Thursday, June 28, 2012

milk (2008). directed by gus van sant.


doesn't matter if you gay or not gay - i think everybody should watch this movie. it is as inspiring as watching edward r. murrow in good night and good luck (2005) fighting against uncivilized, ignorant majority who insists that what two consenting adults do in their home is the state's business. it is not. the film is very well done, and god, sean penn was so so good i didn't recognized that it was the permanently-irritated-looking penn as the eternally positive harvey milk. in short the cast was great - emile hirsch, james brolin and james franco. 

the film is unapologetic about milk's sexuality, and i like the feel of the film depicting the climate of the early gay movement. 

a must watch, i say. 

abraham lincoln: vampire hunter (2012). directed by timur bekmambetov.


i must be lacking sense of humour to not be entertained by the thought that the great president lincoln deserves a bit of publicity in his honour even through a comical film like this one. i know the film doesn't try to be high brow or anything like that, but still, lincoln axes vampire in his spare time? that the civil war was as much a fight against slavery as well as against a bunch of evil vampires hell bent on taking over the united states of A? you gotta be kidding me. anyway, purely for entertainment value director bekmambetov shows a really agile president with moves unthinkable in the early 19th century. the problem with summer movies like this i often do not find the characters memorable and the story is forgettable too. 

in the context of malaysian audience, i think it is good that they get to see that some people in other parts of the world had practiced free speech hundreds of years ago and it is not dirty to have political conviction and will. 

laugh a bit, will ya? heck, it's summer alright! 

snow white and the huntsman (2012). directed by rupert sanders.


i am not really familiar with the snow white legend and forgot what it was all about. coming from zero knowledge of fairy tales (in the internet world, that is not much an apology) - it is an amalgam of various tales  - traces of sleeping beauty and at times joan of arc. having seen mirror mirror (2012) earlier, i feel i've seen much of the same story again albeit with a bit of difference here and there. doesn't really make an impact to me, i think the natural landscapes of the forest and the sea are more interesting than the characters. fine, evil step mother, step mother kills king, step mother imprisons princess, princess escape and vows revenge. yeah yeah. 

kristen stewart is set to make a career of half frowning, but i like the little people with faces of normal height good actors morphed seamlessly into midgets. now, that's believable.  

prometheus (2012). directed by ridley scott.


i don't know if anyone notices this - but - this film is pro to the idea of god. that the creator is being destroyed by its much advanced inventions, making the creator is the lesser mortal - begs the question that there has to be the indestructible being out there that creates the creator. 

Saturday, June 9, 2012

dreams of a life (2011). directed by carol morley.


she was dead for 3 years before anyone discovered her remains. ironic really, the flat she rented was right above a shopping mall. so many people going in and out and none of them knew a dead person amongst them. makes you think, has she no family, no friends, no one who cares at all? the documentary attempts to re-create the life of the wallflower girl by the name of joyce vincent, one minute the centre of the party, in another the girl with no past. we don't know why she pulls back from the company of friends she has and disappear, appearing in times of trouble, refusing to confide to anyone. was she sick when she passed? she was alone. the tv was on when they found her. 

all the connection in the world, it takes 3 years for the county to break down her door for unpaid rents to find a skeleton on the bed. tragic. 

a separation (2011). directed by asghar farhadi.


this story is layered. of husbands and wives who can't/don't know how to show love to each other that they are willing to let it go without a fight, wrongly holding on the principle that if one should stay only if one wants to. are they too proud to admit that they still care for one another but waiting for one of them to say "please stay?". it is not right. in the course of their fights, they put many people in the path of their destruction - their daughter who is staying with the father as a way to keep her mother around, the poor housekeeper who is not willing to lie for the fear of retribution, the unemployed housekeeper husband who is self destructive at how hard life is. we can't fault any of them, but they all have a hand in the mess. life's a bitch? an understatement, really. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

coriolanus (2011). directed by ralph feinnes.


i have a thing for shakespearean drama. and no one is better suited than the regal ralph feinnes. i pity the soldier in him who can't adapt to the treacherous world of politics and the indecisive mob, his honesty mistaken for hate, his revenge thwarted by greater ambitions of lesser people around him.

makes me wonder, how could democracy ever work when it couldn't thousands of years ago.

carnage (2011). directed by roman polanski.


my ability to stay up watching movies during long haul flights is greatly diminished. 12 hours and only two movies to boot. this is one of them. a delicious dark comedy about gender war, class war, marriage war; all disguised under the pretext of reconciling fighting children. i especially like the scene where kate winslet threw up like there is no tomorrow. and christoph waltz has an elegant, baritone european voice.