Tagged: Movies
Bill Cunningham New York
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Which I just finished watching and I can't recommend enough.
In case you don't know Bill Cunningham is this amazing man who basically has gone around New York for decades and documented fashion on the runway but mostly off of it. People who are interested in people interest me and I'm hugely interested in Bill Cunningham and even more so now that I've watched this movie about him.
One of my favourite parts of the film is when Bill is given an award and he says
"it's as true today as it ever was... he who seeks beauty will find it"
which made me tear up and gave me chills because it's so unbelievably true.
That's what made the film so good and I think what makes people like Bill Cunningham: he's focused on the beauty in the world and that's what he tries to capture in his photos. There's a part in the movie where they talk about a falling out he had with a magazine because they used his photos in to make fun of people instead of praising their personal styles which is so inspiring to me. He celebrates individuality and personal expression and doesn't give a damn about much else.
Oh plus he rides his bike EVERYWHERE which makes him even more endearing.
I can't recommend Bill Cunningham: New York enough. It's a charming and inspiring reminder to do what you love.
Beers and Disney
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Which sounds like an unlikely combination but it's what's happening right now.
After a day of writing exams and using my brain waters nonstop it feels good to sit around with a Hops and Robbers and relax. It's still kind of hard to type right now because my right hand is all cramped from writing, but I'm making do.
Wrote my Visual Rhetoric exam as well as my War as An Institution exam as well. One's a required course and one was an elective and I loved them both; one of the things I love about being a student is the wide variety of courses available to me. As much as I might complain about the stress about being a student at the University of Winnipeg, I know I'll miss it when I'm done.
For now, I'm enjoying the freedom.
Went out for beers and tasty snacks with Kevin, Adrian and Tyrone after work. One of my favourite things about the Internet is how it connects you to people, and Adrian and Kevin are two of my favourite Internet-friends (but don't tell Kevin that, haha)
We came home and I decided to watch some old Disney. Do any other 80's kids remember growing up with The Great Mouse Detective? How great is Vincent Price's song?!
(does anyone else notice how tiny his character's feet are?)
Why are we watching Cast Away
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is probably what you're wondering since it came out in 2000 and it kind of old hat by now. Well the answer is that when we got home Tyrone and I decided to toss on a flick that we could hang out to and have on in the background while we peruse the Internet (me) and play SpaceChem (him).
What we didn't count on is how amazing the movie is and how kind of scary and sad it is, too.
Probably because we've both only seen it once before back when it came out, and for me I was 13 and watching it at my Nan and Granddad's, I think, so I definitely wasn't really "getting" it at that age.
The only real thing that I remember is when he can't sleep on his bed at the end of the movie and feeling really, strikingly sad about it. But I was 13 and didn't really get why, though I do now.
Tom Hanks is also brilliant. I've loved him forever, even before the Internet exposed how super cool he is and going back and watching the first movie that I really remember watching him in (this one) makes me like him more. He's one of the few actors who could make a movie about being stranded on an island, hurting himself, and talking to a ball and make it entertaining.
Breaking: He just opened up a package and a bunch of VHS dropped out. Blast from the past!
We aren't really that far in the movie yet (no Wilson, no ice-skate dentistry) but I remember that basically he uses math and mapping changes in the wind (says Tyrone) to get himself past the surf which I could never, ever do.
So basically this movie is making me realize how utterly useless all of my life skills are and how quickly I would starve to death or otherwise get myself killed if I were in his position.
Which makes me extra-thankful for my cozy apartment and expensive coffee right about now.
adam's apples
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is this weird Danish black comedy that we watched saturday after a friday night of bowling and beers and a random trip to to shawarma time for breakfast/lunch (brunch?) for food before heading home.
it stars Ulrich Thomsen who is one of my favourite actors and a big deal in Denmark from what I understand. he's in other Danish movies such as Fear Me Not as well as In A Better World, both of which are super creepy kinda disturbing flicks that I liked a lot. watch 'em if you have time.
anyway this movie was pretty different from the two I just mentioned in that, as I said, it's a black comedy.
it also has Mads Mikkelsen who you'll probably recognize as having played Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. except in this movie he plays a weird priest who wears shorts and sandals (birkenstocks?) and has knobbly knees and is thinner than I remember him in james bond.
the movie is about a neo-nazi who goes to live at a church as part of his community service and meets the weird priest and two other dudes living at the church: an Arab who holds up gas stations and an obese, alcoholic, kleptomaniac rapist which is just about as weird and hilarious and crazy as it seems.
the weirdest and also saddest part is that the priest himself is pretty messed up in the head and sort of blindly lives his life in this dream world where nothing is ever wrong, so he makes excuses for all the bad things people do and sort of exists in this other world, almost.
he tells Adam the neo-nazi that before he can go he must set a goal for himself and complete it.
so the neo nazi's goal is to bake a pie with the apples from the apple tree growing near the church. which of course doesn't go so well.
what makes it good is it has all these strange jokes and nuances that you don't get in western films. I don't know how to explain it, but it's funny and good and sad in a different way that an American or even a Canadian movie would be. if you watch a lot of foreign films you know what I mean.
sometimes you need to watch a kinda-sad movie to feel good and this is one of those. I won't ruin the ending for you (it's good) but I'll say that I wasn't ever actually sure how it was going to end until it did, and then the ending that it had seemed the most obvious all along.
it was good like that.
today is gary oldman's birthday
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what's embarrassing is that up until a few years ago I never actually knew who gary oldman was
I knew he was in a lot of movies that I liked
and he played a lot of the best characters
but if you asked me to point to a dude on a page in a magazine and say
'look that's gary oldman'
I wouldn't be able to.
which in hindsight is a testament to his versatile face and also acting.
and since I haven't really written anything on this here old blog for a while
let me tell you about my first real encounter with gary oldman in a movie.
so when I was a younger I dated this guy who was a huge film buff. massive.
as in, had a huge dvd collection for no reason other than he liked to have every movie he liked in this massive perfectly alphabetized library in his living room
buddy wouldn't have money to pay his own way to see a movie on a friday night but could afford to blow all his cash on dvds
(kinda sour grapes there still, I guess)
anyway one day we were hanging out at his place (remember, no money to go out) and eating pizza and basically just vegging out and I said
"you know I'm not really sure what gary oldman looks like"
which apparently was sacrilege because everyone needs to fully grasp and worship gary oldman
(now as an adult I understand why, but I digress)
so we started watching the fifth element because it's an amazing movie and also gary oldman is in it
and even though I knew who he played in the movie it was bf's favourite so it was the one we watched.
(disclaimer: I've seen the fifth element a million times. I love it, but I've seen it a lot)
so since I've seen it a lot and he had seen it a lot we started making out
because that's what happens when a boy and a girl watch movies alone together someplace
(and sometimes other stuff but that's not in this story as you will find out)
so we're making out and I'm having a good time because I like this guy and he's a phenomenal kisser and suddenly he grabs my head and whips it around and goes
"look there's gary oldman's character!"
which, while true, hurt the shit out of my neck and completely ruined the mood
which wouldn't even have been so bad if he hadn't basically ignored me
and spent the next few minutes talking about the scene in detail
while I sat there making a grumpycat face on the couch
luckily I've moved up in the world since then
and am now dating a guy who loves me more than gary oldman (I hope)
we just won't be watching the fifth element together anytime soon.
I really liked the first Iron Man
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I don't remember seeing it or who I saw it with but I know that I enjoyed it more than most people because I'm really not familiar with the franchise beyond the movies. iron man wasn't one of the comic books I was into as a lass so I got to enjoy it purely for it's over-the-top fight scenes and also how tasty Robert Downey Jr. is.
when the second Iron Man was in theatres I saw it kinda by accident. Tyrone and I were in Toronto after being in Montreal for MUTEK for a week with all of our friends, and we were staying with my aunt & uncle for a few days before going home.
we had been walking around and didn't want to go back to my aunts house just yet so we figured
fuck it, let's go see iron man 2
it was okay from what I remember. we were both wiped and I think Tyrone dozed off but I stayed relatively alert due to an infusion of cola and sugary snacks.
anyway.
I didn't expect the 3rd one to look like anything I'd want to see because the 2nd one wasn't really anything that I wanted to see
filler. action. hot girls. RDJ.
topical stuff perfect to watch after a week of nonstop partying, adventuring and memory-making.
though I have to say this trailer looks better than I thought a 3rd instalment would.
but I'm still way more excited for star trek.
I think the most telling thing about Das Weisse Band
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is the difference between how it we received in Germany, where it was produced:
In Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, Julia Evers called the film "an oppressive and impressive moral painting, in which neither the audience nor the people in the village find an escape valve from the web of authority, hierarchy and violence. [...] Everything in The White Ribbon is true. And that is why it is so difficult to bear."[20] Markus Keuschnigg of Die Presse praised the "sober cinematography" along with the pacing of the narrative. Keuschnigg opposed any claims about the director being cold and cynical, instead hailing him as uncompromising and sincerely humanistic.[21] Die Welt's Peter Zander compared The White Ribbon to Haneke's previous films Benny's Video and Funny Games, both centering around the theme of violence. Zander concluded that while the violence in the previous films had seemed distant and constructed, The White Ribbon demonstrates how it is a part of our reality. Zander also applauded the "perfectly cast children", whom he held as "the real stars of this film".[22] "Mighty, monolithic and fearsome it stands in the cinema landscape. A horror drama, free from horror images", Christian Buß wrote in Der Spiegel, and expressed delight in how the film deviates from the conventions of contemporary German cinema: "Director Michael Haneke forces us to learn how to see again". Buß suggested references in the name of the fictitious village, "Eichwald", to the Nazi Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann and the Buchenwald concentration camp.[23] Eichwald is however a common German place name, meaning the "Oak Forest".
and by US media:
Critics such as Claudia Puig of USA Today praised the film's cinematography and performances while criticizing its "glacial pace" and "lack [of] the satisfaction of a resolution or catharsis."[24] Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post wrote that trying to locate the seeds of fascism in religious hypocrisy and authoritarianism is "a simplistic notion, disturbing not in its surprise or profundity, but in the sadistic trouble the filmmaker has taken to advance it."[25] Philip Maher at allmovie.com found the director "ham-handed" and "in the end his attempt at lucidity inevitably draws us further from the essential nature of fascism".[26] [via wikipedia]
some people just don't get it.
(also, watch this movie)
Hip Hop Sunday #64 Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dreams
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much needed weekend in.
spent most of it so far on schoolwork
completed 2 papers, 1 proposal, 17 pages of transcribing (whew)
did 2 workouts
had 2 amazing dinners (sushi on friday, nachos on sat)
watched 2 movies (jiro dreams of sushi & der weisse band)
now?
it's time to take a day off 'cause this weeks been a bitch, kinda
relax & chill the f out
and enjoy
hiphop sunday.
hope you do too, xox
home sick watching eat pray love
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don't ask why. I don't know why. I just have a throbbing headache and pressure behind my eyes and a scratch in my throat and Ileft work because I was useless there and came home and decided
I want to watch a clichéd movie with julia roberts in it and sip tea in my yoga pants
even though I don't really like julia roberts.
she's pretty but she's got a bit wide mouth and large teeth and she reminds me of a slightly calmer less neurotic jennifer aniston, who I can't stand. but she always seems to be in movies that I like such as erin brockovich, ocean's eleven, charlie wilson's war, pretty woman, and stepmom (yes). she looks smokin' for 45 though so I'll give her that.
it's an okay movie so far thought I guess, better than some of the other feel-good chick flicks out there though that might just be because it takes place in some exotic locations and the cinematography and close-up shots of food are pretty nice to look at.
she just turned down skinny dipping with a really hot australian with a six-pack in the ocean and while I guess that's supposed to show that she's growing up and 'discovering herself' that was a pretty dumb move if you ask me. though I guess she'll be making out with javier bardem soon enough.
oh he just crashed her pad and brought her some 'hangover cure' stuff which means he's definitely getting some julia roberts action later. nothing says "I'm a keeper" like hangover food, for example once early on in our relationship I got stupidly drunk at a show and the next morning tyrone went out into the cold winter to bring me greasy a&w breakfast food and orange juice which solidified what a gentleman he is in my mind.
so javier bardem is basically doing a bali-type version of that I guess.
now they're talking about durians and javier bardem is all "don't eat those they taste like dirty feet" which apparently is completely accurate. I see them all the time when we go to the asian grocery and I always pick them up and think "today is the day I eat the stinky fruit" but honestly I'm scared.
this is what wikipedia has to say about durian stink:
The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour that is strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as pleasantly fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and revolting. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine, raw sewage, and gym socks. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.
so far that has been the only time I've felt like I 'connect' with the movie, because saying "I want to spend a year travelling in XYZ countries and have it comped by my work" is just stating the obvious. otherwise it's a lot of self-indulgence that is nice to think about and imagine but feels kind of far away, which is maybe why people like the book/movie so much. it's fun to imagine.
except now the movie is over and she and javier bardem sailed off into the sunset which just
ruined it all.
whatever mild enjoyment or entertainment I may have been getting has been ruined by the fact that julia roberts just travelled all across the world and did all of this 'self-discovery' only to have a freak-out fight on a beach and then make up and sail off into the sunset. how clichéd. for real.
it's spoiled my mild enjoyment of the film so much that for a second I considered scrapping this post and denying that I even watched it in the first place.
but then I couldn't tell you how it's mediocre and best and tries too hard to be one of those movies you watch with red wine with your best girlfriends after a breakup to make yourself feel better.
though it's drastically better than 'he's just not that into you', so I guess that's a plus.
