Tribuspective

Errol Flynn’s Grandson for Nautica

2009-03-26T06:27:00.000-05:00

His name is Luke Flynn and he has no illusions about his acting abilities, unlike certain celubuspawns.

Oh Tatum O’Neil, such a pity…

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Whoa Nelly! Katharine Hepburn

2009-03-16T05:22:00.001-05:00

After almost two weeks of laziness, I finally felt compelled enough to post this 5 seconds after stumbling upon it!

Meow! How old do you think she is in this picture? (Of course, this woman is forever young).

I am so used to seeing the great Kate with her high collar up to the chin and trousers covering her legs that seeing her her bare shoulders and with a nipple slip!!! is completely shocking and jarring!

I love personalities who have the power to surprise you continually.

I wish I was one of those people who continually challenge themselves.

Jane Fonda experienced Kate’s wisdom and remembered these words from Great Kate:

"You've earned my respect. You've stood up to your fears. If you don't do that, you become soggy."

Happy Monday everyone! Time to step out of comfort zones.
:)

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Love in the Afternoon (1957) or Seduction Techniques on Your School Girl Crush

2009-03-07T06:30:00.000-06:00

I guess it is the week of Audrey Hepburn here in the classic film blog community. Graciebird posted her take on Roman Holiday on Monday, while Dex at Hollywood Dreamland posted his Audrey Hepburn poll results on Wednesday.

The movie I voted for came in 4th out of the five possible choices of favorite Audrey Hepburn performance during the fifties.

Okay, I have to agree that Audrey may not have delivered her best performance in this film, but it is the one film that affected me personally. It scares me to think that many Audrey Hepburn fans may overlook this gem.

I saw it when I was just fourteen. A bad case of insomnia caused me to turn on the television. Love in the Afternoon was playing, already 1/4 of the way through. I did not know who Gary Cooper was nor cared that Billy Wilder directed it. But I was entranced forever.

THE STORY

Set in Paris, Love in the Afternoon tells the story of Ariane Chevasse, the daughter of a private investigator, played by Maurice Chevalier. Ariane’s mother is dead and the two seem to rely on each other. Ariane has her cello and is very eager to find out more about her father’s line of work. Her father refuses to tell her any details about his sordid job.

Enter a paranoid client who thinks his wife is having an affair. His suspicions are confirmed by Monsieur Chevasse. The client’s wife is having an affair with a wealthy American playboy named Mr. Flannagan (Gary Copper with a bad facelift). Upon hearing this distressing news, the client sets out on a vendetta to shoot Mr. Flannagan. Ariane overhears this conversation.

Ariane tries desperately to warn Mr. Flannagan, to no avail since he’s too busy seducing married women to answer the phone. Ariane must go to the Hotel Ritz Paris and save him herself. Needing to avoid the murderous jealous husband in the hallway, she has to climb through a window in one hotel room to get to the Mr.Flannagan’s room.

She saves his life and he is forever indebted. Of course, Ariane falls in love with Flannagan.

Now act two is the magical part. Since Ariane is the daughter of a private investigator, she utilizes all her resources to get her an unfair advantage over the man she is in love with. Armed with the confidential dirt her father has dug up on Flannagan, Ariane goes back to him in secret.

And the conflict with her attraction to Flannagan gets clearer. She is merely a naive little girl whose never been in a relationship, whereas Flannagan is an experienced heart breaker. In order to balance the scales, she peddles fabricated love affairs to him.

At the impressionable age in which I watched this movie, I just thought that Ariane was such a genius. She actually tamed this wild man. She got him to fall in love with her, only to string him along like a puppy dog.

CONNECTIONS

I guess one could say that this movie is the bridge between Sabrina and Breakfast and Tiffany's. Sabrina was all about the fairy tale fantasy about romance, while Breakfast at Tiffany’s was about the reality of romance and how with experience comes heartbreak.

In between Sabrina’s idealism and Holly Golightly’s pessimism is Ariane. Ariane is where we see that Audrey Hepburn romantic persona develop into maturity.

In Sabrina, she goes to Paris to Culinary School and to try and get over David. Well, I always wished that we got to stay in Paris a little longer and see Sabrina develop from an ugly duckling into a swan. Well, Love in the Afternoon is set all in Paris and I’d like to think that this is what Sabrina’s time there might have been like.

Audrey Hepburn filmed this movie at the same time she was filming Funny Face (1957). I cant help but think how exhausting this must have been to film this movie while filming a musical.

MY PERSPECTIVE

Although not the best Billy Wilder movie, or Audrey Hepburn’s, I think it should be given a chance.

I wish Gary Cooper’s plastic surgery could have gone better or have never happened. He is such a dreamboat. I strongly feel that his work is affected by this facelift. He seems insecure and through out much of the movie, he is kept under dark lighting. Damn the people who made him think he was an actor who has to rely on his looks. I always thought he had talent. I wish he didn’t listen to the person who suggested the facelift.

For me, Love in the Afternoon encapsulates the magic that Wilder and Hepburn began with Sabrina.

Stage Beauty (2005) or How a Desdemona Should Die

2009-03-05T07:32:00.000-06:00

I have often seen this movie on the DVD shelves and always felt reluctant to pick it up. I finally did and I wish I had picked it up earlier…or perhaps it is a good thing that I reserved some anticipation for it.
Stage Beauty tells the story of Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup), a British actor who famously played women’s roles in 17th Century London, where women were banned from performing on stage. Conflict arises when his personal assistant, Mariah/Margaret Hughes (Claire Danes), begins to perform. Soon, King Charles II (Rupert Everett) imposes a law reversal where all women’s role must only be played by women—putting Kynaston out of commission.

Kynaston is forced to either leave the stage or play male characters…which is a bit of a problem since he was, since his youth, plucked out by some mentor for his feminine beauty and trained specifically to act like a woman. His feminine mannerisms are hard to get rid of.

In one excruciating scene, he makes a plea to the king to allow him to act as a woman again. “It is not a question of acting a man. I can act a man—There’s no artistry in that. There are things I can be as a woman that I cannot be as man.”

I beg to differ. In my opinion, men’s roles are much harder since society puts so much constraints on how a man should be. How can an actor cry like a man, realistically? How can a man show to an audience that he feels weak and vulnerable, when in real life a man usually hides it when he feels weak?

This movie reminds me a lot of Shakespeare in Love (1998), and I can’t help but view Claire Danes as a mini Gwyneth Paltrow. Yet let’s not forget, Danes did Shakespeare way before Gwyneth did in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996).

Whereas Shakespeare In Love revolved around a stage performance of Romeo and Juliet, Stage Beauty revolves around a performance of Othello, more specifically, the scene where Othello kills Desdemona. This scene is performed twice; once in the beginning of the movie with Billy Crudup in drag as Desdemona and Tom Wilkinson with his face blackened as Othello, and the other in the end with Crudup as Othello and Danes as Desdemona. The contrast is stark. The first performance is mannered and artificial, while the second performance is realistic, where the theatre audience are so convinced by the performance that they, and we, actually think that Desdemona is dead (which she very well might be considering the circumstance). In parallel, the first performance could be like watching Sir Laurence Olivier (to a lesser degree), while the second performance compares to seeing a Marlon Brando- like moment.

This movie is directed by Richard Eyre (Iris, Notes on a Scandal). I am very excited by this man and cannot wait to see more of his work. He has a unique ability with British cinema, in which he has a relish and respect for the English language in such an uncompromising manner.

I also continue to be blown away by Miss Danes remarkable talent. I have been a fan of her way back since My So Called Life.

On a side note of intrigue, fairly surprising to me, Billy Crudup left his girlfriend of seven years, Mary Louise Parker (Weeds, Angels in America), who was seven months pregnant. Less than a year later, Danes and Crudup announced that they were dating…only to split up in 2006.

Now I shouldn’t want to judge neither parties since I or none of us can really comprehend their circumstance, but I can’t help but undermine Crudup’s character or feel bad for Mary Louise Parker—whom I adore to death.

Another interesting side note: Billy Crudup and Claire Danes were in another movie together before this. Both lent their voices in the English version of the Hayao Miyazaki film, Princess Manonoke with Crudup as the heroic Ashitaka and Danes as the free-spirited San. Their two characters sorta fall in love.

This movies is based on real life events..although it may not be historically accurate, it does serve to entertain and provide excellent insight.

Robert De Niro is a Producer in this movie. I wonder if that whole thing in Flawless, with Philip Seymour Hoffman in drag, stuck close with him years after…
The film also stars Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films and that perv teacher in History Boys) and Ben Chaplin, who plays the guy who has a taste for women in drag—or the “woman on stage” as he likes to put it.

Rupert Everett as King Charles II is constantly surrounded by Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. In one scene, his mistress gives him a blow job in a bed full of Spaniels.

I can’t believe I wrote this much about a movie I felt so reluctant to see. If you do decide to watch it, if you are one of those people – like me—who so desperately want to like (or at least understand)Shakespeare, then I promise you that you will be delightfully surprised by this movie.

I watched it three times already.

I Love You, I Love You Not (1996)

2009-03-05T07:31:00.001-06:00

I haven’t seen this movie for a while but I just wanted to give it some needed attention.

The film stars Claire Danes, Jude Law, Jeanne Moreau and to a lesser degree, James Van Der Beek.

It tells parallel stories of a teenage girl and her grandmother. The young girl, Daisy(Danes) has problems at school because she is Jewish.

While her grandmother, Nana (Moreau), tells stories about her youth in a concentration camp.

For me, this film is unique because of its cast. I love seeing Danes interact with the fabulous Jeanne Moreau. Also, I love the chemistry between Danes and Law.

I couldn’t help but note that Jude Law has had that “receding” hair line since his younger years. I don’t mind it, I actually like it. I think it suits him very well.

I find it very interesting the roles that actors choose to play. I wonder why Danes and Moreau agreed to star in this movie…

In the same way I used to wonder as a teen why Dawson Leery chose to be in the football movie that is Varsity Blues, when in Dawson Creek, he was always obsessed with horror movies and thrillers.

Obsession of the Day: Lew Ayres

2009-03-03T06:07:00.000-06:00

I would like to call to attention the man known as Lewis Ayres, Lew for short.

I fell in love with this man since I saw him make an entrance, hung over, as Katharine Hepburn’s cutely spoiled, alcoholic brother in Holiday (1938).

I got to obsessing about him after I posted something about his role as a naive boy who has a crush on Greta Garbo in The Kiss (1929).

He has quite an impressive body of work, having also starred in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).

He was nominated for a best actor Oscar for Johnny Belinda (1948) but lost to Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948).

He was married to Ginger Rogers from 1934 to 1940.

And how can I resist a man in ice skating leotards…easily, but you know, I’ll make an exception for him and Jimmy Stewart in The Ice Follies of 1939. I haven’t seen the movie but I am very intrigued since Joan Crawford also stars in it (she did all ranges of movies didn’t she? Westerns, horror, film noir, Mannequin with Spencer Tracy…) I have no idea where to begin hunting down for this movie. I am dying to see it if only for the novelty of seeing these three stars in those costumes.

Ginger Rogers as a wife? Ice skating movie in tights, with Jimmy Stewart? Let the gay rumors start.

Okay, maybe not. This is not that kind of blog.

Either way, I just find him so adorable! I want to go take him home.

The Kiss (1929)

2009-03-03T06:06:00.000-06:00

The red poster is from Art Deco.

Despite being such a Garbo fanatic, I think this may be my first post that deals with one of her movies!

As was the case for blogging about Ingmar Bergman, I had an unrelenting fear that I would never do her work any justice.

Well, I have to face that fear and I have just come to the conclusion that I shouldn’t fear, for I, or anyone, could ever talk about her movies in a just manner. (Except perhaps for her biographer, Barry Parris, who has actually earned that right, having spent half his life investigating the Divine one’s life). So I won’t try.
The movie is The Kiss. It is to be Garbo’s last silent picture (although, as you all may already know, this movie has the music dubbed into the film or something, but you don’t hear Garbo or anyone speak or sing so we’ll call it a silent picture).

Oh and it also should be noted that this is MGM’s last silent picture.

I ramble about sound because the very fine gentleman that is Mr.Jonas Nordin had just wrote a wonderful post that deals with the advent of sound.

Now, onto the movie. The story is fairly simple.

Garbo is in a loveless marriage with a rich old man.

Garbo falls in love with a smooth lawyer that is Conrad Nagel. He is a man with morals and doesn’t want to be a home wrecker. She is defenseless woman afraid of her husband’s bitter temper. They leave their affair unfulfilled.

To keep her mind off her lost love, Garbo enjoys the company of a young college boy who walks their dogs, who is played by Lew Ayres. Garbo enjoys the attention but calls him a foolish boy.

One night, before leaving her, the boy asks her for a kiss. She feels sorry for the boy so she humors him.
The husband walks in on their innocent kiss and finds a gun.

A whole trial erupts and Garbo is in the middle of yet another intrigue/ love triangle. Actually, it is a love rectangle since there are three men and a woman involved? Help me out someone.

Pretty crafty huh? I saw this movie on TCM and Robert Osborne mentioned that at the time of the film’s release, Garbo and Charlie Chaplin were the last stars to make huge profits from silent movies, (Chaplin’s film, City Lights (1931) wasn’t a talkie since he did not talkie in it).

I love this film. Thinking about it now, this movie has all the elements of a good Garbo movie, except that she plays a contemporary woman as opposed to a woman in stuffy costumes.
(The Garbo/MGM factory is present which includes lighting by William Daniels, gowns by Adrian and set design by Cedric Gibbons.)

I love her chemistry with Conrad Nagel. Despite popular opinion, I have to say that he is my favorite Garbo leading man. He matches her coolness and aloofness.

I want to note that Nagel’s character is named André Dubail. I so couldn’t help but connect that with Armand Duval, Robert Taylor’s character in Camille (1936).

This Kiss did not feel like a regular silent movie for me. I thought the pace was quick, and I now only found out that the movie is only 62 minutes long, or at least the version I watched on TCM was.

This movie is out only in VHS. Sigh.

Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona (2008) or How to Sexualize Americans Abroad

2009-03-02T06:00:00.001-06:00

Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz make out, ‘though in a dark room while developing photographs.
Scarlett’s character, Cristina, goes on to say that she doesn’t want to define her sexuality into categories.

Okay so I find this Woody Allen film incredibly unique. It has the spirit of an old-school European film only with the occasional English subtitles. Woody mentioned in the September 2008 issue of Interview magazine, that he felt like he was making an incredibly European film,with scenes of biking along the country side and with a picnic basket (Suddenly, my memories evoked Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957), Truffaut’s Jules and Jim (1962) and to some degree, The Sound of Music (1965)—You know, the scene where they are wearing the green drapes, singing do-re-mi and biking by those green trees).

I read this Allen article after seeing the movie on a Tuesday 2:00 matinee. I entered the theatre late, a little after Woody Allen’s signature opening credits. The audience consisted of me, and two middle-aged women—one of them wrapped in a hobo lady’s scarves and the other, with her luggage, seemed to be burning time while waiting for her flight connection or train. I sat in the back row by the door. Through out the movie, I tried to laugh as loud as I could during the appropriate moments. The scarves lady chuckled at random moments. After the movie ended, I held the door for them, and the scarves lady had a delighted smile on her face. She said to me, “That was very amusing” as we exited through the lobby.

Now I consider this a genuine cinematic experience. This is what a good film should do—involve the audience and help them form some indescribable unity among strangers. The film requests the audience to get involved.

With that concept in mind, I can’t help but be reminded of the magic of the movies. This particular film was pure escapism for me and those two other broads. The premise of Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona centers on two young American women abroad: Vicky (played by Rebecca Hall), a type-A personality who is very WASPy, upper middle class Midwestern with a clear direction in life and a strict moral code; and Cristina (Scarlett), an aimless blond, experimental and frustrated with how to artistically express herself.

These two women soon encounter an entrancing Spaniard painter in the form of Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who asks them for a threesome and a weekend at some place where they have to use a small plane to get to. Vicky, who’s engaged to some stockholder type/ Knicks fan as well as has a zipper on her vajayjay, naturally says no. Cristina, like any drunk young American (except she’s more classy ‘cause she’s drunk off wine instead of Buds or Jell-O shots) considers the proposition. Well, Cristina got too wasted and after one kiss with Juan Antonio, vomits and is out of commission for the rest of the weekend,in bed in her hotel room. Vicky is forced to go sight seeing with Juan Antonio where he is seduced by the Spanish air and gives in to desire, bedding with the Latin lover. She doesn’t tell her bed ridden best friend about her brief indiscretion.
Okay so they fly back to Barcelona, where J.A. ends it with Vicky, because of a philosophy that is repeated throughout the film, that only unfulfilled love can be romantic. Besides, the J.A. was being very realistic, they were too incompatible. She was tight and he had a horny genitalia. They would only end up fighting.

So that WASPy fiancé of Vicky’s decided to follow her to Barcelona and decide they want to wed there. Meanwhile, J.A. sexes up Cristina and asks her to move in with him. They have fun, live the life Boheme, drinking lots of hard liquor and going to coffee shops with other artists of poetry, literature, sculptor—you know, the European equivalent of a Soho Starbucks crowd.

Then Penelope Cruz makes her grand entrance as J.A.’s suicidal ex-wife, María Elena. At first, things are rocky, with M.E. consistently badmouthing Cristina. After some struggle, they somehow manage to work together and soon they have a ménage a trios. Very Jules et Jim.

If you are familiar with how Woody Allen films work, you should by now understand how long his dialogues could be and how they require a little patience (It was a labor for an ADD ridden guy as me to re-watch it on DVD).

I believe what makes this movie so magical is the collaboration of these wonderful personalities. I mean, why else would I have dragged my butt away from my laptop and into a movie theatre?

And as an afterthought, after getting pictures, I couldn’t help but think that Woody Allen had seen Scarlett Johansson’s Gap Ads from a few years back. Subconsciously of course…or maybe, just a coincidence. Either way I just thought of connecting the dots.

Summertime (1955) or You Can Never be too Old for a Foreign Affair

2009-03-01T09:00:00.000-06:00

After reading Raquelle’s post about Rome Adventure (1962), I suddenly felt very nostalgic about Roman Holidays. One of the stars of Rome Adventure is Rossano Brazzi, who also stars in Summertime.

Summertime, tells the story of a spinster(or should I call her a bachelorette?), Jane Hudson, (Katharine Hepburn) on a vacation in Venice. She finds a chance with love in the form of a shop keeper played by Rossano Brazzi, who is far younger than she is(cougarlicious way before they invented that term).
Now, I absolutely adore this film and am therefore not subjective. This film has the best backdrops of Venetian Italy. Forget travel guide videos from PBS, this movie has the real Venice as seen through the lens of David Lean. He accomplishes this by not merely sticking his camera at familiar tourists spots, but he captures certain aspects of the culture. There are scenes under the heat of high noon where all the vendors are taking their siestas and another scene where Brazzi’s character takes Hepburn to a secluded part of Venice, away from the tourist attractions, where people hang their laundry.
It is hard to believe that I am watching a motion picture since almost every single frame feels like a painting.

This is David Lean’s personal favorite of his films and I don’t blame him! He got a top script and Katharine Hepburn and Venice!

After watching this movie, I couldn’t help but think that that other Hepburn’s Roman Holiday was but a mere child's play or fairy tale. Summertime is for grown ups.

I made a music video a while back. I have been getting a lot of complaints in regards to the music I used, but I found the song fitting. (I told them to make their own gawd dern music video if they didn’t like mine.)

So here it is: Heartbreak and self-sacrifice, love and Venice, gondolas and Katharine Hepburn.

Don’t miss the cinematic end of the video with the train, so romantic Hollywood! Not cliché at all the way Lean and Hepburn do it!

Note: After re-editing and butchering this masterpiece of a film, I couldn’t help but grasp a better understanding of Lean’s Genius and of Hepburn’s talent. I highly recommend the process to anyone who loves a particular film so much.

Garbo Effect: Clark Gable and Robert Taylor

2009-02-28T08:00:00.001-06:00

Camille was on TV two nights ago and it occurred to me that many leading men piggy-backed on Garbo’s star power.

Many of them, seem to become legit stars after Garbo. Did some of her magic powers rub off on them?

I don’t even need to put dates or a “before and after” on the pictures since it’s so obvious that once an actor becomes an MGM leading man, he has to grow the mandatory moustache.

So here they are. Before they were leading men, they played nude-lipped love interests to Greta Garbo. That’s right, Gable was once Garbo’s bitch—eat your heart out Joan Crawford.

I just wanted to share these last two photos. I love how they look like they either belong on the cover of a trashy women’s romance novel or a hallmark greeting card.

They sure don’t make them like this no more.

Cries and Whispers (1973) or Forget Death, What About Life?

2009-02-28T08:00:00.000-06:00

Swedish: Viskningar och rop

So I have been wanting to blog about an Ingmar Bergman film for a while now. I just don’t know where to start. He might be my favorite of European directors.

His films are like poetry…not lengthy novels, but poetry via images, that demand your focus. Unlike a novel where the character may explain his deepest desires in a few pages, Bergman’s films are like poetry in where you have to decipher the meaning in brief images—which can be interpreted differently by each viewer. The images seep into my mind subconsciously and I am captivated by the film. His movies, in my experience, awake my senses and puts on the screen my deepest fears and dreams. Bergman has the ability to touch my soul…and after each of his movies, I am enlightened…his movies stay with me forever. In my day to day life, I ponder back to a particular issue provoked by a Bergman movie.

So I guess I’ve decided on a Bergman film: Cries and Whispers. This is a movie that I compare most dramatic films to.

The film, in a nutshell, is about two women who wait for their sister to die.

Writing about it now, I feel skeptical about how this movie worked, but it just did.

This movie made me realize about how trivial my concerns are and how to live in the moment. (What do you know, an intensely tragic film taught me that lesson).

The two women, Karin (Ingrid Thulin)and Maria (Liv Ullman) are two women who struck me as two different aspects of my psyche:

Karin is a loved starved woman who, in a very memorable scene, shatters a wine glass and rubs it against her genitals, then smears the blood across her lips, daring her husband to come near her.

While, Maria is a beautiful, passionate woman with flaming red hair—though vain and indifferent to anything that doesn’t involve her. She starts an affair with a doctor although she has a suicidal husband.

Yeah, so affairs, and suicide and self-mutilation and all that baggage. Yes, these people have issues.

Their problems consume them so much that other matters start to seem so inconsequential-- like the sister dying from an incurable cancer, Agness (Harriet Andersson).

Agness’ illness takes a toll on the two women. They take turns staying up along with their housekeeper, Anna (Kari Sylwan).

Yes, amidst all this, the one woman who is not related, serve to connect these three sisters.

There is one particular gut-wrenching scene where Agness is extreme pain and her own two sisters just watch her writhe in her four post bed (similar to Linda Blair in The Exorcist). The two are helpless. Thankfully, they have Anna, who is the one person able to comfort Agness. It works out well since Agness called for Anna and not one one of her sisters. In what may be her dying moments, Agness calls out for Anna.

I used to think the two sisters incredibly weak and heartless, but now, years later after some life experience, I can relate to them: it is not easy to see a loved one in pain—especially when there is nothing you can do to soothe their woes.

Well, anyways, you can probably form your own opinion about the film, I am just sharing my experience with it.

There isn’t much dialogue, so only a light reading with the subtitles if you can’t comprehend Swedish. This movie comes so close to being like a dream for me (well, most Ingmar Bergman movies are.) The effect of Bergman’s films in my life is incalculable—since Bergman, my dreams have altered and forever changed my perspective on the significance of certain images and how it can impact the rest of my senses and my soul. And how movies aren’t just for entertainment, but it can also serve to better understand my own humanity.

I believe this movie to be Ingmar Bergman’s peek. He also has his best cast, which I feel, blended two periods of his filmmaking persona. The pre Liv Ullman period and the post.

Lots of memorable moments…the most memorable of which is that red room. Crimson red. (Sven Nykvist at one of his bests!) I think I read in some Bergman book that that image of the crimson room came to him in a dream…as if this is what the inside of a serpent, cut in half, looks like.

Anyways, I felt compelled to write about this movie first because it is the one movie that stayed with me in such a dramatic way. If you actually give it a chance, I believe this movie has the ability to change your life too. If not that, then the possibilities of what filmmaking may accomplish.

The Lady Is Willing (1942) or Having Babies is the Answer to All Your Problems

2009-02-28T07:59:00.000-06:00

Okay, amidst all this Octo-Mom hoopla, I thought about this often overlooked Marlene Dietrich film.

Dietrich, and her ludicrously delicious hats, stars as a Broadway performer who picks up a baby on the street. She’s smitten with the baby and decides to adopt it.

Or did she? I am not sure anymore, I was too distracted by the leading man, Fred MacMurray. Clooney? Whose George Clooney? All I want me is some Dr. McSteamy MacMurray M.D.

MacMurray plays a dweebishly cute MD who is trying to get a grant by mating bunny rabbits. Not the Playboy kind, but the kind you keep in cages. Wait I am confused, isn’t the Playboy mansion also a kind of…

Anyways…

I loved how this movie is so camp (tragically ludicrous), as most Dietrich movies are (I think so anyways). If you don’t like the cute story line (think Bachelor Mother (1939) or Bringing up Baby(1938) except, in place of leopard is a baby) you can also just ogle at Marlene Dietrich’s wild get-ups while she holds a baby (yes, many mothers wear sequins while bottle-feeding) or if you’d rather, you can just flutter your eyelashes at Fred MacMurray (who I think is at his peek, attractive-wise. Oh, Professor McSteamy).

This comedy is not exactly screwball or Preston Sturges, but I definitely felt satisfied and jelly-legged after watching.

That and I suddenly felt in the mood for buying intricate, large, feather hats—and follow that with a trip to Loyola University in search of a MacMurrayish professor.

BTW: Thanks to Genevieve at Film Oasis, my eyes are wide open as to how many films there are that aren’t available on DVD!
This is one of those films that is not on DVD (frowny face). The film is only available on VHS (right, and I’ll just listen to my Little Wayne songs on an 8-track).

After a Couple Weeks Hiatus

2009-02-27T20:07:00.001-06:00

This blog is very sick and probably dying (as many other diseased movie blogs out there are—I am lucky to have lasted this long huh?.)

I have suffered from a semi-breakdown and have tried cutting communication from the rest of the world (my Google Reader has not been opened yet and I am scared to…the same goes for my credit card bills and numerous mail.)

So I think it is safe to say that by chance, on the one day I check my email Sergei sends me a note time marked a few hours ago.

Tribuspective has been resuscitated and is on life support.

Thanks to the supporters, (all three of you!). And the rest who visit. Here’s to endurance.

…and to all the existential crisis: Why bother? Because I can. And am lucky enough to have the time and obsession with movies.

Here’s to all the corpses of non functioning movie blogs. May they rest in peace.

Here’s to all the blogs that survived. May you never disappear from the interweb and continue to live on eternally.

Cheers.

Live Flesh (1997)

2009-02-27T19:59:00.000-06:00

Spanish (Carne Trémula)

Okay, if you haven’t noticed, I am absolutely crazy about Pedro Almodóvar. He is the perfect combination of weird kitsch and old Hollywood film technique. He’s as macabre and witty as a Billy Wilder with subtitles.

Yet the thing with any Almodóvar film is, you cannot summarize the story. He is just brilliant like that.

The movie stars Javier Bardem, pre-No Country For Old Men, as David, a cop. There is also a brief cameo by a very pregnant Penelope Cruz giving birth on a city bus…which is how the movie starts.

So we fast forward, that baby has now grown into a hot young Spaniard. He gets involves with a femme fetal, heroin addict named Elena. Enter scene, or rather burst in, an alcoholic cop (who beats his wife) and his partner.That partner is David (Bardem) who at the end of the scene, saves the heroin addict and in the process gets shot.

Fast forward. David has married Elena, who has undergone a major makeover after detox (I guess all that heroin turned her hair into a blonde afro. She looks very high fashion Vogue though.) and now is a hot brunette that resembles a 90’s version of Liz Hurley. David on the other hand, got shot, right, so now he is on a wheel chair. He likes to eat her out (cunnilingus) yet Elena is very satisfied.

Victor comes out of jail and seeks out the former junkie and the paraplegic cop.

The title I guess is a reference to how after years in prison, and how after years of obligatory marriage to cripple, Victor and Elena are tantalized by the idea of live flesh.

This film reminds me of an opera. Or do I mean soap opera? I mean, it is a Ruth Rendell adaptation (very loosely adapted—which is special because this is the one occasion where Almodóvar shares writing credit), which makes it eligible for a Lifetime TV movie. Actually, maybe I mean to say that this movie’s high drama reminds me of a Greek tragedy. Yes, that describes where I am coming from with my opinions. The movie has a quality of heightened intense drama, with a dash of film noir and a Latin soap opera.

It is very odd, yet conventional. That’s the beauty, I guess, of Almodóvar’s films: it’s paradoxical themes refuse to be categorized into a specific genre.

If you are fan of Billy Wilder’s odd sense of humor, this movie is an even more exaggerated version—the characters are worthy of the Norma Desmond Award.

So watch it, if you are interested in something familiar, yet truly different.

Scary Movies: Then and Now, Of Hollywood and Asia, Of Gods and Monsters

2009-02-27T18:23:00.001-06:00

“Give them pleasure—the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.”

-Alfred Hitchcock, on how to make a good movie.

Okay so my friend Sergei has all these posts dedicated to scary movies from Asia and I just wanted to make a commentary on its relevance to the art of filmmaking.

I believe these Asian films she has mentioned are such a throwback to old school Hollywood thrillers. Remember? Like from back in the day when Hollywood infused some soul into their suspense movies.

Before Hollywood began making horror movies geared to teenagers, they actually churned out some pretty deep thrillers. They had monsters who were able to evoke the deepest pits of the human soul. The fact that they were monsters were just mere masks to entertain the audience and bring them to a heightened sense of reality. Sort of like the way the ancient Greeks used their mythology of Gods and Heroes to tell tales that mirrored the dark side of humanity. Let’s face it, all of us bury a dark side deep inside our beings.

Think about classics as Lon Chaney Jr. in Dracula. Or James Whale’s delicious interpretation of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Think Universal Studios. Think Vincent Price…

Whether we like it or not (I am one of the people who likes it not), the "horror” movie genre is one of the most effective movies there is. I mean, you go out to a movie theatre, and you pay an overpriced amount of money. If you go to a comedy, you might get one genuine laugh or two. To a drama, a tear or whole flood. And sometimes you get nothing except a, “I can't believe I just wasted an hour and a half of my life.” Yet the beautiful thing about horror movies is that you always get something. Whether it’s disgust, a laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, or just plain old fear..horror movies always deliver something.

DEAD GIRL WALKING

2009-02-12T10:57:00.007-06:00

I like Asian horror movies. Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, China, South Korea (especially), and of course, Japan. I could list hundreds, and before this blog dies I probably will. They are just so good. They aren't only gore fests like American shizz that rips off the ideas a year or two later, they are usually emotionally involving which makes the horror of the situations even better. It's even a shame they have to be labeled Horror, since they are usually ordinary stories, fiction, with some scary elements.

Last year on Crunchyroll (it's since been pulled and is now at Asian-Horror-Movies.com) I saw the movie Dead Girl Walking, [Kaiki! Shinin ShÃ´jo] a wonderful shorter movie from Japan. This is the second of six short stories in the collection entitled Hideshi Hino's Theater of Horror. (Hino is a famous manga artist. I haven't followed any of his work as they are difficult to find scansillations of online, but I do follow similar themes, Like BERSERK--one of the best manga's of all time imo). Although each of the six films in this collection is directly based on specific characters and scenarios within Hino's horror manga, each is also the work of a different director.

So this school-age girl is watering a flower in her home and suffers a heart attack. But then, though she is dead, she hasn't actually stopped living. her family was sad for her, but now they are getting disgusted with her. They keep her in a plastic-covered room because she is rotting, covered in bandages to stop her arms from falling off. Her family no longer lets her sit with them at dinner time they all avoid even looking at her. They hate her because she's dead but not gone, I guess. Mean. I would be totally stoked if my loved one was dead but not dead. I would be glad they were still there to be with me, smelly or not.

Her mom is a total C U Next Tuesday and convinces dad it's time to burn their daughter to death. They even bring in, if I remember correctly, a huge container of lighter fluid.

So dead girl runs away, is on a road somewhere wrapped in a blanket because her arms keep falling off or something, and this guy stops and picks her up in his car to bring her to some freekshow, where she shuffles about in a dance for high paying customers all cast in shadowy gloom, only bit of their clothes showing, until her guts slop out on the floor.

Afterwards, the man drops her off again on the same road and she walks to this big empty parking garage, where mom and dad find her and try to kill her again with the lighter fluid. They somehow blow themselves up, and she lands, a black scatter of cloth over a white landscape, unharmed, and continues crawling on. THE END MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Filmed in black and white, but for the bright yellow flower at the beginning, it's a beautiful film both viscerally and visually and emotionally. (It's low-grade though, I mean like, these people had zero money, and for this to come from that is fucking awesome). I dig this kind of shit anyway so maybe I'm biased, but these sad movies with a splash of blood makes more sense to me than a plot about seduction or affairs. I don't think it's being "dark" to like this shit either. Isolation and wanting to belong, being turned away and hated by those whom you loved can touch everyone. It makes fucking sense. It's something you can identify with in so many levels.

In an explanation of the movie, I have found this:

In Shinto and Buddhist (particularly Tibetan Buddhist) traditions, one's conscious experience of "existence after death" entails two things, namely (1) the change of loved ones into a for more formidable and potentially malevolent form (as in the Kojiki), and (2) an increasingly difficult path of terror and trial on the way to re-birth (as in the Tibetan Book of the Dead). These two basic religious sensibilities seem to explain and provide an intelligible structure to this (otherwise unintelligible) storyline.

If you can find it, WATCH IT.

Jil Sander S/S ‘09

2009-02-09T10:03:00.000-06:00

I just thought these looked real cool. I think they called it “high-concept” but whatever. I love the use of whitespace and minimalism. These ads definitely made me stop and gawk.

They are actually 4 separate ads.

Do the images look futuristic to you?

(Source)

Frost/Nixon (2008) or How History Can Be Such a Drama Queen

2009-02-09T09:04:00.000-06:00

Okay I was so skeptical about seeing this movie. I’ve had the screener for a while and I was putting it off for as long as I could. I mean, sure I was interested…Ron Howard directed it, I am a HUGE follower of the brilliant Frank Langella (who plays Nixon). So of all the “For Your Consideration” Oscar candidates, this was the last best picture nominee that I had a chance of screening. I guess I was just scared of not liking it.

But I love it! I think that this movie could be an underdog and have a shot at winning Best Picture. Why? Because it so relevant.

Living in Chicago, I can’t help but hear about the political climate (as much as I try to drown it out with my West Side Story Soundtrack and Lady Gaga album). I mean, the next few years are going to be political all over again: with the Bush aftermath, with Obama’s change and with the much publicized corruption of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. This is the time of upheaval, with the gay rights debate, stem cells, Iraq, and a whole can of worms that I don’t really know about because I am not big on politics.

I have this theory that there is nothing new under the sun and we in a sense just go through a cycle of Déjà Vu, except the characters and the setting changes. I believe strongly that the simmering 90’s parallel the 1920’s the 50’s. Then comes a huge rise in action of Act 2, where the 00’s parallels the 1930’s depression era and the upheaval of the 60’s. Political and socioeconomic factors blah blah blah (I can’t believe I’m droning on about political theory instead of movies).

Enter Frost/Nixon. Which is basically about how entertainer (not a journalist, but an entertainer— sort of like Maury Povich or Jerry Springer) David Frost interviewed unapologetic ex-president Richard Nixon. The movie was written by Peter Morgan—the same guy who wrote that other Oscar favorite, The Queen (2006)—based on his West End Play. David Frost is played by my dork crush, Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair in The Queen.

My first praise is to the writing in general. The movie is very well written, surprising in fact—for me anyways—that such a quickly forgotten story can be made so interesting. I mean, you’d think that only political historians would be intrigued by this subject matter, but me, of all people now find it intriguing.

I guess I consider this movie as in the grand tradition of Shakespeare's Machiavellian plays. There is the power struggle between the ambitious Frost and the powerful Nixon. Both are passionate about their cause:

Frost, in a Ryan Seacrest- like way, wants major success, which to him means Playboy mansion access and reserved VIP seats at the hottest LA restaurants. He shall be the only man to interview Nixon in such an in depth manner. In a subconscious sense, he wants to contribute to history.
Richard Nixon, we all know, is a power hungry man who was forced to relinquish his power. He remains firmly convinced that his achievements during his Presidency outweigh his small but magnified fuck up at Watergate. He wants to tell his side of the story and he wishes to stand by his decisions. He refuses to hint at any form of apology. He is a man, who was already licked by JFK and any more form of defeat can be unbearable.

These two men risk their reputation, which in their line of job, is an, if not the only, important factor.

They battle wits, seeing who gets to be in top and control. The stakes continue to be raised…as Frost loses his own money and investors. Meanwhile, Nixon, is gradually unravels into a human being, rather than some scumbag political figure. The frailty of our existence—and the man we elect to Preside over it—steps into the light.

The pacing of the movie, some may find slow. I watched the movie with my mom, who fell asleep but soon became wide awake at the explosive ending: the last interview between Frost and Nixon, their final showdown where only one person can win and only one person can lose—and the result will forever be recorded in history—although in this movie, we can’t help but feel more concerned about how the result will effect the life and the ego of the loser.

In a year of political films such as Milk and W, this one stood out for me, head and shoulders above the rest. It’s relevancy to our present is more subtle, yet many under running themes shed more light into our circumstance. Politics are not so simple as right or wrong, motivation and consequences. Wheras Milk and W where bio-pics, the main concern in painting a portrait of those iconic figures, Frost/Nixon concerns a dramatic event that echoed the machinations of politics: a power struggle between two parties, the financing for the interview, what can and cannot be revealed to the public.

I don’t believe that one should call this a political movie, but rather, a cinematic experience that happens to concern politics and real life characters. For me, this movie, this movie follows the tradition of Mr.Smith Goes to Washington(1939). The drama concerns a spectacular event that holds up a mirror to America’s political system and how men of power are driven by the same needs as us mortals, and share the same flaws—succumbing to similar temptations.

So what insight did I walk off with from Frost/Nixon? That even our leaders, great or disastrous (ehem, G.W.B.), are also human beings with follies and regret that they shall never admit to because admittance can only erase their accomplishments, making the time invested, heartaches, sacrifices spent in office inconsequential? That the power of the media, as in Katie Couric’s and Tina Fey’s depiction of Sarah Palin, influences the public’s opinion of our leaders more than the human itself? How power really does corrupt (like duh)?

I guess the movie’s slow moments worked for me because in those moments of boredom I couldn’t help but ponder (so this is what they meant by a thought provoking movie) all the aforementioned thoughts.

Yet personally, what I walked of with, is how to tell a story. How something as seemingly boring as a long ass interview between a toothy British and ugly ex-president whose middle names is Milhous, can contain so much drama. That life, no matter how irrelevant –politics—as it may seem, has more than one dimension, and can hold the dramatic potential for an interesting movie—with the write tools of storytelling of course.

Absolutely Fabulous, Oh Sweetie Dahling

2009-02-08T15:31:00.006-06:00

So over the past two weeks I been watching the fucking awesome British comedy from the early 90-'s into the 00's Absolutely Fabulous, or AbFab.

Edina, a wealthy flower child mom is always drinking, doing lines of coke and not going to work, while her straitlaced daughter pushes her glasses up her nose, scolding her mother for being out late and falling out of the car backwards, drunk.

Edina has a BFF Patsy who's a tall skinny blond nymphomaniac that used to be a fashion model, had a brief sex change once "but after a year it fell off" and now is the chief editor of some fashion mag for sleeping with some guy. They sell off Edina's boring daughter to Arabs in one episode (they get her back) and mercilessly bully her for being lame and "hideous". Nice mommy. Edina has an ancient mother that bobs into some of the shows and they also don't care for her either. She puts their condoms on her hand to wash dishes, thinking they were fingerless gloves. Ha. Old people are comedy gold.

They basically booze and drug their way through the episodes (a couple are on Youtube, the rest are on Veoh, but they are "mature" so you have to have an account) but there's enough fast-paced humour and adventures that for 20-odd minutes, are well worth your time. The biggest problem for the show was that there was only 6 episodes a season, and that they are spaced many years apart sometimes, because that's the way Britland rolls.

It was great and an icon to gays and straights alike everywhere. If you have seen it, there is no question to it's fabulocity.

So of course America had to grunt out a great fudge dragon over the whole damn mess.

Absolutely Fabulous is now scheduled to make an Amershit run on TV, but "more PC" sans drugs alcohol or hilarious orgies.

In other words, whoever thought this was a good idea, please die. Now.

Patsy, with her awesome lecherous sneer and bottle of hard liquor constantly in hand will now be played (raped) by the whiny-voiced pig-nosed actress that played the big blond Sally on Third Rock From The Sun. I liked Third Rock because Lithgow is an unquestioned God among men, but this blundering weird-faced giant as the smooth elegant skinny whore that was Patsy is unthinkable.

Milquetoast brainwashed gooey formless oatmeal will be smooshed through a naso-gastric tube sometime next year, but all I can hope is that this Frankenstein's monster will die a quick death; akin to me sneaking up behind it and garroting it with a chain and as it goes limp, slowly lay it down whispering "Shhhh shhh. That's a pretty. Shhh now," while petting it's face.

Garbo Effect: Chloe S/S ‘09

2009-02-06T22:25:00.000-06:00

Every time I see a high fashion ad or editorial with a model slouching, I can’t help but think of Garbo’s notoriously bad posture.

Do you think she may have contributed to popularizing this pose? She actually moved in this lethargic, “world-weary” manner in most, if not all, of her movies. I mean, can you define “cool” or “aloof” any better than the divine Garbo?

Source

Word for the Weekend: Spifflicated

2009-02-06T10:15:00.000-06:00

Okay, so Genevieve over at Classic Film Oasis shared this word with me and I am loving it! Here’s what she said

One of my favorite words is spifflicated, its a 1920's slang term that means "to be drunk" It's just fun to say, but probably not easy to say if you are drunk.

I love how it is so vintage that no kid my age would really know what I am talking about.

Secondly, it sounds like a kind of word that a drunk would make up. Imagine some lush getting pulled over by the highway police. The police asks him, “Sir, are you intoxicated?” The guy answers, “How dare you officer! Of course I am not into-xi-ma-cated—I am spiifffflicated!”

This word sounds an awful lot like “spiffy”, which is a favorite word of mine. I wonder if they are related?

I have a buddy who’s had three DUI’s in the last two years. He needs to learn to use this word.

Lesbionic Part Deux

2009-02-06T09:55:00.000-06:00

Okay so I googled Lesbionic and I guess I can’t claim to have coined that term—something called G4 beat me to the punch.

They have a video on youtube about a woman who gets in a car accident, only to be rebuilt into a flannel-wearing lesbian.

A bunch of heteros obviously made this video.

Valentines Day Weekend Chick Flick Movie Round Up

2009-02-06T09:50:00.000-06:00

He’s Just Not That Into You vs. Confessions of a Shopaholic

So which do you think will dominate the box office?

He’s Just Not That Into You boasts an a-list cast of actress who pretend to be normal people who have dating problems (don’t even talk, Scarlett and yeah, like we are gonna take advice from Jenn Aniston, now that she’s only dating douche bags). I wonder if they serve nonfat ice cream at the door?

Meanwhile, Jerry Bruckheimer shelved his usual CG special effects and invested instead on Confessions of a Shopaholic—taking lessons from the money made off Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada by employing a different kind of special effects wizard: costume designer Pat Fields. The movie is based on some chick-lit and I am going to guess is just a mask for some fashion show. I mean, when Pat Fields and designer labels are involved, does the plot of the movie really matter in order for you to go see it?

Both have extremely long titles, which seem to be a Valentines Day Weekend trend that started with How to Lose A Guy In Ten Days (2003).

Seeing how there’s an economic crisis and how Jenn Aniston is basically box office poison (Marley and Me was not a Jenn Aniston movie, it was the dog’s movie and slightly Owen Wilson’s) and or people don’t really wanna see her chin and nose on the big screen only a month after seeing it in Marley and Me, I think I will put my money on Shopaholic.

Shopaholic’s Isla Fisher is fresh and kooky and I am sure the guys are comfortable with her (she was Vince Vaughn sex-crazed partner in Wedding Crashers), so this makes this a plausible date movie. Because these two movies have the same target audience, I am willing to bet that one has to lose, while the other makes the money.

Random: Never Cross a Southern Woman

2009-02-05T10:00:00.001-06:00

From Designing Women, the Sugarbakers.

Word of the Day: Lesbionic

2009-02-05T10:00:00.000-06:00

I am not sure if it is a real word but I love the way it sounds.

I think it has something to do with lesbians.

Or it could be French, Les Bionic—meaning The Bionics?

Or it could, in simplest terms, mean, to have lesbian tendencies as in most Jodie Foster movie roles.

Obsession of The Day: Carine Roitfeld

2009-02-04T10:08:00.000-06:00

“But I am not French. I am Parisian. I don't love the French.”

Okay, for the past couple days I have been obsessing with this woman. She happens to be French Vogue’s Editor in Chief and I am in love with her! I want to sex her up and keep a pair of her panties as souvenir. This woman is a goddess.

Don’t let her job title fool you. She is an international party girl/ rock star…it is no coincidence that this dame bears a striking resemblance to Iggy Pop.

In her offices in France, she keeps a scale. Despite denying them, rumors suggest that all her employees have to meet certain weight requirements!

She has stopped wearing fur because they stink quickly and she is human-- slightly scared of American Vogue’s Anna Wintour’s wrath. Also, she hates handbags (only American women would ever want to fill that emptiness in their souls with Marc Jacobs concoctions).

This woman is also an artist. Just check out the cover she made, with a bearded tranny with great legs, something you may never see on the cover of an American magazine. This woman has high artistic standards.

And my most favorite quality? Not merely the impeccable taste or her joi de vive. Just the fact that she smiles a lot. She is definitely the polar opposite of a devil in Prada.

Katharine Hepburn Exhibit

2009-02-04T10:00:00.000-06:00

I am such a huge fan of the Great Kate. I mean, I am one fan who actually spells her name right (it’s with a “tharine” FYI). I admire her personality and her philosophy to life…and you know, her movies are fun. I was so disappointed that I didn’t get to at least send her fan mail before her death in 2003.

They are having an exhibit at the gorgeous seaside town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Isn’t that amazing? I so have to make a pilgrimage. Some people have Dollywood, I have Kathawood (okay, I didn’t really make an effort with the name composite there).

They open on Summer 2009, you check them out. Don’t forget to pack a pair of trousers and a Bryn Mawr accent. You all think it would be appropriate to go around saying “So whehr do you sum-meh?” Or go around reciting “The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day…”

More details at their website:
http://www.katharinehepburntheater.org

Random Retro: Marcia Brady’s Nose

2009-02-03T10:03:00.000-06:00

Marcia Marcia Marcia!

Haha I love this scene…I grew up in the ‘90’s and The Brady Bunch Movie was my introduction to this beloved sitcom. These day’s I can’t sit through a whole episode. Do they even air these?

I hate and loved Marcia. I can’s believe I used to have a thing for Greg.

And why did Florence Henderson ever agree to that haircut? Is she even still alive?

Potent Quotable

2009-02-03T10:00:00.000-06:00

Yeah, Peter Griffin from High school. It’s been a while. So yeah, uhh…listen, I just found out I'm retarded and umm..I’m just calling to let you know you might wanna get yourself tested. Hello?

-Peter, after receiving his test results that he is mentally handicapped.

Unnecessary Movie: Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)

2009-02-03T09:55:00.000-06:00

Okay, so in my misspent youth, I was a big fan of director Kevin Smith. I found him so cutting edge. As I grew up and became more conservative in my taste, I find that Mr. Smith is just another Jackass.

Yet no ordinary Jackass could have made Clerks (1994), Mallrats (1995), or Chasing Amy (1997) (A personal favorite.) Here is a quote I have memorized by heart, from Chasing Amy, that remains with me to this day:

I was an experimental girl for Christ sake! Maybe you knew early on that your track was from point A to B, but unlike you I was not given a fucking map at birth, so I tried it all! That is until we, that's you and I, got together and suddenly I was sated!

For me, this line amplified a certain indecisiveness is in my nature. In its context, the girl had just been discovered as a huge whore who likes to suck cock and take it up the ass…whatever.

The point is, Kevin Smith writes these movies that have some very shallow observations that can run fairly deep—and he tells his stories in such an immature manner in order to masks his vulnerability. A 12 or 15 year old boy can take humorous anecdotes with him while a twenty something can probably take a reflection of his seemingly meaningless life from Smith’s film.

Zack and Miri, ranks along with that Bennifer disaster they called Gigli (2003). Both films are pure garbage. The only saving grace is the chemistry between the actors.

I mean, the porno scenes were not funny—the porn star is constipated and the camera man, trying to get a close up from the floor, gets shit on—okay, sort of funny. Yet that is the only scene that made me almost laugh. The rest was just uncomfortable.

I just wanted to question why they set out to make this movie? I mean why not just go ahead and make a real porno instead of trying a little desperately to inject it into mainstream culture in such a haphazard way. The whole business of Zack and Miri Make a Porno is an exercise of futility.

Film Persona: Katharine Hepburn

2009-02-02T17:43:00.001-06:00

Persona: Spunk With Values
Little Women

Of Single Minded Ambition
Morning Glory
Alice Adams
Christopher Strong
Sylvia Scarlett

Unapologetic of Status in High Society
Holiday
Bringing Up Baby
Stage Door
The Philadelphia Story

Of Devotional Compromise
Woman of the Year
Adams Rib
Without Love
Leaves of Grass

Of Unwavering Independence
The African Queen
Suddenly Last Summer
Summertime
Pat and Mike
Desk Set

Of Resonant, Matronly Endurance
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
The Lion in the Winter
On Golden Pond

Random: In 1996…

2009-02-02T17:40:00.001-06:00

More than anything in the world, I wanted a beeper.

I still want one for my 25th birthday. I’m expecting calls from 1998.

90’s Modeling via Marcia Brady and Jan Brady

2009-02-02T10:02:00.000-06:00

I love their poses and the Charlie’s Angel background music. They look fierce, as the tranny Banks would say.

Can you believe how fashion obsessed the 90’s was…I mean, we had the whole Kate Moss Calvin Klein controversy and what not. We had the grunge scene and Monica Lewinsky’s beret.

Wisdomosity

2009-02-02T10:00:00.000-06:00

I believe that happiness lies within yourself and cannot be altered, increased or abated, really by an external influence or by any person... happiness in its essence is within myself.

Kay Francis

The Classic Maiden has a whole retrospective dedicated to Kay Francis, you should check it out. The Classic Maiden.

Random: 26 things to do on an Elevator

2009-02-02T09:55:00.000-06:00

1) When there's only one other person in the elevator, tap them on the shoulder and then pretend it wasn't you.
2) Push the buttons and pretend they give you a shock. Smile, and go back for more.
3) Ask if you can push the buttons for other people, but push the wrong ones.
4) Call the Pychic Hotline from your cell phone and ask if they know what floor you're on.
5) Hold the doors open and say you're waiting for your friend. After awhile, let the doors close and say, "Hi Greg. How's your day been?"
6) Drop a pen and wait until someone reaches to help pick it up, then scream, "That's mine!"
7) Bring a camera and take pictures of everyone in the elevator.
8) Move your desk in to the elevator and whenever someone gets on, ask if they have an appointment.
9) Lay down a Twister mat and ask people if they'd like to play.
10) Leave a box in the corner, and when someone gets on ask them if they hear something ticking.
11) Pretend you are a flight attendant and review emergency procedures and exit with the passengers.
12) Ask, "Did you feel that?"
13) Stand really close to someone, sniffing them occasionally.
14) When the doors close, announce to the others , "It's okay. Don't panic, they open up again."
15) Swat at flies that don't exist.
16) Tell people that you can see their aura.
17) Call out, "Group hug!" then enforce it.
18) Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering "Shut up, all of you, just shut up!"
19) Crack open your briefcase or purse, and while peering inside, ask, "Got enough air in there?"
20) Stand silently and motionless in the corner, facing the wall, without getting off.
21) Stare at another passenger for a while, then announce in horror, "You're one of THEM!" and back away slowly.
22) Wear a puppet on your hand and use it to talk to the other passengers.
23) Listen to the elevator walls with your stethoscope.
24) Make explosion noises when anyone presses a button.
25) Grinning, stare at another passenger for a while, and then announce, "I have new socks on."
26) Draw a little square on the floor with chalk and announce to the other passengers, "This is my personal space!"

Domino (2005)

2009-02-01T18:22:00.006-06:00

I'm rather easily influenced. When I watched the Sopranos, I began getting all cocky and swearing with violent hand-motions. You know who else is easily influenced? My mom. So now we pass around the Fuck word like it's a bong hit.

So I have been wanting to watch the 2005 movie Domino for a while now, and only just got to today because of Youku.

Some years ago, I saw an ad or something for Domino and I thought: "My hair. It must be as Keira Knightly's is in Domino." But then life came along smacked me in the head and I forgot until I watched it today. In the middle of the movie I found myself a pair of scissors and cut my long hair in a pretty good facsimile of the haircut Keira has in the movie.

Nice.

So I always was kinda meh about Keira. She's one of those people like Angelina, whom others feel the righteous need to hate on cuz they so hot. And most women's worst enemy is a supermodel or those near to it blabla feminist bullshit so anyway most hate her without knowing why. And if you get over the pouty shit she does alot, she's not half bad. (Also, you have to admit, she's fucking hot in a gangly sort of 'I bet she'd be good at guitar-hero' sort of way.) But Domino made me almost love her bony ass.

Domino is based on the true story (I wiki-ed this) of English born and bred bounty hunter Domino Harvey, daughter of a movie star. She was a model but said fuck it and came to the USA and teamed up with two bounty hunter men. Mickey Rourke (hatchet-face in The Wrestler, 2008) Christopher Walken (fuck yes. He was my first big-time crush when I was a wee one) and Lucy Liu guest beside Keira and do a pretty good non-annoying job.

So, the plot is pretty tough to write all down here since it's full of details and shit, but there's a black woman (Mo'nique) who works at the DMV who has a granddaughter that needs an operation. She agrees to set up these 4 boys as the thieves of some cash heist so some of that money can actually be re-routed to her to pay for her granddaughter's operation. Problem is 2 of the 4 kids are mob-boss kids.

So Domino and her team--in a pimped-out Winnebago--get mixed up in this, accidentally mishearing directions and rip a guy's arm off by shooting him in the shoulder until it could be torn away. (I wished they had shown this scene a little clearer. I lurve me some delicious gore. It makes the warmth come out.) Lots of shoot outs, explosions, swearing and nipples later, the end of the movie is bittersweet, but I wasn't really left with a lot. I mean, it's cool and I mos def recommend it, but the sad places were ruined with shitty music and weren't long enough to elicit emotion for my black-boiled heart-box, and Ithink there was just too much shit going on to really get into any of the characters.

The movie was panned when it came out, maybe it was running against a big movie that year, I don't know. But this movie is purely for fun, to just get caught up in a small adventure and be like "Yeah that girl kicks some serious ass" and "Hey! It's Christopher Walken! and "That one guy that's the lawyer is now on House playing that ex-plastic surgeon guy working on House's team!"

Sammy L Jackson 'Afro Samuri' kinda sucks rectum

2009-01-30T11:50:00.011-06:00

So I'm one of those people that type like eight different words into the Google search engine, hoping I'll get specifically what I want, like true real ghost hauntings spirit story adult scary, or watch movies free online streaming new. You discover alot of cool things this way, and sometimes you even get what you were looking for. So I did this the other day and came across a data base with new releases of movies, and my eye caught Afro Samurai: Resurrection. I (attempted to) watch the series, but it was so poorly drawn, voiced and plotted that it made my love for anime hide. (Took 3 hours to find it again, it was trembling under the stove and I had to coax it out with a sqeaky toy.)

Why bother going into all the reasons why it's historically incorrect. It's just bad. I don't F-ing care at all, even if freeking Sammy L. J IS voicing someone. Why can't one of the good animes make it big over here?

Like Samurai Champloo.

This is Jin. He's F-ing hot.

Samurai Champloo has all the elements of a good damn adult show. It's funny, it's serious, there's hot men that are experts at fighting, a cute annoying girl that helps the plot move on, excellent animation and whether in original Japanese or English dub, it retains its luster. (Although I recommend the original Jap over Eng, because the girl's voice is so terrible in English and cute in Jap, and also some of the translations in subtitle are better than the dub.)

It's about a girl back in the Edo period trying to find her dad who stinks like sunflowers (sorry, it's actually "smells" like sunflowers), and she recruits by accident these ronin Samurai who act as her bodyguards while also accomplishing their own deeds on the trip, finding love, gorging on food, and even a fun mushroom-induced trip to a land of mining zombies!

There are some gory scenes, but not too many. It's pretty true to life in most matters, men hug, bathe together in saunas (sexay) and occasionally get naked, you see some nipple, people swear, but be a man and let that stuff enrich you rather than frighten your puritanical sensibilities.

It can be found online in quite a few places, I hesitate to write them here because well, copyrights and all that. but trust me, dig even a little and you can find it. I hated it when I saw the first episodes, It was kinda boring and I could take it or leave it, but I stuck with it.

Seriously, I recommend this. It's right up there with Berserk and Bebop.

Hilary Duff to Imitate Anorexic Faye Dunaway

2009-01-28T12:34:00.000-06:00

Okay, the blog community is all over this so you probably already know about the buzz. Hilary Duff has signed to star in a new Bonnie and Clyde remake where they focus more on the real life of the bank robbers rather than the a sensationalized dramatization of their robberies. Uhh…didn’t I see this at the History Channel or A&E or some TV channel?

I betcha they are going to have them die with one single shot.

I hate some of these damn producers in Hollywood. As if film making wasn't enough of a waste of money, they just go ahead and flush it down the toilet.

This impending remake is so worthless. It’s not even bad enough to make it into a delicious guilty pleasure.

Least they forget, the original 1967 Bonnie and Clyde also had Gene Hackman and Warren Beatty. I loved that movie as a kid. I remember getting such a kick when I saw Gene Wilder aka Willy Wonka, in a cameo. And of course, we must never forget the most crucial character, Faye Dunaway’s beret.
I mean, as if rappers like Tupac and Jay-Z haven’t butchered this movie enough by using it as a song.

I would much rather see a remake of Mommie Dearest with Jake Gyllenhall in drag—that way you get the queens and the teenage girls to the theatre.

If I was the producer, I wouldn’t hire Hilary Duff. Come on, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Darrow were da original gansta’z. I would get creative and make the leads African-American (as contriversially racist as that may sound, but it gives the black actors a chance in this one sided industry.) Now that would be a remake I would like to see. I dare critics to badmouth that movie because 1. they’ll be capped and or shanked and 2. they’ll be called racists.

A reminder of the gory Bonnie and Clyde (1967) ending.

I mean, how would you remake Bonnie and Clyde?

Source

Classic Movie Gem: Alice Adams (1935) Part 1-Romantic Comedy

2009-01-28T12:25:00.001-06:00

“Yes, you must go. There’s nothing else for you to do. When anything’s spoiled, people can’t do anything else but run away from it. Goodbye.”

Alice says to Mr.Russell (Fred MacMurray), after an inexplicable instinct tells her that their romance was over and that she’ll never see him again. This emotion was something I can relate to, and that I can see in Alice’s still eyes. Of course, theirs was a doomed romance. From the moment I realized that he was ashamed of her, taking her on a date out of sight from the rest of the restaurant (to me, it looked like the type of establishment where married men rendezvous with their mistress). Yet in this messed-up romantic tale, Alice chose to be honest with herself. She is the one who chose to end that heartbreaking affair. (The line above can be seen in the clip below.)

Think of this movie as She’s All That , except deeper and not as superfluous. While that teen movie is derived and melodramatic, Alice Adams is a drama set in Depression-Era New England, revolving around Alice Adams, a young girl with an eagerness to please others in such a tragic manner. I am familiar with this kind of girl from elementary school, as I am sure we all are. She pushes herself upon people, despite the continuing ridicule of her strange “imagination” and welfare status.

There is one rich girl, Mildred, who sympathizes, or perhaps even pities Alice. Mildred chooses to invite Alice to her parties—despite the fact that all her friends continually exclude Alice from their parties.

As I watched this movie, I couldn’t help but feel like I knew the people I saw on the screen. Alice’s relationship with her brother, played by Frank Albertson, reminded me of my best friend from high school and his sister: He doesn’t want to drive her around, tells her no, but he eventually feels guilty and agrees to begrudgingly accompany Alice to Mildred’s party as her date.

At the party, Alice wears a wilting bouquet of flowers that she picked herself from the park. She is snubbed by all the other high society kids and ends up forced to hang out with the geriatric, old people (I’ve so been there, except I hung out with the stoned, un-cool college kids crashing a high school party).

At this party is where she meets Mr.Frank Russell (played by Fred MacMurray, dreamboat personified). Mr.Russell, an out of towner, is nice to Alice. I guess at this point, he seemed innocent enough. The movie seems to resemble any other Pygmalion chick flick, were the rich guy falls in love for the ugly duckling. Well, the story unravels in front of you and it does not end up as I expected or how I wanted. After each encounter, Mr. Russell comes off looking like that greasy rich player (though I still would not kick him out of bed). It is hard for me to form an opinion about him because he is very nice and genuine enough, but you just know that he has probably done this kind of shit before—whisk off a lone, impressionable girl only to tap some ass. I mean, I know that Alice is bright enough to understand that she is being manipulated, but I cant help but want her to be manipulated. damn those charming rich boys. Some really are genuine enough, like Mr. Russell, but let’s be realistic. Yes, their attraction to each other is evident; I can sense that they are trying so hard to ignore the reality and try instead to focus on that inexplicable phenomenon that they’ve found their soul mates…but alas, circumstance forces them to bring honesty upon themselves and each other.

Don’t expect to see a trace of Katharine Hepburn in this movie, because there is none, just an overly eager girl. If you want to see a performance by the great Kate, this is the movie to watch. Wheras in other films like Bringing Up Baby or Woman of the Year, Kate is essentially playing up to her Bryn Mawr- accented persona, in Alice Adams, Kate actually steps off her comfort zone and ACTS, playing a vulnerable little girl, not some spoiled, strong willed woman.

This is a two-part post. This film just speaks volumes to me. The next part deals with the movie’s acute observation of a poor family in Depression Era society.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008) or Did this Happen to Me in High School too but was too Wasted to Remember?

2009-01-28T12:25:00.000-06:00

Paced like a teen novel (one of my guilty pleasures) Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist weaves through the city of New York in such an ambience that reminded me of some listless Fellini film. I have no idea what I just said…

I thoroughly enjoyed Nick and Norah, but alas, I would not consider it a feat in filmmaking. (FYI, classic film lovers, this has nothing to do with The Thin Man’s William Powell or Myrna Loy.)

What really made it good for me was it’s fresh young actors. The movie did not feel like a Hollywood movie, but more like a Canadian movie. The main characters involve an emotional eater and a heartbroken Michael Cera, who belongs in a gay band—he is the only hetero band member and they don’t even have a drummer.

Very cute. Something for your leisure. If this your cup of tea. A really nice distraction.

Keanu Reeves to rape Cowboy Bebop

2009-01-27T22:41:00.010-06:00

You know when you wear a suit that doesn't really fit you all that well, and the shoulders are kinda off, so you can't move your arms around too much like with lifting or... movement at all? I mean, you're kinda stiff, but you think "Hey, at least I look pretty good. Yeah."

That's Keanu Reeves. Except he stopped looking good circa the end of the Matrix series.

Good old wooden-acting Keanu is soon to take on the role of one of anime's most beloved characters from the series Cowboy Bebop. It will probably be renamed Cowboy Boobbop, to appease our secular culture.

For those sad creatures who have never experienced the greatness that is the Bebop, back the fuck up.

Bebop is an adult animated scifi (Think Firefly mixed with adventure or something, and if you dont know what Josh Wheaton's Firefly is, I'll get to you later.)

So there are these two guys that run a bounty-hunting gig. One's Jet, an older kinda balding buff native American dude with a metal arm. He's the captain of the Bebop their spaceship. (Earth is pretty much like Seal's face from meteors exploding. Heh. So peeps are pretty much on other planets in space.) Anyway, the younger dude has spiky black hair, doesn't give a shit about anything but in a friendly sort of easy-going way that just fucking oozes cocky coolness that pretty much anyone that has ever gone through highschool can envy from the pits of our black little hearts. His name is Spike.

So along the way of smoking cigarettes and being hungry and shooting up bad-guys (space western kinda, I'm aware, shut up), they also pick up a gambolling hottie Fay Valentine, who in school in 2010, got into an accident in space and was put in cryogenic freezing. defrosted a long ass time later, everyone she once knew is almost dead. She's the worst developed character of the show, but she's the fanservice, there for long legs, jiggly boobs and crotch shots, although less gratuitously than done in alot of series. But I'm a fan of fan service anyway.
They pick up a data dog (not important nevermind) and a young gumby-like girl named Ed who does shit with computers.

All in all, it makes for a pretty fun varied cast, ad the interactions between Fay, Spike and Jet especially are realistic, funny, and sometimes sad.
Like most anime heroes, Spike has a past, and is basically living for the moment when he dies. Yet he's not hell-bent on destruction like alot of characters we see who have given up. Spike's not trying to kill himself, he's actually kind of a generally friendly good-mood fellow, he just considers death factually.

So here's my gripe. In order to pull off being 1) an extremely handsome anime character and 2) a varied character that is young and likeable you would not be Keanu Reeves.

If someone isn't an actor, stop putting them in roles that requires acting. It's that simple.

Tortoise headed, squinty-eyed, slack-lipped, aging, tired, dry, wooden-acting Keanu Reeves. If he says "WHOA" in the remake of this like he has in every single one of his movies, I will kill someone. I am warning you now, because inevitably, he will sneak that in somewhere, like a wet suffocated fart.

You see, the shitty jazz music that actually added alot to the series will probably be one of the first things to go. Then of course will be the side stories about Jett and Fay and Ed, I'm guessing the plot will focus mainly on Spike's doomed and far-away affection for his lost love, and of course, his vengeance. But the elements that put together a well-rounded quirky series cannot be squashed into a film, let alone one Americanized enough (booby boob booberson) to really be a good movie. especially with the lead character being old now (he ain't passable as 20) and unable to carry off the uber- lanky apathetic yet lovable Spike.

And if you think 'Dude, you bitch alot about remakes,' I have this to say to you, sir: You goddamned right.

In the end of the series, in a sad an triumphant scene, Spike points his finger like a gun and says "bang".

Bang indeed Spike. Bang indeed.

About Us

2009-01-27T15:03:00.001-06:00

I am a guy who enjoys a wide range of movies. I feel as if there has to be more to Cinema than just the standard movies they show at AMC. I can’t help but feel as if there is a treasure chest of movies just waiting to be seen out there—movies which are unique and not just recycled material.

I also hold a certain fascination with how a movie star’s life greatly parallels their choice of movies and roles. I believe that a movie star’s resume is a form of a movie.

Me and my good friend Sergei, would like to bring each other and everyone, into a state of movie awareness.

Because there is so much more to the film world than just Hollywood movies.

If you would like to contact me, you can do so at nikestav10@gmail.com

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) Gets Raped in Remake, The Uninvited (2009)

2009-01-26T15:49:00.006-06:00

(Korean: Janghwa, Hongryeon- literally "Rose Flower, Red Lotus")

NOT ANOTHER REMAKE GOD WHY??!!
In 2003, possibly one of the greatest movies of all time was unleashed in the form of a Korean film by Ji-woon Kim called A TALE OF TWO SISTERS. It was understated, quiet, lulling you into the very very small bits of horror, that made it all the more frightening because the two very young girls were so very much just like you or me.... just Korean. Haunting and atmospheric, every shot as pretty as a painting and the music sparse so as not to overload the senses, it brought you into a world where a young girl and her sister come home from a mental institution, to the house where their mother died. They do not like their new step mother, as is apparent, and step mom seems a little manic--too much smiles, too enthusiastic, but it is hiding a barely guarded rage towards her little charges.
(this pic: Innocence and fragility)

The psychological meaning of this movie only became clear to me after numerous viewings, but it never ceases to grab me by the butt and teeth (simultaneously) and not let go, even after the movie is over. I think about it for days. Someone under the kitchen sink? Events that occur all at once, as if the three women in the house were one person? And what exactly did happen to their mother? And why are the girls so terrified of that wardrobe in the corner?
Lingering, delicate, scary and sad, it ends with a scene from the past, where the Father first brought home his then colleague (soon to be stepmom). She has witnessed the death of the girl's mother and possible death of "someone else" but stood by, doing nothing to help. She stops the main character (cute girl on the far left there) in the hall and warns her "This may be a day you regret". It won so many awards that it's pointless to list them all here. Go look it up yourself. But if you never see another foreign film in your life, watch a TALE OF TWO SISTERS. I stole it from this jackass I knew in College, and I watched it, and holey shit---he aint never getting that movie back. It's mine forever.
And what the fuck did Hollywood do? Shit on it. That's right. They went to a urinal, dropped trow and exploded a butt-barf of raw sewage all over this beautiful enchanting tale.

(Innocence? Good acting? wont find that in the remake! But boobies! Sex appeal! Arian nation!)What did Hollywood name their feces baby? THE UNINVITED. The two little girls are now sexy booby teenagers, and instead of sitting on the end of a dock, being real people together, they are, in Hollywood land, jumping and giggling in bikinis. Where's Joe Francis to film this for Girls Gone Wild? It is the worst bastardization of something I have ever seen. PERIOD. What's with the cliche English-children ghosts in the Uninvited? Why? They have all the dumb gimmicky cliche's you could imagine, just stuffed into one movie. OO! Loud sudden noise! Convoluted plot line! Collegian-injected 20-year olds passing off as teens... Sex! Why? Why would they do this? I am looking up to the heavens in hurt incredulity, because I don't understand what I--nay, AMERICA-- did to deserve this? Has the United States lost all its creativity, or is it more that Hollywood producers are so scared to take a chance on the new little-guy writers that they just keep doing remakes?
So Hollywood: stop that shit. Right now. If you were a person, I swear to god I would follow you home, corner you in an alley and beat your face into a brick wall.
You're welcome.

Potent Quotable

2009-01-25T17:34:00.001-06:00

I never look back, dahling. It detracts from the now.

Edna Mode, Superhero Couturier and Edith Head-Ann Wintour composite.

Perfume: The Story Of a Murderer (2006) or What If You Found Out You Have No B.O.?

2009-01-25T16:57:00.001-06:00

Okay, this is movie is based on a best selling novel of the same name by Patrick Süskind and directed by Tom Twyker, the dude who directed the cult favorite, Run Lola Run (1998).

The only star you’ll probably recognize is Dustin Hoffman. Oh! And the guy who plays Snape from the Harry Potter movies.

The movie is beautifully shot, like some olde timey Dutch painting. The visuals are so stunning that they can take your breath away. And this is done very methodically because I could swear that I could smell the fruits, flowers and fish guts emanate from the screen. The breathtaking visual is not just for flash, but it is a tool to create the illusion of heightened senses.

It tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a guy born amongst fish guts at a local market in Baroque France. (So yes, guys and gals in powder wigs and opulent costumes and set pieces.)
Jean Baptiste is born with a special talent. He basically reminds me of a rat or my beagle, his nose constantly sniffing the air. Growing up at the orphanage, all the other children can tell that he is a freak, though they can’t quite put their finger on what it is. Soon, Jean Baptiste puts his sniffing talents to good use, when fate delivers him to a perfume shop. Yada-yada-yada, the perfume shop owner connects that dots and Jean Baptiste is made into his apprentice.

This movie could also have been titled “To Make Perfume”. Unlike To Kill a Mockingbird, this movie does shed some light into how perfume is made.

You also should probably know, at the start of the movie, Jean Baptiste is being hanged. The story is told in flashback. So how does a poor guy who struggled through life with a supernatural sense of smell end up getting hanged for murder?

Well, this is what I believe made this movie, this whole story, so powerful and moving. This guy, will stop at no cost, to find the perfect scent. He does find that perfect scent. But at what cost? Well, in order to make the perfect scent, you have to extract the scent of a virgin. Yes, this guy goes on a killing rampage. He doesn’t even have sex with these women. He just kills them for their scent. Nice huh?

But through out the whole movie, the strange thing was, I didn’t want the guy to get caught. He is a despicable man but….maybe it has something to do with that scene where he discovers he has no smell. Yes, the guy has no smell. That was what made him such a freak and what the other kids at the orphanage sensed. Well, this attribute of his only fuels his desires on the quest for that perfect scent. He has to compensate for the fact that he doesn’t have an odor.

Which lead me to the observe, that yes, we all do have a unique funk or body odor (some stronger than others—don’t look at me!) I couldn’t help but ask myself, what if I found out that I was not like everyone else and had no B.O.? Would that really make me happy? I would never have to take a bath! Yet still, I would be PISSED if I found out that I had no B.O.

This movie is truly an experience that shall linger with you for a week(yes, sorta like a bad smell). Weeks after this movie, I kept trying to smell things. Isn’t this ultimately what movies should do? Let you live out your life, rather than have it be the other way around.

I need to go out and smell the world!

Oh, did I forget that at the end of the film there is a huge orgy? I’m kidding. Or maybe I am not.

Before and After Garbo

2009-01-25T14:22:00.001-06:00

I have a very huge spot at the bottom of my heart for Greta Garbo. No, she may not be the greatest actress but she is definitely a personality to be reckoned with.

Katharine Hepburn with all her Oscars admired Garbo’s work. Joan Crawford preyed for the moment until Garbo leaves the business so she can pounce on that vacant position. Bette Davis herself admits that she cannot compare to Garbo.

Of all the silent stars to transition into talkies, Garbo’s, with her “Gimme A Vhiskey” line, is the most monumental. It seemed to me that the other actresses were watching her lead. Here was a woman with a “star quality” and talent, matched with skills, to back it up.

For me, film acting changed significantly after the arrival of this divine woman. Before Garbo, we had Gloria Swanson and Alla Nazimova flaying their arms theatrically or Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford batting their eyelashes. Sure, Garbo displayed this kind of acting in Flesh and the Devil (1926), but she held a restraint that was rare in acting at the time. She managed to display a subtext into her performance all the while inviting us the audience into a voyeuristic experience: peering up close upon the face of a woman. I mean, in real life, would you dare to stare at a person’s face in such a moment of great emotion? In real life, we would probably either be too shy or that person we are staring at would probably turn away in embarrassment. Not Greta Garbo. She bares her face to the movie going audience.

It seems to me that after Garbo’s arrival in Hollywood, the way we perceived an actress and a star changed forever.

Let the Right One In (2008)

2009-01-25T13:47:00.006-06:00

(Swedish: Låt den rätte komma in),

So I downloaded the Swedish movie Let the Right One In the other day, along with the English script so I could understand what they were saying, as my Swedish grandparents didn't really pass on the DNA of the learnt language.

The title comes from the John Ajvide Lindqvist novel of the same name, stemming from the Morrissey song of similar name, used here because traditionally, vampires cannot come into a room uninvited, and also useful as a caution to let the right one into your life.

Oskar is our little blond 12-year old protagonist, taking us through the frozen backdrop of mid-80's Stockholm. His parents are divorced, he is bullied at school for no reason-- "piggy pig" he is taunted with, though he is skinny. (This one scene, theese little twirps lash over his hvevos and legs with a whip. Not fun.) On a playground outside the apartment where he lives with his mom, (the playground's basically a metal box, it reminded me of this pic) one night he meets Eli, a new neighbor, and apparently, a little 12 year old just like him.

So this Eli--we realize quite early on because we aint stoopid--is a vampire. The man "she" lives with is obviated in the novel as being a pedophile, a former teacher who was fired and his house burnt down. He is shown as collecting blood from some men he catches, a gift for Eli. You see, they have this sort of trade-off (again obviated in the novel, not so much in the movie). Eli treats killing for food as just a fact of life, but it also makes little Eli sad:( So, this old dude "she" lives with kills for "her" and in exchange, he gets to molest her! See--? Every one's happy. Not to treat molesting lightly, but don't worry he gets a bitty punishment of his own, which is kinda sad actually.

So old dude is getting old, and forgetful, and he gets caught killing and does something really painful to disfigure/hide his identity so he and subsequently Eli wont be caught. (The effects on this when you finally see the end result is GLOOOOORIOUS!)

The film shows bleak shots of concrete apartment houses and black streets, snot dripping like tears down little children's faces (I noted this numerous times, my maternal instinct kept wanting to wipe it away from them--and then I punched myself in the family jewels to made it stop) grey rooms, sparse furniture. So when colour is used--bright red blood, deep blue sky, you get all tingly and pleased inside because you're eyes were missing the visual treat. And that's not to say it ISN'T a visual treat. the actual dialogue is pretty sparse too, lending more on atmosphere and your own observation of the affection between the two youngsters to carry it along. (Forget about the side plot with some old ugly villagers. Seriously. That shit was boring. Do. Not. Want.)

Yes there is a vampire in it, but the movie is more about a yonug boy and his friend, and their love then it is about all the glittery Hollywood shit that they toss in craggy fistfulls at vampire movies these days.

Eli and Oskar have feelings for eachother--I guess. I more see that from Oskar's side as he hugs Eli when Eli barfs after he gives "her" candy. One night Eli even crawls into bed with Oskar (no sex, you perves) and he asks her to be his GF--cuuuuteee! Even though "she" tells Oskar "Uhm... I'm not a girl".

The two work out a morse-code, tapping things like GOOD LUCK and KISS to eachother trough the walls, and eventually at the end shot, through a coffin. But this is one movie with an acutally good ending one I haven't seen in years. Bad people you hate get all mutilated up (satisfying) and the two lovers are together.

Now for those confusing moments, where Eli keeps telling Oskar that "she" isn't a girl--"she's" right! Several hundred years before, Eli was Elias, and some dumb-ass noble with too much money and not enough hugs orders little boys brought to his house, and he chops off their junk. All of it. Off. All the junk. Smooth like a plastic doll. Normal castration is just taking off the balls, cuz you need to keep the spout to urinate, you know. So this dude chopped all that happy stuff off and drank the blood from it, somehow making Eli a vampire. (Side note--that really sucks. If there's anything that would make you want to kill yourself, it's having all your spiddly-winks and pudding-toddy chopped away. But this poor vampire can't die, really. Sads. But I guess they don't really need to urinate anymore --right?)

So I understand the director Tomas Alfredson couldn't really go into the past or the pedophillia much, but he could have just had some dialogue about that, just Eli mentioning it to Oskar, that "she" and the old dude 'she' lives with have an arrangement, and also "she" could have mentioned something along the lines of "a long time ago, a very bad man cut me up" in explanation of "her" own genderlessness. So that explains why we see a quick shot of a long scar over Eli's pubic bone when he/she/it's changing clothes.

NOT ANOTHER REMAKE!!!!! But yes, some anus-less idiot in the United States (I disown him living in my country, may he burn to death) Matt Reeves--who made that vomit and corpse-exudate fart-fuck mess called 'Cloverfield'-- will attempt to slice and slaughter, grind and pummel any majic and beauty out of this story and make it more "accessable" to the English. Yes, more accesable. Because we all too stooooopid to undowstand what goin on in dem foriegn films, right? ugh. It will be accessable as a pipe of pureed mash they force-feed geese. Great. another wonderful film so soon after it's debut will now be shown in a heart-grippingly bad remake. I bet they will pull the actors for the chidlren right off a pouty-lipped Sears Ad line up, play it up so they are older and can have sex, splash more gore inot the scenes, more boobies, and more pedohpilla cuz we Americans love that kinds junk right? No we dont want to think. dont make us think. just stick that tube of purreed mash down my throat and spell out the whole plot for me cuz me too dumb.

Wisdomosity

2009-01-24T14:33:00.001-06:00

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

Katharine Hepburn

The Reader (2008) or How Some 16 Year Old Boned A Hot Older Woman and Chose Not To Brag About It

2009-01-24T13:48:00.001-06:00

Yeah, you can see the guy’s penis. Grow up will you. If it’s not standing up, it’s considered art and not porn.
And that shouldn’t be your main concern. Your main concern should be the fact that the boy is reading from a non-existent book.

Okay, what can I say about the reader that hasn’t already been said by a vast number of critics and bloggers.

Well, I can talk about how I almost cried and how I threw an ashtray at the TV screen (yes, I got a DVD screener and don't ask me how I got it).

Stephen Daldry directed this movie, along with The Hours(2002) and Billy Elliot (2000). Well, you could certainly see elements of those two movies coming together here, a scraggly young ladd and discontented women with lesbian impulse.

I can only comment in the great story telling and the way Kate Winslet grips you through this entire movie. Without spoiling anything, she tenaciously holds a shameful secret that she never divulges, even if it means going to prison for life. It got annoying at one point. Okay fine, you are going to know anyways, its not going to ruin the experience. She is illiterate and deathly ashamed of it. I didn’t give anything away—it’s in the title! But the screenwriter hints at it so brilliantly—he doesn’t have the characters weep, “Oh my god! It’s true! I am a moron who cant read! Please give my character some emotional investment.”

And about the ashtray. I wanted to throw it at the kid character who bones the character Winslet’s playing, Hannah Schmitz. This kid, has a chance for redemption and a chance to save Hannah Schmitz’s life. He continually dodges this chance and grows into an balding, guilt ridden Ralph Fiennes. This kid chose to ignore helping someone because of his own fears and I kept hating and hating him throughout the movie.

Yet at the end, I was the one who was tricked. This kid evoked all sorts of emotions from me. I really felt as if I shared his experience. It also got me to question, if I were in his shoes, would I have been so noble or would I have procrastinated at the chance of helping out someone?

The characters are really human in this film.

What did I, for one, learn and get from this movie? Well, people can probably get their money’s worth—Kate Winslet is naked nearly through the first hour (or at least it seemed like it).

Oh, soul wise? Hmm…

I learned that I should not take this ability to read and write for granted. Within this most basic of skill lies the key to a world of books and long distance communication.

What I take with me after watching The Reader: I can only be so lucky to be literate and to live in a community where I, nor my neighbors, are being sent to concentration camps.

Film Persona: Bette Davis Part 2- The Torn Down Bitch

2009-01-23T15:58:00.001-06:00

The Torn Down Bitch

This next slew of films is what many critics and fans alike may call Bette Davis’ golden age. In these films, Bette plays powerful women who are a victim of circumstance. Amidst a period where her contemporaries where fading and labeled box office poison, Bette thrived and became the hot ticket. No longer did Bette need a leading man or a gangster movie; she made her own kind of genre: a Bette Davis movie.

Jezebel (1938)

Many considered this movie to be Davis’ consolation prize for not getting the Scarlett role in Gone with the Wind. Yet I believe this to be Bette Davies version of the story, fittingly so. The film co stars Henry Fonda as the object of Bette’s affection.

She plays a spoiled southern bell who makes all the wrong decisions, yet I can understand end empathize with her passion. With the break of the civil war, Bette’s character soon channels her passion into more practical causes (than petty ones, like shocking people with what dress she wears).

The most memorable scene for me (probably because they show this clip a million times during the TCM commercials) is when Bette’s character shows up to her debutant ball in a brazen red dress, causing shock and scandal in the town.

This movie marks the beginning of Bette’s fruitful partnership with director William Wyler as well as her second Oscar win.

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

Playing her namesake, Queen Elizabeth I, Bette explores the circumstance of a woman in power (a struggle familiar to the actress and which she articulates in All About Eve).

Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland co star. Bette shaves her head in this movie filmed in Technicolor.

Dark Victory (1939)

If you are unfamiliar with Dark Victory, then you probably are not a Bette Davis fan or a classic film fan.

This is probably my favorite Bette Davis performance. She exercises control over her trademark temper and evokes a great connection with the audience.

She plays a spoiled socialite who discovers she has a terminal illness.

Look for Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan in the film.

The Letter (1940)

The Letter has all the ingredients which cooks into a great Bette Davis film: director William Wyler and a Somerset Maugham adaptation.

Bette plays the scheming wife of a plantation owner in Malaysia. She is under trial for murder. The film involves blackmail and adultery.

Bette is incredibly sinister in this movie.

With the end of the 1930’s, Bette entered another phase in her film persona as Bette herself uncontrollably aged. And as it usually goes in Hollywood, roles for women as they grow older grow more scarce. This is the phase in which Bette Davis plays discontented women.

Part 3

Film Persona: Bette Davis Part 1- Disgraced Wreck

2009-01-23T15:54:00.001-06:00

Disgraced Wreck

As she was starting out, Bette bulged her eyes out in a number of challenging roles. She played women who were spiraling out of control and were usually, showed in harsh lightning which brought out Bette Davis’ “Ugly Duckling” quality. These characters had incredibly dense and stubborn personalities, seemingly determined to bring ruin upon themselves. Bette really bit into these roles with fervor and tenacity. I guess this could be the start of how she brands her film persona as the great tragedienne. Ms. Davis made a point of showing truth, no matter how ugly it was.

Of Human Bondage (1934)

She played a drunken whore with bad mascara. The most lasting image for me is when she is passed out in that drape dress. Leslie Howard, forever known as Ashley Wilkes, plays the club footed main character.

Bette Davis screams and shouts and “wipes her mouth!” while her hair is frizzed out everywhere.

Dangerous (1935)

Playing a recovering alcoholic, Bette won her first Oscar in this movie. Which reaffirms my theory that sometimes, the academy doesn’t give out Oscars for a performance in a movie, but for an actor’s body of work. Bette should have won for Of Human Bondage.

Interesting tidbits from wiki.

It was for this film Perc Westmore styled her hair in the bob cut she would favor for the rest of her life…

In 2002, Steven Spielberg anonymously bought the Oscar Davis had won at auction at Sotheby's. The statuette had been part of the memorabilia displayed by the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain.

Marked Woman (1937)

In this gangster melodrama co-starring Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis plays a call girl working in an underground casino. She gets into trouble by going against the city’s most powerful gangsters, hence, she is a “marked woman”.

Surrounding this film’s production was Bette Davis parallel fight with studio head, Jack Warner, for more salary and artistic control.

Of course, this fight pays off. The fate of Bette’s huge head – huge talent—will no longer be in someone else’s control. This ushers in a new phase in Davis’ persona, the torn down bitch.

Part 2

Image Source

Potent Quotable

2009-01-23T11:49:00.001-06:00

No. No. I just... I just thought you might want some extra seamen on your, uh, on-on-on your poop deck.

-Peter Griffin to his nautical father in law

Oscar Nominations 2009

2009-01-23T11:40:00.001-06:00

Okay, I just want to put this list out there.
I have only seen a handful of the movies. I am in the process of deconstructing the 4 major categories, which include acting, directing, screenplay and best picture.

As usual, I don’t care much for documentaries. Just not my thing. I fundamentally believe in movies as escapism from reality.

I am majorly surprised that Charlie Kauffman’s Synecdoche New York was snubbed. I guess it was just one of those movies you either really liked or really hated. Or it just didn’t get enough enthusiasm from the studio, who knows.

I love seeing who wins but I don’t always agree with the academy’s voters. What most people don’t understand, including me to a certain degree, is how the Oscars work.

People nominated, as well as the studio involved, have to campaign for their contender. It can get very political.

At the end of the day, it’s all just for fun, acknowledgement and promotion for a artistic work.

BEST PICTURE
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Milk
"The Reader"
"Slumdog Millionaire"

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"
Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"
Meryl Streep, "Doubt"
Kate Winslet, "The Reader"

BEST ACTOR
Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"
Sean Penn, "Milk"
Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, "Doubt"
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Viola Davis, "Doubt"
Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road"

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"
David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"
Gus Van Sant, "Milk"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"
Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Marttin McDonagh, "In Bruges"
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, "WALL-E"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"
David Hare, "The Reader"
Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"
John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"The Baader-Meinhof Complex" (Germany)
"The Class" (France)
"Departures" (Japan)
"Revanche" (Austria)
"Waltz with Bashir" (Israel)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
"Bolt"
"Kung Fu Panda"
"Wall-E"

Click here for the complete list.

Foreign Movie Gem: ¡Átame! (1990)

2009-01-22T10:23:00.001-06:00

Atame (The English title of the movie is “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”) is a film by the magnificent Spanish filmmaker, Pedro Almodóvar. The film stars a young Antonio Banderas.

Okay, so how can I paraphrase a synopsis for the Almodóvar virgins? Let us begin with the Spanish Stallion, who is imprisoned in some sort of asylum, where he repays his debt to society by fixing locks. Well, it just so happens that the administrator of the prison is a horny woman who the Spanish Stallion is fucking on the side. Because of his manly talents, he is allowed to leave the penitentiary or whatever, early.

Back out into society, the Spanish Stallion desires to lead a “normal” life, which includes a house and a wife. He sees on a magazine, the picture of a an actress. This actress was formerly a porn star. This former porn star becomes the target of the convict’s obsession.

We get to know the porn star a little better. It turns out, she is a sex maniac and a recovering heroin addict. There is one magnificent scene where she is in the bath tub and she plays with an electric toy scuba diver.

Soon, the convict tracks the porn star down and kidnaps her. He then ties up the porn star (hence the title.) He wants to force her into loving him.

This whole movie reminds me of that Marilyn Monroe movie Bus Stop (1956). I think, if that movie had a sequel, this would be it.

Well, through out the movie, the convict and the porn star battle it out as she tries to escapes.

Suspense and hilarity ensues.

Also of note, the porn star is starring in a “mainstream” movie. The director of that movie is a horny, dirty old man who just became a paraplegic and travels around a wheel chair.

Please don’t let the subtitles scare you away.

And interestingly enough, they have a whole wiki page dedicated to bride kidnapping in film. They have a pretty long list which includes Borat and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

And if you are wondering why you never saw this movie in America, it is because the MPAA gave it an NC-17 rating.

Unnecessary Movie: The Edge of Love (2008)

2009-01-22T10:22:00.001-06:00

The movie stars Keira Knightly, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys.

I was wondering why Keira made this movie and apparently, her mother is named Sharon Macdonald and she penned the script.

This movie was a labor to watch for me, although it had its moments, like the climax at the end between Keria and Cillian. It had some nice, nostalgic atmosphere (everyone smokes at every scene, that’s the atmosphere) and we get to hear the bony Keira sing.

Cillian Murphy has a scary face. Every time I see him, I think back to his demonic turn in Red Eye.

Matthew Rhys (the gay brother from the TV show Brothers and Sisters) plays the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. He is married to the mother of his child, played by Sienna Miller.

Wow, this just got semi-interesting. If you haven’t been keeping up with the tabloid headlines, Sienna Miller’s genitalia is apparently wrecking another Brother and Sister’s star, Balthazar Getty's, home. I have nothing against Sienna and other mistress sluts out there, I say more power to you and I hope that you sleep at night.

Another interesting tidbit about this movie is that Lindsay Lohan was attached to star in the movie. She was supposed to take the Sienna Miller part.

Can you imagine had Lohan not dropped out? Balthazar Getty would probably have semi-normal kids and Sienna might be a better actress (MIGHT BE).

That fire crotch. I guess she dropped out of the movie when she realized what type of movie she was actually getting into—which is a classy period piece. In an interview with MTV.com, she describes her relationship with the Keira Knightly character as having “a somewhat of a lesbian undertone.” Uhuh. I didn’t see that lesbian undertone in the final film. Okay fine, in once scene the two lady characters share a tub, but so what, girls do that all the time, right?

Hmm…I guess the extremely skinny girls are what the fire crotch craves.

Anyway, the movie’s message has something to do with the war and how its bad for the soldier and the family of the soldier—whatever. All I know is that the tabloid craziness that stemmed from this film is far more interesting than the movie itself.

Who do you think shoulda taken the role of Caitlin McNamara in The Edge of Love? (Then maybe, Lindsay Lohan would be running around with Keira. Now that would be a good movie.)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Promo Pic

2009-01-21T19:49:00.001-06:00

So exciting! But what’s up with the rest of the peeps in the photo? Did Hugh Jackman just fart? Or are they embarrassed by the fact that they are comic books nerds as well?

Gambit and Rogue were my favorite X-men. I mean, how cool are those flaming cards? He has a really weird Creole accent though.

It’s a shame that they don’t make Hugh Jackman wear that signature yellow uni-tard that Wolverine always wears.

Liev Schriber is a hairy beast. He is close to perfect as Sabretooth (he’s a bit too short. In the comics and TV show, Sabretooth towered Wolverine.)

Just wondering, how many homosexual comic book nerds are there? Why would they have the promo pic expose that much vein and muscle? Is it too make the scrawny heterosexual nerds feel bad? Why isn't the only chick in the pic exposing ass or chest cleavage? Oy Vey, what a sausage fest!

Click here to see various trailers from the comic convention that some really cool nerd probably illegally video-taped.

Ryan Reynolds Deadpool,

Liev Schreiber Sabretooth,

Taylor Kitsch Gambit

Lynn Collins Silver Fox

X-Men Origins has a release date of May 1, 2009 in the US while the damn French get to see it on April 29.

Source

Movie Soup for the Soul: Europa ‘51 (1952)

2009-01-21T19:15:00.001-06:00

Having a fascination with Francis of Assisi, Roberto Rossellini decided to create a film that placed a person of Francis of Assisi's character in post-war Italy and showed what the consequences would be.

Source

Roberto Rossellini wrote and directed Europa’ 51 and uses his camera to show us the state of the human condition.

In the movie, Ingrid Bergman plays Irene Girard, a wealthy woman who throws lavish get-togethers. At the beginning of the movie, we meet her son, a depressed, moping boy. In this day and age, we would call him an “emo”. The boy continues to ponder the meaning of life after the war and Irene cannot comprehend his morbidity. She grows frustrated with his dour mood and leaves him in his room as she goes to host yet another party. During the course of the night, her son kills himself. (Wow, that kid is such an attention whore.)

After the death of his son,Irene is plagued with grief. A friend suggests that she uses her time for charity. Irene does this and she comes face to face with the harsh life of the poor.

This is no Hollywood movie, Ladies and Gentlemen. This is a Rossellini film. The heroine does not discover the brutal reality out there by undergoing a series of pratfalls and misadventures. No. She sees how hard life can be by experiencing it and we, the audience goes along for the ride.

Pretty soon, Irene gets into trouble with her husband (The guy is jealous and suspicious, irked by the fact that his wife now would rather devote her time to charity than spend her time with him.) Anyways, in the third act, she is sent to a mental institution because…why would a beautiful, wealthy woman spend her time helping out the poor?

So basically, it is safe to associate Irene with a saint. Yet the fact that she is beautiful and wealthy, society labels her as a loony.

Here are a few deeds that helped sentence Irene into the asylum:
-donating money to a boy who needs medical help
-helps a woman with six children find a job
-takes care of a woman who I think is a whore, before that woman dies from coughing up her lung
-she makes a hoodlum thief boy, to turn himself in

In the asylum, I can’t help but share her frustration in explaining herself (she shouldn’t have to). I cant help but think that she now has stepped into the same mind set as her son.

Anyways, they make fun of her for thinking that she is a saint—no, they make her believe that she thinks she is a saint.

I believe that Rossellini and Bergman's treatment of sainthood in the twentieth century is quite accurate. Folks, don’t ponder your spiritual existence. You’ll only be sent to a mental asylum.

What if a saint actually resides in a mental asylum? We’ll never know because I don’t think we care.

Top 4 Film Actor’s Actor

2009-01-21T15:33:00.001-06:00

Many actors remain in awe at the natural talents of these four actors. I regard them as the best of the best. Many film actors, no matter how accomplished, will give their right arm to star in a movie with any of these talented thespians. When an agent asks “Do you want to be in this independent movie? Antony Hopkins is also in it” you can guarantee that the agent will hear a resounding ‘yes’.

They are not an actor’s actor because of their “craft” or stardom, but because of the consistency of their effortless performance. These are people lucky enough to possess a natural gift, shaped by experience. They can communicate any emotion on celluloid, not as an actor, but as a character. And by communicate, they give their heart and soul to the moment but at the same time, they unconsciously invite the audience into sharing their experience. Their performances are forever cemented on celluloid.

Keep in mind, the word “soul” when watching their performances and you may understand what I mean.

Based from what I have read through various interviews as well as personal opinion, here are the top four film actors that I dare anyone to dispute.

OLD HOLLYWOOD
Spencer Tracy
Ingrid Bergman
CONTEMPORARY
Anthony Hopkins
Vanessa Redgrave

They are not as passionate as Marlon Brando or Bette Davis, nor are they as theatrical as Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. They deliver performances that I find to be human and natural. Never have I watched them on screen and think “oh, they’re acting is wonderful”. Each word and action comes from the depths of their soul. After I watch one of their movies, I gain a much deeper understanding of the human condition.

These actors are not driven by fame nor are do they have such huge egos. Remarkably, these greats have shared the screen with each other at some point or another. Hopkins and Redgrave in the Merchant Ivory production, Howards End (1992). While Tracy and Bergman matched wits in Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde (1941).

Note: On this list could have been Marie Dressler and Charles Laughton. Yet I do not feel comfortable enough with their body of work to make such an assertion.

Old School Modern

2009-01-21T14:33:00.001-06:00

These actors posses the ability to weave in and out into period costume pictures and into contemporary movies. They can wear corsets or man-tights one day and step into high heels and loafers in the next. Their versatility gives them a mass appeal to the general movie-going public, but to film critics as well. Their style of acting can feel traditional and refined, but these actors infuse a degree of modernity that cant help but escape within their passionate performances. They are young, modern actors with an old soul.

Kate Winslet
Helena Bonham Carter
Ralph Fiennes
Rachel Weisz
Cate Blanchett
Nicole Kidman
Naomi Watts
Hugh Jackman
Christian Bale

Movie Gem: Barbarella (1968)

2009-01-21T14:07:00.001-06:00

I recently re-watched the cult classic Barbarella last night. I first watched it as a 14 year old when it came on basic cable. God only knows what they censored, but it doesn’t matter since I had no idea what was going on. I was merely dazzled by the special effects—come to think of it, my only memory of it is the scene during opening credits: the one where Jane Fonda is floating and she is undressing her space outfit. Now, armed with a mature perspective, I am overwhelmed with such campy goodness. As I walked my dog this morning, I couldn’t help but hum the theme song for Bar-bar-bar-barella. I felt silly, but in an incredibly gay mood (gay as in joyful).

Jane Fonda & Vadim
The film stars one of my favorite actresses and celebrity personality, Jane Fonda. I have reason to believe that this movie catapulted her into “Star” status. At this point of her life, she was married to notorious film director Roger Vadim (who also directs Barbarella). Fonda is made up into a Vadimbot—a hot blonde sex kitten, much like his other wives and lovers such as Bridgette Bardot (the first), Catherine Deneuve and Annette Strøyberg—to name a few. Fonda admitted in her memoir that she had a breast augmentation and transformed herself to please Vadim ( after their divorce, she chopped off her hair and dyed it dark brown, morphing into academy award winning actress and Hanoi Jane, but more on that later).

Anyways, since I possess some autobiographical information on Miss. Fonda, I couldn’t help but connect this film with her life. As I watched this movie, I couldn’t help but think that Barbarella is what Vadim calls her in bed. (It’s not, Barbarella is originally a French comic book by Jean-Claude Forest.)

I found it hard to believe this all-American daughter of Henry Fonda could be such an erotically charge creature. She has to be transformed by her European life. Yet I do believe Jane Fonda fit this role perfectly since it requires a certain amount of innocence and naiveté. Take Barbarella’s first sexual encounter in the movie—where in order to return a favor to a bounty who saved her life, she allows him to overtake her in a primal sexual manner. They don’t show the deed (this movie could so pass for soft-core porn, right down to the story line!) but they show Barbarella’s reaction after they have sex. She looks like a virgin who just got her cherry popped. I believe that this scene speaks volumes about Fonda’s relationship to Vadim. She entered the relationship as an inexperienced, yet hungry traveler; she left it as a powerful vivacious sexual creature (Fonda later married powerful men, politician Tom Hayden and billionaire Ted Turner.) I am not saying Fonda used sex as a means of seducing these men like the femme fatals for film noir, no, I mean that she gave them a little something extra in the bedroom department. I also cant help but see Fonda’s incessant need to please the men in her life. Throughout the movie, she lets the male characters dominate her without much objection. Very uncharacteristic of most American woman, Fonda treats sexuality in a very aloof, “it’s just sex” European manner.

Camp and the Pornographic Story Line
There is a number of camp motifs that I got a huge kick out of.

Excessive Nudity
”Durand Durand” (From where the 1980’s band derived their name)
Phallic weapons
Sapphic Space Craft
Lava Lamp/ Ecstasy-induced Outer Space
Creepy Children/Midgets
Bondage
Large, sex-slave like robots
Carnivorous Dolls
The “Caveman” fantasy
Pygar, the 6’5” Blonde, Blue-eyed angel who is blind
Sex on a “bird’s nest”
A hedonistic city, SoGo, named after the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah
The bisexual, dominatrix, Villain who desires girl on girl action
Hitchcock-like killer birds (I wonder if they pooped on Fonda’s humongous hair?)
The Porn-‘Stache
Traveling through plastic tubes
Orgasms through pills and holding hands
An organ-like device that can kill through an intense orgasm
The perverted, mad scientist

Okay so a few things to comment on. Is that hunter guy hairy or what?! Talk about a bear! Hey, whatever floats your boat.

How erotic is that angel? How would you like to be so good at sex that you can make an angel fly again? And do it on a nest?

Anita Pallenberg plays the brunette nemesis who wants to have sex with Barbarella. She refers to her as “Pretty-pretty” and advertises “Do you want to come and play with me? For someone like you, I charge nothing.” How much like porn is this? Well, not really. It involves more foreplay than sexual actions. Besides, this movie speaks volumes of the sexual awakening of that era.

The guy with the pornstache, Dildano (great name), is played by David Hemmings, the same actor from Antonioni’s Blow Up. He is very sexy.

The celebrated French mime, Marcel Marceau also appears in this movie.

Costumes
Inspired by Paco Rabanne, Barbarella has numerous, memorable costume changes.

Remake
In 2007, Sin City director Robert Rodriguez announced he wants to remake Barbarella with Rose McGowan. I love Rose and I am fascinated with Rodriguez’s cinematic vision. I have no doubt that they can achieve something interesting yet I am very wary. I wish they’d come up with something original and relevant. If they love this Vadim movie so much, then they should help finance a re-release or revival of some sort.

Final Thoughts
Barbarella is a unique film. Many consider it a horrible movie and many praise it fanatically. Not many can match this sci-fi erotica genre, the closest being The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Whether your opinion on it is in extreme disgust or extreme awe, you have to agree that there is no other movie quite like Barbarella. I mean, no one sets out to make a movie this horribly bad—only to have it end up so iconic.

Random Cute Story: The Girl Who Wanted To Know

2009-01-20T22:33:00.001-06:00

Girl: DO YOU THINK I'm pretty?
Boy: No
Girl: Do I ever cross your mind?
Boy: No
Girl: Do you like me?
Boy: No
Girl: Do you want me?
Boy: No
Girl: Would you cry if I left?
Boy: No
Girl: Would you do anything for me?
Boy: No
Girl: What would you choose, your life or me?
Boy: My life

The girl runs off crying in pain and the boy runs after her, grabs her hand and tells her:

"The reason why you're not pretty, is because you're beautiful.
The reason why you never cross my mind,is because you're always on my mind.
The reason why I don't like you, is because i love you.
The reason why I don't want you, is because i need you.
The reason why I won't cry if you left, is because I would die.
The reason why I won't do anything for you, is because i'd do everything for you.
The reason why I chose my life, is because you are my life"

-I found this from a kids Forum. I am not sure where the original source is. If anyone knows, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.

Photo Source

Neighborhood Obama Inaugural Ball

2009-01-20T21:12:00.001-06:00

I was waiting for new episodes of Scrubs to come on, but a major moment in history was going on so…my schedule was free anyways, I’ll watch.

I forgot who the first performer was. Oh right Will I. Am. Don’t really care…so moving on.

Mary J. Blige. I am so glad she sang “Just Fine” instead of “No More Drama”.

Maroon 5? Wait, are they black? Half Black?

Mariah Carey. Can this girl even hold a note anymore? Maybe she needs to find some advice from her opera singer mother. Poor girl. I wonder how her lambs feel about this.

Oh Denzel, you party crasher. How come you never ran for the precidency. I would have voted for you.

Oh man, does the president and first lady know how to make an entrance. Michelle looks gorgeous! Michelle’s crème-colored dress was designed by Jason Wu.

Beyonce, don’t cry!

Jamie Fox? WTF. I don’t give if you have an Oscar. You are a tool. You may throw great parties but you are a MAJOR TOOL. What have you done since Ray?

Stevie Wonder song. I love how Mariah tried to stay as far away from Alicia Keys and Beyonce. Good idea. We wont be reminded by how irrelevant and worn out you are.

Ray Romano? Eww…Stop with the unfunny jokes. Get on with it. Damn comedians.

Hova Thomas i.e. Erkel.

Kate Walsh reads the prompter like a robot. Alicia Keys sings that song that I have heard a little too much not too long ago…but not too long ago for me to feel nostalgic about it.

Anti-Gravity? That came out of nowhere.

I am so glad Kerry Washington is getting some exposure. She is such a classy and up and coming fashion icon. I hope to see more of her. I enjoy her work on the red carpet.

Vanessa Williams…I miss Ugly Betty.

Shakira looks gorgeous. The straight hair on her is starting to grow on me. Why didn’t her and Beyonce do that booty shake dance? Hmm…Now that would have gotten the party moving! Ooh! she plays the harmonica now?

Leo. The Bidens dance.

Faith Hill. What about the Dixie Chicks? I would've spotted her for a McCain chick. Not because she’s a country singer, but because of that Country Music Awards incident when she got caught on camera getting sooo pissed off for losing to that Underwood gal.

Lucy Lui comes on. Girlfriend is still fierce. A beard and Sting stings.

Why is Nick Cannon DJing? Is he getting paid?

Obama tries to be polite about leaving the party. He re-iterates his “yes you can” thing.

The acrobats come back on. And they play something from Run Lola Run Soundtrack during the closing credits. Wow! That is the highlight of my night—the Run Lola Run thing!

Okay show. I wonder if Michelle will have costume changes. I doubt it.

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Film Persona: Bette Davis

2009-01-20T14:09:00.001-06:00

Persona: The Tragedienne

Film Phases

So in the 1930’s, at the start of her career, dear ol’ Bette was pretty much trying to establish herself as a serious actress. The oldest film I have seen her in is in the 1931 pre-code James Whale film, Waterloo Bridge (1931) . She has a bit part as the leading man’s sister and she is incredibly young and blonde in the picture, with a haughty English accent.

Pretty soon, Bette fought her way up the ladder and snagged a juicy part in a W. Somerset Maugham adaptation. Bette has often attributed her career as “before and after Maugham”.

Disgraced Wrecks (1934-1937)

Of Human Bondage
Dangerous
Marked Woman

Torn Down Bitches (1938-1940)

Jezebel
The Private lives of Elizabeth and Essex
Dark Victory
The Letter

A Discontented Woman
The Little Foxes
Now Voyager
Mr. Skeffington
All About Eve

Disillusioned
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Movie Gem: Apt Pupil (1998)

2009-01-20T11:44:00.001-06:00

Based on the Stephen King novella, Apt Pupil tells the story of a teenage boy (Brad Renfro) who uncovers an elderly neighbor’s (Ian McKellen) Nazi past. The boy soon uses this information against the elderly man to control him into telling macabre stories about how the Nazi’s exterminated Jews in the holocaust. Their relationship soon progress to a battle for mental superiority.

This movie is significant to me because of it’s young lead, Brad Renfro, who passed prematurely in January 2008 from a heroin overdose (his grandmother died two weeks later from natural causes). Renfro’s portrayal of Todd Bowden is quiet and understated, reaching a boiling point only at the most appropriate moments. The young actor’s natural talent is clearly visible in this film, especially in the scenes where he has no dialogue.

Alongside Renfro is Sir Ian McKellen in one of his best work. His role of the Kurt Dussander is chilling at best. McKellen who was in his 50’s at the time, found it amusing that he was offered the role of a 74 year old man. In one scene, the boy orders Dussander to wear a Nazi uniform from a costume shop. What follows is acting by McKellen that almost made me piss my pants. In this uniform, I couldn’t help but think back to McKellen’s turn as James Whale in Gods and Monsters. In Gods and Monsters, Whale is a WWI veteran haunted by the horrors of war, while as Dussander, he is not the victim but the executioner.

The rapport between this young and veteran actor was an immense pleasure to watch. It reminded me of a Harrold Pinter play, where the two characters battle wits over who shall blackmail who into control. Both of them inject large doses of charm and malice. I couldn’t help but be charmed and scared at the same time.

Also notable is director Bryan Singer, who would later direct the X-Men movies as well Superman Returns. He explored the Nazi theme again in 2008, with Tom Cruise in Valkyrie.

Look for FRIEND’s David Schwimmer hiding behind a ‘stache!

D&G Cosmetics Ad: Scarlett as a Tranny

2009-01-19T15:03:00.001-06:00

This new ad for Dolce and Gabbana was released recently with Scarlett Johansson in a Marilyn-inspired pictorial.

It’s been done.

Does she not look like transgender personality Amanda Lepore or what? Maybe they should have hired Lepore. What a great pitch: D&G cosmetics can make a man look so much like Scarlett Johansson.

And is it just me or does Scarlett’s eyes look like she’s farting?

Style Icon of the Day: Jane Fonda Early 1960’s

2009-01-19T09:39:00.001-06:00

Up until her breakout role in the surprise hit, Cat Ballou, Jane Fonda was a working model struggling to pay for The Actor’s Studio.

Her style at this point was young and fresh- very wholesome all-American typical of the era.

Paul Blart #1 at Box Office: Hollywood Movies Continue to Grow Dumber

2009-01-19T09:14:00.001-06:00

How can you let this happen god? I mean, superman!

Paul Blart: Mall Cop was number in the box office this weekend.

What happened? Did a bunch of teenagers drag their friends and parents to this movie?

Or is the movie going public really interested in a mall security guard who is so lazy that he has to use a Segway scooter?

Whatever. The movie made $34 million dollars in its opening weekend, which in Hollywood-speak, the movie is successful enough. Oy vey, they are probably hatching up a sequel as we speak.

The movie is rated PG and stars King of Queen star, Kevin James. Hmm…maybe he has a cult following?

If I was at the movie theatre this weekend with my brain dead friends and smiley family, given a choice between a barking hounds in a movie called Grand Torino and those dogs, or watch this movie, I’d probably risk looking like a nerd and go to a fart joke movie.

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Film Persona: Kate Winslet- Body of Work So Far

2009-01-18T22:00:00.001-06:00

It matters very little to me if Kate wins any major awards or not (I hope she doesn’t. The award ruins actors. Look at Gwyneth and Charlize and Halle “Catwoman” Berry. And I also don’t want Ms.Winslet to settle for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Cate Blanchett did. Kate Winslet is no supporting actress.) Kate Winslet shall forever be acknowledged as a film thespian in her own right. To me, tickets to a Kate Winslet movie is always a welcome gift.

And whatever happens, she’ll always have a special spot in my heart. Whenever the Trésor de Lancôme ad comes on television, I feel my heart skip a beat. She doesn’t do much in the ad or even speaks any dialogue (learn something from this Ms. Kidman), yet she speaks volumes. Here in lies the mark of truly gifted and skilled actor. This ad reminds me of a Garbo moment. All you need is a face in close up—and we are voyeurs, allowed a peek in the depths of a remarkable woman.

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Film Persona: Kate Winslet Part 4- Shame and Secrets

2009-01-18T21:55:00.001-06:00

Marrying director Sam Mendes and raising her two beautiful children, Kate Winslet stepped into the real life role of the loving wife and mother. In her movies as well, Kate plays married women, yet in the movies the women possess a strong mind and lead unsatisfied and passionless lives. These women are more mature and complicated—committing shameful acts that they try to keep secret. And of course, for the sake of her craft, Kate bares all (body and soul).

Little Children (2006)
The issue: sex addiction and little children.
Kate dives into the realm of "Desperate Housewife". She plays Sarah Pierce, a dowdy housewife who is an academic at heart. She feels suffocated by the banalities of the other neighboring wives, until a desirable stay-at-home father visits the park and Sarah befriends him and starts scheduling play dates. She begins an affair with him.
The plot thickens when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood.
Watching this movie, I began to notice how disgusting our culture can be. For sure, the movie illicit many emotions and is well written.
Kate's performance is nothing short of...phantasmagoric. She plays a despicable adulterous woman, yet she can evoke the audience sympathy without being self-pitying. Despite her character's repugnant behavior and choices, I can't help but feel empathetic and admit that I would've (and already have) made the same foolish choices. She delivers a thought provoking performance that culminates when she and her son encounter the child offender (played eerily by former child actor Jackie Earle Haley.
This film, if it weren't for the fact that it has the power to make you face your sexual vices unflinchingly, is perfect. Every member of the cast and the production, no matter how brief their screen time or unseen they may be, contributes their part so perfectly and fittingly.
The film also stars Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Noah Emmerich and Phyllis Somerville as the sex offender's mother.
Written by Tom Perrotta
Directed by Todd Field

Revolutionary Road (2008)
Roger Ebert, in his review, quoted John Lennon. "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." I believe that sums up this movie.
Kate's film persona so far, could very well be summed up in this movie: she plays Leonardo Dicaprio's mother once more; she is a strong woman, stifled by society; she is a mother who has affairs; I don’t want to spoil the movie, so I'll stop there.
Her performance is so refined, well, it’s not a performance because I didn't feel as if I was watching Kate Winslet act, she was this woman, April Wheeler (who originally wanted to be an actress) . Unhappy and trapped, she is suffocated by the suburbs.
But her performance in this film is her masterpiece-- definitely her most precious contribution to the film world.
Directed by husband, Sam Mendes.

The Reader (2008)
Kate plays a concentration camp guard, on trial for war crimes.
Not many actresses can break my heart so well as Kate can. Her scenes, close-ups, while on trial are gut wrenching.
Yet what makes her portrayal special is that I don't pity her. Kate doesn't ask the audience for so simple a response. The emotions she evokes stem far deeper and are more complex than "pity".
Written by David Hare
Directed by Stephen Daldry

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Film Persona: Kate Winslet Part 3- Memory and Regret

2009-01-18T21:30:00.001-06:00

After the rollercoaster ride from the loud blockbuster right down to the quiet independent films, Kate gradually eased into the role of a true leading lady. Her movies gradually become romantic and the theme of memory seems to run through them.
It is clear that she chose the more challenging road, but it is clear, especially from the next few movies that Kate makes, that she fully understand the consequences of her action…and she does not seem to regret a single one.

Iris (2001)
She plays Irish novelist, Iris Murdoch in her early life (the older Iris is played by Dame Judi Dench). The film deals with the novelist's struggle with Alzheimer's and her relationship with John Bayley.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2003)
One of my favorite movies! Definitely top 5, based on my personal connection with it.
This movie marks a departure for Winslet, who not only takes a role in story set in modern the world of the 21st century or trying out an American accent, but she plays the zany, might-be-bi-polar girlfriend of Jim Carey. This is definitely a pleasant blip in her portfolio. The movie is its own genre of sci-fi/romance/ drama/ comedy. The film also stars Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo and Tom Wilkinson.
The movie deals with two former lovers who have their memory erased.
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman
Directed by Michel Gondry

Finding Neverland (2004)
Set in Edwardian times, Kate plays real life Sylvia Llwelyn Davies, a widowed mother who becomes J.M. Barrie's platonic love interest. Barrie loves spending time with Sylvia's sons and is inspired to write Peter Pan in the process. Yet there is trouble, of course, when society frowns upon their relationship and Sylvia's health deteriorates.
This film, for me, is significant because Kate plays a mother. Her main concern is not only about romantic endeavors, but her children (Kate has two children by this time). This is the point where Kate's film persona shifts into that oh-so-juicy and complicated realm of wife and motherhood.
Directed by Marc Forster

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Film Persona: Kate Winslet Part 2- The Frustrated Leading Lady

2009-01-18T21:09:00.001-06:00

After the gigantic success of Titanic, Kate began playing unconventional characters in art house movies. This period of Kate’s career finds her in a leading lady territory she seemed reluctant to embrace. Kate would not be content to accept roles just for fame. Kate remained dedicated in finding roles that exercise the best of her abilities.

Titanic (1997)
Her pivotal role, commercial wise, and the role that made us fall in love with this woman. Her brilliant performance in this movie is overshadowed by the epic size. Kate really sunk into the character of Rose, the repressed woman whose destiny was chosen for her. No other actress could have broken are heart in a more profound way than Kate could have done. The movie, especially the ending, was sentimental. Yet Kate's final shot in on that ferry, where she discovers the necklace in her coat, spoke volumes of that heartbroken yet resolute woman.

Hideous Kinky(1998)
After the mega success of Titanic, Kate chose smaller projects and declined the huge movie offers (like the lead in Shakespeare In Love). She had no intentions of being an unhappy Hollywood movie star trying to starve herself thin. The path she chose was with the eccentric role of Julia, a hippie mother of two, traveling from London to Morocco, in this eccentric independent film of note.
I have yet to watch it.

Quills (2000)
A tale about Marquis De Sade, (the man from whom we derive the term "sadism") where Kate plays a laundress who smuggles the Marquis' manuscripts, puts her alongside Michael Caine and Geoffery Rush.

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Film Persona: Kate Winslet Part 1- Socially Unacceptable

2009-01-18T20:55:00.001-06:00

The first phase of Kate Winslet’s persona includes her three first movies. In these movies, she builds her resume by playing roles involving young women which society cannot accept. In Heavenly Creatures, she plays a young girl who is torn away from her best friend because one of their mother fears that the young girls may have a lesbian relationship. In Sense and Sensibilty, she plays Jane Austen’s penniless Marianne Dashwood. And in her last ingénue role, she plays the mentally unstable Ophelia.

Heavenly Creatures (1994)
I have yet to see this movie. But what a great debut for such a promising talent? A conniving teen who plots the murder of her best friend's mother.
Directed by Peter Jackson

Sense and Sensibility (1995)
I could not imagine a better match against Emma Thompson's Wit than Kate. She does Period pieces with such ease. She often poked fun of people's image of her as an actress who can only play corseted roles.
Directed by Ang Lee

Hamlet (1996)
She played Ophelia in this Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation.

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Potent Quotable

2009-01-18T19:26:00.001-06:00

"Happiness. Happ-i-ness. Ha-penis. Penis. I did it! Ovaries. Uvula. Uteras. VAGINA!”

-(Peggy Hill practicing how to say the names of sexual organs for a sex ed class)

They Replaced King of the Hill for this BS?

2009-01-18T19:11:00.001-06:00

Why? Is it so hard to produce quality animated shows? What, did Kathy Najimy and Brittany Murphy let their fame swell their heads and ask for pay raises?

I tell you what, whoever is in charge of their Sunday night line up needs to be eaten alive by Kathy Najimy.

If any show should’ve been canceled it should've been that time slot filler they call American Dad.

Granted, I haven’t seen new episodes of KotH for a while, but I liked having it in the background as I waited for The Simpsons and Family Guy to come on.

I can not stand that stupid Kill Bill music they have on before they fit through the holes ( I mean, how sex-deprived are the people involve in this show). And poor Brooke Burns. It’s a pity we can't just watch her jiggle herself silly on Baywatch Hawaii. (Yes, I hate to admit it, but in my misspent youth, I watched even that travesty.) Did the Dancing with the Stars people reject her what?

Anyways, hopefully they’ll resurrect in the same manner as scrubs.

Or Mike Judge get his act together and produce something that we can praise.

Without Hank, Boomhauer, Bill, Bobby, Peggy, and Luann—well, let me just say that a part of my childhood just died.

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Trash It: Katie Holmes for Mui Mui vs. Lindsay Lohan

2009-01-18T17:20:00.001-06:00

This new S/S ‘09 ad from Mui Mui is very disappointing. Good brand, shot by Mert and Marcus, and a high profile celebrity.

If this was a portrait for Vanity Fair, I would loooove it.
It speaks volumes about Katie Holmes, the brainwashed wife of Tom Cruise whose 2 year old daughter is more stylish than her.

Did the "church" of scientology bribe Mui Mui? Am I suppose to be happy that she is burned? Should I care?

I mean, come on, even Lindsay Lohan could have made this ad more interesting (more interesting, not better). Lord Knows she could use the work and have the energy for it.

Or perhaps they were on to something here. This picture is plastered on blogs everywhere and people are talking about it. Isn't that what advertising is supposed to do inevitably?

Source, Source

Doubt the movie

2009-01-18T16:47:00.001-06:00

I find myself slightly disappointed by the lack of nominations for this movie. Granted, it has already won a Pulitzer and a Tony. I am just such a big fan of John Patrick Shanley.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Amy Adams says she fought for the role of the wide-eyed Sister James. Apparently, another actress was attached to the project and she had to trick Shanley into hiring her by arranging a fake lunch.

NYmag later reported at the release of the film that Natalie Portman had turned down the Sister James role because she couldn’t quite grasp the concept of celibacy.

So the writer/director had originally visualized Portman in the role…interesting. Could you just imagine the type of movie this could have been with Natalie?

I loved Amy in Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. Yet I find her to be a fairly dull personality. In her interviews, she makes me want to pull off that fake red hair of hers (she dyed it red in order to stand out of Hollywood so she can be identified as kooky.)

Film Persona: Kate Winslet

2009-01-18T15:09:00.001-06:00

Persona: The Unapologetic Woman

We best know her as the "fat" woman opposite Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic. She has made tabloid headlines when she protested against a women's magazine airbrushing her thighs smaller. She often gets fully naked in her movies. She is notorious for getting so many award nominations, yet never winning on (except until 2008 when many suspect and hope she'll start winning). Yet I best identify Kate Winslet as an ACTRESS! With each passing year, she grows as a woman and with those newfound experiences are more challenging roles. No other woman can brag such an impressive, uncompromising body of work as Kate can in her still young age.

Her AmEx commercial described the woman best and in her own voice.

Film Persona: Kate Winslet- Table of contents

Part 1- Socially Unacceptable
Part 2- The Frustrated Leading Lady
Part 3- Memory and Regret
Part 4- Shame and Secrets

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World Concsiousness- Mirror Fight

2009-01-17T22:30:00.010-06:00

Everyone seems to be fighting.
For fashion's Spring Campaigns, this seems to be the trend.

From Dolce and Gabanna to D Squared (My Favorite! Check out Linda's face. You so can tell who'll win this round!)

I love how the supermodels have returned. Yet this D Squared ads, featuring Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista--shot by Steven Meisel-- looks eerily similar to a Longchamp campaign featuring the younger and skinnier Kate Moss and Sasha Pivovarova- shot by Met Alas and Marcus Piggott).

Mirror images Galore.

It's the 90's all over again.
The cool, aloof waifs vs. the hot, steaming glamazons.

You decide for yourselves.

Source, Source, Source

Milk

2009-01-17T22:06:00.006-06:00

I have no medical background whatsoever.

But I firmly believe that milk is very beneficial to my health and that instead of drinking carbonated beverages or wine, I should indulge in a glass off the white magic.

I believe this magical potion has three benefits.

1. Helps your teeth
2. Helps your bones
3. Has special enzyme thingy majig for digestion

Those are three aspects of my health that shall deteriorate and cause a lot of heartache when I grow geriatric. So I decided that I shall have to take care of them and make the right choices.

And BTW, I am no health nut. I would rather be in bad shape and happy, than go for a run every week of my life. No. So long as I am not out of breath or feel depressed. My body shall be the result of my lifestyle and my life choices. The body I deserve.

And going back to milk...if it's good enough for babies, then it should be good enough for me. (Think about it! Everyone loves babies! Who wouldn't wanna be young! I mean, you get to sleep all day!)

Movie Gem: Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)

2009-01-17T19:53:00.020-06:00

I loved this movie. Many people seem to shy away from it (I know I did), but after seeing it, I found myself pretty sated. I loved how the whole story is pure escapism, yet it runs down to a deeper level (there are many references to the soul). This is not your average Sleepless in Seattle or You've Got Mail, but it does help to have Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan with unmistakable their chemistry.

This movie is kind of a throwback to that Old Hollywood genre from the 30's and 40's. King Kong and The Lady Eve come to my mind.

John Patrick Shanely (The Pulitzer Prize winning writer of Doubt) penned the screenplay and directed the film as well.

It looks like Meg Ryan had a lot of fun in this movie. She plays three roles:

-a mousy assistant named Dee Dee who works with Joe at that dead end job of his

-a neurotic, flame-haired heiress/artist named Angelica

-and Angelica's half sister named Patricia (who suspects Joe of sleeping with her sister).

Meg did a good job on all her roles. She played some of them very camp, but she is just so charming that we can forgive her.

The movie is basically about your "Average-Joe" who works at a dead end job. After a routine check up, the doctor tells him he has a terminal illness-- a brain cloud (the first time I've heard of it too). Since Joe only has six months to live, he quits his job and assaults his boss-from-hell (played to perfection by Dan Hedeya).

Jobless, he hangs out at home and there, a kooky tycoon visits him and proposes a solution (they have the same doctor) to his inevitable dilemma: he can have all the money he wants, if he willingly jumps into a volcano as a human sacrifice.

Now that Joe has all the resources to shop 'till he drops, he gets a limo. In the car, the driver asks him where he wishes to go. Joe has no idea. The driver is irked and what follows is a quaint and wittily profound scene.

Some memorable and funny moments in the film include a Trunk, a costume and a humorously named boat. The whole movie, I found to be incredibly clever.

There are a number of images that I yet don't fully comprehend, yet they struck me is fairly powerful. For sure, I will have to re watch this movie and I hope you will watch it too.

Mission Statement

2009-01-17T19:02:00.002-06:00

I start this blog as an outlet of expression.

Here you will find what influences the human condition.

I shall post various topics ranging from the past and now. These topics shall include film, music, literature, fashion and pop culture.

Basically, I invite you to the world that I live in-- the various stimuli that touches my soul.

I hope you enjoy your stay.