So I got rather lazy over the weekend and watched a couple of DVDs instead of preparing for school next week.
If you've been reading this blog, you'd have guessed that I kind of like movies. A lot. And I hoard DVDs, particularly those of my favorite movies. I also get a little carried away with the available extras. I'll watch movies with the commentary on, especially if it's a good one that features the cast as well.
I also happen to enjoy hunting down Easter Eggs. I first learned about this feature from playing a computer game called Leisure Suit Larry back in the mid 90s. (My brother had me corrupted; I didn't pick up that naughty PC game on my own.) If you knew how to key in the right moves or make Larry do the right things, oh, a girl here and there would lose most of her clothes or grant Larry some nice favors. Anyway, those Easter Eggs I dug up myself; my brother is innocent and probably never knew of their existence. I was pretty pleased to learn they have this feature on DVDs. No ladies stripping, but you do get nice little extras. On the LOTR extended editions, for instance, you get neat clips of Gollum up to some mayhem.
So, if you own some DVDs, you might like to check out this website for Easter Eggs. Search for the DVD title and see what comes up!
I refer to the first set of movies, of course. The collection is on the way, folks! Go here to see artwork, screen shots, and a nice review.
I was a lot younger then, so I had a thing for Luke, and not Han. These days, my sights are set on just the Ewoks, since I was given a pewter Ewok once, a none too subtle implication of the similarities we share (height-wise, of course!). Seriously, I do like them light-saber battles. "Luke...I am...your...father." Ahem, right, Darth Vader was an alma mater of U of M, so I'm rooting for him. His voice, at least.
Thanks to Shin Dee who sent me this link. You'll find very nice images of the movie poster and a few characters.
Someone provided an excellent review of the movie. I'd advise anyone who's impatient for the movie not to read it. It'll make you even more jittery - "When's it coming out? When's it coming out in the US? And don't dub it in English, please!" [Note to my mom: Remember reading the book here last fall? I remember you enjoying it quite a bit. I think the movie should be equally nice. If it comes out in Singapore later this year, go see it for the both of us!]
"The sky is falling!" screams Chicken Little. If you liked Zach Braff in Garden State, you might enjoy his voicing of Chicken Little in the upcoming animated feature from Disney. This isn't a Pixar one, though it looks nice. Go here to see the trailer.
Over lunch yesterday, I had a Wong Kar Wai movies conversation with a grad student who was born in Eastern Europe, but has lived for a number of years in the U.S. When I mentioned that I'd grown up watching Liang Chao Wei in Hong Kong TVB serials and that I found him handsome and youthful, she quipped, "Yes, he's attractive in a very non-good-looking way!" I was a little stunned at first and asked her if I'd heard her correctly, that he wasn't good-looking to her but still attractive in some way. She nodded.
Is the beauty of Asian faces so elusive? Like the next person, I'd be the first to acknowledge the highly photographable looks of say, James Caviezel, Ioan Gruffudd, and Natalie Portman, but why am I made to feel that my celluloid tastes are questionable when I mention the name of an Asian actor? Do people outside of East Asia find it difficult to appreciate what we call beauty in our own homes? Mind you, there are people who are quick to point out the fervent idolization of Asian females. But what about the men? Perhaps those who aren't familiar with Asian pop culture recognize only Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Tony Leung, Bruce Lee, and heaven forbid, William Hung. Compared with the faces of legions of Hollywood and international stars, these guys don't get placed very high on the beautiful-people list.
Or maybe it's because our world is still an Occidentally driven one. Numerous women from Japan and Korea, and Singapore too, continue to undergo surgery to get double eyelids because this makes their eyes look wider and more Caucasian-like. Women of mixed heritage where one parent is Caucasian are often considered superior to purely Asian women in terms of beauty, particularly when they have strong Caucasian features with a hint of Asian delicacy. One Miss Thailand, I recall (though I can't recall her name or the year she won), said that she was proud she beat luk kreungs - half-Thai and half-Caucasian persons (very favored in the Thai media) - to the crown, insisting that ethnic Thai beauty is still relevant in this day and age.
I doubt standards of beauty will change very much through the decades. Even as more people gaze upon the faces of non-Westerners, like model Alek Wek and actor Tony Leung, their beauty would still be branded "exotic," not typical, not what you'd expect.
Now, I wonder what my friend would say about Takeshi Kaneshiro.
My parents went to Comex yesterday, I wonder if they purchased anything. Did I ever mention my father is a gadget geek? He drags my mom to computer fairs, which is actually quite sweet. They watch tennis tournaments on TV, they go for walks, or rather, my mom has to pull him out of the house.
Anyway, I meant to write about Collateral, the movie which stars Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise, and is directed by Michael Mann, who did Heat, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Insider. The film has had mainly good reviews with several not-so-good ones. People either like it or come away disappointed.
I was thoroughly impressed by Cruise's bad guy character. I loved watching him make his kills, particularly at the night club. It's Tom Cruise after all, and you root for him to get his job done. But you also root for Jamie Foxx's Max. Wha